The 5 Planes and the Greater Purpose
In Next Gen Leadership I write about the need for an overarching vision in leadership. We need to have a grand goal, what I call your “greater purpose” in the book, to guide us. This greater purpose is not a goal to be checked off a list, but rather something deeper which we can always be improving upon. In Chapter 2, I give the phenomenal example of Patrick McClenahan, the former CEO of the 2015 Special Olympics World Games and the current CEO of Goodwill Southern California.
Although leading teams in separate ventures, McClenahan’s vision or greater purpose is the same. Whether working to run the most successful Special Olympics to date or help someone get a job and support their family through Goodwill- McClenahan’s greater purpose is to prove to the world that barriers can be broken down. He’s an incredible leader and as our conversation progressed, I could see how his purpose guides everything he does as a leader.
I figured it would be hypocritical for me to write about the need to state your purpose as a leader throughout my book and not share with you my purpose behind writing the book itself! The short answer is to honor my family, but in particular the members of my family whom I never got the chance to meet. You’ll see that theme throughout the book, but most obviously in the acknowledgements, cover design, and dedication:
“For Nomi and Jess Hunter and Trudy, Doris, and Alfred Floyd Tiedemann, the best leaders I have known, yet never met. I carry your names with honor, respect, responsibility, and gratitude.
For Evan, Laurie, and Bob Tiedemann, the best examples of lead by example.”
I sent at least a dozen versions of the manuscript of Next Gen Leadership to my family, but every time I made sure to leave out the dedication so it would be a surprise for them on launch day. Yes, my mom cried when she read that and I’m still working on pops. I wonder how Nomi, Jess, Trudy, Doris, and Alfred would have responded. I brought a copy to Church last week and I’m hoping a copy makes its way up to heaven so they can give it a read.
I have a small, but mighty family. We are five strong. Yup, you read that right, only five of us. My paternal grandparents, Doris and Alfred Tiedemann, passed away before I was born, as did my maternal grandfather, Jess Hunter. My aunt, Trudy Tiedemann, also passed away before I was born. I actually did get to meet my maternal grandmother, Nomi Hunter, but I was only 7 years old and couldn’t understand just how remarkable a woman she was given my age.
Even though I never met these people, as the dedication states, I feel like I knew these people so well. My parents and my aunt would tell me stories about their lives, values, and humor. Over the years, I began to piece these people together story by story, value by value and the word that came to mind most about them was courage.
Trudy Tiedemann is my father’s beloved sister and an incredibly courageous woman. On April 27th, 1977 NASA announced her as NASA’s first female spokeswoman and she had a pretty impressive first assignment. Her first job was announcing the flight testing program for the Shuttle orbiter during the Enterprise missions. During this program, NASA would mount a lifting body, an unpowered aircraft similar to the Shuttle, on the back of a B-52, fly it up to 40,000 feet or so, detach the craft, and let the astronauts practice landing at Edwards Air Force Base before the real mission with the multi-billion dollar spacecraft. All the while, Trudy’s voice would be the one on the radio or television letting you know what was happening and what the next steps were in the sequence. My dad remembers driving to work in 1977 in awe at his sister coming on the radio during his morning commute. Trudy was also the first female editor of NASA’s “X-Press” Magazine. Next Gen Leadership is dedicated to her memory and all she did for my family and me.
Jess Hunter is my mother’s father and in addition to his wisdom and courage, he is remembered for his humor. His mantra in life was “Think funny.” Born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1924, he enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school. To this day, I can’t imagine what it must have been like to receive your diploma one day and be in boot camp the next week, but that was the type of courage he had even at such a young age. Jess wanted to be a pilot and signed up for the Army Air Force. Back then, the United States military did not have a formal Air Force as a service, but rather just air units attached to the Army and Navy. He excelled in flight school and we discovered letters to his parents from his commanding officers commending them on how well “their boy” was doing in training.
During World War II, Jess flew the B-17 Stratofortress in the 8th Air Force stationed in Britain. He completed training in late 1944 and flew several combat missions over France and Germany in March and April of 1945. He was shot down over Allied France twice and rescued by Allied forces. Apparently, in planning his funeral service, his wife and my grandmother, Nomi said “Don’t say he was shot down twice. You’ll make him sound like a bad pilot.” Fortunately, he returned home from Europe to begin the next phase of his life.
