True leadership starts with a shovel, not a title.

Years ago, when I was a sergeant, one of my airmen had just earned his first stripe. He was nervous. He was unsure how to lead, how to handle responsibility, and afraid to make mistakes. That day, a call came in: a dead armadillo was lying in the road leading to the hospital. Most would’ve called maintenance. Instead, I saw an opportunity.
I told him, “Grab some gloves and a shovel. Let’s go.”

He looked at me, confused. “Why are we doing this? Shouldn’t someone else handle it?”
“No,” I said. “Today, you will learn what leadership means.”

We removed that animal from the road together. It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t “our job.” But that day he learned something I wanted etched into his mindset forever:
Leadership is service.

It’s not about authority, giving orders, or standing apart. It’s about being the first to act when others hesitate. It’s showing that no task is beneath you. That’s how respect is earned. It is not demanded.

Years later, when I became an officer, the same principle guided me. One afternoon, a senior master sergeant walked in and saw me mopping the entire building. She asked, “Sir, why are you mopping the floors?”

I told her, “Because my team is busy. And they need to see me work as hard as they do.”
I had nearly 100 people under my command, but leadership didn’t mean exemption from effort. I wanted my team to know that if I ever asked them to clean, it was something I was willing to do myself. If your team sees you doing the small things, they’ll trust you in the big ones.

When leaders disappear behind rank or status, they lose connection. When they serve, they gain influence that no title can buy.

Leadership isn’t about being in front. It’s about being beside your people. It’s cleaning the messes no one else wants to clean. It’s mopping when everyone’s tired. It’s removing the “dead armadillos” that block progress, literal or metaphorical.

If you want to lead, start by serving.
If you want respect, start by earning it through example.
And if you ever wonder whether something is “your job,” remember this:
Everything is your job when it affects your people.

That’s leadership. The kind that lasts long after the rank fades.

Would you follow a leader who only gives orders? Or one who grabs the shovel beside you?