Chattanooga Library official resigns, another suspended after audit findings; Times Free Press, 9/5/14

Joy Lukachick, Times Free Press; Chattanooga Library official resigns, another suspended after audit findings:

"After two top Chattanooga Library officials were reported to the state for suspected fraud, one official has resigned and another will be suspended.

Library Systems Administrator Meg Backus has resigned and Administrative Director Nate Hill will be suspended, Executive Director Corinne Hill said this morning...

Sewell reported her two top staffers, Nate Hill and Backus, to the state's comptroller's office after he found they took multiple paid speaking and consultant jobs on library time and took weeks of unreported vacation time. When questioned, Backus also deleted evidence and lied to auditors. The total excess reimbursements that Corinne Hill and her staffers received and the amount of mismanaged funds are estimated in the auditor findings at nearly $3,000."

Curiosity Is as Important as Intelligence; Harvard Business Review, 8/27/14

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Harvard Business Review; Curiosity Is as Important as Intelligence:

"3) CQ: CQ stands for curiosity quotient and concerns having a hungry mind. People with higher CQ are more inquisitive and open to new experiences. They find novelty exciting and are quickly bored with routine. They tend to generate many original ideas and are counter-conformist. It has not been as deeply studied as EQ and IQ, but there’s some evidence to suggest it is just as important when it comes to managing complexity in two major ways. First, individuals with higher CQ are generally more tolerant of ambiguity. This nuanced, sophisticated, subtle thinking style defines the very essence of complexity. Second, CQ leads to higher levels of intellectual investment and knowledge acquisition over time, especially in formal domains of education, such as science and art (note: this is of course different from IQ’s measurement of raw intellectual horsepower). Knowledge and expertise, much like experience, translate complex situations into familiar ones, so CQ is the ultimate tool to produce simple solutions for complex problems.

Although IQ is hard to coach, EQ and CQ can be developed. As Albert Einstein famously said: ““I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”"

How diversity actually makes us smarter; Washington Post, 7/6/14

Gregory Rodriguez, Washington Post; How diversity actually makes us smarter:

"Successful navigation of this country’s diversity has always required extra thought, and more brainpower. The more diverse the location, the more brainpower required by the people who live there.

In more homogenous parishes, towns, states and countries, residents aren’t necessarily obliged to take that extra intellectual step. In places where the overwhelming majority of residents share a common background, they are more likely to maintain an unspoken consensus about the meaning of institutions and practices. That consensus, Dutch philosopher Bart van Leeuwen reminds us, is enforced “through sayings and jokes, in ways of speaking and moving, and in subtle facial expressions that betray surprise or recognition.” In other words, the way things are is so self-evident that they don’t require a second thought.

Diversity, however, requires second thoughts. When the consensus is challenged in a homogenous place by the presence of new people, things get interesting. The familiar signs and symbols that undergird our implicit understanding of the world can change in meaning. The presence of conflicting worldviews causes confusion, uncertainty, and alienation for holdovers and newcomers alike. These feelings can either cause people to draw back into themselves — or force them to articulate and justify themselves to those who don’t share their view of the world. Or both...

So it should follow that operating in a diverse environment makes you smarter. Not that that makes it any easier. Diversity doesn’t require us simply to learn how to celebrate our differences. It requires us to tax our brains by questioning our worldviews, our beliefs and our institutions."

Payday | LJ Salary Survey 2014; Library Journal, 7/3/14

Laura Girmscheid and Meredith Schwartz, Library Journal; Payday | LJ Salary Survey 2014:

"For many, salary discussion is the last taboo. But without knowing how their peers are compensated, it can be hard for librarians to make their case for better pay—and hard for library leaders to make the case to funders that higher salaries are necessary to attract and retain the best candidates. Even in public institutions, where salaries are often a matter of public record, figuring out who in another institution is the right apples-to-apples comparison for benchmarking can be a challenge.

There is some information already out there. The American Library Association (ALA) did a salary survey in 2008; its Allied Professional Association provides a database through 2011; and the U.S. Department of Labor shares some data but doesn’t get very granular in terms of specialty or title. There are cross-field crowdsourced sites like Payscale (the source of the numbers underlying Forbes’s controversial contention that the MLIS is the country’s worst graduate degree). LJ has, for years, conducted its annual Placements & Salaries survey (see “The Emerging Databrarian,” LJ 10/15/13, p. 26–33), which focuses on recent Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS and equivalent degree) graduates, to dig into what beginning librarians earn in their first positions and what trends those salaries reveal about the field as a whole. Now, with the help of more than 3,200 public, academic, school, special, government, and consortium librarians from all 50 states, we take a deeper look at the range of the field’s salary potential.

It’s not possible to provide an exact match to the unique set of circumstances each librarian brings to the negotiating table—the educational qualifications, the job responsibilities, the years of service, the size of the system, and the regional context all combine in too many different ways.

