What Being a High Performer Means to Micah Hitchcock

We all aspire to be a high performer—or even a better high performer! This interview series is for you and intended to help you on your professional journey. Each month, we interview a high performer in a different industry to shed light on what it takes to excel in life and in a professional career. Our reputation in the industry is built on high-performance, and our Talent Agency’s‍

An Interview with Military Leader and U.S. Space Force Officer Micah Hitchcock 

Micah Hitchcock has spent over two decades in leadership within the U.S. Military, currently serving in space operations alongside the U.S. Space Force. A seasoned officer and combat veteran, Micah began his career in the elite Ranger Regiment, completing nine deployments across Iraq and Afghanistan before commissioning as an officer.  

Micah’s work ethic and leadership philosophy were forged early through continuous operational rigor. His career is grounded in discipline, daily consistency, and a firm belief in team interdependence—viewing leadership through the lens of effectiveness, strategic top cover, and unlocking the potential of those around him. 

In the following conversation, Micah shares his unique insights on what makes a high performer, the vital distinction between efficiency and effectiveness, and how to maintain critical thinking and human connection in an AI-driven landscape.

Ann: Micah, my first question is about your life journey. We are all unique, and somehow you’ve earned your way to a position of leadership. What might be the superpowers that have enabled you to be successful in your career and life?

Micah: That’s an interesting question, and I like how you framed it. 

Much of my success is rooted directly in the military, specifically in how the military is structured, what it is built to do, and how it develops its people. 

I joined at 18 years old. Honestly, I wasn't a great student in high school. It wasn’t a lack of intelligence; I didn’t apply myself, so I didn't learn those critical life skills until later on. The military provided me the structure I desperately needed as a young man. It taught me how to be successful by fostering initiative, self-development, and showing me how to integrate institutional knowledge with practical execution.

Because of that focus on readiness, we endure challenging training and high-stakes circumstances. The military excels at this. You truly understand who a person is when you test their physical and mental limits—it reveals what lies at their core.

Ann: Okay. I’m wondering, is that what the military does, break down the mind and the body?

Micah: Yeah, it does, exactly. It is designed to test your limits, right?

Ann: Exactly.

Micah: It stands in stark contrast to many civilian organizations, where people are primarily hired to do a specific job. In the corporate world, there is a lot of individualism. It can be difficult for corporate leaders to build a cohesive culture in those companies, because most of the time the underlying incentive for most employees is a paycheck. While I hope most people have a job that they genuinely enjoy, it isn’t always the case.

Ann: Right. Exactly. That’s the idea.

Micah: In the military, however, purpose is mandatory. Service members aren’t getting paid very well. You do have to love what you do, and you must believe in the underlying ideals of the mission to sustain a career over a long period of time. 

I’ve been serving for 21 years now. If you had asked me when I was 18, I would never have predicted I would be a “lifer.”

Ann: 21. Wow. I was wondering if you went in thinking that. I wanted to ask you, where did you grow up?

Micah: Outside of Chicago, in a suburb. 

Ann: And when you entered the military, did you enter through a program where they groom you for a leadership position? 

Micah: No, when I first enlisted, I went into the infantry within the Ranger Regiment. I was doing the hands-on tactical work—jumping out of airplanes, operating combat vehicles, and conducting direct-action missions. I spent the first 12 years of my career in that operational space and did nine deployments in that time, between Iraq and Afghanistan. You learn a tremendous number of practical lessons very quickly when you live that kind of fast-paced operational life. 

Ann: I bet. At what point did you decide that this is going to be a long-term gig?

Micah: Honestly, there wasn’t a single defining moment. I originally would reenlist because I wanted to execute one more deployment or achieve one more milestone. I enlisted first and reenlisted three times. Then I transitioned over to the officer side and commissioned as an officer. That transition naturally cemented my decision to stay for the long term. 

Ann: Wow, good for you. What do you think are your superpowers?

