FUTURE TALENT Nov - Jan 2021 | Page 13

t was a surprise to learn that Tim Peake
I never actually dreamed of becoming an astronaut as a boy , despite pondering the ‘ big questions ’.
“ When I looked up in the sky , I did always wonder , ‘ where do we come from and why are we here ?’ I just didn ’ t think that was a career path that was available to me ,” he admits , when we meet via Zoom , ahead of his appearance at our Future Talent Conference .
However , after a successful career as a military helicopter test pilot and British Army Air Corps officer , he seized the chance to live aboard the International Space station ( ISS ) for 186 days – and a unique opportunity to ponder these questions further .
“ Watching Earth from space gives you an appreciation of humanity and who we are as a species ,” he says . “ The consciousness of the universe is quite incredible when you ’ re on a spacewalk . You think ‘ I shouldn ’ t be here ; this is so unreal . I ’ m a conscious being , looking down on the cradle of life as we know it , on Earth ’. It ’ s amazing .”
It was towards the end of his army career , in 2009 , that Peake spotted an advert from the European Space Agency ( ESA ) “ seeking new talents to reinforce its astronaut team ”. He applied , becoming one of six candidates selected to visit the ISS from more than 8,000 hopefuls .
After six years of intense training , Peake ’ s Principia mission began in December 2015 , launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan ( the site of Russian launches since the dawn of the space age ). Alongside two crewmates ( Tim Kopra of NASA and Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency ) Peake worked 14-hour days , undertaking a spacewalk to repair the space station ’ s power supply , and undertaking a total of 250 experiments for ESA and international partners , including 30 tests on his own body .
Not only did visiting space help shift Peake ’ s perspective about the fragility of Earth , the ‘ bigger picture ’ he gained meant he wanted to use his new-found status to inspire others , particularly around the environment and education .
“ Before I became an astronaut , I was a very private individual ,” he admits . “ But when you ’ re given a platform and a voice , I think it ’ s important to use that for the benefit of the things that you ’ re passionate about . I want to bring some positivity to everybody ’ s lives .
“ Not everyone can go into space , but if they could , it would change them . So if I can try and bring a little bit of that back to Earth , and educate people , then that to me is an important goal .”
What Peake exudes in abundance is an enthusiasm and a hunger for learning . Throughout his career , much focus has been placed on developing the soft skills and mental agility to help him to embrace change and work effectively with others . During our discussion , he continually highlights the importance of “ sweating the small stuff ” and having a flexible and positive attitude .
“ We are taught to normalise the abnormal , and accept unusual circumstances ,” explains Peake . “ The Soyuz capsule is a tiny , claustrophobic , terrible space , but if you went in there feeling panicked or thinking , ‘ gosh , I just had my last breath of fresh air and now I ’ m trapped ,’ you wouldn ’ t be able to function or do your job . Change is inevitable and we have to be able to cope with that .”
Fear of change can impinge on our success , he warns , so we must be confident about our own abilities and potential . This involves having the ‘ tools ’ (“ a depth of knowledge alongside soft skills ”) to start broadening our horizons and to think laterally ; being open to continuous learning is a must .
But he also stresses the importance of enjoying one ’ s own career journey : “ I ’ ve seen people take a torturous path to achieve their early dreams – and then when they got to the final stage , they realised they didn ’ t enjoy the destination either . I think it ’ s important to be really true to yourself and enjoy the journey through life . And perhaps not worry so much about where it takes you . Life is a journey of exploration and learning .”
This is one of the most crucial things you have to do as a test pilot and as an astronaut . Essentially , it ’ s about focusing on risk mitigation in painstaking detail ; evaluating all possible scenarios and having a plan for every one of them .
There ’ s no substitute for attention to detail – it helps you generate options . We tend to fear the unknown , but as soon as we have a plan for what to do if something goes wrong , fear is removed . We can go into a situation with confidence because we have a number of options that we know we can employ .
The overriding strategy when dealing with uncertainty should always be something that ’ s more stable ; you ’ re working towards that strategy and you adapt your tactical operations to fit with it .
On the space station , so much could go wrong , which would force us to change the way that we operated , but the strategy and the collaboration wouldn ’ t change . These are the things that we build on that give us strength ; they give us the framework to be able to deal with uncertainty . So we would focus on controlling the things that we could control , forcing a positive outcome or not worrying about the things that we couldn ’ t control .
If you ’ re the kind of person who is able to self-reflect and willing to accept weaknesses and address them , then you can work on them and improve . Addressing your weaknesses is as important as highlighting your strengths .
