During my 2 weeks in Jacksonville, FL for my front line supervisors training we were voluntold to participate in a community service event on Saturday morning. Perhaps working for the railroad has skewed my perception some, as we are often voluntold to do things, but this really didn't bother me. It was for a good cause, and I am missing doing physical labor. We were tasked with helping an organization called Dignity U Wear (http://www.dignityuwear.org/) They are an organization that helps everyone from wounded warriors to battered wives and everyone in between to be dressed well for interviews and work situations. Since they spend so much time giving people makeovers, we were going to give their warehouse a makeover.
We all showed up at 0730 on Saturday morning, got our matching t-shirts, name badges and a light breakfast. There were cameras everywhere and some newspaper reporters as well. When we were called to order there was the usual handshaking photo ops and that included CSX's VP of transportation, Cindy Sanborn. Many of us little folks in the crowd assumed that Ms. Sanborn would get the pictures taken and then be off to her ivory tower, and we would be proved very wrong. Along with Ms. Sanborn there were some other higher level officers of the company and there were also families and kids that other employees had brought with them to support a good cause.
All day everyone there worked their butts off to help this great organization, we painted, we pulled stumps, we scraped old paint off of concrete blocks and so on and so forth. It was hot, and we were all sweaty... well with the exception of 2. There were 2 guys who stood and watched all day, never picking up a paint brush or a scraper. These 2 guys are supposed to be the mentors of our management trainee program and our leaders. When asked why they weren't working they responded that "we are a higher level than you" which is true, but they were not above some of the people there. When the VP is sweaty and dirty, you don't have an excuse. That didn't seem to matter to these 2, but I can proudly say the rest of the people that showed up worked really hard, from the VP's on down to the kids. When we were done we had painted the entire warehouse, inside and out! No one other than those 2 "leaders" left clean and dry, we were all dirty and sweaty. And we were all proud of what we had accomplished that day.
So to those aspiring leaders, don't stand there and watch. Some of the comments I heard afterward about these 2 were pretty nasty, and whether they deserved them or not, they chose to say "Do what we say, not what we do" and they never even had to open their mouths. If you are acting as a leader know that you are being watched by your subordinates and even if you are not the top tier there is always someone looking to you to show by example. This can be an old head teaching a lemon head, or a lemon head showing his children what he has learned in his life, or a new manager getting their hands dirty. We are all leaders to someone.
Sorry there aren't any pictures, I was pretty busy and figured I could find some online since there were so many people running around with cameras. Turns out I was wrong, but if you can find some pictures I would love to see them, and please check out Dignity U Wear they are a pretty cool organization.
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