Posted on by hildaweisburg

Step Into The Limelight

You work hard, but who notices it? Does your principal recognize what you do? Are teachers aware of the many ways you can make their jobs easier and promote student learning? What do parents know about the library program? How about the school board and the community?

Learning how to promote your program is as important as anything else you do. Being visible is crucial for being valued. And if you are not valued, you are likely to become history.

For many of us, self-promotion seems like bragging, which has a strong negative perception. But you don’t have to boast about your accomplishments to make sure people are aware of them. There are more subtle ways to get your message across.

In her blog article, Jessica Chen, author of Smart, Not Loud: How to Get Noticed at Work for All the Right Reasons. presents ideas on How to Get Noticed at Work as a Quiet Person which can be useful for those who feel less comfortable sharing their wins:

  • How you talk about your wins – Even if you were the driving force in a project or event, focus on those who benefited. Talk about what students achieved. Inform your principal about the great job the teacher did in working with you. In the explanation, you will show them your contribution. As an additional benefit, the teacher will appreciate the recognition and share that with others. Relationships will deepen and new connections may be created.
  • Shaping your career brand – This is about getting noticed for those aspects of librarianship you most value. Chen has several steps for doing this.
  • Get crystal clear on your core values – This should include AASL’s Common Beliefs, your Vision, Mission, and whatever else you find vital to a school library program
  • Find your differentiating factor – What part of your job do you love the most? What are you best at? Is it tech? Do you most love designing learning opportunities? Is it interacting with students? This is your talent, your superpower. It’s what you bring that allows your program to shine in a way only you can.
  • Link your talent to opportunity – Seize any chance to use your talent more widely. If tech is your superpower, see if you can find a place the district’s tech committee. Get friendly with the IT department. If you enjoy the student interactions most, start a club or lead an extra-curricular activity.
  • Advocating for yourself – While this is the biggest challenge for many, Chen makes it easier using the acronym ACCT.
  • Ask for what you want – No one is going to give it to you if they don’t know you want it. Whether it’s a budget increase or collaboration with a teacher, you need to take the first step by asking.
  • Circle back – You are not likely to get a positive response on the first request. Ask again, perhaps modifying the request. Some people say no to learn if you are truly committed to the idea. (I had a Superintendent like this!)
  • Celebrate your wins – Share any positive feedback you receive whether from students, teachers or parents. Forward any positive email to your principal saying this made your day.
  • Turning down requests – This is the hard one because usually, we can’t do that. Since we don’t want to load up our day with tasks that don’t forward or promote our program look for ways the ask can be modified to align it better with what you want to achieve.
  • Speak up in meetings – Introverts tend to stay quiet, and the result is they are unseen. Chen recommends The 4A Sequence:
  • Active listening – To help you engage, listen for key words and the right moment to speak up.
  • Acknowledge – Acknowledge the last speaker so it doesn’t sound as though you interrupted them.
  • Anchor – Using one or two words from what the last speaker said, you are connecting your ideas to what has gone before.
  • Answer – Now briefly make your point. Be clear and concise so that the listeners know your focus.

Hiding your light under a bushel won’t get you or your program noticed. As a leader, you need to be visible in a positive way. It’s an important skill to learn to show the people in your community  how you make a difference.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Developing Confidence

A baby takes its first steps and falls. The child gets up and tries again. Totally confident that success will happen. When does that innate confidence in one’s ability disappear?

It’s usually not the failures that make us lose self-confidence. It’s the comments and criticisms we have received and the comparisons we make with other people that have nibbled our confidence away. The result is we struggle to leave our comfort zone, often question our decisions and are fearful of making a mistake.

But you are a leader. You need self-confidence to take your program to the next level. Is there a way to get back what you once had instinctively?

