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.