Leading by Example

There I was, not even 30 years old yet and it was my first day of school.  Yes, it was my first day of school….as an assistant principal.  Let me tell you I thought I had arrived.  After 6 years teaching in the classroom.  After earning my master’s degree in educational leadership, I thought I had arrived.  I had worked hard to get to that point in my career.  I had exchanged my classroom for my very own office.  That first day as an assistant principal I had on my best suit, my best shoes, hair done, I was ready.  Little did I know that my idea of “arriving” would come to a screeching halt and I would learn a very powerful leadership lesson that day.  It would be a lesson that 20+ years later I still carry with me every single day.

Judy was the principal who hired me and gave a very green, just out of the classroom teacher a chance at school administration.  Judy was what we all called “old School”.  She had been around a while and ran a successful elementary school for many years.  She was a great mentor, friend and sometimes like a second mom to me.

So that first day of school was also the first day of school for our students.  The morning went well once we ensured all the students got to their classrooms and settled in.  At around 11:00 a.m. that morning Judy came to my office and said to me “Let’s go”.  I responded to her by asking, “Oh, where are we going?”  She said, “Lunch duty”.  I was dumbfounded.  In my mind I am thinking “lunch duty”.  All of the assistant principals I had worked with never did lunch duty.  At least as far as I knew. That had never been modeled for me.  Well, I followed her to the cafeteria and entered just as 120+ Kindergarten children would be eating lunch for the first time in a large room, together.  We have two words in education about those Kindergarteners during that first week of school, Herding Cats.  There were 5 years olds crying, some confused, and some had no idea where to go and what to do with a tray of food.  So, we jumped in and began herding them to their appropriate tables.  Opening milk cartons, ketchup packets, retrieving napkins and plastic ware.  It wasn’t long before a shy little girl spilled her milk all over the floor.  I looked over to our head custodian to get his attention.  He was manning the trash cans for students to dump their trays and was surrounded by 5 Kindergartners who didn’t know what to do.  Before I could do anything, Judy walked over to where he was and grabbed the mop and bucket and brought it over to the spilled milk.  She wrung out the mop and began to clean the mess up.  As she was mopping and without even looking at me, she says, “Never ask anyone to do something you are not willing to do yourself”.  At that moment, I thought how profound and meaningful.  I was immediately humbled.  It didn’t matter that she was also in a nice suit and heels.  It didn’t matter that she had the title of principal.  She just did it because we were all there for the students.  If one of them had slipped in the milk and gotten hurt we would’ve never heard the end of it.  Her example that day is embedded in my mind and later when I became a principal, I tried to model that same example.  Whether it was stacking chairs after a night event, directing cars at dismissal during a Florida afternoon thunderstorm or dumpster diving for a student’s retainer they threw away (this last one was my husband’s story when he was a principal) it always speaks volumes to the people who work for you.  It shows them that you are willing to do whatever it takes.  It shows them that they don’t work FOR you, they work WITH you. 

“It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.” –  Eleanor Roosevelt