Speaking up: graded assertiveness in the cockpit

You don’t grab the controls to raise a concern — you climb a ladder of clarity, one firm rung at a time.

The idea

A junior crew member who spots a problem faces a real bind: stay silent and the risk grows; over-react and you undercut the captain over nothing. Graded assertiveness solves it with a ladder. You start with a gentle probe, then get firmer — alert, challenge — and only declare and act as a last resort.

The anchor is the two-challenge rule: if you clearly challenge a decision twice and get no adequate response, you presume the leader has lost the picture and you intervene. The captain’s job is the mirror image — invite the challenge, verbalise the plan, and never punish a good-faith flag.

Fly the challenge · unstable approach

Your move — pick a rung

Altitude

1,500 ft

Captain willing to go around

Clear challenges made

1,500 ft — high and fast, but recoverable. The captain says “we’ll make it work.” Plenty of time. Start low on the ladder.

Ladder climbed: —

How it works

Each rung says the same concern more plainly and leaves the leader less room to brush it off. You climb only as far as you need, escalating as time and altitude run down:

Probe      a question that makes the leader notice   "Do you see we're high?"
Alert      name the concern and your discomfort      "I'm not comfortable with this."
Challenge  state the required action, directly       "Captain, go around."
Emergency  presume lost picture — act              "Going around."  (you fly it)

In the simulator the captain’s willingness to abandon the approach builds with each firmer message — and it crosses the line on your second clear challenge. That is the two-challenge rule, made visible:

willingness needed to go around ............ 100
  probe      +15      running total  15
  alert      +30      running total  45
  challenge  +45      running total  90     (challenge #1 — still fixated)
  challenge  +45      running total 135  ->  over 100: captain calls the go-around

two clear challenges, no adequate response  ->  you are cleared to declare & act

When to use it

Rung	Reach for it when…
Probe	You first notice the deviation and there’s time — a question invites the leader to self-correct without a confrontation.
Alert	The probe didn’t land. Naming your discomfort raises the stakes while still respecting authority.
Challenge	Safety is now at risk. You state the required action plainly — no hedging, no hint.
Declare & act	Last resort. Two clear challenges got no adequate response, or there’s no time left. You act. The trade-off: use it early and you’ve lost the crew for a challenge that would have worked.

Watch out for

Hint-and-hope. “It’s a bit high, isn’t it?” feels polite but carries no action. If the moment is serious, say the action out loud: go around.
Staying on a soft rung while altitude bleeds away. A probe at 1,500 ft is good timing; the same probe at 300 ft is far too soft. The right rung rises as your margin falls.
Skipping straight to grabbing the controls. Taking over before you’ve even challenged burns trust and, next time, makes the captain defensive rather than open. It’s the last rung for a reason.
The captain who punishes the challenge. Sarcasm or a cold shoulder toward a good-faith flag teaches the crew to stay quiet — the exact silence that kills. Invite it instead: brief that challenges are welcome, and verbalise your plan.
No hard trigger. Decide the go-around gate before the approach (“unstable below 1,000 ft = go around”). A pre-agreed line removes the in-the-moment debate.

Worked example

An interviewer asks: “Tell me about a time you had to push back on someone more senior.” Walk the ladder. You noticed a client deck cited a revenue figure the night before the pitch (probe: “Is this the number from the latest close?”). The lead waved it off, so you alerted: “I’m not comfortable presenting a figure I can’t stand behind.” Still no fix, so you challenged plainly: “We need to correct slide 6 before this goes out.” When that landed, they fixed it — no controls grabbed, relationship intact. The structure is the answer: you escalated deliberately, gave the leader every chance to self-correct, and had a clear line where you’d have taken it to their manager.

Check yourself

You’re high on approach at 1,500 ft with time in hand. The captain seems relaxed. What’s the graded first move?

You’ve now challenged twice — “Captain, go around” — and gotten no adequate response as the runway rushes up. What does the two-challenge rule ask of you?