Dickens Revisited

There was a time in my youth that, upon reaching some unforeseen future,  I would pen the Great American Novel. Undoubtedly in my hometown of Asheboro, North Carolina, I was influenced by some of the best English teachers that ever trod the earth. They were the smart, sophisticated women who in subsequent generations would be seduced from the schoolhouse to the statehouse, lured from the classroom to the boardroom. From these teachers I learned to love literature and to appreciate that, as with all art, a novel is a lie that tells the truth. Although I've yet to write my novel, Mrs. Parsons' and Mrs. Snyder's lessons inspire me still.

As an eighth-grader, I was introduced to the work of Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol was then and now a favorite of mine. Imagine with me the scene of Ebenezer Scrooge as the Ghost of Christmas Future points his bony finger at a tombstone upon which the protagonist's name is carved. Anquished, Scrooge cries out: "Spirit, are these the images of things that must be, or things that may be only?" From that passage grew an entire genre of alternative-futures literature.

Even now Dickens invites us to consider whether we walk a predetermined path or, if we alter but a single step, things might turn out differently.  We know how the novel ends. Scrooge wakes up a changed man with a changed future. In fact, we make our own future every day. We write now the end of the Triangle Leadership Academy story even as we live daily the future of our schools, departments, districts and organizations. To borrow a line from a popular 1980s film: I ain't afraid of no ghost. You shouldn't be either. Let's make this year the best one ever starting now!

Beat Your Path As You Walk It

I was invited to speak this afternoon at a meeting of about 65 Wake County Schools assistant principals. This was the first of many planned meetings for this group. Here is the interesting part: No one in central services told them they had to organize. No one in central services told them they had to come. They just did.

Ironically, the very topic I chose to share--creating your own leadership development through training, facilitating, coaching, and consulting,--was manifest in the self-organized convening of this group. So as I was talking with them about what a poet called "beating your path as you walk it," they were doing just that. Talk about preaching to the choir!

Every reader of this blog is a leader. How you got to where you are is as unique as your own personality. I'll wager, however, that each of you have this much in common: at some point in your life, you took  responsibility for your own development and what those and the situation around you needed for you to be.

Leadership opportunities abound because, in my mind, to practice leadership is simply to do something that needs to be done by enlisting others in the effort. I would love to hear how you beat your path to leadership. What called you to lead? Who were your influences? What has the journey been like so far?

Dare to Diffuse!

It's curious how we each go about our day thinking that we may be the only person having the particular thought we are experiencing in that moment. In fact, we always have company. If we are a leader, we act on that knowledge, publish our thoughts, and galvanize a following. In the words of Everett Rogers, we diffuse.

In my role as Executive Director of Triangle Leadership Academy, I am honored to convene some of the brightest minds and bravest hearts in public education. I am equally honored to convene leaders from boards of education, local education foundations, and the business community who serve those educator minds and hearts. I am, of course, referring to TLA Board of Governors and Board of Directors.

So this blog begins with a dare: I dare you, board members, to diffuse, that is to publish your thoughts. Every few days, you may read in this blog my musings relevant to the Academy. I invite you to weigh in.