Women Don't Need to "Lean In" More; Powerful Men Need to Reach Out; Harvard Business Review, 1/28/13

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, Harvard Business Review; Women Don't Need to "Lean In" More; Powerful Men Need to Reach Out: "Sandberg does not serve other women well by pretending that companies are a meritocracy that just requires individual effort. She herself was sponsored and propelled, like almost every successful woman I have ever met, by a powerful man, in her case Larry Summers...In the meantime, the most gender balanced companies on the planet are mostly led by men, who thankfully seem to believe more in reaching out to women than Sandberg does. This is what smart women really need. Companies and leaders who believe in them and give them a seat at the table, even if they don't bang on it."

In Hiring, a Friend in Need Is a Prospect, Indeed; New York Times, 1/27/13

Nelson D. Schwartz, New York Times; In Hiring, a Friend in Need Is a Prospect, Indeed: "While whom you know has always counted in hiring, Ms. Parakh’s experience underscores a fundamental shift in the job market. Big companies like Ernst & Young are increasingly using their own workers to find new hires, saving time and money but lengthening the odds for job seekers without connections, especially among the long-term unemployed. The trend, experts say, has been amplified since the end of the recession by a tight job market and by employee networks on LinkedIn and Facebook, which can help employers find candidates more quickly and bypass reams of applications from job search sites like Monster.com."

Bad Leaders Can Change Their Spots; Harvard Business Review, 1/24/13

Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, Harvard Business Review; Bad Leaders Can Change Their Spots: "As with Governor Sununu, the flaws most commonly tripping up our at-risk leaders were related to failures in establishing interpersonal relationships. Far less frequent were fatal flaws involved in leading change initiatives, driving for results, and — we're happy to report — character. That might explain how they'd managed to get as far as they had. But past a certain point, individual ambition and results aren't enough. As they climb higher in an organization and the ability to motivate others becomes far more important, poor interpersonal skills, indifference to other people's development, and a belief that they no longer need to improve themselves come to haunt these less effective leaders the most...The exceptionally good news, our data show, is that far more often than not, those who take these issues seriously can succeed in shedding bad habits to become markedly better leaders. New spots, anyone?"

She’s (Rarely) the Boss; New York Times, 1/26/13

Nicholas Kristof, New York Times; She’s (Rarely) the Boss: "In America, only 17 percent of American Fortune 500 board seats are held by women, a mere 3 percent of board chairs are women — and women are barely represented in President Obama’s cabinet... So what gives? A provocative answer comes from Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, who has written a smart book due out in March that attributes the gender gap, in part, to chauvinism and corporate obstacles — but also, in part, to women who don’t aggressively pursue opportunities... [W]e need more women in leadership positions for another reason: considerable evidence suggests that more diverse groups reach better decisions. Corporations should promote women not just out of fairness, but also because it helps them perform better. Lehman Brothers might still be around today if it were Lehman Brothers & Sisters."

Lincoln’s School of Management; New York Times, 1/26/13

Nancy F. Koehn, New York Times; Lincoln’s School of Management: "In this season of all things Lincoln — when Steven Spielberg is probably counting his Oscars already — executives, entrepreneurs and other business types might consider dusting off their history books and taking a close look at what might be called the Lincoln school of management. Even before “Lincoln” the movie came along, there was a certain cult of leadership surrounding the 16th president. C.E.O.'s and lesser business lights have long sought inspiration from his life and work. But today, as President Obama embarks on a new term and business leaders struggle to keep pace with a rapidly changing global economy, the lessons of Lincoln seem as fresh as ever. They demonstrate the importance of resilience, forbearance, emotional intelligence, thoughtful listening and the consideration of all sides of an argument. They also show the value of staying true to a larger mission. “Lincoln’s presidency is a big, well-lit classroom for business leaders seeking to build successful, enduring organizations,” Howard Schultz, chief executive of Starbucks, said in an e-mail."

