Home - Hickson

An Officer Not A Gentleman

Flying a multi-million pound jet in hostile territory is not an everyday career and it comes with a high degree of pressure and responsibility. It’s a dream job that takes years of ambition, training and commitment, but for Mandy Hickson, it was a dream that became reality. Find out about Mandy’s incredible journey to become one of the UK’s first female, fast-jet pilots and how she overcame many obstacles to develop the skills to succeed in such a demanding career.

Motivational Speaking

For Business

Challenging times require an exceptional corporate response. So how do you motivate and inspire your staff to demonstrate outstanding leadership and teamwork under pressure; to stride confidently towards purposeful goals and maintain focus despite great risks?

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Business

Challenging times require an exceptional corporate response. So how do you motivate and inspire your staff to demonstrate outstanding leadership and teamwork under pressure; to stride confidently towards purposeful goals and maintain focus despite great risks?

These critical success factors are clearly demonstrated by Mandy Hickson’s unique experiences of flying in a Front Line Tornado Squadron within hostile environments. Mandy is supporting an increasing number of organisations as a keynote or motivational speaker.

Tailored to be relevant to your organisation, Mandy’s main themes are;
- The building and empowerment of efective teams
- Inspired goal setting and ultimate focus
- Decision making under extreme pressure
- Maintaining momentum despite losing top talent
- Nurturing a culture of self-confidence and aspiration
Please get in touch if you want to take your organisation and its people to the next level.
For Schools

We recognise the daily challenges that face Head Teachers and their staff. All too frequently this has an impact upon the time available to do the very things that are undoubtedly close to your heart –nurturing your pupil’s hopes and aspirations and inspiring them to the realisation of their dreams and ambitions.

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Schools

As a School Governor and mother of two young boys I recognise the daily challenges that face Head Teachers and their staff.

All too frequently this has an impact upon the time available to do the very things that are undoubtedly close to your heart –nurturing your pupil’s hopes and aspirations and inspiring them to the realisation of their dreams and ambitions.

Mandy offers a number of different services to suit the needs of schools and would be delighted to discuss these with you in more detail.
Women's Groups

Hickson is focused on providing women with support and inspiration in the form of Mandy's remarkable story. It is a story which started with dreaming about being a fast jet pilot at the age of 13 and culminated in her leading an entirely male dominated Front Line Tornado Squadron on operations.

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Women's Groups

Without a doubt most women face some really tough challenges in their working lives:

– Maintaining that essential work/life balance in a demanding environment
– Overcoming innate risk avoidance tendencies
– A wavering of confidence and self-belief
– Amazingly, still having to break through the glass ceiling

Hickson is focused on providing women with support and inspiration in the form of Mandy’s remarkable story. It is a story which started with dreaming about being a fast jet pilot at the age of 13 and culminated in her leading an entirely male dominated Front Line Tornado Squadron on operations.

Of course, this was not a straightforward journey; it contained apparently insurmountable setbacks and immense pressures in a hugely demanding environment.

Mandy shares the strategies and approach she used to get there – and delivers them with high energy and humour that will engage.

If you would like to inspire women in your organisation or membership, Mandy will work with you to create a unique and memorable event that may just help them write their own success stories – please get in touch.

Business Navigation

Teamwork & Leadership

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Teamwork and Leadership

Supportive managers are crucial and teaching managers how and when to flex their leadership styles will help them tune in better to employees’ changing needs and help employees. Understanding employees’ own natural working styles is a very effective way of building cohesiveness and understanding within teams and can be done at no cost other than an hour or two of time. It’s the understanding of what makes the members of your team tick.

