I never did anything cool when I was in college. All 5.5 years I was a student I did school, and I worked to pay for school. My only escapes from my double-major duties were in the summers when I did Camp War Eagle.
Cleaning Toilets Properly
Camp War Eagle is a sports and adventure camp in Arkansas with an emphasis on Christian faith. Part of this camp was serving as part of the SWAT team. SWAT, which stands for Servants Working All Together, was the team in charge of cleaning the camp grounds. They show up before the campers to set up, and they clean after the campers are done playing. Everyone is required to do at least two weeks on SWAT.
On the first day of my SWAT tenure we were taken to the bathhouses for an orientation on how to thoroughly clean them. The leader, Alex, took us to a toilet stall and proceeded to demonstrate how to properly clean a toilet: We spray and wipe the seat, under the seat, the bowl, around the bowl, the handles and the back of the toilet. This was the process we were to follow every day, on every one of the 50 toilets, twice a day for the following two weeks. This happened on the first of my 5 summers working at camp.
Teaching Others How to Clean
In December 2015 I finally graduated from college with a degree in Art and German. Although I was ready to take on the world, the world seemingly wasn’t ready for me. I tried to look for jobs in graphic design, but had no luck for 6 months. Just before I nearly drowned in self-pity, I found a job at a local outdoors store named Lewis & Clark. My only qualifications, I believed, were my enjoyment of running and speaking Spanish.
When I started working for Lewis & Clark, part of my duties as an hourly employee were to clean the restrooms. My process was the same that I followed when I cleaned the bathhouses at camp. As I became a manager and started training people, I would give them the same orientation I was given. “This is how we clean the toilets: We spray and wipe the seat, under the seat, the bowl, around the bowl, the handles and the back of the toilet.”
Learning How to Sweep Well
I also taught people how to sweep. You see, bathrooms and stores with concrete floors also need to be swept. And I knew how to sweep well.
In the 10th grade I took a mechanics shop class. The shop was a typical open warehouse with all the grease and grime and dust you can imagine. It was part of our class to clean up after ourselves. One time, when I was sweeping, a fellow student noticed that I was sweeping incorrectly. He went out of his way to show me how to sweep properly and I appreciated that. I was grateful that he knew of a better way and that he taught me how to do better. That lesson he taught me stayed with me, and I have since gotten to teach people how to sweep. But I never thought much of it.
He went out of his way to show me how to sweep properly and I appreciated that. I was grateful that he knew of a better way and that he taught me how to do better.
Cleaning Toilets as a Form of Leadership
In the Spring of 2022, I messaged back and forth with a friend named Carson, an old employee at Lewis & Clark. Towards the end of the conversation Carson told me how he was sweeping one day at his military base and he remembered that I had taught him how to sweep properly. He said it had helped him and that he had enjoyed working with me.
This was a huge surprise to me as I did not remember even teaching him. By the same token though, I taught all my employees how to clean the toilets and how to sweep. I was so surprised by him saying that. I am so grateful that what I taught him had an effect on him, and he now took that knowledge to his military base.
In life, perhaps, we will never know the profound effect simple lessons will have on those around us. When I got hired to go work in Liechtenstein and join Hilti I felt the need to write letters to a few people that had helped me get to that position. In my mind, Alex, my SWAT leader, deserved to know the profound effect his simple lesson had had on me and how far it had taken me. I’m grateful that someone stepped up and showed me how to do a good job. Even in the simplest of things. Sometimes this is the best example of leadership.
