“What Type of Team Members should you hire?”
Stepan O. Popkov
Southern Utah University
AVTN 4570: Principles of Leadership in Aviation
June 15, 2025
When observing potential candidates for traits, it is always important to keep an
organization’s objectives in mind. Different organizations possess different objectives
and will demand different traits from participating team members. General aviation for
example, will possess a more tight-knitted community of individuals, and tasks will be
more performance-based and flexible compared to a larger airline where things will be
more prescriptive and standardized. Let’s say for example, you would like to hire a
maintenance technician who will both perform and inspect his/her own work. You will
want them to possess certain character traits that will guarantee you that they can be
relied upon without the burden of supervision and redundancy.
The scope of this paper will focus more on a small team within an organization.
Perhaps a section or office that is a part of a larger department, like the maintenance bay
for example. You want to be confident that your technician is dependable, able to work
together with others, and possesses the necessary work-drive and technical skills to get
the job done. Some traits that reflect this type of orientation might look something like:
integrity, enthusiasm, knowledge, judgment, resilience, collaborative mindset, and good
interpersonal skills.
Resilience can usually be best assessed by asking the question “describe a time in
your past when you overcame a challenge or difficulty”. The interviewee would provide
a scenario and their resolution. The interviewer would then be able to analyze the severity
of said challenge or difficulty and make an assessment of the person’s tolerance for
hardship.
To assess interpersonal or communication skills, you may ask questions like “you
have a team member who is feeling down and wants to quit. What will you tell them?”
The response should be a scenario provided by the candidate where they demonstrated
openness, respect, mutual understanding, emotional intelligence, and conflict resolution
skills.
Judgment and integrity are also important traits. Judgment is a reflection of a
person’s decision-making skills based on unavailable and available information.
Meanwhile, a person who demonstrates integrity is someone who is honest and does the
right thing even when no one is looking. In aviation, integrity is a highly-valued trait and
should be assessed carefully. You want to illicit responses that compliment a culture of
safety, and so you may ask questions like: “Describe a situation where you saw someone
doing something unethical. What did you do?” An ideal response would be one who in
which the interviewee approached the individual personally and/or reported it through the
appropriate channels to resolve the issue.
To assess judgment, you might ask: “Tell me about a time you had to make a
difficult decision without having all the information you wanted. What did you do?” An
ideal response would be one in which the candidate consulted others and gathered enough
necessary information to make a timely decision.
Lastly, enthusiasm is the heart of a high-morale team. To assess whether or not a
personal is truly motivated and proud of their work, you should ask questions like:
“"What excites you most about this role and our team?" and “"Tell me about a project or
task you worked on that you really enjoyed. What made it so rewarding?" The
interviewee’s tone, choice of vocabulary, and attitude will be able to give you a concise
understanding of what orientation they possess towards the prospective role.