Employees feel more engaged when they understand the vision and strategy their company is following and what their role in it is. We look at the communication skill which should be as much about listening as sharing and should empower employees to talk about what concerns them. Sharing the concerns across the company can further embed a culture of involvement. If employees feel that they have a voice and that voice is not just heard, but acted upon then the benefits can be enormous.
Risk Management

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Risk

Risk can be described as a probability or threat of damage, injury, liability, loss, or any other negative occurrence that is caused by external or internal vulnerabilities, and that may be avoided through preemptive action. Now thats a fairly longwinded description, but we see a new era emerging calling for a different kind of thinking. A thinking that sees people as the source of diversity, insight, creativity, and wisdom, not as sources of risk that undermine an otherwise safe system. It calls for a kind of thinking that is quicker to trust people and one that is more committed to actually preventing negative outcomes than to looking good.

We need to transition from seeing risk management as an absence of negatives to seeing it as the presence of a positive capacity to make things go right. A focus on safety and risk should become a focus on resilience.
Threat & Error Management

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Threat and Error Management

We have worked at changing our organisational culture to become Just- a culture that recognises that competent professionals make mistakes and acknowledges that even competent professionals will develop unhealthy norms (shortcuts, routine rule violations), but has zero tolerance for reckless behaviour. Consequently, when a mistake occurs, people talk about it openly and report it, so the business can build up a picture of where the biggest threats lie and make risk based decisions.

If the open and just culture does not exist, you are effectively flying blind.
Human Factors

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Human Factors

Analysis from many sectors have indicated that up to 80% of accident causes can be attributed to human factors (Helmreich, 2000). This means that leaders need to understand the human dimension to their business – what factors enhance performance. They are not new or mysterious skills but are essentially what the most successful team members do, to achieve consistently high performance, and what everyone else does on a good day.

This is where we can help. We use proven techniques to help to protect your business and reputation. Using facilitated training sessions that are designed to be fun but with a serious ‘take away’ message. Our aim is to provide our clients with practical tools they can use effectively and daily.
Crisis Management

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Crisis Planning

A crisis has three elements: A threat, an element of surprise and a short decision time.

We introduce you to different models which shifts the thinking to the left. It changes the attitude to a crisis. Crisis Management planning should be just as high a priority as any other business planning. We practice different scenarios to ensure that in the event of a crisis the team are simply running through a programmed reaction.
Facilitated Debriefing

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Facilitated Debriefing

Every single time we fly we make the time afterwards to debrief the mission. The hierarchical structure is left outside the room as the important aspect is that everyone has a voice, the ability to speak up. We run through a set process, looking at What happened (the facts), Why it happened (the cause), because we are trying to get to How (the cure). How we can improve our performance the next time. We share the tools that you can use practically to improve team performance on a daily basis.

About

Hickson Ltd

Many of you will be thinking 'we are not in the aviation business so what does this have to do with me?'

Well... where do we start ?

Any organisation that works for or with people can benefit from these proven techniques. Human Factors training recognises that we all make mistakes but has an ability to deal with risk and reduce errors, giving us tools to be more efficient and effective in our roles. We are so passionate about the power of these approaches and the potential for any organisation we want to get more involved and assist with your needs.

We utilise highly experienced and credible professionals to help hone your business requirements. Using facilitated training sessions that are designed to be fun but with helpful and powerful 'take aways '. Our aim is to stimulate our clients to think in a new and subtle way, so that they can effectively and safely navigate through their business demands.

Mandy Hickson

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Mandy Hickson

Finding a love of flying early in life, Mandy fought hard to achieve her ambition to be a Royal Air Force pilot. She was only the second woman to fly a Tornado GR4 on the front line, completing three tours of duty and 45 missions over Iraq.

When life is on the line, pilots must be rigorously trained and exercises carefully planned and evaluated. There is much we can share with business from such careful strategy, training, planning and debriefing. She became the Squadron’s Combat Survival and Rescue Officer, working closely with the US, instructing Squadron members on Escape and Evasion tactics.

Throughout her time, Mandy was the only female aircrew and later learned the lessons of juggling life as a working mother of two young children. Now a civilian, Mandy draws on her experiences to train and inspire others, covering the core areas of human factors; decision making, communication, leadership, behaviour, workload, conflict, fatigue and stress management. She is also a highly sought after keynote speaker in the business and education sectors.

