By Dennie Heye, Europe Chapter, Petroleum & Energy Resources Division

Very often, leadership is considered to be the same as management. The simplest difference between those two terms is that you can be appointed a manager, but can only become a leader. A manager can only be effective when management techniques are complemented by leadership skills.

If you are not a manager, you can still be a leader – being a leader is about being able to influence teams to work towards a common goal. As a leader, you do not have employees but followers, who believe in your leadership to actually “lead the way.” There are many different kinds of leadership, and each of us should be able to find a style that fits us.

As an information professional, you can be a leader in the information management discipline, in your organization or your community. In my career I have was lucky to work with several leaders who have influenced my work and personality. A good leader inspires you to do great things and facilitates the road towards a goal.

Being a leader is a competency that is gained over time. Below are three insights and techniques that have helped me expand my leadership capabilities.

Enthusiasm

Nothing is more contagious than enthusiasm. If you encounter someone who is clearly excited about a new idea and simply radiates enthusiasm, it is hard to resist sharing that enthusiasm. Enthusiasm helps others to build willingness to change, to work harder, cooperate, study or make decisions.

You can stimulate enthusiasm by telling others what the ideal solution would be, what it takes to get there and how people will feel when the ideal solution is reached. Genuinely describe how you feel about the proposed solution, why it makes you feel good and interact with people to share those feelings and build enthusiasm.

Trust

If you are leading others, trust them to do as you agreed – give them time and space to do it their way. Let them gain your trust by showing results but achieving them in their particular way. Try and steer on the outcome of peoples’ actions, rather than the way others achieve the outcome. If you are like me, you will find it hard as a perfectionist that others do not do things they way you would do them. So sometimes I refrain myself from ‘trying to help the other,’ as I know my trusting the other will result in better results in the long run. If you do not trust others to perform their work, they will frustrated and unmotivated.

Challenge

If you have young kids, you know the period in their lives when they keep asking “why?”. They will start asking simple questions and then keep asking for the reasons why for every answer: “Why do cars drive on the road?” “Otherwise they would collide with the pedestrians” “Why?” Etcetera. Kids are curious by nature and do not accept things just because. That curious nature is still inside the adult of us and should be used more often. We will often feel that asking ‘why’ will make others thing we are not smart or “don’t get it.” Wrong. Challenge established procedures or new ideas by asking ‘why’ a couple of times after every explanation. It is very clarifying to see how easy it is to get to the bottom of things!

Dennie Heye is Global Knowledge Manager at Shell International. He is also a member of SLA’s Information Outlook Advisory Committee and the International Relations Chair for the Petroleum & Energy Resources Division.

by Laura Woods, Europe Chapter, Legal and Leadership & Management Divisions

I’m still a fairly new librarian, but thinking about how much I’ve learned just over the past four years makes my head spin! I would never have guessed, when I applied for my first library job, just what a fast-moving career I was entering. To me, being Future Ready means continually learning and adapting to new challenges.

If you’re at the start of your career, and the above sounds like a daunting prospect, here’s a few things I’ve learned that I wish I’d known when I was starting out:

1. Develop a network

Librarians are helpful people, so get to know as many as you can! Have a look for SLA chapters in your area, and just turn up and start talking to people. If there’s not much local to you, or if you’re more comfortable chatting online, try joining an online network like LISNPN (the LIS New Professionals Network) to get to know other people in the same position as you. Whether you do it online or off, building a network of fellow information professionals gives you an invaluable source of support, advice, and friendship. I’m a natural introvert with a dislike of asking people for help, so when I started off as a librarian my instinct was to keep my head down and get on with things by myself. It wasn’t until I started getting to know people within SLA and other professional bodies, and getting involved with committee work that meant I had to ask other people for help and advice, that I realised that a) no one was going to think less of me for needing help; and b) sometimes other people needed my help too! Developing a network is about building reciprocal relationships, and offering help as well as asking for it. It’s easy to assume that as a new professional you have nothing useful to offer those with more experience, but you will have skills and insights that other people lack – even if you don’t know it yet!

