NBAA’s Summer Learning Series Webinar Focuses on Challenges in Aviation Leadership

July 16, 2025

Tough conversations can be hard to handle, but today’s aviation leaders need to embrace the “Last 8%” approach — a science-backed strategy designed to help managers successfully resolve challenges — and create an environment that respects and values workers and motivates them to higher performance levels.

That was the advice of emotional intelligence, performance and leadership expert, and Institute for Health and Human Potential (IHHP) partner, Bill Benjamin in the recent NBAA Business Aviation Management Committee (BAMC) Summer Learning Series webinar, Challenges in Aviation Leadership.

IHHP’s research reveals that when people talk about challenges, they typically avoid the last 8% of the discussion — the things that need to be said — because of the emotional impact, whether it’s fear, anxiety, discomfort or simply avoiding the tension. But, according to Benjamin, avoiding these critical issues or conversations ultimately undermines a leader’s authority and impacts the trust and accountability that drive performance and innovation.

“In our research, 68% of people faced with a Last 8% conversation or decision tend to avoid. They don’t step in and say that part of the conversation or avoid that decision. That’s most people,” explained Benjamin in the NBAA webinar, which followed on his participation in a session on the same concerns at the 2025 NBAA Leadership Conference.

“The other 32%, when someone comes at them, rather than backing off, they can come on too strong and start interrupting and make a mess of it.”

“These are hard conversations to have,” Benjamin added. “They trigger the amygdala, the part of the brain that gives you your fight or flight reaction, and that impacts how people react. You actually lose some of your thinking capacity, become less curious and more certain that you’re right, which means that you become more reactive,” he added. “There are reasons people avoid or make a mess. There is an answer, though, a middle path where you don’t avoid and instead push into the discomfort of the Last 8% — but you do it skillfully, so you don’t make a mess.”

The process for avoiding that mess starts with self-reflection. “The key from an emotional intelligence standpoint is to be aware of our own responses and reactions. We’ve got to manage our own emotions. And to do that, we have a strategy called SOS,” Benjamin noted. This three-step approach — stop, oxygenate, seek information — is a highly effective tool on its own, but, as Benjamin said, leaders can be even more effective if they learn how to anticipate and mitigate a negative reaction.

“Don’t wait until you’re most triggering moment to try to practice the SOS because by design, you’ve lost your working memory, you’ve lost your ability to think. By practicing not getting triggered, not getting frustrated, you’re building the neural pathways in your brain that will help you stay calm and keep all your working memory in a real tough moment,” he said.

Leaders who excel in Last 8% situations typically do so in a culture of high connection and high courage, Benjamin added.

“In these environments, people feel valued, they know they have a voice and they feel psychologically safe. This is a culture where it’s safe to make mistakes and try something new because the leader is engaged,” he said. “That’s what we call a Last 8% culture, because there’s a high level of trust, it’s safe to take risks and it’s feedback-rich, with everyone holding each other accountable.”