Ethics is Leadership Work; HuffingtonPost.com, 10/31/13

Terry Newell, HuffingtonPost.com; Ethics is Leadership Work: "Haven't our leaders acted unethically before? Isn't some level of unethical behavior part of the job description? Could FDR have led us out of the depression and on to victory in World War II with squeaky-clean ethics? Could Kennedy have gotten us through the Cuban Missile Crisis if he had admitted to a side deal with the Russians to take our missiles out of Turkey? Are national and international affairs really the pristine ethical pastures we'd like to wish them into being? The obvious and historical answer to these questions is "no." But that does not absolve leaders from either thinking carefully about ethics in every situation or setting a very high ethical bar for their appointees as well. When you act unethically towards your enemies, your friends may forgive you if the justification is sound. When you act unethically toward your friends - abroad or at home - who is left to forgive you?"

How to Pick Your Battles at Work; Harvard Business Review, 10/28/13

Amy Gallo, Harvard Business Review; How to Pick Your Battles at Work: "You hate that people consistently show up to meetings late. You find your company’s maternity policy woefully inadequate. You think the company’s IT system is out of date. It’s normal to be bothered by work issues like these, but when do you move from complaining to taking action? How do you decide which battles to fight? What the Experts Say One thing is certain — you can’t take on every problem at work. Each person has a finite amount of political capital. “If you make a huge fuss over something silly, you may not be able to get your way when it’s something really important,” says Dorie Clark, a strategy consultant and author of Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future. Even if you’re certain that the issues you want to tackle are critical, your reputation may suffer if you take them all on at once. “There’s a line you cross from being seen as an observant problem-solver to a being Debbie Downer,” says Karen Dillon, author of HBR Guide to Office Politics and co-author of How Will You Measure Your Life?. It’s important to figure out where that line is. Lois Kelly, co-author with Carmen Medina (see case study #1) of the upcoming book, Rebels at Work: Befriending the Bureaucratic Black Belts and Leading Change from Within, says the smartest people carefully calculate what’s worth their time and energy. Whether the issue is minor or fundamental, here are five principles to help you decide whether to take on a challenge or leave it alone."

New York Public Library Postpones Release of Revised Renovation Plan; New York Times, 10/23/13

Robin Pogrebin, New York Times; New York Public Library Postpones Release of Revised Renovation Plan: "The New York Public Library will not release revised plans for its 42nd Street flagship renovation — or independent cost estimates of alternative options — this fall as expected, the library said on Wednesday. “The design work is complex, and we are committed to getting it right to provide a transformative library experience for our users,” the library said in a statement. “Accordingly, our schedule has changed. We now expect to unveil the new design sometime after the New Year.”"

Authentic Librarianship and Procrustean Management; Library Journal, 10/24/13

Rick Anderson, Library Journal; Authentic Librarianship and Procrustean Management: "...neither the “hands-off” nor the “hands-on” style works perfectly in every situation. It would be tempting to think that an approach somewhere in the middle will work more universally, but that’s not necessarily true either—no single point on the “hands-on-to-hands-off” continuum will work equally well for everyone you have to manage... Across all of these dimensions of management, I think it’s less useful to think in terms of style than of philosophy. Style is about how you do things, whereas philosophy is about why you do them that way, and what your ultimate goals are. A philosophy can remain consistent even as you apply different styles and strategies in different situations."

The Best Man for the Job is a Woman | Leading From the Library; Library Journal, 10/23/13

Steven Bell, Library Journal; The Best Man for the Job is a Woman | Leading From the Library: "Self-awareness is key to identifying one’s areas of weakness, whether male or female, and then working to build strength in those areas, according to John Gerzema, author of new book The Athena Doctrine, which argues that traits classically considered feminine are essential to effective leadership today. In his surveys of over 60,000 adults, the qualities most desired in leaders were patience, expressiveness, intuition, flexibility, empathy, and many other traits identified by respondents as feminine. Yet 81 percent of those surveyed said leaders required a balance of male and female traits. Gerzema believes that, while masculine traits are still the ticket to top executive positions, a shift is occurring. He advises leaders to aim for somewhere in between Venus and Mars, and identifies multiple trends that point to workplace changes in which a more feminine leadership will emerge as the preferred style... Does the current debate about whether men and women should be more like the opposite sex apply to the library world? It is a predominantly female profession, so one might think that the observation of feminine qualities among the profession’s leaders would be nothing new. Though the statistical over-representation of men in formal leadership positions, such as dean and directors, might suggest that even in our mostly female workforce, it is the male traits that enable individuals to acquire leadership roles. The real challenge, as I see it, is how leaders learn to morph their leadership styles with traits not typically associated with their gender. This may be where self-awareness, reflection, 360-degree reviews, and other techniques are of use in better understanding our own strengths and weaknesses as leaders. Both men and women can learn from each other as well, to develop the skills that individuals seek in their leaders. Each improvement we make, as we adapt these new skills to our leadership style, will help us to boost the quality of library leadership."

