Reality Distortion Field

Creatives everywhere are mourning the death of Apple Computer co-founder, Steve Jobs. I don't know about you, but viewing and reading recent obituaries have introduced a new term (but not a new idea) into my vocabulary--"reality distortion field." Here is some of what Wikipedia has to say about it:

"Reality distortion field (RDF) is a term coined by Bud Tribble at Apple Computers in 1981 to describe company co-founder Steve Jobs' charisma and its effects on the developers working on the Mac project.

The RDF was said to be Steve Jobs' ability to convince himself and others to believe almost anything with a mix of superficial charm, charisma, bravado, hyperbole, marketing, appeasement, and persistence. RDF was said to distort an audience's sense of proportion and scales of difficulties and made them believe that the task at hand was possible."

So here's where I call for a show of hands. How many of you have unwittingly invoked RDF to motivate employees or colleagues to go the extra mile, stay the extra hour, complete the extra task, all the while wondering if what you are asking is "unrealistic?" If you raised your hand, you have misunderstood RDF.

To the extent that RDF is a form of magical thinking, the thinker is completely unaware that his thoughts are anything but thoroughly realizable, given sufficient commitment. Such leaders have drank the Kool Aid. Not only have I known leaders like that, but I have been one. And it may not be a good thing.

Steve Jobs, as it turns out, was not a particularly nice man to work with. In fact, he is accused by those who knew him best of being mean-spirited and abusive. Apparently, an office pool existed at Apple whose prize went to the individual most frequently standing up to Jobs' abuse. Interestingly, most of the winners ended up being promoted.

Why is deconstructing Steve Jobs and other flawed heroes helpful? It's a fair question. It is also one that you have probably asked yourself, depending on your own boss, or if you are the boss, your employees.  Is Steve Jobs to be emulated or castigated? That's your call. And I would love to hear it.

Budgeting is Leading

Opportunity has knocked. I am answering. Several weeks ago came the knock, not so much as a what but as a who. As is my practice, I enlarge my network as often as I can.

My newest colleague is Brian Clarida, clinical professor for the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Brian also happens to be part of the Distinguished Leadership in Practice central region cohort for which I teach.

So after a brief conversation during our last DLP face-to-face session in Chapel Hill and an email exchange, we decided to meet midway between Raleigh and Greensboro for Cracker Barrel coffee. And now it turns out that Brian is the impetus for a new thing in my life.

Although I have published some two dozen peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and monographs in my career, I have never authored a textbook. Now with Brian and long-time friend and former Wake County Schools principal, Jim Palermo, I am co-authoring a book we are tentatively calling, The Aspiring Principal's Primer to School Budgeting: Principles and Practices for Public School Leaders in Uncertain Financial Times whose first audience will be Brian's students.

I will confess that the subject matter did not immediately grab my attention. Budgeting is more an onerous practice than scholarly subject. Before ultimately getting Jim on board and saying "yes" to Brian, I was beginning to wonder how I might insinuate my favorite subject--and the recurring theme of this blog--into the narrative.

But then I remembered that the opportunity to lead lies within every task before us. In other words, budgeting is leading too. Let me tease you with a little preview of our book.

In Chapter One, "Introduction," we lay out our argument for a book on school budgeting in the first place, underscoring our practice as former principals with over a half-century of combined experience, and the need to revisit the importance of strategically stretching your dollars at a time when public school budgets have never been under greater pressure.

But we are only getting started. To provide context and build enthusiasm for what some may find a less-than-interesting (albeit very important) topic, we continue by articulating some big ideas in four more sections.

In "Public Schools Are a Public Trust," we remind aspiring principals that they are stewards of citizen's dollars. They must be spend wisely and strategically. At minimum, they must know and play by the rules or risk wearing orange jump suits and matching slippers if they don't.

"Budgeting is Leading" alludes to the 1980s computer simulation, Oregon Trail, wherein we argue that cooperatively planning and monitoring spending aligned with district and school goals is the way to arrive safely at your Oregon--improving student learning.

"Budgeting is Investing" is a section wherein we underscore the need to view available dollars as a way to invest in your teachers and students. Every dollar spent is attached to a future value. The employing board of education and taxpayers whom they represent expect and deserve a return on investment.

In "The Principal as Chief Energy Officer," we borrow from the work of management consultant, Tony Schwartz, who in re-conceiving the role of CEO, wrote, “the most fundamental job of a leader is to recruit, mobilize, inspire, focus, direct, and regularly refuel the energy of those they lead.”

As a form of potential energy, dollars are powerful stimulants to achieve all that Schwartz imagines. (Regular readers of this blog will recall a December 2010 entry wherein I introduced some Chief Energy Officers right here in Triangle-area schools. I commend it to you again.)

The remaining 11 chapters reviews the literature, surfaces best practice, and employs illustrative case studies to build competence and confidence in planning, executing, and monitoring a school budget. In examining topics such as transportation and child nutrition programs, we also spend some time creating common understanding around public school finance from the district perspective. Who knows where principals will wind up someday?

Brian, Jim and I are pretty jazzed about our little book-in-progress. We've divided chapter assignments, begun to share resources, agreed on Future-ready Leaders Now©, LLC as our own in-house publisher, and have created a time line for completion.

However the book turns out, the point I am making tonight is that leadership is an opportunity waiting for you around every corner. No task is too large or too small to ignore the power of inspiring and leading others to a preferred future, especially and particularly when the task is resourced with money.

