As an emerging leader, you’re likely facing a number of high-stakes situations – important meetings, presentations, negotiations, and other career-defining moments. In these pressure-filled scenarios, it’s easy to get caught up in the moment, reacting instinctively rather than consciously guiding your actions toward your desired outcomes.
This is where the leadership technique of “helicoptering up” can be a game-changer. By learning to periodically step back and observe yourself objectively from an outsider’s perspective, you can gain invaluable insight that allows you to course-correct in real time and maximize your performance.
Here’s how it works:
Imagine you’re in the middle of a crucial meeting with a potential client. As you’re speaking, making arguments, and responding to questions, take a mental pause and picture yourself floating up above the room, watching the scene unfold from a distance. What do you see?
Are you demonstrating the confidence, poise, and command of the situation that you had envisioned? Or are you coming across as anxious, uncertain, or unfocused? Are you effectively guiding the conversation toward your objectives, or getting sidetracked by tangents?
This “helicopter” view gives you crucial objectivity that’s difficult to achieve when you’re fully immersed in the action. It allows you to see yourself as others see you, to identify areas where you may be falling short, and to make immediate adjustments to your approach.
Perhaps you realize you’re speaking too quickly out of nerves, causing you to stumble over your words. Or you notice your body language is closed off, causing the client to seem disengaged. By making a conscious effort to slow down, make more eye contact, and project an air of relaxed confidence, you can steer the meeting back on track.
The benefits of this practice extend beyond the moment at hand. After the high-stakes situation has concluded, take a few minutes to again “helicopter up” and reflect on how it went. What did you do well? Where could you have improved? What will you do differently next time?
This post-mortem analysis is critical for continuous improvement. The more you consciously practice helicoptering up, both during and after key events, the more instinctive and valuable the technique will become. Over time, you’ll find yourself naturally shifting into that elevated perspective, allowing you to make real-time adjustments that elevate your performance.
Of course, developing this skill doesn’t happen overnight. It takes concerted effort and practice. One effective strategy is to set periodic mental “alarms” during important meetings or interviews – perhaps every 10 or 15 minutes. When that alarm goes off, immediately shift into helicopter mode and assess the situation.
Don’t just observe passively, though. Be prepared to take action. If you identify an area that needs improvement, make a concrete plan to address it. Maybe it’s making a point to ask more engaging questions, or to speak more slowly and clearly. Perhaps you realize you need to be more assertive in steering the conversation. Whatever the case, use that elevated perspective to inform tangible steps you can take to get things back on track.
The key is to avoid simply observing the situation objectively, then falling back into the same patterns. Helicopter up, identify areas for improvement, and then immediately implement those changes. This active, iterative process is what transforms the helicopter technique from a passive exercise into a powerful leadership tool.
Mastering this skill takes time and practice, but the payoff is immense. By regularly stepping back to view yourself and the situation with clear-eyed objectivity, you gain an invaluable superpower as an emerging leader. You’re able to monitor your performance, make real-time adjustments, and keep yourself firmly centered on your goals – even in the midst of high-pressure, high-stakes scenarios.
So the next time you find yourself in a critical meeting, presentation, or negotiation, don’t get caught up in the intensity of the moment. It just might be the difference between an average performance and an exceptional one.
I see helicoptering as an excellent tool that requires dual skills as a participant and an observer/reflector and building the ability to be in the moment while observing and reflecting. While most of your attention is in the moment and taking in data, a part of your attention is mentally helicoptering up to observe and notice what is happening (who is participating or not, the tenor and pace of the dialogue, etc.), and reflect to assess what the situation needs and develop an intervention, and then enact the intervention as a participant, and helicopter again to observe and reflect on the impact and what else is necessary to help move toward goal achievement.