Tuesday, August 27 l 8:00 AM – 9:15 AM
Grand Saguaro Ballroom
Martha McSally
America's First Female Combat Fighter Pilot; U.S. Senator and Representative (2015-2020); Author
In a highly competitive world, you need to learn how to overcome adversity to win. Greatness comes from learning that nothing can stop you and when you can move through anything in your path, then success is inevitable. The confidence that comes from those wins allows you to reach levels of success you never dreamed possible, and it is leadership’s role to teach and push their teams to feel this way.
Fighter pilots learn how to master tackling risks in uncertain (and dangerous) environments to achieve success. Colonel McSally translates battle-tested peak performance and risk-management methodologies to equip your teams to innovate, collaborate, and execute with confidence.
Teams must also adopt an agility mindset and tools to succeed in an ever-changing complex world. When you are light on your feet, leaning forward and ready to adapt, challenges turn into opportunities to 10x your growth. Colonel McSally shares her step-by-step approach to developing a true agility mindset in your team to beat out the competition and win.
Learning Objectives
1. Evaluate mentality needed to overcome adversity and achieve your goals.
2. Investigate how leaders prepare their teams to make success inevitable.
3. Outline battle-tested peak performance and risk-management methodologies to improve your team’s tenacity to work to achieve organization’s goals and vision.
4. Identify best practices in creating the tools to success for any role within any organization.
About Martha McSally:
Colonel (ret) Martha E. McSally is a pioneering combat-proven leader, inspiring speaker, and celebrated author.
McSally is a compelling example of overcoming adversity and fear to achieve extraordinary feats. Losing her dad at the age of 12 and surviving sexual abuse and assault, she persevered to become the 1st woman in U.S. history to fly a fighter jet in combat and command a fighter squadron in combat. Along her journey, McSally had to overcome significant obstacles including U.S. law prohibiting women from flying combat jets. She persevered, held onto her dreams, continued to excel, and shattered glass ceilings.
During her 26-year military career, McSally deployed six times to the Middle East and Afghanistan, flying 325 combat hours and earning the Bronze Star and six Air Medals. As a commander of her A-10 squadron, she oversaw $500M in assets and $40M in annual resources and was responsible to deploy her unit worldwide with just 24-hours’ notice. McSally was deployed to Saudi Arabia on 9/11 and became a key leader in planning and executing initial air operations in Afghanistan. As a Colonel, she was hand-picked as initial cadre to stand up U.S. Africa Command from scratch, building a complex organization with limited time and resources. She then led oversight of all African continent operations, including counterterrorism and disaster relief. This experience built on her expertise in strategic planning, process creation/improvement, knowledge management, logistics, and operations.
Colonel McSally is a values-driven trailblazer who demonstrates courage and integrity in her leadership, even when coming at a personal cost. She bravely took on the Pentagon in an 8-year battle to overturn discriminatory policies towards servicewomen deployed to Saudi Arabia—and won. McSally knows how to build excellent teams founded in camaraderie, trust, and the ability to perform under pressure when the stakes are extremely high. She now takes these lessons from the cockpit and the skies of Afghanistan to equip your team to reach maximum potential as high performing individuals and significantly contributing teams within your organization.
McSally holds a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University’s JFK School of Government, a Masters in Strategic Studies from the Air War College where she graduated #1 in her class out of 261 senior military officers, and is a distinguished graduate from the U.S. Air Force Academy. As a continuation of her service to our country and others and commitment to not walk by a problem, she served four years in the U.S. House of Representatives and two years as a U.S. Senator, which is not the focus of her writing. (She often quips it was the least interesting thing she has done in her life!) She is the author of Dare to Fly—Simple Lessons in Never Giving Up, which motivates readers to overcome fear and adversity to achieve their full potential. McSally lives in Tucson, AZ where she enjoys hiking with her rescue Golden Retriever Boomer, running, and paragliding.
Through determination, discipline and grit, McSally has run over a dozen marathons, won three national military triathlon championships, and competed in two Ironman triathlons including the grueling Hawaii Ironman world championship where she won the women’s military division and placed 12th in the world in her age group. She also summited many peaks including Mt Kilimanjaro (highest mountain in Africa at 19,340 ft) and Mt Blanc (highest in Western Europe). She is a force of nature who inspires you to find your courage and fly!