“You are going on a rescue mission,” says Christian Boucousis. One of your colleagues, sent on reconnaissance, has been shot. Now we have to go find him behind enemy lines and bring him back. »
Mr. Boucousis, a former fighter pilot, runs the company Afterburner, which promises to teach “the precision and accuracy of elite military aviators” to businesses. Afterburner has worked with Nike, Pepsi, Bank of America and many other brands that don’t care about rescuing brothers in arms shot down by enemy planes. Their problems ? Competition, shareholder pressure, staff turnover.
But some CEOs find it exciting to pilot something other than an office chair and feel for a few hours like Tom Cruise in his F-18 Super Hornet in the movie Top Gun: Maverick. Even if it’s not cheap: Afterburner’s “Top Gun” formation takes off at $10,000 for a small team; the price quickly climbs to $100,000 for a larger group.
There are plenty of metaphors in this kind of seminar: the office is a battlefield; landing the plane in a difficult quarter; whipping the troops for the launch of a product…
For some CEOs, work is war. To address this sentiment, the era of “Top Gun” leadership training has arrived.
Many bosses have reacted to the uncertainty of the past few years – workforce, telecommuting, economic conditions – with a softer, more sensitive approach in boardrooms. Some encouraged discussion of mental health issues in the office. One CEO even posted a selfie on LinkedIn showing him crying after he fired two employees (social media backlash made him regret the decision).
Others have chosen the opposite, embracing a new style of corporate machismo. Elon Musk challenged Mark Zuckerberg to a cage fight; Mr. Zuckerberg, who has been training Brazilian jujitsu for 18 months, texted the UFC president to find out if Mr. Musk was serious.
The office has long been a place of aggression: shouting, swearing, traders pacing the trading floor with a lacrosse stick. These practices have been re-examined with the change in mindset favoring diversity and inclusion. But in times of economic pressure, aggressiveness can come back with a vengeance, some management experts say.
“Bosses are trying to regain the sense of control they feel they’ve lost in recent years,” says Organizational Behavior Consultant Cali Williams Yost. “They seek to reassert their power in ways that are familiar to them. »
When hiring, companies have always valued military experience. For decades, Hollywood has portrayed military leaders as the epitome of strength. But today, the bosses put themselves squarely in the shoes of soldiers. To train executives to respond to uncertainty and change, hundreds of American companies are turning to unorthodox programs that draw on fighter aviation, military principles and even pit stop techniques. of NASCAR.
Women can participate, but most companies that offer these trainings to their staff are run by men. That worries management experts, who say workers are looking for more empathetic, not hyperaggressive, leaders. The share of Fortune 500 companies led by women crossed the 10% mark this year.
Training consultant Jocko Willink, a former US Navy commando, isn’t surprised that economic uncertainty is pushing companies to rethink their management style, sometimes to the extreme.
“The pandemic has revealed the need for better leadership,” says Willink. When people no longer come to the office and you no longer see them every day, you have to decentralize command. This is a classic law of combat command. »
Not sure that the military experience applies to the reality of companies, nuances Melissa Nightingale, co-founder of the management training company Raw Signal Group. “Is this training supposed to be fun?” Take a nice photo? Or is it meant to have real impact? »
Yet managerial machismo continues to spread, with companies seeking to train their employees away from the Zoom screen. For example, in a car racing pit.
In Raleigh, North Carolina, Constellation Digital Partners, a financial technology company, gathered its employees – for some it was the first face-to-face meeting – to simulate a pit stop during a car race. The training is offered by Over the Wall, a company founded by former NASCAR pit crew chief Andy Papathanassiou. It requires a minimum of $10,000, and the rate increases with group size and training time.
Constellation’s approximately 30 employees gathered in the office parking lot around a green racing car. They unscrewed the wheel nuts with an air wrench, changed the 25 kg tire, screwed the nuts back on. Covered in sweat, sunscreen and grease, they looked like Tom Cruise’s teammates in the film Days of Thunder.
“It sounds silly, but the hard part is getting the tire in place,” says Constellation CEO Kris Kovacs.
In the months following the training, Mr. Kovacs found that his staff communicated better. They had learned how to share their weak points with each other.
“You can do all kinds of spiritual things like dropping backwards and getting caught by co-workers” to build confidence, Kovacs says. “Or you can get your hands dirty with your team changing tires on a NASCAR car. »
