U.S. Navy Blue Angel “Boss” Alex Armatas On Alignment At The Speed Of Sound

To see the U.S. Navy Blue Angels in diamond formation screaming through the sky—often upside down—is to bear breathtaking witness to alignment at the speed of sound. What spectators don’t see, however, is the deep culture of trust underlying such performances—a culture built over time and on the not-so-simple foundation of radical trust and candor.  

And how does the world’s premier precision flying team develop that trust and candor that are so critical when a day’s work involves soaring canopy-to-canopy at 500 m.p.h.? According to the Blue Angels Commander Alex Armatas, known as “Boss” by his fellow pilots, you won’t get to fly with the Blue Angels if you can’t offer—and receive—constructive feedback. 

When it comes to feedback, the regular debriefings are where the rubber hits the runway. Pre-flight debriefs let each member discuss his or her goals for the upcoming demonstration; post-flight debriefs afford opportunities for self-evaluation and constructive feedback from teammates. At this point, teammates are required to put aside their individual aspirations and focus on the good of the team.

“We know they can fly the airplane. The reason we don’t test any of these pilots is because they’ve already been tested,” Armatas says. “We trust the Navy and Marine Corps flight school process and fleet to a qualification process to get them to where they need to be. Our job is now figuring out who’s the best fit for the team.” 

These pilots have to be aces at communication. “It doesn’t matter if you’re right if no one’s listening,” says Armatas. “If you don’t do a good job of saying something the right way, then the value of the feedback is diminished by the fact no one wants to hear from you because they’re upset about how it was delivered.”

Do you want to boost constructive feedback in your organization? In this episode you will learn how to:

• Adopt the possessive “our” in place of “my” to strengthen a team-first culture.

• Use the interview process to hire for fit as well as skill set.

• Be true to your own leadership while respecting other leadership styles.

Armatas emphasizes that while the Blue Angels’ core values of trust, gratitude and respect are sacrosanct, one of the organization’s strengths has been the different leadership styles those like Armatas have brought to it. “Everybody has a different way of interacting with people. And if you try to take a leadership style from somebody else, and just make it your own, that may or may not work,” he says. “We’re all different, and there’s a leadership style out there for every single person.”