The Passenger.

There are stories of pilots grappling to recover their out of control aircraft, narrating on the radio the aircraft’s behaviour and their attempts to recover it, all the way to impact and their death.

I’ve been in some meetings like that.

Watching on as the boss pulls back their control column of power.

The engines of logic and common sense screaming as the airflow of procedural fairness slows to a stop, the situation stalls, the nose of reason drops, and we plunge.

Had it been my place to intervene, I would have done so. But I was a passenger.

Instead, I watched on, and narrated the descent in my head.

Stop talking boss, and listen. With the ear of your heart. With the curiosity of the naive inquirer. Genuinely listen. Not rote, tick-the-box listen. Not HR listen. Not what-I-learned-in-my-MBA listen. Listen with the ear of someone who …

Too late.