Eighty Years Young

Every Blue Moon or so, I give a nod to the idea that leadership begins at home. I am not alone in my belief that the leader in each of us has its genesis in how our parents treated us as children. Research suggests that teachers can have the same effect, but that is a theme for another blog.

No less-prominent figure than Sigmund Freud believed that strong male leaders were typically born of mothers whose combination of high expectations and preferential treatment destined the child, especially if he is first-born, to live up to the greatness envisioned by his mother.

As a first-born child myself, I have probably fallen far shorter of my own expectations than I have of my mothers, but I can assure you, she has more than lived up to mine. And she has been doing it for a very long time.

On Saturday, October 1, in the embrace of family and friends from as far away as Kansas City, Missouri and Cocoa Beach, Florida to as close as her next-door neighbor in Smothers Place Lofts in downtown Greensboro, my siblings and I threw a party for Mom, eighty years young and counting.

I add the "and counting" specifically in view of the fact that I am officially retired from the state of North Carolina while, as an employ of Guilford County Schools, she, twenty-one years my senior, continues to work full time. Now that's embarrassing. But that's Mom.

At Mom's suggestion, we rented Churchill's on South Elm, a private club on the main drag of the most liberal, blue-collar town in North Carolina and home of my alma mater. Phil Epstein, a fantastic jazz pianist and friend of sister, Bobbie, supplied two hours of music at no charge. Apparently with age comes privilege. As a party financier, I'm not complaining.

And we dined elegantly. Bobbie, friend Nicole Cofield, and wife, Deborah, prepared an eclectic spread, including garlic shrimp, caprice salad, and asparagus wrapped in prosciutto. I bought the wine, ten bottles of Eco Domini cabernet savignon-merlot blend and ten bottle of pinot grigio. Of course, the bar was open for folk seeking stronger spirits. And seek they did.

Twenty bottles of wine and two hours later, Mom was wearing out men--and women--half her age on the dance floor where a rhythm and blues band had replaced our pianist friend, Phil. At one point, there was a line waiting to dance with Mom.

We partied at Churchill's until about 11:00 pm, having started five hours earlier, and then resumed the festivities at my sister's condo. In short, a good time was had by all. 

The backstory is that Greensboro has been in love with Mom since Spring 2005 when she move there to be closer to my family. Much to her disappointment, we soon left for Raleigh and my new job with Wake County Public School System. Thank God my sister, Bobbie, lives there to absorb Mom's energy in my place.

Deb and I are increasingly convinced that we need to leave Raleigh and move closer to Mom. Not so much because she needs us but because we need her. I know how strange that must sound. But here's the thing:

If you are a mother, God surely will have blessed you if one day your children feel as her children do. Mom is a leader not because she has graduate degrees nor because she is in a position of authority, but merely by being who she is. That is really all it takes to draw others to you. Come to think of it, leaders are always those who only be who they are. Are you being who you are?

Invitations

A recent event is occupying my thoughts tonight. Its occurrence underscores for me the power that leaders unleash in others when they invite. It seems that the simple act of asking sparks a kind of kinetic energy that has the potential to move mountains, or at the very least, hearts and minds. The event in question: a visit to High Point University last Wednesday.

My friend and colleague, MJ Hall, asked me several weeks ago to collaborate with her and HPU administrators in planning a Summit. The Summit is to be funded by donations from HPU alumna interested in supporting the university's new Educational Leadership doctoral program to begin next year. Their generosity can only be applauded. 

With the eventual ribbon-cutting of a new School of Education building, one of many edifices realized under the inspirational leadership of President Nido Qubein, the Summit promises to bring together education professionals, business leaders, and elected officials who will learn from and with each other over the course of one and one-half days on the magnificent HPU campus.

With School of Education Dean Mariann Tillery, Associate Dean Barbara Leonard, Professor Vernon Farrington, and Vice-President of Development Beth Braxton, MJ and I have a lot of work ahead of us. But we could not be more excited about the potential for launching what we intend to be a recurring event to enlarge the HPU national footprint around educational leadership, convene and catalyze a multidisciplinary community for improving education in a global economy, and expand leadership at every level. MJ has a big dream. That is why her invitation attracted me.

Triangle Leadership Academy clients and staff remember Dr. Hall as a consummate professional who brought from her teaching position at the the US military Defense Acquisition University near Washington, DC, a treasure trove of knowledge in human performance improvement and quality tools. Right out of the gate, TLA benefited from MJ's creating an Organizational Profile and implementing the Kaplan & Norton (1994) Balanced Scorecard approach for continuous improvement.

Although MJ independently consulted for the last several years while I continued to direct TLA, we maintained a personal and professional friendship. Only yesterday, she invited me to one of the American Society for Training & Development Forum webinars that she routinely hosts. It was not the first time. Last spring, MJ facilitated a "Reset Team" in re-imaging TLA's work amid the budget crisis. Two years ago, she led us in a day of strategic planning.

Which leads me to one observation and a return to my original theme. MJ Hall is one of the most adaptive, inventive, and visionary people that I know. She embodies everything we want of our 21st century future-ready students. Her generous gift to HPU can only add to the growing reputation of what was once a sleepy little college where matriculated my two educator uncles to an institution of higher education where world-class leaders incubate. I am honored to be part of the work.

Circling back to my thesis, I would not be working with MJ on this project and feeling as I do about it had she not invited me. She knew that, of her many associates, I might be best at translating her generic knowledge of organizational development into an invitation that the education community understands and appreciates. She asked; I answered.

With our new friends at HPU, we have started something big. And so I invite you to invite someone to something big. That's what leaders do.