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Tools to Take Control of Your Life

Does it sometimes feel as though every day something new is coming at you? You are not alone. This world seems faster changing than ever. With that, each day the news brings information of a new threat or a technology that is likely to affect the library. And in the midst of this you worry if you’ve missed something key. Not surprisingly, turmoil is bad for your health, your relationships, and your ability to best serve your students, teachers, and administrators. It’s time to take back control of your life.

In his blog post, The #1 reason people fail at their life plan, Donzel Leggett says many people now “feel like life is happening to them rather than being shaped by them.”  Legget talks about “the cycle of no destiny control.”  He goes on to write how when we feel in control, we’re able to move with purpose including setting goals and having a forward-looking mindset. But with this distraction and stress heavy world, this is hard to manage.

Leggett discusses three reactions to feeling as though you have no control. His concepts along with my comments, may give you some clarity about how to move forward:

  • The Flywheel Hamster – You may be feeling like that proverbial hamster, your wheels spinning but getting nowhere. Your plans lack direction. Much like the Beatles song “Nowhere Man” you are “Making all his (your) Nowhere plans for nobody.” When your plan doesn’t work the way you wanted it, you revise it. And the cycle repeats. What is needed is a plan with clear goals and confidence in your abilities.
  • The Floating Dandelion – Leggett describes this as creating no-risk plans because risk implies the possibility of failure. We have no room for that. Take a hard look at your Vision and Mission. What are you doing to make them a reality? Start there and craft a plan with a true goal, action steps to attain it, and a reasonable time to accomplish it. Include both formative and summative assessments.
  • The Head-in-the-Sand Ostrich – When you believe nothing you do will change anything significant, and besides you are a target, so keep your head down. As Leggett says, “Like an ostrich hiding its head in the sand, they miss the fact that the world is moving on without them,” Believing that if you do that, maybe they won’t notice you.  That’s a recipe for disaster. You are a leader. Leaders know where they want to go next and how to get there. In reality, that approach is guaranteed to get you eliminated.  And since you are so quiet, no one will even notice you are gone.

Legget concludes by reminding us that transformation is the way out. Change your mindset. Once again, check your Vision and Mission. You have been successful in the past. There is no reason you can’t be successful again. Re-energize yourself. Take care of yourself. Go for walks or whatever you need to feel yourself as powerful and committed as you were.  You are a leader, now lead yourself.

The maxim “Know Thyself” was inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. And, as I say in my forthcoming book, The Involved School Librarian, the first community you need to interact with is yourself. Know yourself, both strengths and weaknesses, and use them as you lead in your school community and elsewhere.

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Embrace Your Ambition

Are you ambitious?  My guess is that some of you would say in many ways you are. However, you might not publicly claim it because of all the negativity surrounding ambition. Certainly, we have all experienced that from others in our professional life, perhaps in your personal life, and on the national stage.

Our instincts are correct in this. There are positive and negative aspects to ambition. And some of the positive aspects can help you grow as a leader. Amina AlTai offers five insights from her new book, The Ambition Trap: How to Stop Chasing and Start Living in her article “How to Break Free From the Ambition Trap.” Here are her five, along with my usual comments:

  1. We need to redefine ambition – At its core, ambition is about growing in some way. The negative association has to do with growing powerful and/or rich and then cruel or callous. The ambition you want to have is about growing in knowledge to better serve your community. Librarians are lifelong learners who can and should embrace their ambition to learn and their desire to share.
  2. There are two types of ambition– AlTai looks closely at the two types which she calls painful and purposeful ambition. The painful ambition, which is more familiar, is focused on winning no matter the cost. We can all identify those who want to show they are better than others. A history of feeling betrayed makes them pursue control. Purposeful ambition is focused on purpose and collaboration. This speaks to our core values as librarians. It looks to what we want to achieve and the best means to get there.
  3. Identity and ambition are deeply intertwined – According to AlTai “Ambition doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It is shaped and constrained by identity.” You know the identity society has given you. At various times, your ambition will be attributed to your identify and treated accordingly. And it will be different depending on the identity. How will you react to this? Do you overperform to gain approval or underperform to stay safe. It will take courage to have positive/purposeful ambition, but so much is at stake. We must be ambitious.
  4. It’s not about renouncing ambition, but allowing ambition to come from innate gifts – As AlTai says, “We need to leverage the best of us. We all have a unique form of brilliance, a rare talent or ability that is specific to us and that we came to this planet to share.” As a librarian you have so many skills: tech, research, people, interdisciplinary and more. We need to know when and where to use these to achieve our goals. We want our students to feel safe in our library and be ready for whatever the future holds.
  5. Ambition is cyclical – Most of us think of positive or negative ambition always continuing to grow. AlTai points to the necessity to pause. I see it as a reminder for self-care. You cannot always be chasing a goal, despite the messages in our hustle culture. We need to remember that constant giving is draining. In order to serve, we need the downtime to recharge.  Too many need us to skip the need to recharge.

