Two Great Examples of Seizing an Opportunity

August 12, 2018 Education Leadership

A couple of months ago, I got an email from someone I had never met before. Cissy, the woman who sent the email, is one of the counselors of a brand new high school that will be opening its doors for the first time four days from now. She was reaching out to invite me to a surprise luncheon for their teachers.

When Jennifer, the campus principal of this new school, interviews teacher candidates, she asks them to tell her the three people that had the biggest influence on them or who had inspired them to become the people they are today. In June, she and Cissy began reaching out to all of their teachers’ “people.” I was flattered to find out that I was someone’s “person,” but that’s not the point of this post.

They were trying to put together a luncheon in which they would surprise every staff member by reuniting each of them with one of their three most influential people. With over 100 teachers, this was sure to be a colossal task. I RSVP’d and assured Cissy and Jennifer that I’d be there.

Fast forward about two months.

I showed up to the back entrance of the school thirty minutes early, and I was greeted by two of the main organizers, Jennifer and Cissy. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I was really curious to see how many of these mentors/leaders/influential people would show up. I was directed to the auditorium where we would gather until it was time for the big reveal.

The longer I sat there, the more clear it became that they had pulled it off. The auditorium was slowly filling up with people from all over. I began listening to conversations, and I heard, “I just flew in for this,” and “I drove almost five hours to be here for this.”

I only had to drive five MINUTES to get there, so I really had no idea how much effort some people were willing to put in to being reunited with these teachers. The vast majority of the teachers’ “people” had shown up.

We were lead into a long hallway where we’d wait to be revealed to the teachers who had no idea that we were in the building.

Jennifer began talking at the podium, and one by one, we were called out and reunited with our teachers. It was incredible. To say there were a few tears in the house would be an understatement!

Each teacher was either greeted by their “person,” or they were given a letter from them that Jennifer and Cissy had managed to get from those who were unable to attend. That in itself had to take a tremendous amount of effort.

After everyone had been reunited, the conversations filled the room for nearly an hour. There were plenty of tears and plenty of laughter to go around.

I loved getting to spend time with Brent, the young man who had mentioned me during his interview process. He’s an outstanding young man, and I am fired up about watching him grow in his new role. As much as I loved having time to just sit and talk with him, I enjoyed, just as much, the opportunity to look around and see all of the smiles, tears, and hugs in the room. There was no doubt that all of the work that Jennifer and her team had put into this moment was having a huge impact on her staff.

I felt bad that Brent and I didn’t get a chance to take a picture together, so I dug deep into the archives to find one of my favorite pictures of the two of us from almost 12 years ago.

UPDATE*** The power of the internet… Less than 2 hours after I published this post, I got a text with a picture that I forgot we even took. I’ll give you a moment to admire Brent’s mustache… 🙂

Seizing Opportunities

Opportunity Number One

Jennifer seized an incredible opportunity for her staff. It’s not often that you get the chance to create a once-in-a-lifetime memory for your people. She did it.

She and her leadership team put an incredible amount of work into it. It took months of searching to find these people, and I found out that they didn’t finish putting it all together until about 4 a.m. the day of the luncheon. They had to be at the district’s convocation less than four hours later, so they couldn’t have been operating on more than an hour or two of sleep. You wouldn’t have known it though. They were beaming as they watched their teachers interacting with their “people.”

Jennifer could have looked at the amount of work it was going to take to pull it off back in May and chalked it up as something that would have been nice to do, yet unrealistic in the midst of trying to get a brand new high school ready to open at the end of the summer. No one would have blamed her. Starting a new school is a huge undertaking. Trying to organize this surprise luncheon was WAY above and beyond anything she “needed” to do.

Payoff Number One

By creating this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her staff, Jennifer created instant buy-in and loyalty. Her staff will run through a wall for her if she ever asks them to. Someday, when tensions may get high, her staff will extend grace because they will always remember what she did for them and the amount of work it took. You cannot put a price tag on that.

Opportunity Number Two

After Jennifer introduced the last person, she shared a few thoughts with her staff. She could have said, “I am so glad I was able to create this memory for you guys. Enjoy your lunch and your conversations. We’ll see you Monday.” That would have been completely acceptable, and I think a lot of leaders would have stopped right there and taken an opportunity to just enjoy the moment that they had created. Jennifer didn’t do that.

In the heat of the moment, while emotions were still high, she seized another great opportunity. She said, (I’m definitely paraphrasing here) “This is what it’s all about. This is what we do. Remember what this feels like when we are working with our students. Every day is an opportunity to become one of these “people” for them. Be the type of educator that will be named in someone’s “top 3” list twenty years from now.

Payoff Number Two

She seized an opportunity to set the vision for her campus and create the kind of culture she wants by giving each of her teachers a higher purpose. You can be assured that the message was received clearly. She had already created an emotional moment that would not be forgotten, and she used that momentum to drive home the most important point she could have made all day.

My Takeaways

The extra work was worth it. As I said earlier, you cannot put a price tag on loyalty, buy-in, and a chance to create a bigger “WHY” for the people in your organization. Sometimes that extra effort makes all the difference in the world.

Don’t rest on your laurels. Jennifer could have dropped the mic after the big reveal. She and her leadership team earned that right, but she didn’t do that. She saw an opportunity to make an even bigger impact on the students that are about to enter her school, and she put the pedal down and seized it.

Look for opportunities. If we are willing to open our eyes and look around, opportunities to have an impact are everywhere. We need only to recognize them and pull the trigger.

Take action. This was a great idea, but it could have remained nothing more than that, had Jennifer and her staff not taken action. Ideas are worthless without action. I wrote about that in last week’s blog.

If you are still with me at this point, thank you so much for sticking it out. I know that was a long one. I hope you enjoyed reading about this incredible experience that Jennifer and her team created for their staff. I hope it inspires you to go inspire someone else! Go be the kind of leader that will make someone’s “top 3 list” twenty years from now!

See you next week!

Leaders Lead

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