In Where Does Confidence Come From?, Frank Sonnenberg offers ten way to strengthen your confidence. As you read through them, acknowledge the ones you can do immediately and lean into those first, then consider which one you want to add next:

  • Successful Track Record – Sonnenberg starts with something simple – every win can boost your confidence – no matter the size. If you have trouble recalling these, consider a Success Journal or Win Folder on your computer so you don’t forget your accomplishments. And take a little time to celebrate and cheer yourself.
  • Courageous Action – Look for ways – big and small – to step out of your comfort zone. It can be intimidating, but you know when something needs to be done, and not doing it doesn’t give you the results you want. Take those first steps (and then add that win to your Success Journal).
  • Prepare and Practice – Athletes don’t just walk out into the field and turn in an outstanding performance. They practice. If you are giving a presentation, write it out, tweak it, tweak it again. If it helps you, learn it almost by heart. For a big project, outline the steps. Create a timeline. Be prepared to adjust that as the project progresses.
  • Self-improvement Efforts – We are lifelong learners. Be committed to your own growth and improvement. Since it’s rare for the Professional Development offered by your district keyed to librarian needs, seek out your own PD. Or you can use your Professional Learning Network, find a mentor, or attend a library conferences.
  • Mindset and Attitude – “If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you are right.” Our brains are powerful. Don’t let yours defeat you. You have been successful before (you have proof!) and will be again. Use your failures as learning opportunities to take into your new endeavor.
  • Supportive Environment – Every school has people who only see the negative. While you must have a collegial relationship with them since the library is for everyone, you don’t need to take in their gloomy view of everything. Be closer to people who can see what is good and enjoy what they do.
  • Encouraging Comments – Savor positive feedback. Knowing that others see your achievements is validation. It helps to power you forward. Be mindful of that and do the same for others. (And when someone gives you positive feedback – that goes in the Win Folder!)
  • Self-reflection – Make time at the end of the day, perhaps on your commute home, to reflect on what you accomplished. Was there a student whose eyes lit up as you helped them find the “just right” book? Did you strike something off your to-do list that you had been putting off? Focusing on these large and small achievements improves self-confidence. (Yup – Success Journal time!)
  • Goal Setting and Achievement – What is something large you wanted to achieve and did? Good news – you can do it again. Write the goal and develop the action steps needed to attain it. And of course, Prepare and Practice.
  • Personal Values and Beliefs – This is what holds you steady. Confidence comes from within as do these values and beliefs. As librarians, we hold to the ALA’s Code of Ethics and the Library Bill of Rights. As school librarians we consider AASL’s Common Beliefs are intrinsic to our program. Build your confidence on your values and you’ll see some amazing results.

Sonnenberg concludes with this quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt, “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” When you build your confidence, you grow into the leader your library program needs. Take those baby steps. Get up when you fall. You can do it.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Put Purpose in Your Journey

Famous American baseball coach Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you are going to wind up someplace else.” It sounds funny at first, but there is truth. First, you need to know where you want to go if you have any hope of getting there. Some people like the “Dream it and do it” concept, but dreaming has an amorphous quality makes clear action tougher. In addition – what if your dreams have nothing to do with working?

So what can help us reach our goals? In my experience, clarity of purpose is the best guide for where you want to go and what you need to do to get there. I once clarified and wrote my purpose which is: “I reflect back to others the greatness I see in them, and, where appropriate, I help them manifest it.”  I want to support more people (specifically librarians) being the leaders they can and need to be. As for the doing, I put this purpose into action in my blog topics, in the amount of curation I do on leadership, and is intrinsic to the books I write.

My view on purpose is echoed in LaRay Quy’s blog article, 4 Reasons Why “Follow Your Dreams” Is Terrible Career Advice. As she notes, following your dreams is more likely to lead to you to spending your life searching for happiness and jumping from one career path to another as your dreams change. In real life, happiness is something you find at the end of a rainbow. It comes from within as you reach the goals you set for yourself.