Abition is not a “dirty word.” Like it or not, comfortable with the idea or not, leaders are ambitious. We have goals, a Vision and Mission and the determination to live into them. Our drive is powerful and should not be dampened. Students, teachers, and administrators are counting on us to continue to strive for growing and doing better.

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Is It Already Time for a New Beginning?

Has the school year already lost that new beginning luster with all the old and new challenges you are facing? There is so much going on in our lives as we pivot from vacation mode to work mode. Chances are you plunged right in without much thought especially since you know your job. But that means that even though the year is only a few weeks old, maybe you could already use a new beginning.

What would that mean? Probably a combination of things – looking at what can be started, what can be made new, what’s getting in your way, and how to get past those roadblocks. To help you get your motivation back, I recommend looking at the recommendations of Palena R. Neale Ph.D., PCC in her Psychology Today article, Harnessing the Fresh Start Effect : 6 steps to set you up for success with the fresh start effect. Neale notes that giving yourself a fresh start moves you away from any failures you perceive. This can help turn off those negative voices in your head that creep in with the “new” wears off.

Here are her steps and my usual comments on how it works for us in the education world:

1. Create Your Own Fresh Starts  – The first thing to consider is what would a fresh start include. Think about what would you like to accomplish. Do you have a goal or a plan you thought you put into action when the school year began and then it got lost in all the opening activities? Knowing what you hope to achieve can give you some focus.

2. Choose Your Peak Momentum – Now choose the day you want to begin your fresh start. Monday is usually a favorite time, but any day that works for you and your schedule is fine. New month, day after a long weekend. Nothing is off-limits. Accept and use what works best for you. Then, the night before, go through the focus you created in step one.

3. Connect to Your “Why” – What is your Vision for the library? Even though by definition it is not achievable, you are always working to bring it closer to reality. This is where your Mission comes in, what I call your “Perspiration” and “Motivation.” It defines how you operate through the day, how you deal with students, how you work with teachers, and how you communicate with your principal. Why do you want to accomplish what you focused on in step one.

4. Keep It Simple – There are likely to be lots of things you want to change, but it’s better if you focus on one or maybe two goals. Create a strategic plan. It doesn’t need to be complicated. You’ve got your Vision and Mission. Do an Environmental Scan. Do a SOAR analysis by identifying your Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results. The first two are what currently exists. The second two are where you want to go. What Action Steps will get you started? Who will be involved? Remember to get approval where you need them. What costs are involved? What’s the timeline knowing it’s bound to need tweaking. Knowing where to start is the key to starting.

5. Change Your Environment – No, you don’t move outside the library. You need to remove the things that make you lose your focus. Clear clutter from your desk. Perhaps plan to save looking at emails until the end of the day or at lunch if you worry you may miss something important. Get things filed or tossed. Bring in something you love to look at. Frame your Vision Statement.

6. Sustain Success – Implementing a plan is important. Sustaining it is vital. Check in with your goal the steps you thought would get you there to see your progress. For my own strategic planning, I use “telescoping”, “microscoping,” and “periscoping”. At the beginning you telescope to see what the end results will look like. Before you get overwhelmed by the thought, microscope by focusing on what needs to be done now. Periscoping involves popping up now and then to check on what comes next. This ensures you won’t miss a deadline or key step.

As the well-known philosopher, Yogi Berra, said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you will end up someplace else.” Create your new beginning and get to where you want to go.

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Hope is Powerful

What did you think when you read the title? Did you agree or is it something you generally don’t believe. Hope, while considered positive, is often thought of as a passive thing and reserved for something you don’t think will become a reality.

But consider your Vision Statement. Is that something you hope for? And yes, it isn’t currently your reality, but if you don’t believe it is possible to achieve, you will never reach it. The truth is, as cliché as it might sound, if you believe it, you can achieve it.

So how do you make hope happen? Strategy.

