Episode 04: Adaptive Leadership in the Aerospace Industry

A conversation with Lauren Lyons

On this episode of the On the Balcony podcast, Michael Koehler welcomes Lauren Lyons to chat about chapter four of Ron Heifetz’s legendary book. As an engineer and manager at SpaceX, NASA, and Blue Origin, she knows a lot about managing the expectations of her team and working towards change. Michael and Lauren open up the episode by talking about authority relationships as an exchange. As Heifetz puts it, “Authorities serve as repositories for our worries and aspirations, holding them if they can, in exchange for the powers we give them.” Lyons relates this to her professional experience working with two different generations of aerospace engineers.

She’s learned how to navigate her own biases, what it means to unlearn and relearn, and the importance of being vulnerable. For the remainder of the episode, Koehler talks to his coach Judit Teichert about his experience learning about his country’s past and sharing it with others. The pair close the episode on a positive note about courage. Michael recalls feeling fearful before chatting with others about his family and Germany’s history of injustice. He came to realize , that courage is fear’s antidote.