DIY Creative Leadership

A few days ago, a friend of mine asked for my thoughts on going back to school to get an MBA.  (I’m staring at a bottle of lotion on my desk so, for the sake of convenience, let’s call my friend “Johnson”.)  Johnson had always thought about getting an MBA and now, after earning an MLS , working in the field for a bit, and seeing possibilities for making a difference at the administrative level, Johnson is again considering going back to school to earn a MBA.  Hoping to one day direct a library, but not wanting to be ignorant of business models of administration and management, Johnson asked: Do you have any suggested sources I should check for more information?

I love questions like these.  Someone wants my opinion and I have a chance to speak freely, one-on-one.  In reviewing my reply to Johnson, two things become evident right away.  First, I put less emphasis on degree-based education and suggested Johnson look at other kinds of training: non-profit management certification programs, and leadership training institutes, for examples.  Second, I suggested Johnson begin to craft a personal vision of the profession, of the Association, and of the ideal local institution.  “Start crafting that vision, break it down into smaller projects, find a way to develop those projects now as pilots on smaller scales, and continue to hone your leadership skills in the meantime,” I said.

I even advised against reading the library literature.  Right now, I spend a lot of my time reading two nursing journals pretty regularly: The Journal of Nursing Administration (JONA) and The Journal for Nurses in Staff Development (JNSD).  I added their TOC thingy to my feed reader so, once a month, I can browse the TOC and see what’s new, of interest, and potentially relevant.  It’s very simple.  Recently, I found a short article in JONA called “Unusual Topics, Essential Lessons” by Maryann F. Fralic.  It’s a short summary of six books useful for ongoing professional development that “meet the standard of being essential developmental resources” for leaders.  Here are the titles and summaries of her summaries:

• Goldsmith, M.  What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful.  New York, NY: Hyperion; 2007.  Describes bad habits (like feeling the need to add a comment to every discussion) not as deficits, but as challenges of leadership behavior.
• Gladwell, M. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.  New York, NY: Little,  Brown & Co.; 2005.  Gladwell’s lesson here is that “decisions made quickly can be as effective as those made with much introspection and deliberation”.
• Patterson, K.  Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior.  New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 2005.  Designed to assess your own crucial confrontation skills and includes guidelines, self-assessments, and case studies.
• Kolditz, T.  In Extremis Leadership: Leading as if Your Life Depended on It.  San Francisco, CA: Wiley & Sons Inc; 2007.  The author describes how extreme life-and-death leadership skills provide lessons applicable to public, private, and social environments.  Sounds….extreme.
• Luntz, F.  Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear.  New York, NY: Hyperion; 2007.  Key message: words matter.
• Allen, D.  Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.  New York, NY: Penguin Putnam Inc; 2001.  Have more energy.  Be more relaxed.  Get more accomplished.  Sounds lofty, but according to Fralic, the book delivers.

Okay, not bad, not bad.  None of these books, however, were on the list I sent Johnson.  I sent a few items off the top of my head, but if I had taken my time and had it to do over again, my list would look something like this:

• Kaner, S.  The Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making.  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; 2007.
• Godin, S. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. New York, NY: Penguin; 2008.
• Kawasaki, G. Reality Check. Portfolio, 2008.
• Florida, R. Rise of the Creative Class.  Basic Books, 2002.
• Schon, D. The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action.  Basic Books, 1983.
• Carr, D.  The Promise of Cultural Institutions. AltaMira, 2003.
• Anderson, G.  Reinventing the Museum. AltaMira, 2004.  (Anything with John Cotton Dana is worth a read)

What would be on your Do-It-Yourself Leadership reading list?  Anything you’d like to share?  I’m sure there’s lots of good stuff out there…

-Megan P.

ACRL Approves Petition to Create Residency Interest Group

There is going to be an official press release from ACRL next Tuesday, but I thought I would go ahead and share some good news here.

Last Sunday, I received a memo from Mary Ellen Davis, ACRL’s Executive Director, regarding a petition to create an Interest Group within ACRL.  Here’s an excerpt from the memo:

I am pleased to inform you that the ACRL Executive Committee, at its October 24, 2008, meeting in Chicago, approved the establishment of a Residency Interest Group with the following statement of purpose:

To support the creation, implementation, management, and promotion of library residency programs though a) the centralization of information regarding program availability; b) the creation of core competencies, evaluation, and assessment standards; c) the overall advancement of the quality of resident education through inter-collegiate collaboration…The ACRL Board is very excited to welcome the Residency Interest Group as the very first Interest Group created under its new bylaws!

Sincerely,
Mary Ellen Davis
ACRL Executive Director

This is a big step forward for us. Not only will we have an official home within a nationally recognized association, but we will also be given webspace on their server (expect this blog to migrate and get an overhaul), a new listerv on Sympa, meeting space at Midwinter and Annual, and some funds to support programs.

Very first Interest Group under its new bylaws = Very cool.

-Megan P.