About Leadership Pathway

How Can You Inspire Leadership and Teamwork Under Pressure? Motivating and inspiring your team to perform at their best under pressure is a critical skill for any leader. But how do you help your team stay focused and confident when facing high-stakes situations? In this pathway, Mandy Hickson, the second-ever female fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force, shares her insights. Having made life-and-death decisions at 50,000 feet, Mandy teaches how her experiences in the skies can help you foster leadership, teamwork, and decision-making in your organisation, even when the pressure is on.

In this pathway

Pathway experts

Mandy Hickson

25 years: Ex-RAF pilot & leadership expert

Mandy Hickson was one of the first female fighter pilots in the Royal Air Force having joined in 1994. Mandy has over 25 years experience within aviation, operating in hostile environments, including patrolling the ‘No Fly’ zone, flying over 50 combat missions over Iraq. Drawing on her experience of calculated risk-taking, leadership, decision-making under pressure and the critical role of the human in the system, Mandy now transfers these lessons from the cockpit to many other management and leadership contexts.