Top Gun (1986) and parallels with neurodiversity coaching

If you grew up in the 80s, you may love or hate Top Gun which stars Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Meg Ryan and others. It’s a film I love and have written about before and has defined much of my thinking. There are lessons that have carried me through a lot of my experience around coaching and neurodiversity. Here’s little nuggets of wisdom that I have picked up from the film that parallel with neurodiversity coaching.

It seems coaching and the film are wildly different but hang in there, this could be the wildest ride of your life…I feel the need, the need for speed! (That’s entirely from the film, in case you missed it).

Let’s start

Tom Cruise’s character, Maverick. He shows a lot of promise yet lets himself down in many ways. He’s frustrated with himself and the system, but when he tries his best, he significantly improves. This is much like many neurodivergent thinkers and leaders I work with. They often struggle with the system and need to work out ways to interact to shape their processes so they can perform at their best. This is how I can help, by amplifying strengths and managing the things an individual may find tricky.

Difficulty

In the film, the characters join in a training exercise, competing to take down the practice enemy and earn personal points. Maverick, played by Tom Cruise, is piloting a plane with Goose who is the Radar Intercept Officer seated behind him. During the flight, they fly through the other planes’ jet wash (turbulent air created behind a jet aircraft due to the high-speed exhaust gases expelled from its engines). This results in both engines failing, sending the plane into an uncontrollable flat spin. Maverick and Goose are forced to eject from the aircraft with no other options. Tragically, Goose has a fatal injury during ejection, lands in the sea with Maverick and dies a short time later.

This forces Maverick to go to a place he is uncomfortable with as he blames himself for a mistake that wasn’t his fault. Ultimately, that ejection system should have been able to deal with those conditions.

This kind of self-blaming can show up in neurodiversity, for example, in ADHD or Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD). This is where individuals fear rejection and blame themselves for the things that happen that have nothing to do with them. This can lead to crippling feelings of anxiety and low self-worth, meaning they are not able to perform at their best.

Tricky Mission

Maverick’s (Tom Cruise) journey involves him being selected to perform a tricky mission at the end of the film where he flies through another jet wash, but this time it doesn’t take his engines out. As you can imagine, this brings back the trauma of his friend’s death. He temporarily disengages and switches off from flying his plane, which puts one of his colleagues, Iceman in grave danger. Maverick overcomes this by the conversations that are happening over the plane’s comms system and also by his self-talk. This overlaps with coaching because coaching around neurodiversity is often about building resilience and creating coping mechanisms that support you in your workplace. This allows the individual to move forward effectively.

One of the other themes in the film is the idea of mentorship, which Maverick has from the Top Gun program from his mentors Viper and Jester. They guide him through how to take his raw, energetic and unorthodox approach and turn it into something valuable to the organisation. This draws many parallels with neurodivergent thinkers in terms of how they feel about workplace problems and the solutions they want to implement. Being able to deliver solutions in a palatable way that meets the organisation’s needs is vital for any changes to have the desired effect. I’ve worked with individuals who have great ideas, but don’t deliver them in a way that is appetising enough for the organisation and it brings the question, do you need a Top Gun mentorship programme in your organisation to help mould some of your mavericks?

Failure and Top Gun

The change and growth in Maverick’s story is an integral part of the film. Towards the end of the film, he has moved from someone who has failed in his responsibility towards Goose, his Radar Intercept Officer, to being confident in his own abilities to deliver what he needs to do to support himself and his team to be effective. He’s even able to overcome his lack of self-confidence as he reflects on what has gone wrong.

This narrative is just as relevant to neurodivergent thinkers, particularly in the workplace. Building confidence and reframing the conversations is vital. I worked with someone recently who felt they could not market themselves effectively yet were successful with a full calendar of client work. Their social media game was poor and they felt they were, “less than” because they could’nt advertise themselves effectively. We reframed it to, “I’m so good at what I do that I don’t need to advertise”. Having that reframe was vital for them to see their brilliance.

Collaboration and Top Gun

Collaboration and teamwork are needed in the film. The film emphasises the need for the pilots to work together in pairs, protecting and watching over each other as they enter challenging situations, particularly when faced with the enemy. I’ve noticed in a lot of my work around neurodiversity in the workplace, the team is often the best vehicle for neurodivergent individuals to move forward. It allows them to progress in what they are doing while working with others who are great at different things and can complement their skills. This is only possible through learning how to collaborate well. I’d like to add that agreement is not the same as collaboration, meaning you don’t have to agree on everything. You must decide on the essential things to move forward.

Flexibility and Top Gun

The film Top Gun touches on this concept of adaptability and flexibility. The pilots in Top Gun, particularly Maverick’s character, must adjust to changing situations. This is true regarding how he treats Charlie, the female lead character, as he recognises, she is an incredibly skilled instructor instead of just someone he fancies in the bar that they drink in. He also must adapt his techniques and ways of approaching what he does based on what’s happening in front of him. This is a challenge for neurodivergent thinkers in the workplace because life is not always the way we see it.  There is complexity and nuance that we often don’t pick up on, so we have to find ways to adapt and learn how to be our most effective.

Coaching and mentoring played an essential part in developing Maverick into the successful fighter pilot he became. It can change people’s lives, and often, it’s about creating a space where individuals can learn to be their best so they can move forward. Coaching is often implemented for people who are struggling but can play a vital role in developing who they become.

If you haven’t watched Top Gun 1986 watch it, and it’s so good they’ve made a second film which is a continuation from the first film. The storyline is even less believable but will have you feeling the thrill of flying and the need for speed!