Since leaving the RAF, she continues her support for the services in the Volunteer Reserve (VR), through flying on the Air Experience Flight, passing on her experience and enjoyment of flying to Air Cadets. She also supports her local community as Chairwoman of her local Tennis Club. A keen sportswoman in her spare time, Mandy enjoys playing tennis, spinning, cycling and hill walking. In the winter the slopes often are calling to her for some fast paced skiing!
Craig Hickson

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Craig Hickson

After 30 years of aviation experience, flying in the Royal Navy and as Commercial Pilot, I feel its time to share a few of the skills that have kept me safe over the years.

Any pilot would claim that safety is their number one priority but would also accept that flying does not come without risk. It's managing this risk that plays such a significant part of our operating day. A pilots technical skills (stick and rudder stuff ) are very important but it's not the full picture and certainly not the only part of the job.

Equally as important (in fact if not more so) are a pilot's Non Technical Skills, skills that allows them to make good quality decisions, understand the importance of team dynamics, provides the ability to communicate effectively and manage workload alongside strong leadership. These soft skills are all embedded into Human Factors (HF) training which the aviation industry provides to its employees.

Over the years I have been fortunate enough to have flown a wide range of aircraft, rotary and fixed wing. Operated as Search and Rescue Helicopter pilot, flew fast Jets and even managed to display an historic vintage naval aircraft. These roles in Royal Navy were as a Pilot, Instructor, Examiner and a Standards Officer. On completion of a 22 year commitment to the service (including 8 years as a Reservist ) a natural progression into Commercial occurred, now operating the highly sophisticated Airbus 320. A delightful aircraft to operate with a hugely impressive automation and capabilities. As the company CRM manager I had direct dealings with the Civil Aviation Authority ( CAA ) to ensure all matters of Human Factors Training was carried out in accordance with the national legal regulations.

Still a current Training Captain, HF Instructor and Examiner I have been heavily involved in providing this relevant training at all levels, senior management to new trainees ( pilot and cabin crew ). Providing crews with useful tools to assist them during their demanding working days and nights.

Work - life balance thing has always been really important to me. Nothing gives me more pleasure than being with my wife and family and really enjoy long walks, popping off to the gym, hitting a tennis ball or ( when I can ) bashing the piste on the ski slopes! Recently to add to my list, I have got into drumming and qualified as rugby RFU level 1 coach.

Blog

15th April 2016

Dream it. Believe it. Do it!

Having served as a fast jet pilot in the Royal Air Force for 17 years I decided it was time to leave for pastures...

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Dream it. Believe it. Do it!

Post on 15th/04/2016 by admin

Having served as a fast jet pilot in the Royal Air Force for 17 years I decided it was time to leave for pastures new, but I wasn’t quite ready to let go completely, so I joined the Air Experienced Flight at MoD Boscombe Down as a Volunteer Reservist. I now fly the Tutor aircraft and take cadets, aged between 13 and 18, on a flying experience that they will hopefully never forget!

It was on a full flying day that I had the pleasure of flying with a young girl called Emily. We fly four cadets in the morning and four in the afternoon and, as you can imagine, by the eighth trip of the day you’re feeling slightly less inspiring and motivated than you were on the first. This is when I saw Emily for the first time. She was walking out to the aircraft with her shoulders stooped and a slightly surly look on her face. I introduced myself and told her what I had planned for the next exciting 30 minutes flying experience. I was met with a series of grunts that I could only translate as teenage speak for “how wonderful – that sounds like great fun!” It transpired that this was Emily’s first flight in any aircraft and when I asked her if she was excited I was simply met by another series of grunts!

We took to the skies. It was a beautiful day with a pure blue sky interspersed with a few white fluffy clouds, the sort of day that is a pilots’ dream. I started off by demonstrating the basic controls, left, right, up and down…”you have control Emily” I said. “Hmph hmph hmph, ma’am!” I heard in response. Emily seemed strangely relaxed though and flew the aircraft really well. I decided to challenge her a little more. I demonstrated how to turn the aircraft – first simple 30 degree angle of bank turns. These provided no problem to her so I threw down the gauntlet with 60 degree turns. Now these are more challenging to any pilot because if you don’t raise the nose and add power you start a rather ominous spiral descent. Unperturbed, Emily manoeuvred the aircraft as if she had been behind the controls all of her life.