Hope, according to studies, is characterized by Goals, Pathways (the way to to goal), and Agency (capacity to get the goal), In her article, What Leaders Misunderstand About Hope,  Paula Davis provides strategies for using these in four parts. I have added my interpretation for our education world.

Provide role clarity – You aren’t leading a team, as Davis discusses, so the clarity is for you. What is your supposedly unachievable goal? Why is it so important? Who will benefit? Who are your potential allies? This will help you focus on a path, however slow, to reach your goal – your Vision.

Use micro-goals to build momentum – When the end is so far away, it is hard to believe you will get there.  Keep your hope alive by looking for milestones and for small wins to celebrate. When I am walking, I frequently have micro-goal to keep me moving. It is sometimes as small as getting to the next driveway. Consider this sample Vision. “The Library Media Program cultivates independent, lifelong readers fosters critical thinking skills, teaches the effective and ethical use of information sources, and promotes equitable access to all forms of information media.” What have you done that shows your students are actively doing leisure reading? What learning experiences have you taught that shows students are using information sources ethically?  These are your micro-goals.

Track progress – Notice what you’ve achieved along the way, the bricks that are building this path. For me, keeping a success journal reminds me of what I have achieved and inspires me to continue. If it helps, celebrate these successes by sharing them. Include it in reports to your principal and show them the progress being made. Share it with your PLN. The more widely you share it, the better you will feel and the easier it will be to believe your hope will become a reality.

Find mastery experiences – Davis says when you learn new skills, it changes what you believe you are capable of doing. Learning by doing is a powerful contributor to success and builds hope. Look to webinars offered by your school library professional associations or from some library specific social media can give you the opportunity to grow.

These are stressful times for librarians, in out of the library, and it’s hard to hold onto hope. Make working on getting closer to your Vision a priority remembering that hope can boost productivity. Seeing what you can accomplish may stir what was a dying ember of hope back to life. Remember to track and celebrate your achievements, even when small, and keep your administrator informed so they see you as the leader you are. I don’t hope – I know you can do this.

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Craft Your Leadership Statement

You have written a Mission and Vision Statement for your library. Hopefully, they are what energize you every day as you see them (they are in a prominent spot, right?). Your Mission, as I often say, is your perspiration, announcing what and why you do what you do. Your Vision serves as inspiration and aspiration, igniting ideas for future goals and plans. Today, I’m going to add another one: a Leadership Statement.

Like a Mission Statement, a Leadership Statement grounds you as you move out of your comfort zone. It defines you and how you present yourself to others. It is a place to take what you are best at, most known for, or enjoy the most, and use it to grow into the leader you want to be.

In her article, What Do You Stand For? The Power of a Leadership Statement, Elizabeth Hayes writes “A clear leadership statement not only builds trust and aligns expectations but also creates a more engaged and motivated team. When your team understands what you stand for, they are more confident, engaged and empowered to perform at their best.”

Writing the statement takes time and thought. To help you craft your statement, Hayes gives these four guiding steps:

  1. Define what matters most – Identify your core values. Where won’t you compromise? Do you stand for intellectual freedom? If so, what does that look like for you and your library? Perhaps it is that the library is a safe, welcoming space for all. You can combine values in your statement, but don’t overload it. Hayes says to reflect on how you want others to describe you.
  2. Draw inspiration from great leaders – The library profession provides a host of great leaders from whom to choose. You might go further and look at leaders in politics and those who led the way for significant change. Or authors who didn’t change what they wanted to write based on the biases around them. When you identify what inspires you in others, you’re likely to see that this is something you strive for —or already do.
  3. Learn from leadership missteps – No leader is perfect. We have learned from our mistakes; learn from where leaders took a wrong turn. There are always those who don’t recognize when it was time to leave, having become hooked on power and prestige. Some leaders stop listening to others, convinced their view or approach is the best possible route. Where did they falter?
  4. Pull it all together– This is the hard part. What do you write in your statement? Hayes says to, “Start by jotting down key ideas from your reflections…It must be authentic and reflect your true values, as any disconnect between your words and actions will erode trust.” To structure your statement, she gives the following frameworks:
  5. Values-based framework – A personal “I believe” statement followed by a goal.
  6. Commitment statement framework – Identify your core principles followed by daily commitment to it.
  7. Mantra style framework – Hayes says this is “A single sentence encapsulating your core leadership principles.”

