PART I
Are There Gaps on Your Team?

A leader has three primary roles: set the direction—the vision for the team; attract and retain the best talent you can find; and build and protect the corporate culture.

—Robert Walter
Founder and Former CEO
Cardinal Health

Leo Van Wart is a professional golfer who helped propel Notah Begay III to the ranks of the Professional Golfers Association of America. Leo was hired to run a golf complex just outside of Las Vegas, and shortly after he arrived he hopped in a golf cart and drove the expanse of his new course. Many fairways and greens were in disrepair, and the desert had all but reclaimed his new driving range. When he stopped by the grill and sampled its marquee item—a flavorless cheeseburger—he had a complete picture of why the course was bleeding money. The biggest gap he found in the operation was ownership. No one on the small team took pride of ownership in the work—there was no sense of cohesion or unity. To them the course was just a job. Does that sound familiar?

A gap is a physical or emotional distance caused by a lack of competence, a lack of confidence, or an unmet social need. No matter what your profession is or how impressive your team may be to an outsider, you knowthat there are gaps keeping your team from maximizing its potential. That is true for every organization—and it was certainly true for the Thunderbirds.

We billed ourselves as the Air Force’s number one recruiting tool, and our books said that more than 10 million people experienced the Thunderbirds in one way or another every year. We put on an airshow that was first-rate. By all appearances the team was firing on every cylinder when I came on board, but shortly thereafter I found a few things that were hard to reconcile.

The Air Force Recruiting Service ran a series of high-profile television commercials the year I took command, and the Thunderbirds—the Air Force’s number one recruiting tool—was not in a single frame. That was telling. The more I listened, the more I heard my new team complain about strained, deteriorating, or nonexistent relationships with the Air Force Recruiting Service, with our parent public affairs organization, and with other offices and agencies we should have been supporting or whose support we needed to conduct our mission.

The more I sought out the math surrounding that 10-million-people-per-year figure, the more elusive it became, and our metrics, methods, and alliances were not adding up to that powerful slogan. Positive exposure to the general public was our mission, and even under that banner you could find issues. We had endured a series of aircraft mishaps and personal conduct issues in our more recent history, which caused senior leaders to pull signature maneuvers and formations from the demonstration. Thetrends were clear, and our critical metrics were headed in the wrong direction.

Gaps in the Thunderbird Operation

The team was running hard, but our laser focus on operations—on flying the demonstration—allowed gaps to develop in the performance of our overall mission, and we were falling short of our real potential to reach the public. Again, from the outside we were holding our own, but we clearly had three organizational gaps in performance: outreach, complacency, and discipline.

Spotting the Gaps on Your Team

If you are new to an operation, just walking the grounds will give you a great deal of perspective. If you have been with the team for a while, get away for long enough to gain a bit of perspective, then come back and take a fresh look. As you move about, make sure you take the time to watch and listen to your people. Most of us get elevated into leadership roles on our ability to speak up, but the move to a position on point requires an adjustment. One of the best pieces of advice I received for spotting gaps was from Brigadier General Thomas “Griz” Wolters, USAF, Retired: “Never miss the opportunity to shut the [ expletive] up.” Your people will talk freely if you let them, and their words will paint a picture of the exceptional areas—and the gaps—in your operation. Once you have an assessment in hand, you can build or refine your team’s goals, elevate its trajectory, and craft a plan to close the gaps to the point where you break the barrier to trust.

The Road Ahead

We ease into the process of drafting by giving you a vivid glimpse of how it all began. From there we step into the Thunderbird hangar and show you how we took people who didn’t know one another and had never flown formation acrobatics before and, in a little more than three months, moved them from commitment to unqualified trust. There is a surge in momentum waiting for you just ahead, so strap yourself in and let’s get started.