The role of CPD in your future : or musical chairs – where will I be when the music stops? Author: Pauline Corrigan
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Presentation at 'Filling the Empty Chairs : what I need to know in preparing myself for succession opportunities', Academic and National Library Training Co-operative briefing, April 4th 2008, Trinity College Dublin. 2008-04-04.
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The role of CPD in your future : or musical chairs – where will I be when the music stops? Author: Pauline Corrigan
- 1. The role of CPD in your future Or Musical chairs – where will I be when the music stops?
- 2. Are YOU in the right place today • I am serious about my career • I want to get ahead • I don’t mind leaving this comfort zone • I like what I am doing now, but I want more responsibility
- 3. Are YOU in the right place today • I have a plan, but I’m not sure if it is the right one • I see opportunities up ahead and I want to be ready • I don’t necessarily want to be a manager but I want to succeed
- 4. Whose responsibility is it? mine
- 5. Tools to help you to get there • Continued Professional Development (CPD) • Coaching/Mentoring • Competitive edge • Clear goals and objectives • Communication skills • Changing chairs!
- 6. And also • Emotional intelligence – Self awareness – Self-regulation – Motivation – Empathy – Social skill
- 7. CPD definition • “The systematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of knowledge and skills and the development of personal qualities necessary for the execution of professional and technical duties throughout the practitioner’s working life” [Library Assoc, 1992]
- 8. • “Success in the future depends ultimately on the commitment of managers and individuals, expressed as – Acceptance of responsibility for developing themselves and others” – [from ISNTO vision statement, 2003]
- 9. What does CPD cover? • Workplace induction(m) • Job exchanges (o) • New skills training(m/o) • Professional reading (o) • Career development(o) • Participation in professional • Mentoring (o) seminars, conferences (o) • Further education (o) • Study tours (o) • Management skills (o) • Group visits (o) • Leadership skills (o) • Legal framework (m) • Networking (o)
- 10. 2006 survey of academic librarians Directors Senior Managers Assistant Librarians Advocacy Project Project management Management Strategic planning Leadership Marketing Negotiating skills Strategic planning Team building Spatial design HR management Knowledge management Marketing Negotiating skills Strategic Planning
- 12. CPD participation Activity ALs Senior Managers Attended training course 79% 82% Attended conference/seminar 77% 91% Read professional literature 74% 91% Subscribed to online lists 74% 86% Attended ANLTC course 64% 73% Gave presentation 30% 77%
- 13. Training needs analysis – in the professional world - In my profile • where are the gaps?
- 14. How can I brush up my skills/ fill the gaps? • Managerial skills – Generic: IPA, IMI, MBA,MBS – Library specific: CILIP, Frye Leadership Institute, SCONUL/UCISA /Leadership Foundation “Future Leaders Programme” ARL Leadership Development – Leadership Institutes
- 15. What if management is not for me? • Higher Diploma in Teaching and Learning • Higher Degrees or Diplomas • Short courses “refresher” style • Short courses on emerging developments • Attendance at conferences • Membership of specialist and non-specialist groups
- 16. What if management is not for me, cont. • Expert in my field • Authority in this specialism • Measurement of success? – Giving papers – Developing new ways of working – Doing research – Publishing – Attracting project funding – Working with academic partners Academic rewards? Recognition?
- 17. Coaching/Mentoring • Formal or informal • Networking • Succession planning
- 18. Competitive Edge • Awareness of emerging technologies • Awareness of the marketplace – What have they got that I haven’t got? – What have I got that they don’t have? • Professional reading • Listening to the “new generation”!
- 19. Clear goals and objectives • The Plan • Sideways moves? • Uncomfortable moves? • Taking risks? • Plan B!
- 20. Communication skills • What do employers want to know about me? • What are they looking for? • What do I know about myself? • How can I persuade them that I am the one they need?
- 21. Changing Chairs • Filling out your cv • Gaining experience in another area • Involvement with projects “outside the mainstream” • Temporary placement • Work exchanges
- 22. And finally “The systematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of knowledge and skills and the development of personal qualities necessary for the execution of professional and technical duties throughout the practitioner’s working life” [Library Assoc, 1992] …”and into a happy and fulfilling retirement “ [Pauline Corrigan, 2008]
Editor's Notes
- As long as you are well prepared for the opportunity – you can give it your best shot. Sometimes the music stops too soon; “if only the job was advertised when I have finished my ….. “ But it never hurts to try! If your cv can demonstrate that you have followed a path of continuous professional development from the start of your career, that will enhance your chances when the music stops.
