Fabio Andraus Lane Works Collaboratively at Work and at Home

Bristow Brazil Pilot Fabio Andraus Lane knows the value of teamwork at work and at home.

What does teamwork mean to you?
Teamwork is an exercise in trust – you trust the people you work with to deliver quality work, and they trust in you to do the same. It is living and working interdependently. Teamwork is how I live and work – it’s critical to my daily tasks. As a flight instructor, examiner and father of two daughters, I depend on teamwork to get everything done every day.

Why is teamwork important?
Teamwork is critical to create a safe work environment. We need to all be looking out for each other to achieve Target Zero. If we aren’t working together, we could overlook a safety risk and potentially miss the mark.

We also need teamwork to deliver quality service to our customers. It takes all of us working together to deliver safe, reliable and efficient service to our passengers.

My team collaborates closely to get the job done. We all generally arrive at the airport at the same time to complete all our duties to ensure on-time flights. If we are working together towards the same goal, we can get there that much faster!

Teamwork is also important at home. I have two daughters – one is nine years old; one is one year old. When there’s a big list of chores to tackle, it is more efficient to divide and conquer. My wife keeps an eye on our youngest daughter while I’m preparing dinner. My older daughter cleans her room while I clean the kitchen. Together, we ensure our house is clean and make sure we also have time to relax afterward. I’m instilling teamwork as a core value with my daughters from the beginning!

How can we create a collaborative environment?
We can create a collaborative environment if we all, especially as leaders, maintain a friendly and positive attitude, consider others’ opinions and respect our teammates. It is also important to observe personal limitations and avoid demanding more than what can be given to you.

My direct manager is a great example of a leader who has created a collaborative environment. He has our respect and he respects every member of our team. He works diligently to create a great work environment. I’m free to do my job as a flight instructor and captain. He’s very fair. It’s very easy to talk to him and work with him because he empowers us.

Tell us about a time that it would have been easy not to work with teamwork, but it ended up being beneficial.
In my first job as an offshore pilot, I faced a very challenging scenario that taught me the value of teamwork. At that time, there was a great distance in the relationship of captain and co-pilot. The captain I worked with at that time constantly asked me questions throughout the flight, testing my knowledge of systems and procedures. Until then, I had only flown helicopters in visual conditions. This constant drilling helped me remain focused on improving knowledge and skills and operate effectively as part of a team. It was quite challenging at the time, but when I look back, I realize he was teaching me to work as a valuable member of a team. I needed to know the systems and procedures and be able to contribute to the team. This experience helped me overcome my initial shortcomings and shaped me into the professional I am today.