“What truly sets people apart in terms of long-term success is consistency. It is the discipline of doing the small, unglamorous things correctly every single day: waking up at 4:30 to go to the gym, making deliberate choices about what you put into your body, and deciding daily how you are going to improve your organization and lift up the people around you rather than just promoting yourself.”—Micah Hitchcock

Micah: I would point to persistence and, even more so, consistency. What truly sets people apart in terms of long-term success is consistency. It is the discipline of doing the small, unglamorous things correctly every single day: waking up at 4:30 to go to the gym, making deliberate choices about what you put into your body, and deciding daily how you are going to improve your organization and lift up the people around you rather than just promoting yourself. That daily consistency is what has sustained me over two decades.

Ann: Okay. Consistency and commitment.

Micah: Yeah. Absolutely.

Ann: So you just don’t even question, “Am I going to do this today?”

Micah: That’s right.

Ann: Cool. My next question is, have you seen people who emerged as high performers that you did not expect…and what might have triggered them to become a high performer?

Micah: We get a lot of that in the military. We bring in people from every imaginable walk of life—from PhD graduates to 18-year-old kids who barely finished high school.

When looking for unexpected high performers, the key indicator is maturity. When you listen to how people speak about their organization, their peers, and themselves, you gain an immediate understanding of their character. That character often matters far more than graduate degrees or formal resumes.

I look at maturity through three distinct levels:

1. Dependent: These individuals ask, “What can you do for me? How are you going to get me my next promotion or position?”
2. Independent: These individuals focus on self-reliance, asking, “What can I do for myself? How am I going to perform to secure my own success?”
3. Interdependent: This is the highest level of maturity. These individuals ask, “What can we do together as a team to really push the organization, our goals, and our mission forward together?”

“Interdependent people represent your highest level of maturity. These individuals ask, ‘What can we do together as a team to really push the organization, our goals, and our mission forward together?’”—Micah Hitchcock

When you listen to the way interdependent people speak, they naturally use terms like “we,” “us,” and “our team.” Some of the most mature, interdependent leaders I have served with came straight out of high school. They craved the cohesive family dynamic the military provides, and they channeled that desire into building elite teams.

Those are the individuals I actively recruit. I want team players who understand that no one can accomplish the mission alone. It’s the same dynamic at SweetRush—you need an entire cross-functional team working together to deliver a quality product to a client. It takes a village.

Ann: It takes a village, for sure. 

Now, that framework you just talked about, the three different kinds of people, did you learn that in the military, or was that something you just kind of learned over time?

Micah: That was from my own self-development and leadership reading outside of mandatory military training. 

Ann: I love it. Thank you, Micah. So, do you think high performers put in more hours? Are they inherently more focused? Do they have higher IQs? You know, Einstein of course famously said that genius is 1% talent and 99% hard work. What are your thoughts on this?

Micah: In the military, putting in long hours is a baseline expectation—especially when you are deployed overseas for nine months at a time, entirely removed from your family. But when discussing sustainable high performance, the conversation must shift from “hours worked” to “balance and sustainability.” If you are working 18 hours a day at your computer for two weeks straight to land a single client, you are operating in an imbalanced, unsustainable state. You are neglecting your personal life, your physical health, and likely other professional responsibilities because your focus has narrowed too far. True high performance requires consistency, and consistency requires balance.

Ann: Right. So balance is really important for high performers? 

Micah: It’s funny coming from a guy who’s had nine deployments in nine years, because there was no balance at all. But I think that’s the lesson learned from it: the fact that I wasn’t living it. You know, I had to make a career change at some point for that reason. 

Ann: How did you rebound from that imbalance?

Micah: I’m not sure I ever fully “rebounded” in the traditional sense, but I learned the hard lessons. I realized that operating at that tempo indefinitely is unsustainable. The key is to analyze those periods of intense stress, extract the lessons, and use that experience to design a healthier, more balanced approach moving forward.

Ann: Right. Thank you. I like this question because you have small children: If a parent came to you and asked you for advice on how to help their child grow up to be a high performer, what wisdom might you share with this parent?

