Developing Your Leadership Presence; Library Journal, 11/28/12

Steven Bell, Library Journal; Developing Your Leadership Presence: "It’s hard to say exactly what presence is, but when it comes to leaders, we know it when we see it. How do you learn to boost your presence, especially if your style is more introverted? When I accepted a position as a library director, it marked my first opportunity to take the helm of a library organization. I had full confidence in my ability to lead the library forward into the future, and help it make a successful transition into the digital world. The responsibilities for planning, budgeting, technology, and managing presented few concerns; I believed I was well prepared to lead in all these areas. There was only one matter that truly had me feeling less secure in my abilities, and it was something I could hardly explain myself. For lack of a better way to describe it, I could only say that I was less certain about my capacity for being “directorly.” At the time it was just this vague worry that I would fail at carrying and conducting myself in a manner expected of a library director and academic administrator. Although this sounds rather silly, it was a genuine concern, and when I joined the College Library Directors Mentoring Program, I learned that others felt the same way, and that none of us new library directors knew exactly what to do about it."