2. Say yes to everything you can

There are tons of awards and sponsorships available for LIS students and new professionals. I first became involved with SLA when I received an Early Career Conference Award from SLA Europe, co-sponsored by the Leadership and Management Division. However, I very nearly didn’t apply for that award – mainly because I thought that there would be so much competition, I wouldn’t stand a chance! I applied anyway, on the basis that it was worth a try, and was thrilled when I won. The lesson I learned from that was never to rule myself out of anything. Sure, there was a lot of competition, but if I hadn’t applied, I definitely wouldn’t have won. I’ve tried to carry that over into every other area of my professional life: I never say no to something, and thus count myself out of the running, unless I have a very good reason for not saying yes.

3. Everything is worth learning about

When I was at library school, there was a module on libraries in different sectors. Each week, a guest speaker from a different sector would come in to talk about their job and opportunities in their sector. I was pretty certain at that point that I wanted to work in law libraries, so while I was keen to attend the week a law firm librarian was the guest speaker, I didn’t have much enthusiasm for the rest of the module. However, after attending the first couple of lectures and realising that there were so many career paths in librarianship that I’d never even heard of, let alone considered, I was so glad to have the opportunity to hear from and talk to people in those many and varied jobs. As it turns out, I have stayed in law libraries since graduating; however, I still take every opportunity I can to learn about aspects of librarianship that have nothing to do with my current role. I take the view that even if I do stay in law libraries for the rest of my career, having a broader view of the profession as a whole, the issues librarians in other sectors face and how they deal with them, can only improve my own knowledge and strategic thinking, and thus improve my future readiness.

Those are just a few ways I’ve learned to be future ready; what would you add?

Laura Woods graduated from City University London with an MSc in Library and Information Studies in January 2010, and is currently working as an Information Services Adviser at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. She has been involved with SLA Europe since winning one of the Early Career Conference Awards in 2009, and attending the 2009 Annual Conference in Washington DC. Laura blogs about her professional development activities at Organising Chaos, and you can find her on Twitter as @WoodsieGirl. She is interested in networking with her peers, particularly fellow new professionals, and in innovative ways to promote library services and the information profession.

by David Cappoli, Southern California Chapter, Academic, Business & Finance, Information Technology, Leadership & Management Divisions

Even if I have just awoken from a long sleep; consumed a rich, dark chocolate bar followed by a Mountain Dew; and, had the din of my daughter’s anime videos assaulting my ears, when one of my cats melts on my lap in a curl of fur and legs, I am in a near perfect zone of comfort. Nothing can keep the warmth, soft fur, and purring, from combining to be a harmless but powerful narcotic lulling me into a contented state. At home and professionally, we all have our different comfort zones. And we generally wish to stay right where we are when we are feeling, well, nice and comfortable.

But professionally, while we all have comfort zones in which we prefer to work, we need to take on challenges that push at those boundaries of easy contentment. I am not advocating that we work in environments in which we are ill at ease. I am, though, promoting that we take chances when we might otherwise shy away from them because they represent the untried and unknown.  To be ready for the future, we need to drop that wariness and embrace a confidence that makes us willing to investigate options, broaden our skills, and constantly learn new approaches to solving problems. When asked to take on something new, yes, we can fret, but then we need to get beyond any dismay and start moving forward.

As librarians and information professionals, we have a strong service orientation that does not always bleed into a personal assurance when confronted with the untested. The inclination may be to say, “No, I’ve too much to handle at this time.”  Or, “That’s not my responsibility.” Whereas, we show our worth by responding, “I don’t know much about that, but let me do some exploring, and I’ll get back to you.” With this answer we’ve stated that we are not well-versed in the topic put to us, but we are more than willing to take up the challenge.

While we can search the literature and browse web sites in search of answers, we have our professional networks that can offer insight as to the best way to advance.  And we have SLA’s 23 Things, vast libraries at our disposal, webinars, continuing education opportunities, etc., all of which can make us better.

