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Developing Leadership Skills and Gaining Experience
by Amy Gonzalez Ferguson
Librarians wanting to move up the career ladder need to develop their leadership skills and abilities. Leadership expert James McGregor Burns defines leadership as the mobilization of others and self to achieve goals. He further defines "transformational leadership" as the ability to raise and transform the goals of followers. In their 1985 book, Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge, Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus also identified four qualities commonly found in transformative leaders. In her study of library leaders, Brooke E. Sheldon confirmed that these four qualities frequently appear in library leaders. These qualities are:
- Vision
- Communication
- Trustworthiness
- Positive Self-Regard
Fortunately, library employees interested in developing these qualities have many avenues to explore.
Leadership Opportunities
Those truly interested in gaining leadership experience can find opportunities in a variety of places. Community involvement, professional associations, and your employer provide several places to gain leadership skills and practice the skills listed above. Within your own organization, you have many opportunities, such as when working in teams, to develop these abilities.
Professional associations such as ALA give further opportunities to exercise leadership. ALA's New Members Round Table (NMRT) offers new librarians a chance to get involved immediately and to develop leadership skills. You can also develop leadership skills through community involvement, such as in churches, city boards and hobbyist clubs. The possibilities are endless.
Focus Your Vision
Bennis's first leadership quality involves vision. A leader possesses a vision and embraces it. Visions attract others and grab their attention; a leader is able to convey his or her vision to others and use it to motivate them. This can be a vision of where the organization is headed, how a department or unit will contribute to the organization's mission, the completion of a project, or any number of things.
While developing your leadership skills, learn to recognize a vision and pursue it. Visions present themselves to library and information professionals in a variety of settings. Most likely your place of employment will even provide you with either a written vision statement or an informal, understood vision.
Professional associations, their units, and local organizations also have visions. The Membership Promotion and Relations Committee of NMRT seeks to recruit new members and retain current members, for example. As a member of this committee, Brent Spencer embraced this vision and acted on it; seeking ways to inform new librarians about NMRT, he initiated a project to contact recently-hired librarians.
Power of Communication
In order to motivate others with your vision, you must be able to communicate it to them. Sheldon provides a simplified formula of successful communication: (1) emphasize simply stated values and one or two dominant themes; (2) listen; and, (3) "[understand] that the value of power is sharing it." The first two aspects of this formula are vital to reducing miscommunication and misunderstandings. Try keeping oral and written communication concise and simple. Listen actively. Repeat what you have heard, even when you think you understood the first time.
The third part of Sheldon's formula relates to maintaining relationships. Not only must you listen, but you must also allow input. Dana Newman developed an understanding of the importance of this aspect of communication on Anne Arundel County's Learning Libraries team in Maryland. She now consults with her co-workers when completing major projects, and incorporates input for best results.
Stand for Trust
Bennis states that "trust implies accountability, predictability, reliability." Good leaders maintain consistency in their words and actions. Not only do they tell us what they plan to do, and do what they say they will do, but good leaders also repeatedly make decisions that support their vision and stance.
Maintaining a stance involves patience and persistence. Don't be afraid to share your ideas or suggest plans of actions. Give others the chance to consider your ideas, but don't allow them to forget them. Let your actions reflect your vision.
Gaining trust also requires that you take your responsibilities seriously. As past NMRT President Joseph Yue stated: "Bad reputation [sticks] on people's minds and [travels] faster than a good one across ALA units." This is true within any organization, and across the field in general.
Learn Positive Self-Regard
In addition to the qualities discussed above, leaders are also learners. Leaders learn from books, mentors, observation and experience. To gain experience, we often must step out of our comfort zones. This requires positive self-regard and further strengthens it. According to Bennis, positive self-regard consists of: (1) knowing your strengths; (2) further developing and enhancing these strengths; and, (3) determining the fit between your strengths/weaknesses and the organization's needs.
Learn to take chances. If you know your strengths and weaknesses, you will be able to decide if you truly have the ability to take on a role or task. Compensate for your weaknesses by learning to remedy them (by reading books, attending seminars, etc.), or by sharing tasks with others whose strengths balance yours. Also, learn to learn from failure. There will be times you make mistakes - don't dwell on these mistakes, but do look for the lessons in them.
Final Thoughts
Most leadership skills can be obtained and practiced at any level of an organization. Nevertheless, if you plan to seek a management position, formal leadership positions could provide a boost to your resume. As mentioned above, NMRT provides many opportunities. You can also seek committee appointments with your current employer by volunteering or by informing your supervisor of your interest in committee work.
Like most opportunities, you will gain from leadership positions what you put into them. To fully develop vision, communication, trustworthiness, and positive self regard, you must practice these skills. Bennis and Nanus teach us that learning to lead is "a deeply human process." Reading and observation will provide you with the theories, but only experience and application will allow you to develop leadership skills.
References
Bennis, Warren and Burt Nanus. Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge. New York: Harper and Row, 1985.
Burns, James McGregor. Leadership. New York: Harper and Row, 1978.
Sheldon, Brooke E. Leaders in Libraries: Styles and Strategies for Success. Chicago: ALA Editions, 1991.
Amy Gonzalez Ferguson currently works as a Reference Assistant in the Baylor University Libraries where she has chaired and served on several committees. She also serves as Councilor and Webmaster for the Texas Library Association's Library Support Staff Round Table and co-chairs the Membership Promotion and Relations Committee of the American Library Association's New Member's Round Table.