A New Center for the Future of Libraries; American Libraries, 10/8/13

American Libraries; A New Center for the Future of Libraries: "The Institute of Museum and Library Services has awarded the American Library Association a Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program grant to establish a Center for the Future of Libraries. Its goal is to provide library planners and community leaders with information resources and tools that will help them better understand the trends reshaping their libraries and communities and help them incorporate foresight into their planning processes. The one-year, $50,000 planning grant will be coordinated by ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels. During the course of the project, ALA will develop a Center for the Future of Libraries website, establish a “futures” discussion group and blog, present interactive programming at the ALA Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference, and convene a summit of thought leaders to help shape the future direction of the center. ALA will also collaborate with the American Alliance of Museums, which established a Center for the Future of Museums in 2008. “Because libraries must change as their communities change, librarians always have their eye on the future,” said ALA President Barbara Stripling."

Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming; Guardian, 10/15/13

Neil Gaiman, Guardian; Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming: "I was lucky. I had an excellent local library growing up. I had the kind of parents who could be persuaded to drop me off in the library on their way to work in summer holidays, and the kind of librarians who did not mind a small, unaccompanied boy heading back into the children's library every morning and working his way through the card catalogue, looking for books with ghosts or magic or rockets in them, looking for vampires or detectives or witches or wonders. And when I had finished reading the children's' library I began on the adult books. They were good librarians. They liked books and they liked the books being read. They taught me how to order books from other libraries on inter-library loans. They had no snobbery about anything I read. They just seemed to like that there was this wide-eyed little boy who loved to read, and would talk to me about the books I was reading, they would find me other books in a series, they would help. They treated me as another reader – nothing less or more – which meant they treated me with respect. I was not used to being treated with respect as an eight-year-old. But libraries are about freedom. Freedom to read, freedom of ideas, freedom of communication. They are about education (which is not a process that finishes the day we leave school or university), about entertainment, about making safe spaces, and about access to information. I worry that here in the 21st century people misunderstand what libraries are and the purpose of them. If you perceive a library as a shelf of books, it may seem antiquated or outdated in a world in which most, but not all, books in print exist digitally. But that is to miss the point fundamentally. I think it has to do with nature of information. Information has value, and the right information has enormous value. For all of human history, we have lived in a time of information scarcity, and having the needed information was always important, and always worth something: when to plant crops, where to find things, maps and histories and stories – they were always good for a meal and company. Information was a valuable thing, and those who had it or could obtain it could charge for that service... Libraries really are the gates to the future. So it is unfortunate that, round the world, we observe local authorities seizing the opportunity to close libraries as an easy way to save money, without realising that they are stealing from the future to pay for today. They are closing the gates that should be open... We have an obligation to support libraries. To use libraries, to encourage others to use libraries, to protest the closure of libraries. If you do not value libraries then you do not value information or culture or wisdom. You are silencing the voices of the past and you are damaging the future."

Why Management Training Doesn’t Work; Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/15/13

David Evans, Chronicle of Higher Education; Why Management Training Doesn’t Work: "Let me note here that I am not anti-training—I think that there are many areas in which aspiring administrators both need and can make practical use of thoughtfully designed training that helps them learn to manage processes and people and to lead effectively in complex circumstances. I especially liked the suggestion offered by one reader of a yearlong seminar-type program which has as its “lab” the actual concurrent job duties of the participants, a model that could work especially well at a larger institution where there is a regular supply of new administrators being promoted from within and arriving from outside. I do, however, take exception to the idea, expressed by a couple of commenters, that the lack of such training is why many institutions of higher education are in serious trouble right now. I am quite certain that this claim cannot be empirically verified... The ultimate point is that yes, training is important. Administrators absolutely must understand the processes and legalities of their positions, how to manage crises and finances, and learning these by trial and error is the surest route to disaster—I would never argue otherwise. At the same time, as the examples above show, training is not the be-all and end-all of institutional success. People are people, by turns noble and venal, clever and stupid, honest and devious, competent and inept. Character matters, brains matter, empathy matters, work ethic matters. Training can sharpen these, but if an administrator doesn’t have them in the first place, no amount of training is going to fix the problem."