Micah: Hmm, this is a leadership question. So the way I approach it is it starts with the old Aesop’s fable of the golden goose. Are you familiar with that one?

Ann: Yes. Yeah.

Micah: The farmer has a goose that begins laying a single golden egg every day. The farmer becomes incredibly wealthy but eventually grows greedy and impatient. Wanting all the gold immediately, he kills the goose, opens it up, and finds nothing. In his pursuit of absolute short-term efficiency, he destroyed his long-term capacity to produce. 

When we lead people—whether they are our children, our co-workers, or our subordinates—we often make the mistake of prioritizing short-term efficiency over long-term effectiveness. When you demand immediate results without investing in the health and development of the person, you are essentially “killing the goose.”

Consider a corporate example: You have a Solution Architect (SA) at SweetRush who needs to put together a pitch for a major client in three days. A leader focused purely on efficiency simply says, “This is a massive deal; you have three days to land this client, so make it happen.” That leader has set a rigid, time-bound task without offering support, analyzing barriers, or protecting the employee’s bandwidth.

A leader focused on effectiveness approaches the situation differently: “I know this is a critical, high-pressure pitch. To give you the space to focus, I am shifting your other active client accounts to another team. Let me know if you run into any financial or marketing hurdles, and I will personally work with those departments to clear them. Most importantly, is there anything going on at home right now that might impact your bandwidth over the next 72 hours?”

Effectiveness is about removing operational barriers, providing strategic top cover, understanding your people, and deliberately structuring the environment so they can succeed.

We do this constantly in the military. An inexperienced leader might order an 18-year-old private to mop a floor in 10 minutes. That is an efficiency-only command. An effective leader provides the “why”: “We need to prep the barracks because the commander is conducting an inspection in an hour, and our presentation reflects directly on the unit’s discipline.” Context transforms a chore into a shared mission.

“Effectiveness is about removing operational barriers, providing strategic top cover, understanding your people, and deliberately structuring the environment so they can succeed.”—Micah Hitchcock

Ann: Right, context is important.

Micah: I expect my computer and my mouse to be efficient because they are tools. But when you apply that same robotic “efficiency” standard to human beings without setting the necessary conditions for their success, you fail as a leader. 

Ann: In the example you gave, I like that you’re looking at the whole person. It’s not just work, work, life. It’s, “What can I shift? What can I take off your plate so that you can just focus on this?” It’s also looking at what’s going on in their home life right now. So kudos to you. 

Micah: Once again, it is an organizational necessity. In the military, commanders also serve as the primary human resource advocates for their personnel. In a civilian corporation, personal disputes or administrative issues are typically routed directly to an independent HR department. In the military, your direct leader is your first line of support and conflict resolution. We are structured to ensure that leadership and human advocacy are inseparable. That is why the military is such an effective leadership factory—it forces leaders to actively manage and support the human beings under their charge.

Ann: So if I’m a private on your team and I have a problem, I come directly to you because you are my leader but also HR? 

Micah: Yes. Our administrative HR teams handle systems like military pay and reassignments, but conflict resolution and human performance are strictly command responsibilities. 

Ann: Yeah. Give me an example of when somebody on your team came to you and you had to wear your HR hat and get it resolved.

Micah: Sure. Currently, I serve in a Space Operations unit where I work closely with U.S. Space Force Guardians as an Army Officer. The Army and the Space Force have vastly different operational cultures, communication styles, and expectations. Recently, a newly assigned Army soldier used direct, blunt language with a junior Space Force Guardian. While that communication style is standard business within an Army infantry unit, the Guardian found it highly aggressive and offensive. 

Ann: Uh-oh.

Micah: Yeah. So right off the bat, you’ve got to sit them down together to bridge the cultural gap. We explained the differences in service cultures and helped each of them understand the intent behind the interaction. The core lesson was clear: when you join a new organization, you cannot expect everyone to share your exact background or communication style. You have to take the time to observe, learn the local language, and understand the people around you before you can lead or collaborate effectively.

