Many people would be surprised at a comparison between a fighter pilot and leadership in business. Flashing around at 500 mph, practicing and, increasingly recently, carrying out missions over enemy territory, seems miles away from the requirements of the boardroom and business in general. However, the correlations are remarkably close when you break it down to the component parts.

Before any attack mission is flown in the Royal Air Force, you start with the target. You then plan a route to get to the target by the safest and usually most expeditious route. At the end of the mission the sortie is debriefed in detail with everyone having an equal say from the Boss right down to the most junior pilot. Even to the extent that the junior pilot is permitted to advise the Boss if he thought that his leader had made a mistake. Being open and free with the debriefing ensures that the squadron improves in its task and hopefully does not make similar mistakes in the future; no member of the chain is immune from mistakes. This also ensures that all those involved learn from the good and bad habits and therefore improve as individuals.

In business, I would like to believe that most leaders choose their goal (target), whether it be short-term or long-term and come up with a plan to achieve it. However, most businesses are not good at analysing the way in which the task was undertaken and do not always give all participants the opportunity to have their say. The more open approach has many advantages, not least that it saves the same mistakes being repeated; it also ensures that everyone feels part of the team and if given an equal say they feel that they can make a difference. By treating your managers as equals you will gain their respect and get more productive work from them. This will benefit the company in more ways than just increased efficiency as the employee will view the company in a different light and will represent it positively to others.