10/23/13 Library Leadership & Management Association (LLAMA) Webinar: "Library Security: The Basics and Beyond"

10/23/13 Library Leadership & Management Association (LLAMA) Webinar: "Library Security: The Basics and Beyond" Wed., Oct. 23, from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. (Central time) Description: This webinar will provide the skills necessary to manage threatening situations in the library. Discussion will address theoretical concepts, behavior policies, working with local law enforcement both in and out of the library, library banning policies, staff communication tools, and assessment for dangerous behavior. In addition, strategies for avoiding threatening behaviors will be reviewed. Presenter: Sydney McCoy, Branch Administrator III, Frederick County Public Libraries, Frederick, MD By the end of this webinar participants will: •be able to identify three ways to prevent escalation of bad behavior. •be able to identify at least four ways reverse an escalated patron interaction. •recognize the importance of consistent policy enforcement. •be able to explain a progressive banning procedure. •be able to identify at least five disruptive library behaviors. •be able to list at least 3 benefits to having a consistent and progressive banning procedure. Fees: LLAMA member: $49 Non-LLAMA member $59 LLAMA group rate (5 or more people at one site) $199 Non-LLAMA group rate (5 or more people at one site) $239 Register online: http://tinyurl.com/3zhtecm Register with a purchase order or by mail: registration form (PDF, 1 pg.)."

Let's talk about failure; Guardian, 10/13/13

Heather Long, Guardian; Let's talk about failure: "It's refreshing in an era where we mostly see our friends' and acquaintances' triumphs: their resumes and promotions via LinkedIn, their television chef worthy dinners on Pintrest and their smiling family and vacation photos on Facebook. We are all PR spin masters about our lives. Yet anyone who has ever been in the work world and certainly relationships knows that you often learn the most from your mistakes and setbacks... Some people's mistakes are more public than others', and some failures are more damaging to careers or personal lives. But as a society, it's not ideal to only stress our successes... Perhaps it's too much to hope that anti-resumes become a trend, but often, they're a lot more telling than what's on the real CV."

Be Yourself, but Carefully; Harvard Business Review Magazine, October 2013

Lisa Rosh and Lynn Offermann, Harvard Business Review Magazine; Be Yourself, but Carefully: "“Authenticity” is the new buzzword among leaders today. We’re told to bring our full selves to the office, to engage in frank conversations, and to tell personal stories as a way of gaining our colleagues’ trust and improving group performance. The rise in collaborative workplaces and dynamic teams over recent years has only heightened the demand for “instant intimacy,” and managers are supposed to set an example. But the honest sharing of thoughts, feelings, and experiences at work is a double-edged sword: Despite its potential benefits, self-disclosure can backfire if it’s hastily conceived, poorly timed, or inconsistent with cultural or organizational norms—hurting your reputation, alienating employees, fostering distrust, and hindering teamwork. Getting it right takes a deft touch, for leaders at any stage of their careers."

Is Music the Key to Success?; New York Times, 10/12/13

Joanne Lipman, New York Times; Is Music the Key to Success? : "Mr. Todd, now 41, recounted in detail the solo audition at age 17 when he got the second-highest mark rather than the highest mark — though he still was principal horn in Florida’s All-State Orchestra. “I’ve always believed the reason I’ve gotten ahead is by outworking other people,” he says. It’s a skill learned by “playing that solo one more time, working on that one little section one more time,” and it translates into “working on something over and over again, or double-checking or triple-checking.” He adds, “There’s nothing like music to teach you that eventually if you work hard enough, it does get better. You see the results.” That’s an observation worth remembering at a time when music as a serious pursuit — and music education — is in decline in this country. Consider the qualities these high achievers say music has sharpened: collaboration, creativity, discipline and the capacity to reconcile conflicting ideas. All are qualities notably absent from public life. Music may not make you a genius, or rich, or even a better person. But it helps train you to think differently, to process different points of view — and most important, to take pleasure in listening."