- The journey is a challenging one, and not for the faint hearted! It may be that you will have to take sideways or maybe even backward steps to re-focus your career. It may require relocation, a drop in salary, or learning new skills. It may require leaving a job you find satisfying for one that initially will not seem as satisfying. There is a huge personal investment of time, effort and finance in developing your career, as you are very aware. There may be other constraints on your time, which may mean deferring your plans until a more appropriate time, it may be that your workload is simply too great to consider taking on additional study or professional activity, but at the back of your mind, continue to keep your focus on your future career path, look for other opportunities which may bring you closer to your goals.
- There are significant opportunities ahead in Irish academic libraries in the next twelve months, as a number of retirements will open up opportunities at senior level, and subsequently at middle management levels. No doubt that is the reason for the full house today! I hope these thoughts will help you on the way to your chosen goal! I am probably the latest to change chairs, having done so just three weeks ago! For those who want to succeed in specialist areas, the opportunities are fewer, but they are there nonetheless, and I will focus on those opportunities a little later.
- The person responsible for your readiness when the music stops is YOU! The organisation you work for can support and assist you, but at the end of the day, the responsibility is with the person who wants to get ahead. You need to find a role model, a mentor, you need to study the habits of successful people! You need to invest in yourself… Most universities in Ireland are well into Performance Management and development, which will assist staff in meeting their goals and objectives by highlighting areas for development, however, unreasonable expectations of financial support for CPD activities can be a downside to this initiative. Government pays lip service to investing in people, but we all know that budgets are suffering severe constraints, and staff development budgets are no exception. There is an onus on us to protect the staff development budget, if we are to nurture a new generation of leaders in academic libraries.
- The area I have been asked to concentrate on today is the area of CPD. But the other tools are important too. As I mentioned the investment you are making is significant, both financially and in terms of your time and commitment. However, the drivers for excellence are clear – the investment in education at government level is balanced by the increasing demand for accountability required of those working in the sector. In parallel, the consumers of our services, the staff and students of the universities have expectations about quality of service which we must meet, and where possible surpass. So form the perspective of the employee and the employer, the urge to succeed is foremost and must be given a high priority.
- A very important factor not to be overlooked, in fact to be emphasised, is the need for emotional intelligence. While the academic debate continues on the veracity of the claims of Goleman et al. that EI is an Intelligence, there is a body of research growing to sustain the thought that EI is a factor in success. The website http://www.eiconsortium.org/ carries abstracts of recent articles on the topic. It is true that employers today look for less tangible aptitudes and potential based on these qualities. In particular self awareness is key to successful leadership. The Cranford Centre for Executive Learning and Leadership maintains that self awareness is key in the development of leaders and uses the Myers Briggs personality test at a teaching aid for developing leaders. Leaders are asked to reflect on their own leadership style, to recognise the “buttons” that trigger particular responses, and are given guidelines in harnessing potentially negative reactions into positive actions. They are also required to study the behaviour of those around them and to adapt their own style to achieve greater results. More organisations are investing in their leadership development programmes, recognising the significance of successful leadership.
- Focussing on CPD – this definition is as valid today, 16 years later as it was back in 1992. the only change is that the Library Association is now CILIP! It is a very broad description, as you can see, it is not just about going on training courses, it is about building a portfolio of transferrable and marketable skills, turning learning into knowledge which can be applied in the workplace.
- The IsNTO has been replaced by Life Long Learning, UK, who are currently working on a Sectors Skills Agreement for workers in this sector. The LLUK is an independent employer led sector skills council in the UK. The work they are undertaking looks forward to improving the UK skills ranking among OECD countries by 2020.
- This list is not definitive but gives a flavour of what is covered by CPD, some of these topics may surprise you, all of the are available to you in some shape or form. In Ireland the ANLTC has been organising collaborative courses for the sector since 1996. The Library Association of Ireland has started work on CPD by recognising short courses and by promoting its Fellowship and Associateships. There is a need for further CPD short courses with accreditation potential as recommended by ANLTC in their recent report . In most libraries, there are some mandatory courses, but many are optional, and many (such as further degrees) are a cost to the individual. In recent years, ANLTC has funded with sponsorship from Swets, a Research Award for librarians and has also funded a biannual bursary for Library Assistants.