If this is something that clicks for you, give it a try. Make notes, imagine what you want your leadership to be like. Like your Mission and Vision, it is likely something that will need a few iterations before you feel it’s finalized. When you feel comfortable, share it with others and see if they agree it’s a good fit. I built mine from my personal mission statement: “I seek daily opportunities to inspire school librarians to become the leaders they need to be.” The clearer you are about who you are, the more powerful and impactful your leadership will be.

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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.

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Face Your Fears & Reach Your Vision

Over the years, I have read and supported the writing of countless Mission and Vision Statements. Most people write good to great Missions even on the first try. The Vision Statements, however, have been far less successful. They often are variations of the Mission. What’s the problem?

Missions are your Perspiration, your Why. It’s what you do each day. Visions are your Inspiration and Aspiration. What would you like the library to be? How do you want it to be perceived by others? These are frequently harder to write because we aren’t convinced can ever be true. The other thing that stops us – fear.

We worry that if we write a big Vision, we are committing ourselves to achieving it. But here’s the thing – a Vision is not a goal. It’s a potential destination. What we need to do is create a big Vision and then through our fears of the goals that will help us get there.

In his article, Conquering the Fear of Goal-setting, Naphtali Hoff explains why setting such big goals is hard, why it is necessary to do it, and some simple ways to get started.

What Makes It Hard to Do

  • Fear of Failure – It’s risky putting a big goal out there. I recommend hanging your Vision along with your Mission in a prominent place in your library. Everyone will know what you’re striving for and what you want them to be a part of. And you will see it. Every day.
  • Fear of Commitment – Now that you said it, you must do it. It’s a huge task. And you have just signed on to work on making it a reality. Follow through can be very scary.
  • Uncertainty and Overwhelm – Now that you have written it, is this really what you want that reality to look like? Maybe you should rethink it for a while. (HINT: No). After all, your workload is heavy enough just dealing with your Mission and its daily responsibilities. How are you going to fit this in?
  • Self-doubt – You may find yourself thinking this Vison involves so many component, I don’t know nearly enough. Remember – you’re a lifelong learner. What you don’t know… you don’t know yet.
  • Fear of Change – What we know is more comfortable than the new. You know what to expect and how to deal with it. What if the changes don’t work? But remember – if nothing changes, nothing changes.

Why It’s Important to Set Goals

  • Provides Direction – As Yoga Berra allegedly said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up someplace else.” Once you know your Vision, it gives you a focus for your your strategic plan.
  • Motivates and Inspires – Your Vision is your Inspiration. Remember the Disney quote, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” This is your dream. Goals will help you make it a reality.
  • Measures Progress – Once you are into it, you can see how you are moving forward with each step you achieve. And when you see how far you’ve come – you’re more likely to keep going.
  • Enhances Focus – In our over-busy world, knowing where you are going keeps you on track. A goal gives you something to come back to when day to day things pull you away.
  • Builds Confidence – You began by getting past your fear. Now you are seeing what you can achieve when you are working on a big goal.

Simplifying the Goal-setting Process

  • Start Small – If you look at this huge project, you will convince yourself you can’t do it. You can drive across the entire country as long as you can see a few feet in front of you. Take the next step. Then take the next.
  • Use the SMART Framework – You know this well. Specific, Measurable, Achievable (yes, it is), Relevant, Time-bound. Search for other goal setting techniques if this one doesn’t speak to you.
  • Write It Down – Your Vision should be 50 words or less, written in the present tense, and hung in a prominent place in your library next to your Mission. You goals should be written out, too, creating your ongoing road map.
  • Visualize Success –  Spend time thinking about what it’s going to be like as this Vision comes into being. If it helps you, create a vision board to give you something to focus on.
  • Seek Support – Use your PLN and trusted vendors as needed. Connect with your library advocates and other librarians.
  • Be Flexible – Life happens. Expect delays and the need to tweak things as you go along. There will be bumps. You can keep going.
  • Celebrate Progress – When you set the goal, also set a reward or a way to acknowledge your accomplishment. Having that to look forward to as well as celebrating what you’ve achieved will help you keep going.  

Going for something powerful, like a Vision, will bring up all kinds of fears. They are telling you something – that what you are about to do is significant. Remember, when something is truly Inspirational and Aspirational, you know it will be worth the challenges – and the fears – to see it through.

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Start By Reviewing

The new school year is underway. Believe it or not – this can be a good time to review. Ask yourself, what do you want to achieve by the end? How will you get there? Which of your leadership skills will aid you in the journey?  What do you still need to learn? This is also a good time to ask what threats, such as the existing attacks on school librarians, can work against you? What conditions exist in your school, district, or on the state and national level can you use or learn into to take your leadership to a larger level?

