Terrence E. Deal has been a professor at Stanford, Harvard, and Vanderbilt Universities and is the former Irving R. Melbo Professor of Education at the Rossier School of the University of Southern California. He is coauthor of the best-sellers, Leading with Soul and Reframing Organizations.

Kent D. Peterson is a professor in the Department of Educational Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Deal and Peterson are coauthors of The Leadership Paradox.