Short talk on management and leadership as a career in libraries. Observations from my own career on what I've learnt along the way.

1. My weird career
Where & when
What I learned about leadership
@malbooth
I used these slides during a 10 minute talk I gave to about 50 librarians from ALIA Sydney on
12 easy steps to library management.
These are just my observations and recollections. They are not meant to be a roadmap for
everyone.
It is based on my own career and as I said on the night what I’ve done is quickly run through
my major career moves noting what I can remember learning from each. With each of those
moves I’ve provided rough dates so you can see the chronological progression, and I’ve also
numbered everything for those who like to know how many steps left in the 12.
Here we go then, mind the step . . .

2. Part One
Royal Military College (unbelievable but true): Middle Ages
Don’t eat first & don’t run: it panics the troops.
Army artillery & JIO: the Napoleonic years
You don’t know everything. Learning from those you lead.
JIO/DIO: the Yes Minister years
How to research & quickly sort out what matters.
AWM: the Peter O’Toole years (early 1960s)
How to create. Trusted. Vision. Patience. Breaking rules.
Being yourself. Being vulnerable.
UTS: the Twitter years (Web2.0+)
Juggling. Trusting. Vision. Co-design. Fun @ work.
Promotion. Imagination. Passion + realists.
JIO was the Joint Intelligence Organisation. It became the Defence Intelligence Organisation. I
started there as a Captain as a military desk officer and ended up as a civilian as the
Economic Adviser to the Director and Director of the Defence Economics Analysis area.
Eventually we both realised that it would be best if we parted ways.
So, after about 15 months on an executive development program which was an active
learning scheme involving three placements in a museum, a government department (writing
a paper on why we should not regulate the internet) and with a private ICT company, I wound
up back at the museum and stayed there through two ice ages.
In the museum (the Australian War Memorial) I was trusted with a national collection
(Australian records of war) and set about digitising as many as we could. I worked for a
museum Director who had a very clear vision for the institution. I was eventually trusted to
put together a major exhibition on the war years of TE Lawrence and the Light Horse in the
Middle East in WW1 and by and large the museum and my team allowed me to be myself as a
person and a manager. I didn’t pretend to be invulnerable and found that my team (mostly
librarians, curators and archivists) became quite protective of me. I enjoyed my time there
and left with happy memories.
At UTS I am juggling several major projects and have my finger in many other smaller pies.
We have a vision for our future but all the details are not yet set in concrete so we have the
chance to use some co-design or participatory design methods and I am busy learning more
about those right now. We encourage fun at work and we actively promote our initiatives and
share what we find is working for us with others. Imagination is valued at UTS and usually
given a decent run. I can get pretty passionate about stuff, but I am not always right, so it is
good to have a few realists around me who are not afraid to tell me when they think I am
getting too enthusiastic about just plain dumb ideas.

3. Other stuff
Queenscliff SLSC: the 1980s & 1990s
Don’t stuff people around. The attractive power of energy.
Coaching swimmers/triathletes: the last 400 years
Observation. Listening. Imagination. The power of praise.
Swimming, riding, running & yoga
Being in the moment. Time to think.
General observations about some library leaders
Marketing, financial management & leadership are not the same
Minutes & meetings are not as important as people
The ACO has a GM & an Artistic Director
There is too much fear of the new
Obsession with control & slowness to (re)act
As a manager I think I’ve also learnt a lot that I apply at work in other areas of my life.
I spent a lot of time with Queenscliff Surf Life Saving Club in Sydney in the late 1980s and
early 1990s and motivating members of a voluntary organisation to complete their patrol
hours (so they could compete in carnivals) is an interesting experience. One of the main
characters there motivated people by sheer force of his personality and the positive energy
that surrounded him. People just loved to be around him and would always follow his
example.
From many years of coaching I’ve seen the power of observation and of praise. Both can really
have a big effect on the performance of an athlete and both are skills that can be used at
work. Sometimes management is a lot like coaching (not that wanky life-coaching rubbish).
I guess many of my athletic pursuits are quite solitary when not on group runs or rides. They
give me much needed time to think that isn’t always available at work or elsewhere because
of the many distractions. Yoga went a step further than that in making me more aware of the
importance of being in the moment and bringing the mind and body together.
My comments about some library leaders were meant to stimulate debate at the session, and
most were recognised but people didn’t really pick up on the suggestion to split general
management and artistic or creative leadership (like the Australian Chamber Orchestra do). I
think there is a lot in that and our executive tends to work in that way at UTS Library (even
though the roles are not permamently set in that way).
That’s all!