To answer these questions, consider doing a personal environmental scan. While I usually prefer a S.O.A.R. analysis (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, Results) because it keeps us from focusing on the negatives, in this case doing a S.W.O.T. analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) can serve you better. You have leadership skills that are working for you. You also have difficulties in some areas, places where you need and want to grow. By taking a close and unemotional look at these, you can create a plan to guide you through the year.

With your scan in mind, Jay Sidhu’s blog post, Essential Lessons for Leaders provides a review of what you know while offering the following concepts and ideas for moving forward:

  • Leadership Qualities – Although you know many of them, Sidhu starts with the reminder that a leader must have a Vision, Mission, and Strategic Plan to achieve goals. His recommendation is that a leader must master their internal and external environment. Your S.W.O.A.T. analysis helped with that. He then adds the need to be “passionate about continual improvement,” which I hope you do as a lifelong learner.
  • Building Alliances – For us, this translates into advocacy which rests on continually building and maintaining relationships. Listening is key to achieving this along with awareness of the goals of others in your school and district. To successfully build a relationship ,you need to prove yourself important to the other person’s well-being and success. What do you teachers feel they need? What do they want? How are you or can you meet those needs and wants? Ask this question about students and administrators as well.
  • Learning to Be a Leader – Sidhu states a leader is a continuous learner. This not only means keeping up with the newest changes in technology, it also means understanding curriculum needs, district goals, and growing and developing as an individual. Use role models and mentors to help you. Identify leaders you admire, in the world or in librarianship. Reflect on what they do and how they are that caused you to admire them. Do you manifest any of those qualities? Can you work on acquiring the ones you don’t have? Risk learning by doing. Step out of your comfort zone and take on a bigger job in your state or national organization and ask someone who has done it to mentor you.
  • Knowing What It Takes – Sidhu brings us back to the beginning by wrapping his post up with a reminder to be clear about your Vision and Mission. As Yogi Berra famously said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up someplace else.” Review both.  Missions in particular change over time as our roles change and expand. Keep your Vision and Mission in a prominent place so you—and others – see it every day.

I keep in mind the AASL Vision, “Every school librarian a leader; Every learner has a school librarian.”  Our students, teachers, and administrators need us to be leaders – and learners. Take this time as your school year starts to get clear on your vision, discover what you need to learn, and understand how you will be a leader.

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Librarians Lead and Manage

I’ll never stop saying this – You must be a leader. It’s the first of your five roles as a librarian according to the AASL National Standards for School Librarians.But you also have four other roles: Instructional Partner, Information Specialist, Teacher, and Program Administrator. How do those fit into your work? When you think about these other roles, are you a manager or a leader?

For many of us, it depends on the situation. To get clear, look at your Mission and Vision statements. Your Mission is your Perspiration (the work you do). Your Vision is your Aspiration (what you’re working toward). Each of these roles supports both.

As an Instructional Partner, you may have initiated the connection as part of attaining your Vision. While you are engaged in the partnership, you are mostly managing it, although there may be times you are leading such as when you guide the teacher in developing what you will be doing together.

In your role as Information Specialist, you lead the way when introducing new resources into the curriculum. You help teachers master them, either by giving them one-on-one help, sending an email about it, or doing a grade/subject level meeting professional development workshop.

When Teaching, you’ll probably find yourself managing the class. However, you also will have an Essential Question which will lead students to think outside the box. As a leader, you are also thinking of ways to publicize student learning to show the value of the library program to people in and outside the school

Administering the library program requires developing a budget and planning for the future. This part of the task requires leadership and looking into the future for what your program needs. In maintaining the budget and curating sources you will use, you are managing.

When you’re having trouble seeing yourself as a leader, reflect on what you do to make the library indispensable to the educational community. Your leadership is there. You exhibit many of the endless lists of leadership qualities described in numerous business articles.