With the cotton wool clouds calling we decided to have a little fun, diving through gaps and gullies in the clouds as if we were taking on a undiscovered landscape, designed by the Gods. Great fun, that even the most surly of teenagers could not help but enjoy….but still not even a smile from my silent co-pilot!

The finale came in the form of aerobatics – ballet in the skies. Once again I demonstrated how to perform a series of tumbles and turns, starting with a wonderful ‘loop the loop’. Now if a loop is flown perfectly as you pull out the bottom of the manoeuvre you will fly through the same piece of air that you disturbed on the way in, and the whole aircraft can shake quite violently. I always take the time to explain this as it can come a a real shock to cadets when they experience this for the first time. I flew my loop very smoothly, but alas, at the bottom a smooth pull out-no shaking. I handed the controls to Emily, following through on my own controls in case the manoeuvre did not go according to plan, but there was no need as it was flown perfectly. As she pulled out of the bottom, the whole aircraft started shaking as we flew through the previously disturbed air and Emily turned to look at me with a huge smile on her face. I translated this as “I am better than you!”

I upped the pace, challenging her with more and more complex aerobatics, and they were all flown in the same confident manner.

After returning to the base, I turned to Emily and said “I know you have spent the last 30 minutes grunting at me, I’m not even sure that you’ve enjoyed it, but can I just say that in 20 years of flying I have never flown with anyone who has demonstrated as much natural ability as you have just done”. “I bet you say that to everyone” she retorted gruffly. “I’ve not actually, I’ve never said it to anyone – is this something that you may want to do in the future – to pursue a career as a pilot?”. It was at that moment that Emily looked straight at me, making eye contact for the first time. Her entire body language changed, her defences fell away and she said “Yes, it is actually. This is something I’ve always wanted to do, but I never thought I’d be good enough. I’ve dreamed about being a pilot all my life and I thought what happens if I came along today and I was rubbish at it? I thought it was better not to try, then if I failed I would know it was because I hadn’t tried.”

I’ve thought about this so often since and it always makes me think. How often do you steer away from taking on a new challenge or experience because you are worried you might fail? I’m sure we are all guilty of this at some point in our lives, but until you try you never know what you are good at. Once you have a goal, to visualise, it’s always easier to work towards it, to focus on it.

So whatever your ambition is…..Dream it. Believe it. Do it!

Videos

Kilimanjaro 2019
How aviation lessons translate to the business world
Mandy on BBC news, talking Tornados...
Overcoming barriers & building effective teams
Mandy Hickson - Motivational Speaker
Empowering team members in high pressure situations
Critical Success Factors - ICC Birmingham
Successful women needed for school talks
Experience from the front line

Kilimanjaro 2019
How aviation lessons translate to the business world
Mandy on BBC news, talking Tornados...
Overcoming barriers & building effective teams
Mandy Hickson - Motivational Speaker
Empowering team members in high pressure situations
Critical Success Factors - ICC Birmingham
Successful women needed for school talks
Experience from the front line

Contact

Please feel free to contact us to discuss your requirements on:

e: mandy@hicksonltd.com
t: +44 (0) 7799 628 540

We look forward to hearing from you.

An Officer Not A Gentleman

Motivational Speaking

For Business

Business

For Schools

Schools

Women's Groups

Women's Groups

Business Navigation

Teamwork & Leadership

Teamwork and Leadership

Risk Management

Risk

Threat & Error Management

Threat and Error Management

Human Factors

Human Factors

Crisis Management

Crisis Planning

Facilitated Debriefing

Facilitated Debriefing

About

Hickson Ltd

Mandy Hickson

Mandy Hickson

Craig Hickson

Craig Hickson

Blog

Dream it. Believe it. Do it!

Dream it. Believe it. Do it!

Videos

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