Astronauts undertake training in extreme environments , such as living in a cave or underwater for 12 days . This is where we really analyse the psychological impact of what we ’ re about to do and the environment we ’ re going to work in .
There are a number of stressors that you can put on people to see how they respond ; in a cave , you ’ re wet , cold , tired , hungry . Even time can be removed from you by taking away your watch . When you can no longer hide from those stressors , your true personality comes out . It ’ s a huge learning experience as an individual , and as a team , because you get to understand how other people perform under those conditions as a collective .
The psychological preparation for going into an unusual environment or stressful situation is absolutely critical ; frankly it ’ s critical for adapting to change in any workplace .
Unless you put yourself in challenging situations , you ’ ll never develop the skills to cope with change . By putting ourselves into difficult conditions , we learn the skills that give you confidence in the future .
Practice and repetition are very important , particularly with things like emergency procedures – practising them over and over drills them into you until they are a muscle memory . There are certain things that have to be dealt with like that because we know how the body performs under very stressful circumstance .
When you ’ re plunged into stressful circumstances , the subconscious is very powerful and will often take over . So if you have practised something repeatedly , that ’ s drilled into you .
When it came to the scientific activities on board the space station , we would encourage more discussion and a free-thinking philosophy , where we could evaluate an experiment , feed results back , and then adapt to a changing circumstance if necessary . We had prepared to adapt , improvise and innovate and not necessarilty follow the checklist .
It ’ s interesting that you have these two different skill sets which are both very important , both apply at different times , but having the ability to know when to apply one skill set , and when to apply the other , is key .
If you ’ re not naturally gifted at working with others , those skills can be learned . But you will have to work at it , while being cognisant of your own strengths and weaknesses . A lot of my training has focused on that .
On board the space station , the hardest change is when crews swap over , which for us happened half-way through our mission . Being together for six whole months as a team of three means you get to know each other extremely well and get into a rhythm of working .
But when you face transition , things can change , especially if you have strong teams coming together . You have to integrate those different teams and come to a common understanding of how things happen . So that ’ s always a point where friction can arise and compromises have to be made .
That ’ s the most interesting part of a mission from a psychological , teamwork and collaboration perspective . We train an awful lot to make sure it goes smoothly and ensure we have the soft skills to be able to deal with that .
On board the ISS , we have to work with Mission Control , which takes close collaboration to make sure that all goes smoothly and effectively .
You can face very interesting situations where the crew on board may disagree with the way that Mission Control wants something to work . You have to talk through those problems ; communicate what you ’ re experiencing in space and why you think it should be done differently . And , of course , Mission Control has a host of other priorities that they ’ re trying to integrate .
So you have two different teams coming together , trying to collaborate and compromise , but it ’ s all about soft skills , it ’ s all about communication , and I think that as long as you remember you ’ re all working towards a common goal , to find a good resolution to the problem , you will get there in the end .
You have to be sympathetic to everybody in your team ; no two individuals are the same . As a leader , you need to be aware of that . There ’ s no substitute for really knowing the people in your team , and that means knowing about their families , their hobbies , their sports , knowing what things cause them stress , what things cause them pleasure and how they like to relax . By understanding everybody , you can then work out how best to relate to them under stressful circumstances .
Leadership is such a big topic ; far fewer people talk about followership , but it ’ s a real skill . You need to appreciate what you can contribute to your team and inject that at the right moment . You need to anticipate the stresses that the leader or team might be under , and understand how you play your part . It ’ s a selfless role – you ’ re not as visible as the leader , but it ’ s so important for an effective team to make sure that everybody is playing their part .
When we ’ re living in a cave for seven days , we have a different leader each day , but the people who are really being evaluated are the followers : how did they support their leader ? What could they have done better ? How do they anticipate things ? Some people think “ I ’ m not in a leadership role , I can relax ”, but that ’ s the day you need to be switched on . We focus a lot on that , which was quite interesting for me as my previous military career had placed so much emphasis on leadership .
Spending more time thinking about the flip side of the leadership coin is useful in the workplace too . If you can appreciate what you need to do at the right time to make everything gel and work together , you can be so much more powerful and effective .