If you’re having trouble seeing some of your skills, Bart Finelli’s came up with Five Qualities That Set Leaders Apart from Managers. These three are in a librarians’ toolbox:

  • Leaders are coachable themselves – Even as we bring those new resources in our role as Information Specialist, we are always on the lookout for what the next one will be. In our search, we go to conferences, attend webinars, and belong to Professional Learning Networks. We know changes come fast and in order to bring it to our schools and districts we must be role models for lifelong learning.
  • A leader’s actions match their words – Almost all lists of leadership qualities include integrity. That is taken to mean you can be counted on to do what you said. You keep confidences, and people trust you. But this statement goes beyond that. You say the library is a safe, welcoming space for all. You speak of the importance of Intellectual Freedom. But are you living those statements? These are challenging times, and you may have to make difficult choices. Are you living your code of values? It’s tough but be honest with yourself.
  • Leaders are entrepreneurs – This is your Vision at work – and also your role as Program Administrator. You want to grow your library program, but money is scarce or non-existent. What do you do? Many of you have become expert at finding grants or using DonorsChoose.org. You find local businesses who contribute their knowledge/talent or sometimes materials for your Makerspaces. You not only think outside the box, you no longer have a box.

It’s summer vacation, and I know you are using the time to learn and grow even as you take the needed to time to rejuvenate. As you relax, reflect on your accomplishments, notice your moments of leading and managing and what that’s brought your students and your school. What you do is important, and despite the many challenges you keep going. You are a Manager. You are a Leader. You are a Rock Star.

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Leadership Must Be a Habit

When you are asked to identify your professional roles, in what order do you list them? Is leader the first? Is it second after librarian? Does it make your list at all? Being a leader is something you need to be each day. And yes, most of the time you are managing your program, but even as you are doing that, it’s important to keep the leader perspective present. In other words, you must make leadership a habit.

In the National School Library Standards (NSLS) (2018) the American Association for School Librarians (AASL) identifies the five roles of a school librarian (p.14). The first is leader. The AASL Vision is: Every school librarian is a leader; every learner has a school librarian. If you are not thinking of yourself as a leader, first and foremost, you are likely to miss opportunities to grow your library program and the recognition by the educational community of the vital role you play.

The good news is, you can make leadership a habit. In her blog post, Five Habits that Separate Good Leaders from Great Leaders Maile Timon explains what needs to be done. She begins with observation that “Most leaders are built, not born.” If you’d seem me at the beginning of my library career, you’d know it was true. No matter where you are, you can grow in to a leader – or a stronger leader.

Here are Timon’s Five Habits all great leaders have – with my comments on them:

1. Leaders motivate and inspire – If people don’t follow you, you are not leading. You are walking alone. It starts by having a clear and focused Vision. Keep yours in front of you and others by having it on a wall in your library for all to see and to remind yourself.

    “Inspiring” isn’t telling others what to do. It’s listening to them and helping them to see their own value and how what they are doing supports both your vision and likely that of the school. It supports them to become leaders, too, as they see you learn from them as much as they learn from you.

    2. Leaders develop focused, forward-thinking visions – Having your vision in front of you is important, but is it an inspirational Vision? Too often we short-change our vision by not allowing it go beyond what we think is attainable. What would your library be like if money or other factors weren’t an obstacle? The AASL Vision statement is a perfect example.

    As Timon suggests, start with your Mission. It’s your purpose, based on your core values. It’s what you do every day. Here’s one from my list of examples: The mission of the School Library Media Program is to ensure that students and staff are effective users and producers of ideas and information, promote literacy, and develop students’ competencies to be ethical participants in a global society. A sample Vision is: The School Library Media Program is a user-centered environment where up-to-date resources and technology and a responsive staff empower students and teachers to achieve their academic and personal goas.

    3. Leaders create relationships – This works well for us as we are in the relationship business. Every day is an opportunity to create new relationships and/or to build on existing ones. It’s through these relationships that you develop collaborative learning opportunities that benefit your community and lead to the attainment of your Mission.

    4. Leaders promote a culture of coaching – We don’t usually think of it as coaching, but it’s what we do whether we are working one-on-one with a teacher or present a lesson at a grade or subject level meeting. We share our knowledge with them, helping them become more confident in applying a technique or learning a new resource. It’s being an Instructional Partner, our second role in National School Library Standards (NSLS).

    5. Leaders never stop learning – This is intrinsic to who we are. We are always role models of lifelong learning. We couldn’t be an Information Specialist, our fourth role in NSLS. It’s why our Professional Learning Networks and our membership in our state and national organizations are so important to us.

    We also learn as we help others find the information they need. As the saying goes, we may not know the answer, but we know where to find it. And in finding it, we add to our ever-growing knowledge. We learn every day.

    As you go through your day, be aware of when you are being a leader. Look for opportunities to do one or more of these leadership indicators so they are increasingly incorporated into your daily interactions. Make leadership a habit and you will lead your library with Vision.