Demonstrate professional leadership and communication skills

Introduction

Warren Bennis (2009), American scholar and organizational consultant, once said we cannot function without leaders, that no matter how collaborative a team is the orchestra still needs a conductor. Library and information science professionals (LISP), due to the contrasting environments, cultures, and philosophies they work in, require mindful, approachable leaders. If not, standards would be neglected, budgets unbalanced, and all manner of things will metaphorically burn.

In the MLIS course INFO 204, Information Professions, I had identified four matters LIS leaders should learn to administrate: ethical disagreements, personnel retention in face of budget cuts, prioritizing team cohesion, and building teams between so many diverse professional opinions.

Ethics

Ethics are principles used to inform decision making. These values can be one’s own, or shared with an in-group, as one does when part of an organization (Garner, 2018). People often struggle to reconcile what they believe is moral and right with the needs of the group.

For example, a librarian might not feel it appropriate to hurry some adult learners through an afternoon of library instruction, but other staff may put budget and time management concerns over just a few users’ difficulties. The librarian might cause tension by deviating from the lesson plan to help struggling learners, or instead bring the team closer over meeting a patron’s extraordinary need. This is an illustration of the struggle between ethics of care –treating others like you would like to be treated- and utilitarianism –needs of the many outweigh those of the few-; would the other team members prefer to be shown what they can improve on more, or continue operating in ways that keeps the teaching easier for most of them?

LIS leaders should continually update themselves on their teams’ professional needs in order to resolve such situations where each side believes they are doing what is right.

Budget and personnel cuts

A budget sets aside money to areas of need within a specific time period (Jones, 2018). While cutting services and programs, and delaying purchasing new resources or developing existing ones is painful enough, having to lay off an employee is possibly the most difficult. But when performance objectives are not met, an LIS leader must reconcile this less-than output of services with letting staff go. This will often require long- and short-term performance assessments.

Team cohesion

It takes an emotionally intelligent person (Albright, 2008) to recognize and bring people and their knowledge together to achieve a collective vision. There are four types of this knowledge (Olaisen & Revang, 2018). Expert knowledge is from education and practical experience, like what a taxonomist knows about classifying terms or an archivist in storing records. Working knowledge is from being familiar with specific organizations or worksites, like an office manager or a database’s security programmer. Recognizing or “nodding” knowledge is used by professionals acquainted with the situation at hand, like a librarian chairing a district-wide science fair. And a combination of the above, known as a holistic professional knowledge, is what a leader requires to understand and ably direct team members together to achieve collective success.

Management vs. leadership

Management and leadership are not the same. The former is about controlling resources and decision-making to ensure results are achieved. The latter is creating a vision, and motivating and persuading people to contribute (Weathersby, 1999). LISPs further characterize and relate these concepts according to their unique cultural backgrounds and views of their professional environments. Leaders must recognize the possibility of their organizations expressing such diverse contexts, and tailor their stewardship styles to communicate a common ground. This way, team members will be encouraged to connect over what skills and hopes they bring to the organizations’ visions, and together achieve them.

Evidence

INFO 204 – Information Professions – Ethics case study: Your religion or your job

I did this ethics case study for INFO 204, Information Professions. The situation, from Libraries Unlimited, was about Rosemary’s, an academic library’s interim acting director, dilemma over whether to bend library policy to allow an employee, Simon, time off for a religious retreat when he had not yet completed his probationary period.

Lois and Everett, deputy directors, were against it on deontological grounds; letting Simon go was unethical because it was against the rules, and could set a precedent allowing other policies to be ignored due to personal religious beliefs. Rosemary was more utilitarian, viewing the probationary period policy as unethical and should be revised because it had railroaded others before.

Of my two suggested actions, I preferred the one where Rosemary should call for an amendment to the fiddly policy, and give Simon his time off. This would strengthen his dedication to the job, and change a rule that was no longer ethical, based on the library staff’s needs.

This case study is evidence I understand how ethics can be applied to solve issues in LIS settings.

INFO 204 – Information Professions – HR case study

For INFO 204, Information Professions, I wrote this train of thought to embody a library manager deciding who to cull from her staff because of budget cuts. The brief was to discuss the decisions behind whether to keep or lay-off each candidate; their profiles were provided by the instructor.