Ann: So true.

Micah: The language, Before you are “you,” so to speak, you’ve got to understand the people around you. That was kind of the lesson of that one.

Ann: For sure. Thank you for that. Micah, my next question is, you know, life is never easy. How do you think we can handle moments of adversity or rejection? And do high performers handle these moments differently?

“Under pressure, we do not rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to our lowest level of training. If you are thrown into a high-stress situation, and the only preparation you’ve had is a passive PowerPoint presentation, you are not going to perform well. High performers handle adversity differently because they prioritize realistic, rigorous preparation.”—Micah Hitchcock

Micah: Under pressure, we do not rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to our lowest level of training. If you are thrown into a high-stress situation, and the only preparation you’ve had is a passive PowerPoint presentation, you are not going to perform well. High performers handle adversity differently because they prioritize realistic, rigorous preparation. 

Ann: Right. The dry run.

“In the military, we have a saying: ‘No plan survives first contact with the enemy.’ The moment operations begin, the situation will change. But the act of planning and rehearsing is what builds the cognitive flexibility and confidence needed to adapt when the plan falls apart.”—Micah Hitchcock

Micah: Exactly. In the military, we have a saying: “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.” The moment operations begin, the situation will change. But the act of planning and rehearsing is what builds the cognitive flexibility and confidence needed to adapt when the plan falls apart. If a professional has never rehearsed their presentation in front of a critical audience, they will experience debilitating nervousness during the actual live event. Rigorous preparation and constructive feedback are the only ways to build true resilience. 

Ann: Thank you. It’s an active step in the interview process, for sure. 

Micah: Especially for people who don’t know the job yet, you know.

Ann: Yeah. And that’s most of the candidates, right?

Micah: Yeah. Did that answer the question? 

Ann: Yeah. So it was, do high performers handle these moments differently? 

Micah: Yeah, high performers are going to touch on things differently. Once again, I think it’s about being prepared and how prepared you are for a situation. 

And then experience plays a role, right? 

Ann: Maturity, maybe.

Micah: I look at development through three distinct buckets:

• Organizational experience: Gained directly on the job and through varied operational roles.
• Institutional knowledge: Formal, degree- or certificate-producing education (like a master’s degree) that establishes baseline technical proficiency.
• Self-development: The books you read, the podcasts you listen to, and the professional conferences you attend on your own initiative.

True high performance is built on constantly engaging with all three buckets over time to build the cognitive bandwidth required to handle complex operational challenges.

Ann: I agree. Would you say being a high performer goes hand in hand with strategic thinking?

Micah: Not necessarily at every level. In the military, we divide operations into three distinct echelons: the tactical, the operational, and the strategic:

• Tactical: The direct execution level. Personnel are focused on immediate tasks, their immediate team, and short-term execution.
• Operational: The bridge between tactics and strategy. This involves coordinating multiple tactical units to achieve broader campaign objectives.
• Strategic: The highest level. This involves defining the long-term vision, policy, and how the entire enterprise aligns with global objectives.

You can still be an exceptional, world-class high performer at the tactical level by mastering your specific craft, supporting your peers, and executing tasks flawlessly. However, that tactical excellence does not automatically translate to a strategic mindset. A tactical high performer may not always understand how their daily actions impact the company’s five-year outlook. 

To develop that strategic capability, professionals must seek out varied organizational experiences. If you perform the exact same role for 20 years, you will master that specific domain, but you won’t build the cross-functional understanding required for strategic leadership.

Ann: At what point in your career, Micah, did you realize, “Hey, I’m a strategic thinker”?

Micah: It didn’t happen until I was assigned to strategic-level joint units. For the first half of my career in the Ranger Regiment, I operated almost exclusively at the tactical level—executing nightly direct-action missions. It was only after I commissioned as an officer and advanced into senior planning roles that my perspective shifted. I had to stop asking, “How do we execute this mission tonight?” and start asking, “What are the geopolitical and operational repercussions of this action nine months from now?” Once you assume organizational leadership, your primary focus must shift from simply “rowing the boat” to charting the course. 

