needs to be paid to health matters so that hand and eye coordination and good brain functions are not impaired. Understanding the effects of chemicals, alcohol and other substances is part of being professional and task ready.
DIRECTOR OF MAINTENANCE
PROFESSIONALISM Once a person begins to climb the path to more senior management positions in maintenance operations, a new set of professional skills is needed. Management skills acquired by education, training and experience become more critical. The percentage of time spent on being a technician shifts as one rises higher and takes on more management tasks. One needs to move away from any over reliance on technical skills, recognize one’s bias and avoid becoming complacent as one’s life becomes more involved in human and financial resource management. One sign of a DOM’s professionalism is treating these matters as seriously as technical challenges. Information management skills and communications skills become a major part of one’s professional tool kit. A DOM who practices his or her communication skills, being vigilant in how they communicate by using the appropriate words and engages in active listening is a true professional. Looking for feedback and actively soliciting it is another good sign. One cannot be a professional DOM without good cognitive skills. This can be developed by education and training to be able to understand your situation and problem solve within it. Being able to make decisions under stress using the tools you have acquired and remain calm truly indicates a professional approach to the DOM tasks. Being aware of your own limitations, self-awareness, and compensating for them is
professional. Fully understanding the effect of over work fits into this skill. An over worked and tired DOM can lead to poor decision making and the possibility of falling into one the Dirty Dozen traps.
TEAM SKILLS Part of being a professional is how well you play with others on your team. Technicians in general tend to be loners who seem to be most content to plan their work and accomplish it by themselves. In fact, much of their work can be found in situations where only a single person can access the equipment. This does not mean they do not like company at breaks and meals, just different type of personality trait. However, having said that we all know of situations where team work is needed, some simple examples are aircraft engine runs, towing, working many snags at one time and so on. As soon as one starts to be promoted to team lead or on up to DOM, team work is unavoidable. The professional needs to be able coordinate programs and tasks, lead and align decision making among the group. This requires performance monitoring of all the team members and providing feedback in a positive manner. Leadership initiative is part of the professional approach and this all takes good interpersonal skills. Professionals are also skilled at communications and situational awareness.
SUMMARY In the beginning I decided to use the word professionalism rather than airmanship. The principles overlap somewhat. Airmanship among many may sound too old fashioned and maybe too tightly linked to flight operations. My main point is that aviation flight operations and
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104
