imapMyTeam Blog

You’re Really, Really Not Good at This!

I was reminded about the importance of perseverance as I was recently honored to attend the University of Arizona School of Law graduation ceremonies and events in Tucson.  The primary commencement speaker was NASA Astronaut Commander Mark Kelly. His speech was filled with inspiration and spoke to many characteristics that are critical to success.  One of the characteristics of his success- perseverance- stood out as he eloquently and humorously shared some of his life’s story.

Welding or Mars?

In front of an audience filled with accomplished scholars, he was quick to admit he was not a very good student. After high school his dad introduced him to the welding trade which was fine except Commander Kelly’s dream had always been to go to space and be the first man to walk on Mars.

So in pursuit of his dream, he was able to get accepted into the Merchant Marine Academy and later joined the Navy as a pilot.  He worked hard and tested well for flight school and successfully completed that challenge. However, one of the skills he needed to master to be a successful naval aviator was landing on an aircraft carrier.  More than landing he described it as a ‘somewhat controlled crash’ onto the carrier deck.  After his first successful ‘controlled crash’ his deck observer and a senior officer candidly warned Mark that ‘you are really, really not good at this’.

Landed!

Commander Kelly may not have been good at initially landing on an aircraft carrier but he ended up flying 375 missions and became good enough to pilot the space shuttle for NASA on two missions and commanded two more. He landed his dream of going to space because he did not give up on what it took for him to succeed.

What is the lesson for our imapMyTeam® readers?  You have to persevere through difficult things and times. Leading people can be as complex as landing on an aircraft carrier – and if you are charged with getting the best from people (and all you readers are!) imapMyTeam will help you be proactive in taking new approaches when your usual style is not working for you.  It may feel difficult at first; you may even feel like you are not good at implementing the suggestions in the reports. But by committing yourself to learn and stretch you will reach your goals too.