Like so many of his generation, he became an excellent citizen upon returning from the war. He used the GI Bill to attend Drake University and he excelled there just as he did in flight school. He became a businessman and a leader in his community. He married the woman of his dreams, Nomi Hunter, and raised two incredible daughters, one of them being my mom. Above all, he had an ability to inspire and build people. The most memorable line I have heard about him was what he said to my mom about having a career and entering the work force: “Laura, you can do and be anything you want in life.” Next Gen Leadership is dedicated to his memory and all he did for my family and me.
I’ve already introduced you to Nomi Hunter, Jess’s beloved wife. Her name is actually Naomi, but one of her teachers couldn’t pronounce the “A” sound in Naomi so Nomi it became. The word that comes to mind about Nomi is dedication. She wouldn’t let anything stop her from excelling in everything she wanted to do. In a time when very few women went to college, she saved up to put herself through and persevered through all the headwinds against women in those days. Unfortunately, she ran out of money in her junior year, but she later completed college years later. She got her real estate license and went on to have a fabulous career. She raised two great daughters with Jess and became the best grandmother you could imagine. She passed away from ovarian cancer in May of 2005. Next Gen Leadership is dedicated to her memory and all she did for my family and me.
Doris Tiedemann is my father’s remarkable mother. I haven’t gathered as much about her as the others, but I’ve learned that she was just cut from a different cloth just as all of my grandparents. She was kind, generous, courageous, and full of wisdom. People like Trudy and my dad don’t come from nowhere. Next Gen Leadership is dedicated to her memory and all she did for my family and me.
Alfred Floyd Tiedemann is my paternal grandfather and he was a man of great wisdom. Born in 1923 in O’Fallon, Illinois, just outside of St. Louis, he was drafted into the Army midway through WWII. Like Jess, he served in the US Army Air Force in the 750th Squadron of the 457th Heavy Bomber Group in the 8th Air Force. He was a tail gunner aboard the B-17 Stratofortress. Ironically, my family includes a B-17 pilot and a B-17 tailgunner in the same theater at the same time.
Like Jess, he returned home after the war and became a phenomenal citizen. He too used the GI Bill to attend Purdue University and he excelled in the classroom. He became an engineer at McDonnell Aircraft before it merged into McDonnell Douglas Aircraft. Military aviation took off in the 1950s and my grandpa became the manager of Edwards Air Force Base. At Edwards he oversaw all aspects of F-4 Phantom and the F-15 Eagle testing programs, aircraft that would go on to play major roles in the Navy and Air Force. According to my dad, Al was the best handyman in the world and there was nothing he couldn’t fix. He raised two wonderful children in my aunt, Trudy and my father, Robert. Next Gen Leadership is dedicated to his memory and all he did for my family and me.
By now, you’ve probably noticed the aerospace theme in this post and my flying background in my previous post on gratitude. Flying has always been one way my parents and I connect back to those we’ve lost or never met in our family. My father and I have a simulator at home and we used to fly together when I was still at home. For some reason, it came easily for me and I’m convinced Jess and Alfred take the controls with me when I get to fly. On the cover of Next Gen Leadership, the five planes flying in formation with a leader out in front are a tribute to Nomi, Jess, Trudy, Doris, and Alfred, the five members of my family receiving a copy in heaven, and their legacy as leaders in my family.
It’s remarkable to feel like you know someone even though you’ve never met them. In the dedication, I say that my grandparents are the best leaders I have known even though I never met them because the more I learned about them, the more they began to sound just like some leaders I do know very well, my parents. I’ll see them one day and I can promise you it won’t feel like the first time meeting them.
By now, you’ve probably figured out where my name comes from. It’s the greatest honor of my life to be named Hunter Tiedemann after Nomi and Jess Hunter and Trudy, Doris, and Alfred Tiedemann, people who lived lives of integrity, ambition, and courage. Although I never got to meet them, their mission, their greater purpose, still runs through my daily life. They lived to create more leaders just as I do today. Every time this project challenged me to push further and every time I wanted to just give up, I thought about my grandparents. They faced far tougher lives than I ever will and still they persevered and gave me the opportunities I have today. My name isn’t just mine, it’s theirs too. Everything I do serves to honor them and Next Gen Leadership is just the start.
Thank you for reading this post in its entirety. I know we’ve all lost special people or never met people we wish we could have. By honoring their legacy and sacrifice, perhaps we may come to know them a little bit better and understand how the way we live our lives can honor them even more.
I hope you enjoyed this post. If you want to connect, you can reach me here via email hst7@georgetown.edu or connect with me on social: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Also, you can find my book, Next Gen Leadership on Amazon — here is the link to buy it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KMJQ2MK
