Michael Steen on performing under pressure and Atlas Air Worldwide's approach to mental wellbeing

To mark Mental Health Awareness Month, Atlas Air Worldwide CEO Michael Steen discusses the importance of mental wellness in the workplace, drawing parallels with the high-pressure environments of elite sport.

Atlas Air Worldwide has the world's largest widebody fleet of air freighters. It has been an integral part of Formula One's logistics operation for many years, helping the championship deliver a packed and increasingly far-flung calendar of races in ways that would have been unthinkable in the past. Atlas joined our team as Official Logistics Partner in 2025, helping us traverse the planet as we race on five different continents.

At the start of Mental Health Awareness Month in May, the team, in collaboration with Atlas, the Miami Dolphins, and the Movember Foundation, hosted a panel discussion at the Miami Grand Prix, focusing on mental health in high-performance environments. Here, Michael gives his thoughts and shares Atlas' perspective on this most important of modern-day topics.

Resilience

"We work in a complex industry. Atlas has over 5,000 staff, operates in 90 countries, serving more than 300 destinations – and our aircraft and logistics structure must be working at all times. Airfreight is the fastest form of delivery, which means speed and precision are of the essence.

"An airline is structured of multiple departments, strung out in a chain. If one link is weaker than the others, inevitably things break down. The catalyst can be related to outside forces: it might be weather; it could be the geopolitical situation. We're seeing quite a bit of this at the moment. But whatever causes it, it builds stress, because when something breaks, you have to rebuild.

"We can have the best developed plan but sometimes it won't work out and there are going to be setbacks. These can be financial, they can be customer-related, they can be across different aspects of our operations. It's important that we develop a certain amount of resilience and perseverance. In the business sense, to an extent, you can see similarities with a sports injury or setback. You have to understand why it happened, because it will test your confidence."

The more you understand about your weaknesses, the more you can improve.

One Atlas

"Ultimately, as CEO, it comes down to me. The buck stops with me. It starts with me too. I need to make sure that we are a team together, aligned around a strategy that allows us to execute a very complex operation. We call this strategy One Atlas. The goal is to have everyone pointing in the same direction.

"Being mentally prepared is an important part of this. We understand our objectives, understand the challenges we might face, and need to understand how we are likely to react when we are presented with those challenges. From the panel discussion, we can see similarities between how we operate in our high-performance environment and how it works for a sports team. There are expectations of performance – be it from customers, from shareholders, from other stakeholders or from us. It puts a lot of pressure on the individual."

Core Values

"You have to start with core values, and for us, safety is the first core value. We have a responsibility to run a safe operation. Teamwork is paramount for every department to do the job that's expected of them. When disruption happens – and it will – you're prepared, and have a plan and protocols that you follow meticulously.

"You observe this particularly with pilots. They are well-prepared and operate in a similar manner to elite athletes. They anticipate the challenges they may face and, when required, deal with adversity in a calm and deliberate manner. You can only do that if you are well-prepared. It begins with carefully selecting our pilots, and then it comes out of training and practice to ensure they are able to execute their roles with excellence. And this goes beyond our pilots. It also goes for all of our people supporting our pilots."

There are barriers to dismantle

"Aviation is an industry with a common perception, and maybe expectations, that emotions should not be shown, and weaknesses not disclosed. Realistically, we should be aiming for the opposite. The more you understand about your weaknesses, the more you can improve, and the easier it is to seek help and receive support from the broader organisation.

"This remains a male-dominated industry – only four per cent of our pilots are female, which is in line with global industry numbers. We are making a huge effort to create diversity throughout our business. It's a key focus for us and for aviation in general. Clearly there is a long way to go, but finding a better balance will help everyone perform better."

Techniques for dealing with the stresses of management have to be individual – but it's universally essential to have a great team around you.

Mindfulness and the CEO

"The responsibilities of being CEO brings some pressures with it. I was a professional handball athlete which exposed me to a lot of these performance pressures from a very young age. It's useful to have this background in a leadership role, because you're predisposed to value teamwork. I have a phenomenal team around me at Atlas. We have very capable individuals throughout the business, who can lead, drive, and adapt to change. The trust I have in them keeps me calm and allows me to do my job better.

"Techniques for dealing with the stresses of management have to be individual – but it's universally essential to have a great team around you, with whom you can have an open and transparent dialogue. Two-way trust and respect are critical because we're not always going to have a great day. It's important to recognise that. There is nothing wrong with showing some vulnerability at times. We are all human.

"You can't be successful unless you've experienced failure. You learn from failure, because only through failure can you push yourself, and push your boundaries. Strength of character will take you a long way… but it helps to have a good network around you and a solid support system."

Joining forces

In conversation

Watch the full panel as our team discusses men's mental health and wellbeing with Atlas Air and the Miami Dolphins.

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The panel discussion

"What came out of our panel discussion was that there are incredible commonalities. This, perhaps, is unexpected, when you're talking about an F1 team, an airline and an NFL franchise – but ultimately, it's all about expectations and performance and, at the end of the day, delivering. With an F1 car, it's about searching for lap-time; for us, it's on-time performance, which is even more critically important when we are delivering life-saving pharmaceuticals or perishables.

"It was interesting to hear the shared perspectives of the pressure that comes with responsibility in leadership roles – whether you are leading a business, or in the driver's seat of an F1 racecar, or in the left seat of a 747. The level of responsibility hasn't changed – but the expectations are perhaps being amplified by social media. Many of the pressures faced today simply didn't exist 20 years ago."

A win for mental health awareness at Atlas

"From my perspective, I would like to achieve more open, transparent and active dialogue at Atlas. With this, we can adapt and integrate what we learn into our plans. Part of our One Atlas strategy is a people-centric approach we call 'living a thriving culture'.

"We have a transparent way of communicating and we need to foster this for talking about mental health and improving ourselves as a team. Ultimately, if we can unlock common spaces for open discussion and remove stigmas, then we'll get better results… and we'll be healthier people."

To learn more about Atlas Air Worldwide, click here.

A sporting crossover

Supporting men's health

There's still time to bid for the signed helmets of both Lance Stroll and Miami Dolphins player Jordan Phillips, brought together by Atlas Air Worldwide and auctioned as a unique set by F1 Authentics, helping raise money and awareness for Movember and its work.

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