As I arrived home from camp on Sunday morning, I was surprised to find a hamster (nickname for our 5-year-old neighbor Hampton) sleeping in my bed. As soon as I walk in, he grins, “I spent the night with CeCe.”
WHAT? I did!
If you’re reading this blog and thinking this sounds like a wild ride with Hampton — you’re not alone! After kidding around, CeCe rises to share how little sleep she got last night as Hampton must be touching you, sleeps sideways, and moves constantly. That is not a good recipe for CeCe to sleep. Our conversation quickly turned to, “I want to go to church with CeCe.”
So the next thing I see is Hampton, dressed in church clothes and packing a big bag of goodies to survive the sermon. Surprisingly, he is awesome in church and ate the entire bag of goodies that CeCe packed for him. I told his mother, Michelle, later, if you want to get Hampton up to 40 pounds, send him to church with CeCe — he ate everything, including three huge marshmallows like a kid with his first ice cream cone.
I learned later that when we were citing the Catholic Profession of Faith, Hampton asked CeCe, “Why do you know the words and Pops doesn’t?” He was very observant in that CeCe was saying it from memory and I was reading it from the worship book.
We have laughed several times, as CeCe loved sharing this with Hampton’s parents and any visitors coming within 100 miles of the house. It’s not that funny, it is 224 words long.
Our Message
Now, other than I have memorized more of the Profession of Faith, what has Hampton taught us as leaders, parents and team members? Our actions, even the smallest ones, tell a story to someone else. Many times, it is someone that we are not even aware is observing us. As I moved up in leadership, I found this to be true so many times, as well as how impactful our words are even in casual conversations. What actions or habits might be sending the wrong message to others? What opportunities do we have to send a better message? Let’s use this leadership lesson to be more impactful this week!
Rest of the Story
CeCe: Hampton wants to go to church with us again.
Me: I don’t think we have enough snacks to make it another Sunday.
“If you were to anticipate how strong a company’s culture needs to be to transform and thrive in the future, Joey Havens paints a beautiful horizon in his book Leading with Significance.” Daniel Burrus
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