We All Can Be Every-Day Heroes

On a bright, clear blue morning I was sent on a suicide mission to find and take down Flight 93. I was a young wingman, new to my squadron. I will never forget the stench of the smoke as we flew over the Pentagon. None of us will ever forget the emotions, sights, sounds, smells of that day – they are forever etched into our nation’s DNA.

Marc Sasseville, my flight lead, and I were a mission failure. It would take too long before Vice President Cheney gave authorization for us to get airborne, and while we still believed that there were hijacked airliners inbound to attack our nation’s capital, the passengers on Flight 93 had already fought their way into the cockpit, wrested control of the plane from the terrorists, and sacrificed their lives by crashing into the Pennsylvania countryside.

What many remember about 9/11 are the fear and anger that sticks in people’s hearts. But I believe that the true legacy of 9/11 is greater than that. What 9/11 revealed to us was something far deeper and far more redemptive about who we are as a nation, a people, and ourselves. Think about the passengers of Flight 93. When they woke up and boarded the plane, they were just going on a business trip, going on vacation, coming home from seeing grandma. They were ordinary, every-day Americans, just like you and me. They did not raise their right hand and take an oath to protect and defend. But they did.

What is totally special and inspiring about their actions isn’t just the incredible magnitude of their heroism –it’s in the totally ordinary, every-dayness of the heroes. They were just like you and me. We all have that perfectly ordinary, every-day hero inside of us. So why wait for a national crisis to bring that hero out? Don’t we need every-day heroes every day?

Heroism doesn’t have to big to change the world. We all have choices, situations, interactions where we can choose to act with a hero’s mindset. That mindset recognizes that we all belong to something that is bigger than ourselves. When we recognize that we are part of something bigger than ourselves, it frees us to be our best self. We can act from our values instead of our fears.

Leaders create this sense of belonging through building a mission-purposed culture.

Culture is made up of the codes, norms, behaviors, beliefs of a group. When we’re part of a group, we adopt and internalize that culture. And this isn’t a bad thing. Sharing the ethos of a culture is how we feel like we belong, we are part of a community, it builds a common connection and shared trust.

This kind of mission-purposed culture is an essential piece of high-performing teams. When we identify and build a culture on the foundation of the behaviors, values, beliefs, and norms that are integral to successful mission outcomes, we strengthen group cohesion, esprit de corps, commitment, and group performance. Culture is key to outcomes.

For example, in military fighter aviation (think Top Gun), accountability, responsibility, and competition are core to our culture. Why? Accountability is crucial because excuses don’t help us understand the root causes of poor mission performance. We have to own our mistakes if we hope to improve our performance. Responsibility matters because no one else is in the jet with us – our performance rests solely on our shoulders, and so how we study, rehearse, and prepare ourselves is our duty alone. Competition matters because war is competition – if you don’t “win,” you or someone else dies. It truly is a matter of life and death. But competition in the squadron is not dirty, we don’t win by putting others down. We push ourselves relentlessly to improve our knowledge and mission execution on every flight.

The amazing thing about a missionpurposed culture is that it empowers and connects people of all backgrounds. A mission-purposed culture enables people to show up authentically and as whole people, and still be fully embraced by the group – because we all share the things that we care about the most.

The problem is when we experience what I call “culture creep.” When leaders are not intentional and diligent about setting, modeling, and cultivating the culture of their organization, it can get hijacked and devolve into something that degrades your team’s performance.

This is when beliefs, values, and behavior emerge and are normalized in the group that are disconnected from your purpose. Symptoms of “culture creep” include deteriorating team performance, diminished team engagement, individual agendas emerging above group goals, individuals feeling excluded or not being able to show up as their authentic selves. High turnover rates is a clear indication of a broken culture.

A hijacked culture cannot create heroes. It fractures and isolates us, instills fear and silences us. A good leader will not wait for a crisis to create clarity. A good leader will create a mission-purposed culture that enables every member of the group to belong. And having a purpose that is bigger than ourselves is what can unlock the hero within.

Never forget. But perhaps more importantly, let us always remember the heroism, courage, grit, selflessness, compassion, kindness, honor, strength, integrity, service, community, commitment, and connection that we were blessed with witnessing that day.

9/11 revealed the true greatness and character of the American spirit, and that each and every one of us has that 0rdinary, every-day hero inside of us. n