Survive and Thrive as a Library Director - Part 1

1. How to Survive and
Thrive

2. 1 academic librarian
8 public library directors
(some veterans, some new to the
role)
1 aspiring public library director
who has been an acting director

3. Goal for today
Meeting #1—it’s all about YOU first

4. Groundrules

5. Who Are You?
And how does that impact my
leadership?

6. “Get over it.”

7. Being too introverted
(I) or being too much
of a feeler (F) can be
especially
challenging.

8. Being different

9. Poll time!
Being different

10. Poll time!
Optimist or pessimist?

11. The pros and cons of each

12. It’s not too late to
change your mind!

13. Whom do you want to be?

14. You’re only as good as what
you’ll do next
What are you planning next?

15. What do you have to be?
• Politically savvy
• Ahead of the curve
• Outside your building
• Your organization’s customer

16. Others to add?

17. Identifying your
supporters

18. Common
vulnerabilities
• Math abilities
• Public speaking
• Writing
• Unfamiliar territory
• Listening
• How you appear

19. Others to add?

20. Coping skills
• Begin the day right
• Shed negative influences
• Surround yourself with the right people
• Control of what comes at you
• Know when you’re at your best
• Take all your vacation

21. More coping skills
• Delegate what doesn’t use your
talents (e.g., building
maintenance)
• Scream (so only YOU hear it)
• Laugh
• Store up positive messages

22. My daily boosters
• No sugar before 6 p.m./lots of
protein
• Reading positive writers, e.g.
Seth Godin, Bruce Kasanoff
• Knowing the news with the
Skimm and Daily Pnut
• Checking in with positive,
realistic people

23. Yours?

24. My annual boosters
• Conference selection
• Something for myself—buy
flowers, get a massage, have
your car detailed
• Learning something new
• Vacation choice
• Something for others—visiting
elderly friend, donations, talking
to recent arrivals

25. Yours?

26. You’re on stage
• People are paying attention to
you differently
• You have to add preparation
time to your day
• You’re held to a higher standard
• Others want to be proud of you

27. How do I go from
theory to action?

28. Possible actions:
• Identify a professional role model
• Have professional photo done
• Update/sign up for LinkedIn
• Google yourself and make sure you’re
proud of what you see

29. More actions
• Write something so people have
tangible evidence of your
thinking
• Have a great business card
regardless of the official one
• Make a personal improvement
plan (sleep, eating, breathing,
reading, listening, learning,
exercise)

30. What would you like
to add that’s worked
for you?

32. Next week--Staff
• Send questions/topics to
address by Wednesday at 5 pm

33. More powerful than you know
by Seth Godin
I think that's always been a little
true, but now it's a lot true.
Everyone reading this has an
enormous amount of power.
Cultural power, mostly. The ability
to speak up, to paint a picture of a
different way, to share words and
images with those that care to hear
them.

34. But also the power of connection.
The power to find people who need
to know each other and help make
magic happen.
When we combine leadership (the
leadership of ideas) with
organization (the organization of
people) we create the fabric of our
culture, and our culture determines
our future.

35. It's far easier to worry and gripe
about insufficient authority, about
those that would seek to slow us
down, disrespect us or silence us.
But we live in a moment where
each of us has the power of
influence. What will you do with it?

36. When your job is in reaction mode,
you're allowing the outside world to
decide what happens next. You are
freed from the hard work of setting
an agenda, but in exchange, you
dance when the market says
dance. "I did the best I could with
what was thrown at me..."

37. Finding the guts to move up the
ladder is hard. When you decide to
set the agenda and when you take
control over your time and your
effort, the responsibility for what
happens next belongs to you.