If you’ve been following the science news, you will have noticed that the Insight spacecraft landed on Mars yesterday. The final phase of the flight just before the landing is called the ‘seven minutes of terror’. This term was coined by NASA for previous Martian landings. These seven minutes include braking the spacecraft from an enormous velocity, the heatshield withstanding blazing temperatures, the deployment of ultra-strong parachutes, separations of now useless parts of the spacecraft, and ultimately achieving a soft landing. No doubt, a lot of things have to go right, yet I was intrigued why the term ‘terror’ is used for this phase of flight.

Let’s compare the data for a Martian landing with the data for the re-entry of the Apollo command module when they came back from the Moon . The Apollo command module also separated from its ‘useless parts’ (the service module), re-entered the atmosphere faster, got hotter, also had parachutes, experienced the same g-forces, was in a longer descent, had a longer radio black-out period, and even had people on board. The only thing it didn’t do was use rockets for the final slow-down. There were similar parameters for the Space Shuttle , and the Soyuz or other re-entries . Yet, no one called part of the flight ‘terror’. Why?

Here’s the key difference: for all the Earth re-entries, someone was in control. Either ground control or pilots in the spacecraft could take action. For the Martian landing, the distance is too great to issue live commands from ground control. Instead, the spacecraft has to fly autonomously, and all we can do is watch.

The term ‘terror’ comes not from the technological challenges, but from the lack of control.

Doesn’t that sound similar to what we experience in leadership? It’s not a particular challenge that’s tough, but our sense of control – or lack thereof – that makes it tough.

Now, here’s the kicker: in leadership, our sense of control is often an illusion. It’s so easy for our plans to derail because someone does something unexpected. It happens all the time. Our plan shatters, expectations don’t come true, and we’re not in control. Should that terrify us? Hopefully not.

 

Take the Next Step

 

Watch out for situations where you think you are in control and ask yourself if your control is real. How easy is it for something to happen that will shatter that sense of control? Even though you may not have control, consider this situation not as ‘terror’, but as a chance to improvise and let your leadership shine.