ON TOPIC

O

PEAKE PERFORMANCE

Throughout his extraordinary career , British astronaut Tim Peake has drawn on his agility , resilience and flexible mindset to navigate an array of challenges . In this exclusive interview , he discusses the importance of self-awareness and leadership with Mary Appleton .

t was a surprise to learn that Tim Peake

I never actually dreamed of becoming an astronaut as a boy , despite pondering the ‘ big questions ’.

“ When I looked up in the sky , I did always wonder , ‘ where do we come from and why are we here ?’ I just didn ’ t think that was a career path that was available to me ,” he admits , when we meet via Zoom , ahead of his appearance at our Future Talent Conference .

However , after a successful career as a military helicopter test pilot and British Army Air Corps officer , he seized the chance to live aboard the International Space station ( ISS ) for 186 days – and a unique opportunity to ponder these questions further .

“ Watching Earth from space gives you an appreciation of humanity and who we are as a species ,” he says . “ The consciousness of the universe is quite incredible when you ’ re on a spacewalk . You think ‘ I shouldn ’ t be here ; this is so unreal . I ’ m a conscious being , looking down on the cradle of life as we know it , on Earth ’. It ’ s amazing .”

It was towards the end of his army career , in 2009 , that Peake spotted an advert from the European Space Agency ( ESA ) “ seeking new talents to reinforce its astronaut team ”. He applied , becoming one of six candidates selected to visit the ISS from more than 8,000 hopefuls .

After six years of intense training , Peake ’ s Principia mission began in December 2015 , launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan ( the site of Russian launches since the dawn of the space age ). Alongside two crewmates ( Tim Kopra of NASA and Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency ) Peake worked 14-hour days , undertaking a spacewalk to repair the space station ’ s power supply , and undertaking a total of 250 experiments for ESA and international partners , including 30 tests on his own body .

If you ’ re the kind of person who is able to self-reflect and willing to accept weaknesses and address them , then you can work on them

and improve

Not only did visiting space help shift Peake ’ s perspective about the fragility of Earth , the ‘ bigger picture ’ he gained meant he wanted to use his new-found status to inspire others , particularly around the environment and education .

“ Before I became an astronaut , I was a very private individual ,” he admits . “ But when you ’ re given a platform and a voice , I think it ’ s important to use that for the benefit of the things that you ’ re passionate about . I want to bring some positivity to everybody ’ s lives .

“ Not everyone can go into space , but if they could , it would change them . So if I can try and bring a little bit of that back to Earth , and educate people , then that to me is an important goal .”

What Peake exudes in abundance is an enthusiasm and a hunger for learning . Throughout his career , much focus has been placed on developing the soft skills and mental agility to help him to embrace change and work effectively with others . During our discussion , he continually highlights the importance of “ sweating the small stuff ” and having a flexible and positive attitude .

“ We are taught to normalise the abnormal , and accept unusual circumstances ,” explains Peake . “ The Soyuz capsule is a tiny , claustrophobic , terrible space , but if you went in there feeling panicked or thinking , ‘ gosh , I just had my last breath of fresh air and now I ’ m trapped ,’ you wouldn ’ t be able to function or do your job . Change is inevitable and we have to be able to cope with that .”

Fear of change can impinge on our success , he warns , so we must be confident about our own abilities and potential . This involves having the ‘ tools ’ (“ a depth of knowledge alongside soft skills ”) to start broadening our horizons and to think laterally ; being open to continuous learning is a must .

But he also stresses the importance of enjoying one ’ s own career journey : “ I ’ ve seen people take a torturous path to achieve their early dreams – and then when they got to the final stage , they realised they didn ’ t enjoy the destination either . I think it ’ s important to be really true to yourself and enjoy the journey through life . And perhaps not worry so much about where it takes you . Life is a journey of exploration and learning .”

The psychological preparation for going into an unusual environment or stressful situation is

absolutely critical ; frankly , it ’ s critical for adapting to change in any workplace

TIM PEAKE TALKS LIFE LESSONS …

ON PREPARING FOR THE UNKNOWN

This is one of the most crucial things you have to do as a test pilot and as an astronaut . Essentially , it ’ s about focusing on risk mitigation in painstaking detail ; evaluating all possible scenarios and having a plan for every one of them .

There ’ s no substitute for attention to detail – it helps you generate options . We tend to fear the unknown , but as soon as we have a plan for what to do if something goes wrong , fear is removed . We can go into a situation with confidence because we have a number of options that we know we can employ .

ON DEALING WITH CHANGE

The overriding strategy when dealing with uncertainty should always be something that ’ s more stable ; you ’ re working towards that strategy and you adapt your tactical operations to fit with it .

On the space station , so much could go wrong , which would force us to change the way that we operated , but the strategy and the collaboration wouldn ’ t change . These are the things that we build on that give us strength ; they give us the framework to be able to deal with uncertainty . So we would focus on controlling the things that we could control , forcing a positive outcome or not worrying about the things that we couldn ’ t control .

ON SELF- AWARENESS

If you ’ re the kind of person who is able to self-reflect and willing to accept weaknesses and address them , then you can work on them and improve . Addressing your weaknesses is as important as highlighting your strengths .

If you ’ re not naturally gifted at working with others , those skills can be learned . But you will have to work

at it , while being cognisant of your own strengths and weaknesses

ON HAVING AN AGILE MINDSET

Astronauts undertake training in extreme environments , such as living in a cave or underwater for 12 days . This is where we really analyse the psychological impact of what we ’ re about to do and the environment we ’ re going to work in .

