Short audio preview

After moving on from his first dream job driving women around Liverpool for a kissogram agency, Justin Hughes applied to the RAF to be a military pilot. Whilst there someone told him "If you don't go for something, you can never achieve it" and this inspired Hughes to apply to the Red Arrows where he flew for three years as deputy team leader in over 250 performances. Hughes described his morning at the London Business Forum (LBF) as his "perfect morning" due to the fact he could talk about any fighter pilot's two favourite topics - himself and flying.

Ultimately though, Hughes offered more than that, highlighting how the Red Arrows are persistently in "pursuit of excellence." They aim for high performance but with common sense, whilst "challenging the preconceptions of what's involved."

When asked: "How do we coordinate nine jets and always look like we just missed each other?" Hughes provides a simple answer - "great teamwork." This is perhaps less simplistic when we found out that the Red Arrows in fact loses a third of its team each year, leaving the remaining six to adjust and change roles within the team dynamic. Hughes emphasises that the Red Arrows' "output each year is about always acknowledged as world class, even though it's a different team."

How is this level of high performance retained and reproduced to such a high standard? Essentially, Hughes argued that you can't be reliant on one or two "stars" but that an excellent team is underpinned by the individuals' behaviours and attitudes. When he asked the completely captivated LBF audience for some examples of great teamwork, the usual suspects arise; British Lions, Chicago Bulls and of course at this point in time, the England cricket team! What it is about those teams that make them so successful, what are they like? This threw up responses such as "determined," "focused," "passionate." Pin pointing that these behaviours and attitudes are key to success. Hughes indicated that "you choose to be a team player." People "buy in" when they see that the team goal is aligned with their personal goal. "When they see that delivering towards the team goal brings recognition, security" that is when they can start to take ownership.

The key to world class performance for the Red Arrows is ensuring they attract individuals with that right attitude; Hughes stated that even if they have awesome flying skills, having an awful attitude will not work in a team who are pursuing excellence - "get rid," he advises.

The Red Arrows selection process consists of "98% people stuff"; talking about the applicants, finding out what they're like from others within their squadron, assessing if they have a good attitude. This gets them down to about nine people, who are then jetted off to Cyprus for a week, primarily to "socialise" (as well as take a flying test and have an interview). Hughes made clear that the socialising forms part of a vital aspect of choosing the right pilots, it's about intuition and returning back to the point of "choice"; they need to see who will choose to commit and make sacrifices in an environment where you can't really "fake it." The people who commit are those who understand that "the team is bigger than the individuals."

A significant aspect of ensuring that the performance is bettered each time is by taking part in a thorough de-brief process. Hughes explained that a de-brief is "an objective assessment of team performance, which is jointly carried out with no seniority at all." Tellingly, no hands went up when Hughes asked how many people took part in such de-briefs. Hughes recognised that there are many barriers put up against effective de-briefs in companies, but he contested, how do they expect you to learn if nobody ever tells you what you've done wrong?

A short film showing a de-brief of a performance in action was played. It depicted the leader as the first to stand up, admit their faults and essentially open the floor for others to follow. Hughes asked the LBF audience, "Can you challenge your CEO? [...] Or, can the people who work with, and/or for you, challenge you?" Unsurprisingly, this gave way to a few sheepish faces. Hughes made clear that this process needs to be done with complete objectivity; a high performance team can "bridge the gap" between external objectivity and internal performance but to self analyse with total honesty is a difficult challenge!

Hughes told a story about his CEO, who was at the time visiting one of the bases and consequently wanting to fly wingman with Hughes. Whilst in the air, something went wrong. It was nothing serious but the mistake had been made by the CEO. When it came to the de-brief Hughes identified the error, which in turn "identified the learning." The General knew it was important he was challenged in front of everyone and this formed part of his learning as well as enforcing a strong sense of his credibility as a leader.

Hughes went on to talk about contingency planning and how the Red Arrows are a "Plan B" organisation. Two minutes of each day to are devoted to addressing a potential problem and resolution; this prepares the pilots with a back catalogue of eventualities that they can put into process if necessary. Hughes clarified this by making "high pressure decisions, in low pressure environments [...] when the pressure is on, they can just get on with it." Hughes told the LBF audience about an incident that occurred whilst he was flying into land at Inverness, bearing in mind Inverness is 4000ft long and Hughes was flying at 130mph, he tapped on his brakes and realised one was faulty. Due good contingency planning, when something like this happens, Hughes revealed, "people then act in a reasonably predictable way." To be a military/fast jet flying pilot, the key attributes required are the ability to prioritise and the multi task. "What is the ball you can't afford to drop?" Hughes questioned.

Hughes argued that simple, clear priorities make it easier to maintain an excellent performance. To build an excellent team, Hughes concluded, the focus should be on "the standards and attitudes you bring to the team [...] Lead by example."