It was a cold morning around 1998. I think I was in the 4th grade at the time and I had just gotten dropped off at school. The Southern California fog made it hard to see where I was going. But from the drop-off section I knew my general way to our school’s music and band room. Down the paved walkway, I passed our school’s statue of St. Catherine enshrined by brickwork, birds of paradise, and shrubbery.

The year prior I had joined our school’s marching band. Woodwind section. Clarinet connoisseur. Morning practices had been implemented this year and it was an adjustment to the after-school program; when the sun still cooked the black top and we yearned for the A/C indoors.

With backpack, lunch bag, and brown clarinet case in tow I closed in towards the entrance of the band room. It was a cream building and it stood on its own away from the main classroom building just a few hundred feet away. The infirmary and school nurse also set up base of operations in that same building. It was a hub of reed cases, trumpeters clearing their spit valves, hearing tests, and nuns combing through student’s hair to inspect for lice. A real bustle of unrelated activity.

This morning was a little different than the rest. Usually band members would arrive one by one, walk up the building’s steps into the band room, and congregate in the main practice room. On this morning, as the fog lifted and I could see the building I also saw a row of my fellow band members on the ground doing pushups. There were about 5 or so students doing pushups in unison on the ground.

I forgot to mention I attended a Catholic Military school so nuns and drill sergeants were mainstays in addition to civilian teachers. One of our school’s drill sergeants (A younger/real Marine) loomed over the kids and oscillated between correcting individuals’ form and pace as well as counting the rep they were on.

I remember that cold morning as clear as day, and I remember the automatic action of dropping my bags a few feet before my band members before getting down to feel the fresh cold of the grey concrete and the smell of grass growing between the cracks of the pavement hitting my nose. I finished the PT with them that morning, and we finished our band practice that morning as normal.

Later that day after lunch time, I walked from the cafeteria down onto the white top and past the dorms. Our school’s soccer and football field was just a few hundred feet away and I was ready to play a competitive game of freeze tag with my friends. Right at the mid point where white top turns to black top I heard a voice call my name, “Almazan. Come here.”

It was our school’s drill seargent sitting on one of the empty bleachers. He asked me, “This morning, why’d you get down with the other students when I was making them do PT.”

I thought about it a bit, and shaking my head and shrugging my shoulders I responded, “I don’t really know I just saw them getting PT’d and that’s my team so, I just got down and thought I should do the PT with them.”

The drill sergeant stared at me a few seconds, still sitting on the bleacher, he leaned in a bit and said, “That’s integrity.” He nodded his head and looked out towards the field, signaling I was free to continue about my business.

Years have passed since that moment and as I grow older the memory is still clear, but one thing that’s changed is that the impact of his message has grown deeper and more meaningful with each passing year. On one end, the simplicity of his message and how much it’s impacted me reveals how sometimes the most basic messages can last a lifetime. It also shows that there is a real ability to move others with the simplest deeds. I’m not perfect, but I am grateful to know that that moment has gone on to become a sort of personal legend for my life story. I hope that what I was able to do in simpler in innocent times continues to translate and manifest in this life when similar situations arise.

Until then, winning and losing as a team is a core value and one of the defining tenets of what I believe a good manager, a good team member, and a good leader possesses. It takes courage and it takes a dedication above personal ambition and pride to stand side by side in victory and equally in defeat. Something that reaches further has to drive you.

If you’ve ever wanted to uncover the defining moments in your life that are or can be the foundation to your leadership identity/style I can show you through a reflective exercise journey to uncover it. I took a course in my Masters program in Management and Leadership while attending Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and it was the same exact reflective journey I utilized to codify my leadership identity. Drop a comment if you’re ever interested and I’d be happy to reach out to help you uncover yours.

All the best,

Andrew