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These articles were originally part of May/June 2010's "Perspective's" column, but due to space restrictions could not be included in the print edition. Please take the time to gather some great leadership ideas with this web-only content!

Library Leadership in Massachusetts

At eighteen I wanted to be a librarian, but life took a different path back then.  I didn’t find it again for almost thirty years.  Not until I reconnected with my need to unlock the mysteries and gain access to the stories and ideas that repose in libraries. Graduate school in Library and Information Science didn’t come close to meeting this need.  I said from my first day on the job as a librarian, they don’t teach what one needs to know to serve in the real world.  I struggled to find my way and feel relatively competent.  I wanted the sense of connection, self-knowledge, daring, and wisdom two of my colleagues seemed to have gained after participating in a Library Leadership Institute.  They knew each other well and demonstrated deep mutual respect.  Although they were very different in terms of personality and skill, they worked together with confidence and ease.

Until Library Leadership, I felt an unfulfilled longing for more challenge and opportunity while restricted by pervasive fear of not being good enough, smart enough, or young enough.  After years of trying to climb the library ladder unsuccessfully, I realized there weren’t ways to advance within the library.  I needed to take a risk and reach beyond the safety of those first co-workers from whom I received acceptance and appreciation.

Luckily I landed at a library with abundant resources and staff under the direction of someone who knew the value of learning and connecting from people outside of one’s own institution.  She approved my application and applauded my acceptance.

I sounded pretty good in my application.  I think I was more together than I realized, after a difficult year with my departmental staff.  We had grown stronger, more cohesive, very supportive and extremely productive.  At one point our library director said she couldn’t kill our efforts if she wanted to since they had obviously reached the tipping point.

Clearly everything was coming together, but I didn’t know it.  I had so many ideas, a lot of energy and a huge passion to provide equal access to the very best public library services.  But I felt powerless to make a fundamental difference.  Library Leadership allowed me to shyly listen with intense interest to the presenters, mentors, and participants.  I took copious notes, read every word in the large binder and got stuck.  I was distressed to discover my behavioral tendencies were in conflict with and my desired environment not present in my current workplace.  Ah ha!  The question became what could I do about these basic issues.

Within six months an opportunity appeared and I pursued it.  I’m now leading the change I’ve always wanted to see in public libraries.  I have a small, but diverse, skilled staff of professionals and paraprofessionals.  I see my role as one of leading and mentoring with vision and mission while encouraging professional development and supporting the staff to find their own best ways to realize their ideas.

A very special outcome has been the forging of wonderful working relationships within the library, network, region and state.  Also, I’m especially fortunate to have a very like-minded colleague as part of the library staff who was a mentor at the Library Leadership Institute.  As someone recently remarked, “we are a force.”  There is a wonderful push and pull in our discussions.  We have imagined, planned and executed more in the last six months, than some could do in a decade.  Every workday is a mixture of challenge, learning and pleasure as we strive together to create something we can’t quite describe, but can feel.

It is all one.  The colleague who first shared his experiences of Library Leadership introduced me to a book on “how the elegant wisdom of the Tao Te Ching can transform the workplace from a source of stress into a source of creativity and joy” has continued as my mentor and friend.  I mentioned this source in my application to the Library Leadership Institute in the section on philosophy of leadership.  This week my like-minded colleague quoted from the same source and translator in an email to me:

"Act without doing;
work without effort.
Think of the small as large
and the few as many.
Confront the difficult
while it is still easy;
accomplish the great task
by a series of small acts.
The Master never reaches for the great;
thus she achieves greatness.
When she runs into a difficulty,
she stops and gives herself to it.
She doesn't cling to her own comfort;
thus problems are no problem for her."
- Tao Te Ching. Written by Lao-tzu. Translated by Stephen Mitchell, 2006.