[Corner Office] Interview with Victoria Ransom, chief executive of Wildfire; New York Times, 1/26/13

Adam Bryant, Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Victoria Ransom, chief executive of Wildfire, a provider of social media marketing software: If Supervisors Respect the Values, So Will Everyone Else: "Q. Let’s shift to culture. Did you go through the process of codifying your values? A. We did, but pretty late in the game, actually. We tried early on in the company, when we had about 20 employees, to codify our values, but we didn’t get that far, because it felt forced. But as we got bigger, we were expecting a lot of our people — that they could somehow just come in as new hires and through osmosis figure out what our values were. Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them? The values are here already, but let’s make it clear what they are, particularly because you want the new people who are also hiring to really know the values. Another reason was that we had to fire a few people because they didn’t live up to the values. If we’re going to be doing that, it’s really important to be clear about what the values are. I think that some of the biggest ways we showed that we lived up to our values were when we made tough decisions about people, especially when it was a high performer who somehow really violated our values, and we took action. I think it made employees feel like, “Yeah, this company actually puts its money where its mouth is.” We also wanted to put in more of a formal procedure for reviews, and if we’re going to review people, let’s be clear about the criteria when we consider whether they are living up to the company culture."

New Statistics Available: IMLS Releases New “Public Library Report” (FY 2010); InfoDocket, 1/22/13

Gary Price, InfoDocket; New Statistics Available: IMLS Releases New “Public Library Report” (FY 2010) : "The complete report is available here along with separate links to state-by-state profiles, supplementary tables, and a fact sheet."

Pew Internet Releases New Report on Library Services (Plus Commentary); InfoDocket, 1/22/13

Gary Price, InfoDocket; Pew Internet Releases New Report on Library Services (Plus Commentary) : "In a new survey from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, One thing that’s clear is that users don’t know —and they know they don’t know—what libraries have on offer: only about a fifth said they know most or all of what services are available; and almost a third said they knew not much or nothing."

[ALA Press Release] Managing in the middle, 1/11/13

[ALA Press Release] Managing in the middle: "Fully a third of all library supervisors are “managing in the middle”: reporting to top-level managers while managing teams of peers or paraprofessional staff in some capacity. Editors Robert Farrell and Kenneth Schlesinger present a practical guidebook for those supervisors with “Managing in the Middle,” published by ALA Editions, assisting middle managers as they navigate through the challenges of multitasking and continual gear-shifting. Including a foreword by Maureen Sullivan, 2012-13 American Library Association President, a broad range of contributors from academic and public libraries help librarians face personal and professional challenges..."

Leadership vs. Management | Focus on Leadership and Management; Library Journal, 1/14/13

Ernie DiMattia, New York Times; Leadership vs. Management | Focus on Leadership and Management: "Leadership and management are two of the more frequently used terms related to the operation and success of any organization, regardless of its products and/or services. This is especially so in the nonprofit arena, where doing more with less has been the rule over the past several decades. Libraries and information centers are very much a part of this environment, and must be well led and well managed if they are to continue to survive and thrive. It is our expectation that this column will define, delineate, and develop those topics sufficiently to provide a valued learning experience for our readers."

Seeking a Different Sort of Leader; Chronicle of Higher Education, 1/14/13

Dennis M. Barden, Chronicle of Higher Education; Seeking a Different Sort of Leader: "So what leadership qualities did each group find compelling? The candidates chosen as finalists certainly shared common attributes: One attribute was a level of energy and intensity that outpaced their competitors. Another was the sort of winning personality that portends happy and enjoyable relationships, some of which would presumably lead to philanthropic support. In my view, however, the most important quality was an expressed willingness—backed up by evidence of performance—to make the tough decisions and to live with the consequences. From my close-hand perspective, there was another striking commonality in the decisions of the two committees. In both cases, sitting provosts generally did not fare well in the preliminary round of interviews. While there were many reasons for that, there was, in my view, one reason in common: The provosts did not portray themselves as visionary leaders."

Management Is (Still) Not Leadership; Harvard Business Review, 1/9/13

John Kotter, Harvard Business Review; Management Is (Still) Not Leadership: "In fact, management is a set of well-known processes, like planning, budgeting, structuring jobs, staffing jobs, measuring performance and problem-solving, which help an organization to predictably do what it knows how to do well... Leadership is entirely different. It is associated with taking an organization into the future, finding opportunities that are coming at it faster and faster and successfully exploiting those opportunities. Leadership is about vision, about people buying in, about empowerment and, most of all, about producing useful change...We need superb management. And we need more superb leadership."