Ann: We need tactical people, too, though, right? 

“If you’re in a leadership role, and you’re not thinking strategically, as in, ‘Where am I going to take this team next year? This is how I’m going to map it out, and this is how we’re going to get there. These are the milestones that we need to meet, to better ourselves, to increase our numbers, whatever it is.’

If you’re not doing that, you’re not thinking strategically. You’re not a leader, you’re a manager at that point.”—Micah Hitchcock

Micah: That’s right. But if you’re in a leadership role, and you’re not thinking strategically, as in, “Where am I going to take this team next year? This is how I’m going to map it out and this is how we’re going to get there. These are the milestones that we need to meet, to better ourselves, to increase our numbers, whatever it is.” 

If you’re not doing that, you’re not thinking strategically. You’re not a leader, you’re a manager at that point, right?

Ann: That’s really good. I like that. This is my last question. In your career, you’ve worked with folks of all ages. We’ve talked about that already. But if we focus on people early in their careers or now entering the workplace given the reality of the world they are entering with AI coming on strong, what would be your advice to them to excel in life?

Micah: We are entering an unprecedented era, and we won’t fully understand the long-term societal impacts of these technologies for another 20 years. My primary advice to young professionals is to protect and actively cultivate your critical thinking skills. Do not reject or fear these tools; they are incredibly powerful and valuable. But you must constantly question the information they provide. AI is designed to give you rapid, surface-level answers based on the prompts you input. If you rely on those tools as a substitute for deep thought, you will only ever possess a superficial understanding of your industry. You must take the initiative to dig deeper, understand the underlying systems, and ask: “Is this answer actually accurate, and does it address the root of the problem?”

Ann: I think another way to say that is, “Don’t lose your critical-thinking skills.”

Micah: Absolutely, 100%. That’s what it is. That’s what I was going for. 

Ann: It’s true. It’s very similar to using Google Maps when you’re driving somewhere and you wonder, “Why do they want me to take a left here?” And then you take a left there and you’re like, “Don’t turn off your brain.”

“It’s going to require a much higher level of personal proactivity for the next generation to maintain their critical thinking. As senior leaders, it is our responsibility to build training frameworks that teach them how to integrate these tools without sacrificing intellectual rigor.”—Micah Hitchcock

Micah: I think it’s going to require a much higher level of personal proactivity for the next generation to maintain their critical thinking. As senior leaders, it is our responsibility to build training frameworks that teach them how to integrate these tools without sacrificing intellectual rigor. We must also fiercely protect the human element. We cannot allow ourselves to become computers simply talking to other computers. I thought about that before our interview today—I could easily have generated answers to your questions using an AI tool, but we would have lost the genuine human connection and spontaneous insights that occur during a real conversation. Human connection will always be our greatest premium.

Ann: Right, don’t lose that human piece of who we are. Connecting with human beings, that stuff just can’t go away. We’re pack animals at the end of the day, right?

Micah: Exactly. Right. 

Ann: Micah, is there anything I didn’t ask you that you would like to impart your wisdom on when it comes to high performance and high-performing teams?

“Train as a team, fail as a team, and grow as a team. If your organization does not embrace that mindset, you will never truly innovate.”—Micah Hitchcock

Micah: I will leave you with a simple operational philosophy: Train as a team, fail as a team, and grow as a team. If your organization does not embrace that mindset, you will never truly innovate. To push the envelope, you must be willing to try new things, accept that a percentage of them will fail, and ensure your team feels secure taking those calculated risks. 

If you do not have leaders who provide the trust and psychological safety needed to fail occasionally, your organization will stagnate. I try a lot of new initiatives in my work—about 75% of them succeed, and 25% do not. But that is the cost of growth, and that is how we build elite, high-performing teams. 

Ann: That’s perfect. Thank you.