Leaders Pick Up Trash
The small actions that reveal a leader's true character and commitment to their community.
Sometimes Leaders Really Do Pick Up Trash
I've had the privilege of working with leaders for many years, including more than a decade in school leadership. That work has given me a front-row seat to what leadership looks like between the meetings, presentations, strategic plans, and big decisions.
And over the years, I've noticed something.
Leaders pick up trash.
I don't have empirical data to support this.
What I have is lived experience.
There is something about a leader who walks through a shared space, notices a piece of trash, and stops to pick it up. The act itself isn't heroic. What interests me is what that action seems to reveal about how the leader sees the community around them.
In schools, I've found that the leaders who notice the small things are often the same leaders who know their students, know their families, know their staff, and understand what is actually happening in their buildings.
They are paying attention.
I remember supporting a brand-new principal and assistant principal at the same school. Both were new to their roles and new to the school community.
One day, I was walking through the hallway with the principal when we noticed a dropped lunch tray near a water fountain.
I asked, "Do you want to take care of that?"
"Someone else will get it," she responded.
I insisted that we call a custodian because leaving it there created a potential hazard. She made the call, and we continued walking.
But the interaction stayed with me.
A few weeks later, I walked those same hallways with the assistant principal.
Twice during our conversation, he stopped to pick up pieces of paper—once in the hallway and once on the stairwell.
He didn't announce it.
He didn't interrupt our conversation.
He simply bent down, picked up what was there, and kept walking.
As we moved through the building, he greeted students by name. He smiled. He checked in. He redirected gently when needed.
He was present with the people, and he was present with the space.
Two leaders.
Same hallway.
Two very different ways of leading.
I've seen the same pattern in experienced leaders. One principal I worked with had been in leadership for more than 20 years. Without fail, she would stop to pick up a small piece of trash, straighten something on a wall, or invite a student to help her make the school look its best.
She modeled care, and the community reflected that care back.
That is what leadership and culture look like when they align.
Of course, this isn't really about trash.
It's about what we notice.
It's about what we walk past.
And it's about the quiet messages our actions send to the people around us.
Leaders are busy. There are always emails, meetings, deadlines, competing priorities, and responsibilities demanding attention. It is easy to decide that the small thing in front of us belongs to someone else.
Sometimes it does.
But leadership isn't only revealed in the responsibilities written into our job descriptions.
It is also revealed in what we choose to take responsibility for when no one requires us to.
Organizations take their cues from their leaders. People notice what leaders pay attention to, what they ignore, what they celebrate, and what they are willing to address themselves.
A mission statement can tell people what an organization values.
A leader's behavior tells them whether they should believe it.
Over the years, I've come to believe that some of the clearest evidence of leadership appears in the smallest, most ordinary moments—especially the ones no one else is watching.
So yes.
Sometimes leaders really do pick up trash.