Moving out of our comfort zones not only enhances our own abilities, but our value as well.  And it is the only way to thrive in an ever-changing present and future.

David Cappoli is the digital resources librarian at the UCLA department of Information Studies. He is former president of the SLA Southern California chapter (2008) and was the chapter’s treasurer from 2004 – 2006. David was a member of the 2009 Centennial Commission of SLA, and a member of the 2009 Conference Planning Committee. Prior to coming to UCLA, he was a librarian at the LA Times, and was research database coordinator with Glasgow Polytechnic in Scotland.

by Rebecca Jones

A few weeks ago Jane Dysart, Kim Silk and I were fortunate to hear Daniel Pink talk at the Rotman School of Management Life-Long Learning Conference for Leaders, ‘How to Get Your Business Back to Reality.” His latest book, Drive, bases “the surprising things that motivate us” on 40 years of human motivation research.  It wasn’t his discussion about what does or doesn’t motivate us that caught my attention, although that is fascinating and worth a blog post(!); it was his discussion about the need for organizations to challenge and re-think base assumptions on which they are building their strategies.

I’m increasingly concerned that that the library sector and information profession must do just that: challenge, re-frame and quite possibly re-think our base assumptions and the practices and approaches built on those assumptions. Pink re labels assumptions “orthodoxies”.  Labelling and viewing what we, as a sector and profession view to be truths as “orthodoxies” rather than assumptions forces us to see the deep-rooted concreteness of these “truths”.  It is these deep roots that make it somewhat painful to question the validity of these orthodoxies today and, more importantly, tomorrow and into the future.

I laugh, both because laughter is healthy and because for a profession that has an orthodoxy (yes,  a truth – an assumption!)  of finding and delivering answers to any question, we aren’t really too comfortable asking and considering questions about our practices, approaches, strategies or organizations. I don’t think we’re really any different than any other sector; wrestling with those types of questions is akin to wrestling itself – invigorating for some, uncomfortable for others and the outcome is unknown.  And, yet, to be future ready we must challenge those orthodoxies and ensure our practices, perceptions and approaches are ready for the future – whatever that future may hold. I may not like wrestling, but I absolutely hate the thought of seeing the library sector or the information profession perceived as irrelevant in the future, so I’m willing to be uncomfortable and to engage in the challenging discussions and re-framing required.

SLA is designing its future. Next week the Board will begin considering the assumptions and “orthodoxies” held true by an association that’s more than 100 years old. SLA’s future for the next 100 years will be designed by standing in that future as Jane Dysart challenged the association to do in Information Outlook in 1993 when she was SLA President.  Jane has always questioned orthodoxies, often without even realizing she’s doing it, because she is naturally curious. She has taught me so much about the value – and fun! – of curiousity.  Curiousity leads to discoveries. We need to be curious about what type of association will be indispensable to an indispensable sector and an indispensable profession. We need to ask questions about what that association will “look like”, how it will enable its members and how members will enable it. How will the association differ from other information and library sector associations?  Will members come together at an annual conference in the future? Why? How? What services will so delight members that they’ll prize the association above all others?  Curiousity rarely, if ever, “killed the cat” and it will help us discover the questions, re-frame our assumptions, and design the future we want, need and will delight in.

Get involved in SLA’s Strategic Vision Project. Stand in the future & see the SLA that will be indispensable for you – and contribute your voice here.( http://futureready365.sla.org/05/27/sla-strategic-vision-project/)

Jane Dysart, Juanita Richardson & Kimberly Silk at SLA 2010

Rebecca is a partner with Dysart & Jones Associates. She is the former director continuing education at University of Toronto’s iSchool, and still an instructor & member of the Advisory Board.   Early in her career she was incredibly lucky to work for 14 years in large corporations in managerial roles in libraries, records management, human resources and IT. She’s an SLA Fellow and, with her wonderful Competencies Committee colleagues, a recipient of SLA Leadership Award.