Every September 11, we remember.
We remember the nearly 3,000 lives lost, the families forever changed, and the firefighters, police officers, EMTs, dispatchers, military members, and civilians who stepped forward to help when everyone else was trying to get away.
We remember. We are grateful. And we will never forget.
My husband is a New Jersey State Police trooper and a member of the TEAMS Unit, a highly specialized tactical unit that responds to some of the most dangerous and complex situations—high-risk operations, barricaded subjects, hostage situations, rescues, and other critical incidents.
Being married to a first responder gives you a different appreciation for the training, preparation, sacrifice, and reality that the person you love may be walking directly into the situation everyone else is being told to avoid.
It has also given me a unique perspective on a question I think about every day in my work:
What makes a team truly effective when the stakes are highest?
I have had the opportunity to use The Predictive Index with members of my husband’s unit, and I went into it with an assumption.
I expected a high-stakes, highly specialized unit like this to attract a certain type of behavioral profile.
I was wrong.
Their profiles are remarkably different—and I quickly realized those differences are part of what makes the team so strong.
When the stakes are high, you need people who see things differently: someone who moves quickly and someone who sees the risk, someone who challenges and someone who creates stability, someone who brings urgency and someone who brings precision.
But those differences only become strengths when people understand them.
Without that understanding, decisiveness can look reckless. Caution can look like resistance. Directness can create friction. With understanding, those same differences become complementary strengths.
That has been especially valuable during leadership transitions.
The State Police promotion structure is very different from the way many businesses select leaders. In my husband’s unit, the next Sergeant First Class has often had a behavioral profile that is nearly the opposite of the leader before them.
The team remains. The mission remains. But the way the team is led can change dramatically.
PI has helped them navigate those transitions and better understand those differences—both among teammates and between leaders and the people they lead.
It is a reminder that a team’s strength is not in everyone thinking or behaving the same way. It is in understanding what each person brings and knowing how to work with those differences.
But there are things no assessment can measure.
Courage. Character. Duty. Sacrifice.
The willingness to move toward danger because someone else needs you.
On September 11, 2001, we witnessed those qualities in ways we should never forget.
So today, above everything else, thank you.
To the first responders who answered the call on September 11, those who lost their lives that day and in the years since, the military members who served in the years that followed, and the families who carried those sacrifices with them: we remember you.
And to the first responders and military members who continue to answer that call today: thank you.
For the work we see—and especially for the work we never will.
We remember. We are grateful. And we will never forget.