- As part of its work on CPD, the ANLTC ran a survey of librarians in 2006, and in this survey, Assistant Librarians, senior managers and library directors were asked to choose their management training needs. It is interesting to note that while strategic planning is low in the priorities of the Assistant Librarians who responded, it is higher for senior managers, and higher again for library directors. Negotiating skills doesn’t feature on the tope 5 for Assistant Librarians but has a growing emphasis for senior managers and directors.
- Pyramid of learning The demand for courses on operational management is highest for Assistant Librarians and as people move up through the organisation, their focus changes to management skills and later to strategic planning or negotiating skills.
- In this survey the ANLTC found that, in the two year period, only one of the 145 who responded was involved in mentoring programmes, one was taking a further LIS qualification, and 4 had published a paper in a peer reviewed journal. On the positive side, attendance at conferences, seminars and workshops was high, a significant number subscribe to online lists and the number of senior managers giving presentations was also high! A factor which needs to be recognised is again that library budgets may not be sufficient to support staff CPD, and this would have an effect on the survey.
- The survey is worth consulting to get a complete picture of the training needs identified by Library Directors and by librarians themselves at that time in 2006, and you will find it on the ANLTC website. Constant scanning of the literature will inform your developmental planning, attendance at conferences and networking with colleagues will also help define the skills sets needed, as these are evolving every day. Comparing where you stand vis-à-vis your peers will highlight the gaps which you need to fill.
- If your goal is to move into management roles, you may want to look at the programmes offered both in the business world or those more specifically designed for librarians. There are a number of relevant programmes on offer, Diplomas, Masters programmes in many aspects of management. Most are available on a part time basis, some have a fulltime requirement, all are costly! Those developed specifically for librarians are more accessible, as subsidies are available through SCONUL and CONUL for the “Future Leaders Programme” in an effort to bridge the gap which has emerged in the UK as the baby boomers retire to the golf course…! The ARL leadership Institutes are a good way of “dipping your toe in the water” as they are thematic and repeated regularly.
- Apart from the managerial or leadership pathways, there are other opportunities for career development. The most obvious of these is through Project Management. All the university libraries are looking for skilled staff to undertake pilot projects around emerging or developing technologies, the creation of Institutional Repositories the demand s of the research community, the improved access to electronic resources all require significant work
- Becoming an authority on specialist fields will open doors to project work, collaboration, research awards, and will further enhance your cv. While there may be greater job satisfaction in developing this way, monetary recognition does not always follow, this is an issue for employers who want to retain excellent staff.
- Earlier I mentioned the newish concepts of coaching or mentoring, an activity not yet formalised in the Irish context, but certainly one to be developed as a priority. In my early career at UCD, I was “taken under the wing” by an inspiring librarian, and I cannot put enough emphasis on how invaluable that tuition was. She helped me look outside the box, understand the bigger picture and I was infected by her own enthusiasm for academic librarianship. Senior managers have a responsibility to ensure that they develop their staff, provide a similar launch pad for career progression for those coming through, and an effective way of doing this is to foster a culture where it is OK to take risks, try new ideas, and encourage suggestions for change.
- At the beginning I mentioned “competitive edge” and that is what CPD can give you. A note of caution though, all the courses or qualifications in the world won’t help you unless they have been applied, and you can demonstrate how they have enhanced your abilities. Putting it into practice is the key.
- If at first you don’t succeed, keep trying – look for alternate pathways, if there are obstacles in your way. Identify good role models and align yourself to benefit from their tuition.
- Don’t forget to hone your powers of persuasion, you may know how good you are but often the interviewer has only a short time to assess your suitability for the job. Keep on top of your interviewing skills, don’t assume that because you had a successful interview 10 years ago, when you got your last job, that you will sail through the next one!
- If you find yourself “cornered” there are other ways of keeping up to date and marketable, be prepared to make the move
- CPD never ends, it is worth showing this quotation from the beginning again, because – Looking forward to retirement – organisations also run courses on how to retire successfully – Thank you