An overall gripe I gave my manager-persona was that some people, over the years, do not remain the professional they once were at their job interview, or would not take advantage of development opportunities to grow with the library profession like others on staff (Gogh, R., Haller, B., DiStefano, D., & Mackenzie, M. L., 2018).

The candidates I kept had youthfully agreeable manners and interacted well with patrons. The one I decided to let go, Lauren, was no longer as professional as when she had started 15 years ago, was the highest paid, and had often been unpleasant to patrons.

This embodiment of a library manager is evidence I understand that though cutting staff is emotionally exhausting, it must and can be done well with the needs of the organization and its users in mind.

INFO 204 – Information Professions – Prioritizing team cohesion

In this assignment, I related my experience with team cohesion for INFO 204, Information Professions. I started by citing Albright (2008) and Olaisen & Revang (2016) to explain how an emotionally intelligent leader who prioritizes team cohesion can bring their team to achieving a collective vision.

I mentioned three leaders who had recognized my needs and provided to fulfill them for the sake of team cohesion. The most significant was my shift manager at a coffee shop. She knew what skills I lacked, so made sure I had opportunity to train more in them. After a few months, she rarely managed me, allowing my natural trouble-shooting skills to slide me to any station that needed assistance. This way, my other colleagues were able to do what they needed to keep the shift running.

I concluded by mentioning that of the LLAMA’s 14 leadership competencies, team-building focused on helping everyone feel supported should be a leader’s top aim.

This piece of evidence proves, in having worked under capable leadership and studied peer-reviewed LIS literature on the subject, I understand what leaders can do to build cohesive, goal-achieving teams.

INFO 204 – Information Professions – Leadership Infographic

I created this leadership infographic for INFO 204, Information Professions, to discuss librarian leaders and their LIS literature-identified skills.

I analyzed the information and population samples of LISPs from six peer-reviewed papers: public and private universities in Malaysia, academic libraries in Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Pakistan, American health sciences library directors at public research universities, and knowledge management leadership. They all agreed it is important that a LIS leader knows how to build a team.

To do so, though, they must also recognize the infographic’s secondary emphasis, that the international and multidisciplinary LISP sample’s experiences had led them to understand manager and leaders have different roles and goals. Without incorporating this, an LIS leader would be unable to build a common ground for their teams to connect.

This infographic is evidence I understand and can effectively communicate about LIS leadership skills.

Conclusion

LIS leaders have a lot to keep track of while conducting that orchestra. Between putting out fires like ethical dilemmas, budget cuts, and uncoordinated teams, it takes individuals with deity-level patience and mental strength to not slip into controlling, management-type behaviors, and remain clear in communicating vision and motivation. Understanding my leaders need support as much as they support the ways I contribute, I will aim to check in regularly with direct supervisors, and a few times a year with department heads. To prepare for when I have the chance to lead my own teams, I will study more Warren Bennis and subscribe to a professional LIS leadership journal.

References

Albright, K. (2018). Leadership skills for today’s global information landscape. In Hirsh, S. (Ed.), Information services today: an introduction (2^nd ed., pp. 465-475). Rowman and Littlefield.

Bennis, W. (2009). On becoming a leader (4^th ed.). Basic Books.

Garnar, M. L. (2018). Information ethics. In Hirsh, S. (Ed.), Information services today: an introduction (2^nd ed., pp. 366-377). Rowman and Littlefield.

Gogh, R., Haller, B., DiStefano, D., & Mackenzie, M. L. (2018). Managing Personnel. In Hirsh, S. (Ed.), Information services today: an introduction (2^nd ed., pp. 266-277). Rowman and Littlefield.

Jones, S.F. (2018). Managing Budgets. In Hirsh, S. (Ed.), Information services today: an introduction (2^nd ed., pp. 256-265). Rowman and Littlefield.

Olaisen, J., & Revang, O. (2018). Exploring the performance of tacit knowledge: How to make ordinary people deliver extraordinary results in teams. International Journal of Information Management, 43, 295–304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.08.016

Weathersby, G.B. (March, 1999). Leadership vs. management. Management Review, 88(3), 5.

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