Personality and Flying

[Pilot Pete]

Why thank you Hawk.

If anyone wants to learn a little more about the 'types' of personality, here are a few notes.

The profile is made up from 4 areas where your preferences lie.

1. Where your energy is directed - Extroversion / Introversion

2. The way you process information - Sensing / Intuition (denoted by 'N' as introversion uses the 'I')

3. How you prefer to make decisions - Thinking / Feeling

4. How you prefer to organise your life - Judgement / Perception

Let's look at them in order;

Extroversion / Introversion

This looks at where your energy is primarily directed. If it is to the outer world of activity and spoken words you are said to be extrovert. If it is more towards the inner world of thoughts and emotions you are said to be introverted. Obviously we all have occassions when we like to be by ourselves, even the most extrovert of people, but this does not detract from them being an extrovert, equally, an introvert who has been by themselves all day may want to go down the pub with some friends in the evening and this does not detract from them being introvert. It's where you primarily prefer to spend your energy that counts.

The airline pilot job tends to attract more extroverted individuals as the job requires lots of contact with and interaction between people.

Sensing / Intuition

If you prefer to process information in the form of known facts and familiar terms then you are said to be more sensing. If you prefer to look at possibilities and new potential then you are more intuitive.

As you can see, the 'classic' pilot will probably be more fact based in the way they process information, probably not looking deeply at the areas of new possibilities or new potential when the engine is on fire!

Thinking / Feeling

If you make decisions based on logic and objective considerations then you are more thinking. If your decisions are made on the basis of personal values then you are more feeling.

Pilots tend to need to make decisions based on logic and objective consideration (the engine fire scenario comes to mind again!), but outside of the area where immediate action is needed they should be considering using a bit of the feeling side when making decisions as there are people to consider, such as cabin crew. The individual who prefers to use logic and objective considerations could become pretty unpopular if they neglect the feelings of others when making their decisions. Equally, the individual who uses too much feeling will be unlikely to make the best decisions in the cockpit where sometimes feelings have to take second place to action.

Judgement / Perception

If your life is ordered in a structured way based on making decisions and knowing where you stand then you are more judgement based. If it is organised in a more flexible way, discovering life as you go along then it is based more on perception.

The pilot who is more judgement based when organising his/ her life will appear well organised, they prefer to make decisions about things like what to do, where to go, what to say etc. Pilots tend to make decisions like this, however, remaining flexible once a decision has been made is also desirable and perhaps one reason why things like DODAR or GRADE have been introduced to help us judgement based pilots try and make sure we have reviewed all the options before making a decision and again to make us review that decision subsequently to keep considering other options that may arise and be more suitable.

The individual whose preference is more perception likes to find out more rather than make decisions and is more comfortable when they keep their options open, thus appearing more flexible. Not undesirable in a pilot, but you have to make decisions at some point and not just shy away from them by keeping all options open, so again, a good balance is what is needed.

So, you can see where the 'classic' stable extrovert came from and how extreme ESTJ is not what is most suited to the modern cockpit (and incidently wasn't suitable to the 'old' cockpit either, see the Staines accident for proof of that.) In the past a big problem was lack of understanding of these sorts of traits and the effect they have on the others around these people. Stiff upper lip and an ability to perform single handedly when under extreme pressure were seen as the most desirable traits and perhaps a military mentality of telling these people they were the 'best of the best' which lead to them not being able to accept 'lesser mortals' in their cockpit (which was three crew and their military career had been perhaps single crew.)

Now with such a good understanding of behavior and what leads to an effective team things have moved on considerably with CRM into trying to set a tone in the cockpit which enables everyone to feel of value and to take responsibility and give their best to attempt to make the flight much safer.

With this in mind, many airlines now use these tests to try to recruit the people who will best fit this culture in the first place; those with the right balance of the traits described as they will more naturally fit the 'model' that the airline is trying to achieve.

Hope this gives a bit more of an insight.

PP