Here are Quy’s four reasons:

  1. Follow dreams, passion or purpose – Quy observes it is easy to see these three approaches as being the same, but they are different. Dreams are fairy tales and tend to be either lofty or intangible. Passion, Quy notes, is about you. It’s about what you care about. Last week I blogged about passion, speaking to the librarians who lost theirs and were looking to quit. We should have passion for our purpose. But purpose takes the step forward. According to Quy, purpose is about what you can contribute to the world. She recommends you identify what drives you, who you want to help.
  2. Dreams grow and change – Your dreams as a child are far different from the ones you have now. Their frequent change makes them unsuitable for planning and offer little guidance on how you want to live your life. Quy doesn’t ask you to give up your dreams, but rather ask yourself which ones can help as you work toward achieving your career path. The dream in this case supports your purpose.
  3. Find your worth – Reflect on what you do as a school librarian. How does it help and improve the lives of your students? Your teachers? Your administrator? Consider what you bring to the whole community. Embrace the value of it. You may be disenchanted because others do not see that value. Here is where your purpose — or Mission Statement which is your purpose—comes in. Look for ways, get suggestions from your PLN, and make your presence and value known.
  4. Differentiate between dreams and reality – Quy notes that many of our dreams are impractical and would impose an unrealistic financial burden on our lives. Some have nothing to do with our professional lives. Where you can use your dreams, at least the ones for your library program, is to incorporate them into your Vision Statement. My frequent maxim is that your Mission is your perspiration, your “why,” and your Vision is your inspiration and your aspiration.

Dreams. Passion. Purpose. You need all three. Your Dreams will lend greatness and excitement to your planning. Your Passion will be at the root of what you do. And your Purpose will be the stalwart guide for achieving it. Embrace all three, and your leadership will shine through.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Rediscover Your Passion

I have been hearing more often from librarians who are so stressed they are considering early retirement. Given the hostile political climate and its impact on many schools and communities, this is more than understandable. Most of you became school librarians because you were passionate about the differences you can make and the important role school librarians play. When you can’t follow that passion, what do you do next?

Your students and teachers need you to be fully present and engaged in what you bring to learning and growth. That means being as connected as possible to your commitment. In Alaina Love’s article, Are You Sacrificing Passion to Fit in at Work?, she discusses the changes that can be necessary to accommodate our work environment and help us reconnect to what matters most.

To get back to your passion while still being able to fit your environment, Love identifies ten passion archetypes: Creator, Conceiver, Discoverer, Processor, Teacher, Connector, Altruist, Healer, Transformer and Builder, saying we all have at least three. We are at our best when we work from them. Once you know your key archetypes, Love poses looking through that lens and answering these four essential questions:

  1. What is the most essential work you can accomplish to ensure success now and in the future? Think of your Mission Statement. It’s your Why. How have you been dealing with it? It may need some tweaking, but it’s your purpose and your perspiration. By that I mean it’s what you are working toward accomplishing in all the tasks you do and the responsibilities you have.
  2. From which activities do you derive the greatest fulfillment and how can you be more directly engaged in those activities? Is it creating a learning activity with a colleague? Perhaps it is in the one-on-one contacts with students whether guiding them in the research process or finding that perfect book for them. Do you love finding new tech resources and apps and sharing them with teachers? There is a long list of ways you connect with your school community that give you a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment. Look for ways to identify them.
  3. What behaviors are you demonstrating at work that are misaligned with who you are? Have you been so upset and stressed that you are no longer reaching out to teachers? Have you been brusque with students because there isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done? Have you unwittingly been telling yourself that teachers are too busy to care about that new app? Make sure you’re doing what you can to build relationships even with colleagues who may have ideological differences.
  4. What do you want to be remembered for by those you’re closest to? When you do retire, what do you want your administrator to be grateful for? What do you hope teachers will still continue to do because you introduced it to them? When students return, what would you like them to say to you about the impact you had on their time in school? Would you want to be remembered for the person you are today or the one you used to be?

You need to be the leader you were and still are underneath all that stress, frustration, and anger. Reflect on all you have to offer and re-ignite your passion for what you do. Don’t let outside forces take that away from you. Consciously bring back that passion you started with and you will bring back your best. You are too important to your school community to be less than that – and your own mental health will benefit from being aligned with you living from your values.