Ron Nielsen
Ron Nielsen has been a student of leadership development since his undergraduate days at the US Air Force Academy. He began his professional life as a military pilot and served in combat in Vietnam. He has been speaking and training since 1967. Ron believes that education is the key to wisdom. He has graduate degrees in professional counseling and human resources and has been featured in USA Today, Woman’s World, and Web MD. Recognized as an expert in performance management, he has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, and Weekend Live with Brian Williams.
As a professional pilot, Ron understands the importance of effective team leadership. True leaders don’t motivate, they inspire. They understand themselves and know what their strengths are and how to maximize them for effectiveness. At the same time, they acknowledge that those same strengths when overdone may inhibit overall performance. As a combat veteran, Ron has led people in all kinds of situations and in all sorts of environments and understands how to inspire people to perform beyond their expectations.
Ron knows that real courage is not the absence of fear but moving forward in the face of it. In order to be successful, leaders have to understand their fears. He is acknowledged as a innovative thinker in the field of human factors—the science of understanding the role of interpersonal dynamics in group performance. He is a published author of many articles on the subject, appearing in many trade and industry journals.
In addition to his role as an airline captain, Ron has been an internal consultant for the design and delivery of programs designed to create high performance airline crews for the sole purpose of reducing human factor caused airline accidents. He developed a mentoring program for pilots who have been identified as having problematic leadership traits.
Captain Ron, known as the FearlessFlight™ Facilitator to the thousands of fearful flyers he has helped since 1987, is the author and creator of Chicken Soup for the Soul presents the Fearless FlightKit. It is the number one program to ease fear of flying. , Capt Ron has uses live classes, teleseminars, the Fearless FlightKit™, and soon-to-be released FearlessFlight™ Solution, Your Ticket to Freedom. Information about the FearlessFlight™ Kit as well as his highly successful Cleared for Takeoff programs is available at www.Fearless-Flight.com.
Captain Ron is available as speaker, trainer, and consultant and specializes in helping individuals, executives, and organizations in the area of performance management. He volunteers at an adult rehabilitation center in downtown Phoenix and a charter school for at-risk kids; he counsels individuals and groups, delivers psycho-educational programs, and assists in staff development and designing life skills training programs.