Interview with Jeff Fluhr, chief executive of Spreecast; New York Times, 10/10/13

Adam Bryant, Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Jeff Fluhr, chief executive of Spreecast, a social video platform: Finding Employees Who Fit: "Q. Tell me about your approach to hiring at your current company. A. I’ve found that the softer characteristics of a person — the cultural fit, the chemistry fit, their personality traits, their level of optimism — are far more important than somebody’s experience. What I was often doing at StubHub as the company grew was to say, “O.K., we need a V.P. of marketing and we want somebody who’s been a V.P. marketing at another consumer Internet company, and hopefully, they’ve done these certain things because that’s what we need.” But the reality is that if you get somebody who’s smart, hungry and has a can-do attitude, they can figure out how to do A, B and C, because there’s really no trick to most of these things... Q. What career advice would you give to a graduating class of college seniors? A. One of the things I tell people is that experience is overrated. I still sometimes find myself falling into the trap of thinking, when I’m trying to fill a role, “Has the person done the work that the role requires?” That’s the wrong question. It should be, “Let’s find a person who has the right chemistry, the right intellect, the right curiosity, the right creativity.” If we plug that person into any role, they’re going to be successful."

Cheating’s Surprising Thrill; New York Times, 10/7/13

Jan Hoffman, New York Times; Cheating’s Surprising Thrill: "When was the last time you cheated? Not on the soul-scorching magnitude of, say, Bernie Madoff, Lance Armstrong or John Edwards. Just nudge-the-golf-ball cheating. Maybe you rounded up numbers on an expense report. Let your eyes wander during a high-stakes exam. Or copied a friend’s expensive software. And how did you feel afterward? You may recall nervousness, a twinge of guilt. But new research shows that as long as you didn’t think your cheating hurt anyone, you may have felt great. The discomfort you remember feeling then may actually be a response rewritten now by your inner moral authority, your “should” voice. Unethical behavior is increasingly studied by psychologists and management specialists. They want to understand what prompts people to abrogate core values, why cheating appears to be on the rise, and what interventions can be made. To find a powerful tool to turn people toward ethical decisions, many researchers have focused on the guilt that many adults feel after cheating. So some behavioral ethics researchers were startled by a study published recently in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology by researchers at the University of Washington, the London Business School, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. The title: “The Cheater’s High: The Unexpected Affective Benefits of Unethical Behavior.”"

Accessibility Makes Incremental Gains | Reinventing Libraries; Library Journal, 10/9/13

Char Booth, Library Journal; Accessibility Makes Incremental Gains | Reinventing Libraries: "Spaces. Services. Digital content. Collections. Learning experiences. Interfaces. Any way you consider it, there is no library practice that doesn’t intersect with accessibility. Accessibility is the principle that the fullest use of any resource should be given to the greatest number of individuals. More than compliance with laws and guidelines, accessibility is a form of social justice. As the most established cultural providers of public space and digital content, libraries share a responsibility to promote universal access to our full range of services for all users, regardless of whether they rely on adaptive technology or not... The work to create inclusive libraries will never end, but small and large actions can continue to advance the cause. For those of us who don’t experience disability personally, one of the best ways to understand the importance of inclusive design is by attempting to experience the path users with different types of disabilities take through our stacks, sites, and learning materials. Try accessing and navigating an ebook or online journal article using screen-reading software or another assistive technology, engage with a video tutorial with no sound or visuals and see if you can follow the content, or accompany a patron who negotiates your library with a mobility aid such as a wheelchair or service animal. While you will not be able to experience truly their path, you will perceive why removing barriers to access of any sort should be a priority of all librarians."

A Crisis Of Leadership - What's Next?; Forbes, 10/10/13

Mike Myatt, Forbes; A Crisis Of Leadership - What's Next? : "I’ve often said, leaders who fail to be accountable to the people will eventually be held accountable by the people. But this assumes the people are strong enough to hold themselves accountable for the past transgressions of turning a blind eye from what we know to be right. We must once and for all learn that what we fail to require of ourselves will be hard to ask from others. We must demand more from ourselves and more from those whom we place in positions of responsibility. Whether we’re talking about executives, politicians, educators, healthcare professionals, or any other class of citizenry, we must stop tolerating those who place self-interest over service beyond self."

Leaders, Drop Your Masks; Harvard Business Review, 10/7/13

Peter Fuda, Harvard Business Review; Leaders, Drop Your Masks: "In my work with executives, I’ve found the mask metaphor to be particularly relevant with women. Take Christine, the highly articulate and ambitious CEO of a credit reporting and debt collection company that had been acquired by a private-equity firm... “I wish I had listened to my instincts sooner instead of going through the motions of being tough. I’ve learned that authenticity comes from confidence, and confidence comes from taking risks but you can’t take risks unless you’re prepared to be vulnerable.”

