A Reader Writes... (E-mail and Cell Phone - Part 2)

In response to the posts, “Get Your Own E-Mail and Cell Phone,” a reader writes,

“I will heed the wisdom given on this topic but I also believe we should not operate out of fear. The Bible says one phrase more often than any other, by far: "Do not fear."

If it gets to the point that someone is going after my emails and phone logs; number one, if they find something legitimate to hold against me, I should be gone. Number two, we are held to a higher standard as administrators and our communication is to be above reproach whether it is phone, email or stone tablet. Yes, I will get my own cell phone at work and my own email address, but I refuse to operate out of fear. Fear is a demonic oppression that clouds a whole life time of work, and I will not succumb to it.”

SC Response:
The purpose of the posts on e-mail and cell phones was not to scare anyone. It was to forewarn school leaders and change agents of the tactics that are used to stop them. You wouldn’t let your friends walk blindly off a cliff or your troops walk unaware into a mine field. You would warn them, so they can take the necessary precautions.

As for your point, if they find something, “shame on me.” That is the thinking that destroys good people. And by “destroy,” I mean to render ineffective or force to leave. Given enough information and the willingness to twist the facts to meet my agenda, I can make Mother Theresa look bad. As I was being prepped for a hearing with a terminated employee, our lawyer told me, “If all goes well, you’ll just come off as looking incompetent.” And this was a case where every fact was on our side.

So act with mission and purpose. Out think, out work, out perform the competition, and most importantly, never willingly give to the other guy the stick to beat you with.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

A Reader Called... (Get Your Own E-Mail)

In response to the post, “Get Your Own E-Mail,” a reader called (yes, Lead Your School readers, you can reach me at 832-477-LEAD) and asked,

“Now that you have me concerned about e-mail, since I work in a big district where we do everything by district e-mail, what should I do?”

SC Response:
This is a great question and valid concern. Here is my suggestion.

First, from this point on make sure that the messages that you send from your district e-mail are as bland as Melba toast. And take proper names out of your written vocabulary.

Second, get a professional looking, personal e-mail address. G-mail, Yahoo and Go-Daddy are some options, there are many more.

Third, when you send e-mails either from school or home, send them from the personal address. Don’t announce that you are doing it. Most recipients are not surprised when your e-mail doesn’t come from your official address. They just think you are working either at a remote location or after hours. What is nice, is when the recipient hits reply, your second e-mail address is usually put in their address book.

Finally, you might be thinking, “But I’m still sending e-mails to public accounts."

That’s OK, because the public information request can only request e-mails received and sent from your public account. It can’t request anything sent or received from your private account. Now to target you, someone would have to get the received messages from every public account and search for your messages. That won’t happen, and even if it did, since your messages are now bland and don’t mention names, there is no problem.

I’ll finish with two thoughts.

1. If you are an aggressive, goal oriented school leader that expects and produces results, you will eventually have an enemy that will want you gone. It could be a disgruntled teacher, an upset parent, a jealous peer, or an insecure boss. They will not announce themselves as your enemy. They will hide in the grass and snipe at you. Don’t make their job easier.

2. If you are an aggressive, goal oriented school leader that expects and produces results, you will eventually be hired by another school or district that wants what you offer and is willing to pay handsomely for it. It’s nice to be able to take the e-mail address that all your contacts know and use with you wherever you go.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn…

A Reader Writes... (E-mail and Cell Phone)

In response to the posts, “Get Your Own E-Mail and Cell Phone,” a reader writes,

“Pay close attention to Cain on the cell phone and e-mail issue. Though these issues haven’t bit me yet, here is the point. It does not matter that you have a great message and that you are right. It does not matter that your ideas are sound, researched based, reflect best practices, and that you have the data to prove it. After teachers find out they can’t fight the message, they will attack the messenger. They don’t need much to attack you. If they can’t dig up cell phone bills or emails, they will make it up. If they don’t make something up, they will simply say about you, “she doesn’t respect us,” or “she makes us feel insignificant”. After a few months of this negative spin to the community, hang on.”

SC Response:
When I’m working with schools that are in crisis and we are having to force change at an uncomfortable pace, there is a bright sign that lets me know that we have turned a corner. When we start the improvement process, the attacks generally center on the need, strategy, or pace. When the malcontents start to attack you personally, that means you’ve won the battle of need, strategy, and pace. All that is left to is to attack the messenger. The key is to not take it personally, stay on message and keep pushing.

The first thing I tell anyone that finds themselves in a change leadership role is, "If you need a friend over the course of the next year, get a dog." The second thing is to keep reminding yourself, “This is why they pay me the medium sized bucks.”

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Get Your Own E-mail

For those of you who have never met me or heard me speak, I used to be a fixer (now I am more of an optimizer). As a fixer, I was the guy who was called in when the situation was desperate, dangerous, or stupidly self-inflicted. What I’m going to discuss over the next two posts is how to avoid the stupidly self-inflicted problems. These are the problems that destroy very smart and capable people because they assume “it will never happen to me.”

Here is practice number one. Get your own private e-mail address and use only that mailbox. Even for your school correspondences. So that also means that you need a professional e-mail address. It’s time to let go of “partydude@barhopper.net”. Why do you need your own personal e-mail address? Well there are a number of reasons but let’s hit the big ones.

First, your school email belongs to the district and it is being archived. When the new superintendent decides that he wants your position for someone who is on his team, your e-mail is the starting point for making your life miserable. Here’s how:

To begin with, there will be a lot of messages going back and forth. Obviously, you are ignoring your real responsibilities and spend too muck time on the computer.

Next, you have sent and received lots of messages from friends and family members. Do you make a habit of misappropriating all district resources or just bandwidth?

Also, some friend or relative has sent you an inappropriate or off-color joke. Are you a sexist, a racist, or both.

And you seem to get a lot of e-mails that deal with v!@gRah and like products. Exactly what kind of pervert are you?

Readers that’s just the easy stuff. Then there is the fact that by law, districts have to archive every e-mail. This is so it can be used for discovery. That means court cases and hearings. Ever mentioned an employee by name in an unfavorable light? Ever messed up and indentified a special education student by name? Congratulations, you just gave the other side the stick to beat you with.

And finally, there is the issue of public information. Anyone can ask for your e-mail messages and then use them however they wish. And if they are asking, it’s not because that want to name you educator of the year.

All of this is solved if you use your own private e-mail. There is no public information, there is no indefinite archiving, and there is no discovery. Thus, there is no problem.

Now for those of you who think that I’m paranoid, all I can say is one man’s paranoia is another man's cautious awareness. I’ll close with this one story that happened to a Lead Your School reader. I was working with this school leader and I gave him the same advice I just wrote about. Though he was skeptical, he humored me and started using his private e-mail. Six months later this radical, anti-tax internet paper sent a public information request for all of his correspondences. He responded with a yawn, because there were no public correspondences to give. The radical nut jobs fumed a little bit, gave up and then went and made someone else’s life miserable.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...