Mandy Hickson knows a thing or two about leadership. As one of the first female pilots in the UK’s RAF, she has had to prove herself time and again. Hickson did so exceptionally, flying in the Tornado GR4, and patrolling no-fly zones over Iraq. In her three tours of duty, she was one of the only female pilots the entire time she served. During her time in the RAF she learned about leading with integrity, about overcoming challenges, and about how all of us have to first fail in order to succeed. She will be featured later this month at Chief Executive Magazine’s ongoing Masterclass series about Women in Leadership, so she recently sat down with them for an interview.
Hickson first discovered her love of flying at age 14, when the RAF still didn’t allow women to join. Despite this, Hickson had made up her mind. She finished school and enrolled at a university, all the while dreaming of a career that she wasn’t allowed into. Then, in the early 1990s, that finally changed. When she was 17 years old, she received a flight scholarship. After a successful career in the RAF she went on to volunteering with the cadets, a program to introduce flight programs to teens. It was there that she realized her ultimate calling; to become a business coach specializing in human performance factors. Hickson uses her history in high-pressure, high-performance situations and coaches leadership to minimize human error, minimize burnout, and minimize stress, all while maximizing communication, maximizing decision-making skills, and maximizing fulfillment. Which, coincidentally, also makes for a very safe flying environment.
Side note: If you want to learn more about Hickson and other women in leadership, check out Chief Executive Magazine’s Women in Leadership series. Their next event is coming up on September 27th (streaming live). Or check out her book, An Officer Not a Gentleman, the inspiring story of how her determination led to achieving a dream that almost never happened.