It’s Easy to Say ‘I Need This.’ It’s Harder to Find Solutions; New York Times, 10/3/13

Adam Bryant, Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Lars Albright, C.E.O. of SessionM, a mobile advertising platform: It’s Easy to Say ‘I Need This.’ It’s Harder to Find Solutions: "Q. How do you hire? A. The most important thing for me is seeing how someone connects with people. Part of that is how they connect with me as an interviewer, but more deeply it’s about whether I can get evidence of connections with people in other parts of their life. So I’ll ask people about their families. I’ll ask about their friends, past colleagues. How do they interact? Do they have strong relationships? Are they someone who can be flexible with different types of people? I typically get a sense very early on if someone’s going to be a fit. First impression for me is very important — that gut feel you have about their excitement and also their style and approach. Q. Anything you have an unusually low tolerance for in terms of behavior? A. The “I need” syndrome, where people say: “I need this. I need that.” And part of me thinks: “But then what? What’s your solution? What are you going to do about it?” Because it’s easy to say, “I need 10 more employees.” I think there can be this syndrome of people feeling like they should get a star for saying, “I figured out what I need.” But they’re not helping push the conversation through to what’s going to solve the problem."

Four Tips for Better Strategic Planning; Harvard Business Review, 10/1/13

Ron Ashkenas, co-author Logan Chandler, Harvard Business Review; Four Tips for Better Strategic Planning: "No great strategy was born without careful thought. That’s why the process of planning a strategy itself is an important vehicle for setting priorities, making investment decisions, and laying out growth plans. But for many companies, the activity has devolved into either an overexplained budget or just bad amateur theater – lots of costumes in the form of analysis, charts, and presentations – but with very little meaningful substance that can be translated into action. As a result, many strategic plans end up as shelf decorations or hard-to-find files in crowded hard drives. Since this is the season when many companies are engaged in strategic planning, it’s just the right time to break bad habits. Here are four steps that you can take to make better use of the hard work that goes into planning a strategy."

Collaboration for Hard Times; Library Journal, 10/2/13

Irene Gashurov and Curtis L. Kendrick, Library Journal; Collaboration for Hard Times: "People have always known that they can often achieve more working with others than they can alone. Today collaboration is a vital feature of organizational life, but finding the right partner for a supportive relationship is still no simple matter. There are risks and costs, along with the tension between self-interest and resource sharing. Once the right partner is found, the team must figure out how to make the relationship work... Importance of common culture While many business transactions are the product of collaboration—particularly in our knowledge-based economy, which depends on diverse teams with different expertise to complete projects—research shows that partnerships between companies succeed only about 40 percent of the time. In their pursuit of profit, such business partners often fail to find a match with their companies’ values, goals, and cultures. One of the largest deals in American business history, the AOL–Time Warner merger, might have had the best financial rationale on paper, but the combined company fell to one-seventh of its former $350 billion valuation a decade after the merger. Pundits still argue about what caused the combined company to collapse, but a major contributing factor was the failure to close the then-substantial divide between the cultures of print journalism and digital media. The companies continued to work as separate entities, and the divisive cultural differences led to a fatal lack of trust between them."

An Interview with Skip Prichard; American Libraries, Sept./Oct. 2013

American Libraries; An Interview with Skip Prichard: David “Skip” Prichard became president and CEO of OCLC on July 1, succeeding Jay Jordan, who retired after 15 years at the helm of the nonprofit library consortium. He had most recently served as president and CEO of Ingram Content Group in Nashville, and before that was president and CEO of ProQuest Information and Learning. "What’s the biggest challenge facing OCLC this year? The challenges facing OCLC are many of the same challenges facing libraries. Information technology continues to move at an extraordinarily rapid pace, and we have to make sure we are providing the services to help libraries make the most of those technologies and, at the same time, reduce costs. As library users’ expectations continue to grow, we have to make sure we meet and exceed those expectations, whether the user is in the library, at home or in the office, or tapping into library resources using a mobile device. There are lots of leadership styles. What’s yours and how will it help OCLC? I am passionate about my work, and inclusive in my approach to guiding an organization. Leadership is about leveraging strengths and creating new opportunities. I enjoy and look forward to doing both."