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We all have a flying window: why my time is not as important as yours

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Adam Patrick
  • U.S. Air Forces Central Command
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  When I was a maintainer, it was understood that Airmen were expected to be in place fifteen minutes prior to appointments, meetings and events.

If you were on time, you were late. If you were early, you were on time. Timeliness was critical.

Flying schedules are intricately planned and any deviation from a timetable could be catastrophic to pilots’ ability to make their flying windows and, ultimately, the flying mission as a whole.

In recent years, I have observed an increasingly careless attitude toward timeliness.

We are often walking in to meetings or events five, 10 or even 15 minutes late. We leave the building 10 minutes prior to a start time to reach a meeting that is 10 minutes away.

We wait until the exact time a meeting is scheduled in our own building to walk upstairs to attend the meeting.

What is worse is the individuals who schedule these meetings do not address the tardiness. This lack of accountability only encourages habitual tardiness.

These tendencies to arrive late are often justified by a busy schedule.

Too many emails, phone calls and tasks stop us from making a scheduled appointment time. The assumption is that the individual who called the meeting is equally busy, so they are obligated to understand.

We have inadvertently associated our inability to show up on time with our importance. At times, we are so busy it is difficult to make meetings on time and we associate this with importance.

This reflects our thoughts of the importance of individuals waiting for us.

The truth is, we all have a flying window. We all have somewhere to be, someone to coordinate with, a mission to accomplish and people whose own schedules depend on us being in place and on time.

I know what my flying window is and I know when I can be flexible.

I do not know what your flying window is and I cannot be aware of the effect my timeliness has on your flying window.

As leaders, arriving late to an appointment or a meeting is a bold statement to our people that their time is not as important as ours, that our flying window takes priority.

We all have busy schedules and things happen. We cannot be expected to be in place, on time to every occasion. We can, however, be expected to make the effort.

As leaders, we must take into consideration the effect our timeliness has on our people, their people and, in the end, the mission as a whole.