Never Lie About Who You Really Are; Harvard Business Review, 12/18/12

Dan Pallotta, Harvard Business Review; Never Lie About Who You Really Are: "To stand up for your truth is to be a leader...How can you develop this "coming out" muscle yourself? First, know what you're coming out about. Identify your truths. Write a personal values manifesto. You can't know if your values are being violated if you're ambiguous about what they are. Second, learn to develop a sixth sense for when your line is being crossed. It may be a gut feeling. A nervous laugh. A habit of rationalizing. Not an hour ago a delivery company called and asked if anyone would be home this afternoon to accept a package. I said, "Yes, my other half, with three sick kids." "That must be fun for her," the guy said. That tiny voice in my head rationalized, "You're about to hang up, let it go." The moment I heard myself say that, a trigger went off and I came out to him with a simple, "She's a he." Rationalization is a red flag for me. Let it be one for you."

[Podcast] Episode 102: Academics Struggle With Managing E-Mail; Chronicle of Higher Education, 1/10/13

[Podcast] Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education; Episode 102: Academics Struggle With Managing E-Mail:

New Report From NYC Think Tank Looks at Future of All Three New York City Public Library Systems; Library Journal, 1/8/13

Gary Price, Library Journal; New Report From NYC Think Tank Looks at Future of All Three New York City Public Library Systems: "The new report comes from the Center for an Urban Future and is titled, Branches of Opportunities... Direct to Full Text Report (52 pages; PDF)"

Jo Budler: LJ’s 2013 Librarian of the Year; Library Journal, 1/7/13

John N. Berry III, Library Journal; Jo Budler: LJ’s 2013 Librarian of the Year: "It was a seismic move in the struggle to create a workable ebook access model for the users of America’s libraries. It was engineered by Joanne (Jo) Budler, the Kansas State Librarian, when she realized that an initial proposal in 2010 to renew the Kansas State Library (KSL) contract with OverDrive would increase administrative costs by some 700 percent over the next few years, as the state ebook deal was being restructured. Despite the risk of disrupting and even losing access to ebooks for the users of Kansas libraries, Budler rejected more than one proposal from OverDrive for a new contract until a year ago when she won the right to transfer titles from OverDrive to a new platform. The dispute set off a long (and public) national examination of library service agreements. Budler worked closely with Kansas Deputy Attorney General Jeff Chanay, whose expertise helped KSL struggle through the complex copyright and ownership issues built into the original state ebook platform contract. Budler’s ongoing efforts in the ebook battles and her work as chair of the Ebook Task Force of the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), in addition to her significant local contributions in the state of Kansas, made clear a picture of Budler as an extremely effective library leader and LJ Editors’ choice for Librarian of the Year 2013."

Remembering Clara Stanton Jones; Library Journal, 12/27/12

Maurice Wheeler, Library Journal; Remembering Clara Stanton Jones: "Clara Stanton Jones was a giant in this profession and urban libraries, in particular, owe her a special debt of gratitude. Jones’s professional accomplishments during a career that spanned 40 years included many, many “firsts.” From the time I joined the American Library Association (ALA) as a student I heard of Clara Stanton Jones, the first African American president of ALA. It was not until much later in my career that I became aware of the significance of the other monumental ‘first’ in her career. In 1970, Jones became the first African American and the first female director of the Detroit Public Library (DPL). However, of perhaps even greater historic significance is that her elevation to that position in Detroit also made her the first African American in the nation to lead a major public library... Much of what I know of Jones on a personal basis has come from people at DPL who knew her well. Many shared stories that are a reminder that Jones was not only a trailblazing professional, but also a warm and caring person. Carolyn Moseley, her secretary (who has also served five subsequent DPL directors) stressed that Jones genuinely cared about people and felt a responsibility to use her position and resources to provide opportunities for others to be successful... She was graceful and gracious, and her personal style enhanced the already abundant qualities that led to her tremendous success. Jones was elegant and fashionable, and keenly aware of how physical presentation, even the timbre of her voice, could be used to garner support for causes in which she believed... Jones was keenly aware that we all stand metaphorically on the shoulders of those who came before us, and she embraced the fact she was heir to a long line of trailblazers."