There are a number of stressors that you can put on people to see how they respond ; in a cave , you ’ re wet , cold , tired , hungry . Even time can be removed from you by taking away your watch . When you can no longer hide from those stressors , your true personality comes out . It ’ s a huge learning experience as an individual , and as a team , because you get to understand how other people perform under those conditions as a collective .

The psychological preparation for going into an unusual environment or stressful situation is absolutely critical ; frankly it ’ s critical for adapting to change in any workplace .

ON RESILIENCE

Unless you put yourself in challenging situations , you ’ ll never develop the skills to cope with change . By putting ourselves into difficult conditions , we learn the skills that give you confidence in the future .

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF PRACTICE

Practice and repetition are very important , particularly with things like emergency procedures – practising them over and over drills them into you until they are a muscle memory . There are certain things that have to be dealt with like that because we know how the body performs under very stressful circumstance .

When you ’ re plunged into stressful circumstances , the subconscious is very powerful and will often take over . So if you have practised something repeatedly , that ’ s drilled into you .

When it came to the scientific activities on board the space station , we would encourage more discussion and a free-thinking philosophy , where we could evaluate an experiment , feed results back , and then adapt to a changing circumstance if necessary . We had prepared to adapt , improvise and innovate and not necessarilty follow the checklist .

It ’ s interesting that you have these two different skill sets which are both very important , both apply at different times , but having the ability to know when to apply one skill set , and when to apply the other , is key .

By understanding

everybody , you can then work out how best to relate to them under stressful circumstances

ON TEAMWORK AND TRANSITION

If you ’ re not naturally gifted at working with others , those skills can be learned . But you will have to work at it , while being cognisant of your own strengths and weaknesses . A lot of my training has focused on that .

On board the space station , the hardest change is when crews swap over , which for us happened half-way through our mission . Being together for six whole months as a team of three means you get to know each other extremely well and get into a rhythm of working .

But when you face transition , things can change , especially if you have strong teams coming together . You have to integrate those different teams and come to a common understanding of how things happen . So that ’ s always a point where friction can arise and compromises have to be made .

That ’ s the most interesting part of a mission from a psychological , teamwork and collaboration perspective . We train an awful lot to make sure it goes smoothly and ensure we have the soft skills to be able to deal with that .

ON COLLABORATION AND COMMUNICATION

On board the ISS , we have to work with Mission Control , which takes close collaboration to make sure that all goes smoothly and effectively .

You can face very interesting situations where the crew on board may disagree with the way that Mission Control wants something to work . You have to talk through those problems ; communicate what you ’ re experiencing in space and why you think it should be done differently . And , of course , Mission Control has a host of other priorities that they ’ re trying to integrate .

So you have two different teams coming together , trying to collaborate and compromise , but it ’ s all about soft skills , it ’ s all about communication , and I think that as long as you remember you ’ re all working towards a common goal , to find a good resolution to the problem , you will get there in the end .

Leadership is such a big topic ; far fewer people talk about followership , but it ’ s a real skill

ON EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

You have to be sympathetic to everybody in your team ; no two individuals are the same . As a leader , you need to be aware of that . There ’ s no substitute for really knowing the people in your team , and that means knowing about their families , their hobbies , their sports , knowing what things cause them stress , what things cause them pleasure and how they like to relax . By understanding everybody , you can then work out how best to relate to them under stressful circumstances .

ON FOLLOWERSHIP

Leadership is such a big topic ; far fewer people talk about followership , but it ’ s a real skill . You need to appreciate what you can contribute to your team and inject that at the right moment . You need to anticipate the stresses that the leader or team might be under , and understand how you play your part . It ’ s a selfless role – you ’ re not as visible as the leader , but it ’ s so important for an effective team to make sure that everybody is playing their part .

When we ’ re living in a cave for seven days , we have a different leader each day , but the people who are really being evaluated are the followers : how did they support their leader ? What could they have done better ? How do they anticipate things ? Some people think “ I ’ m not in a leadership role , I can relax ”, but that ’ s the day you need to be switched on . We focus a lot on that , which was quite interesting for me as my previous military career had placed so much emphasis on leadership .

Spending more time thinking about the flip side of the leadership coin is useful in the workplace too . If you can appreciate what you need to do at the right time to make everything gel and work together , you can be so much more powerful and effective .

Tim Peake ’ s autobiography , Limitless , was published last month , charting his road to becoming an astronaut . Based on exclusive diaries and video recordings from his mission , it takes readers closer than ever before to experiencing what life in space is really like .