Nonetheless, LJ’s inaugural salary survey for U.S. ­librarians and paralibrarians will help readers get closer to understanding how their salary compares with those of their peers.

Click here to view all tables below as data instead of images (link will open in a new window)...

Education counts

In the academic and public arenas, holding an MLIS made a major difference to compensation. Those holding MLS degrees made nearly 50% more than those working in academic or public libraries without an MLS. This debunks the skepticism expressed by a number of respondents about the worth of the degree—one even wrote, “If anyone said to me that they were thinking of getting an MLIS, I would do everything in my power to convince them not to.”"

Penn Hills woman elected president of American Library Association; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 7/4/14

Stephanie McFeeters, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Plum librarian takes lead at American Libraries Association:

"Today's libraries offer patrons much more than books, says Courtney L. Young of Plum, who was inaugurated this week as president of the American Libraries Association. Providing Internet access, career resources and meeting spaces, libraries serve a several different needs, and in her new position Ms. Young plans to boost their role in communities across the nation.

As president of the 56,000-member association, Ms. Young, who is head librarian at the J. Clarence Kelly Library at Penn State Greater Allegheny in McKeesport, said she will emphasize career development, diversity and community outreach. Ms. Young was sworn in Tuesday at the Chicago-based association'‍s annual conference in Las Vegas...

Another of her priorities is ensuring that the association membership is diverse. In addition to strengthening the association'‍s Spectrum Scholarship Program, which helps students from underrepresented backgrounds pursue degrees in library sciences, Ms. Young said she aims to increase minority retention.

As libraries change, collections, too, are becoming increasingly diverse. Besides books and electronic resources, some libraries now lend tools, baking pans and fishing lures, and libraries provide entrepreneurs with meeting spaces as they get their businesses off the ground, Ms. Young said."

Leadership Is About to Get More Uncomfortable; Harvard Business Review, 7/1/14

Georg Vielmetter and Yvonne Sell, Harvard Business Review; Leadership Is About to Get More Uncomfortable:

"Among our findings is that leadership in the future will involve increased personal and business-level discomfort. Leaders will have to cope with the blurring of private and public life – and they will have to forge new relationships with competitors and employees. This requires new skills and mindsets. Ego is on its way out...

Leaders motivated by power over others will not thrive in this new world.We will see more “altrocentric” leaders, who understand that leadership is a relationship and will therefore primarily focus on others rather than themselves. Adept at engaging rather than commanding, they see themselves as just one integral part of the whole. Altrocentric leaders will be capable of long-term vision encompassing both global and local perspectives.

David McClelland points out that both emotionally intelligent leaders and their egocentric counterparts tend to be motivated by power; they enjoy having an impact on others.The difference is in the type of power driving them: Egocentric leaders tend to be concerned only with personalized power – power that gets them ahead. Altrocentric leaders, on the other hand, derive power from motivating, not controlling, others.

The altrocentric leader who is intrinsically motivated by socialized power, and who draws strength and satisfaction from teaching, teambuilding, and empowering others, will be able to handle the increased pressure of tomorrow’s business environment."

Pennsylvania libraries feeling pressures of continued funding cuts; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6/28/14

Matt Nussbaum, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Pennsylvania libraries feeling pressures of continued funding cuts:

"The cuts are not unique to the rural counties of the southwest. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have lost almost 50 percent of their state library funds in recent years. A program run by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and the Free Library of Philadelphia that serves blind and handicapped residents statewide has not seen a funding increase in over 12 years, according to Mary Frances Cooper, director and president of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh has been able to maintain relatively steady levels of funding because of an advantage most places do not enjoy: In 2011, Pittsburgh voters endorsed a Carnegie Library Tax to be added to their property tax bills. In 2013, that 0.25-mill tax generated about $4 million for the library. Money from Allegheny County's 1 percent Regional Asset District sales tax has also protected Pittsburgh and its suburbs from the worst of the cuts.

"The property tax was really never meant to supplant the revenue streams we've had in the past," said Ms. Cooper. "Years ago, states recognized that this was an important institution and that there was some obligation on the part of the state" to fund it.

While surrounding counties' librarians might cast an envious eye toward Allegheny County, officials pointed out that Pennsylvania is disadvantaged compared with neighboring states, just as surrounding counties are disadvantaged to Allegheny.

Ohio's state budget provided public libraries with about $344 million in 2012.

"Ohio has amazingly great state funding," said Ms. Cooper.

The 2013-14 Pennsylvania budget provided a $53.5 million public library subsidy, marking the ninth straight year in which the subsidy had held steady or fallen. Gov. Tom Corbett has proposed an increase, which would bring it to just over $54 million."

Make It a Place They Want to Work | Leading From the Library; Library Journal, 6/24/14

Steven Bell, Library Journal; Make It a Place They Want to Work | Leading From the Library:

"We look to our leaders to enable us to get things done. We look to them for vision and inspiration, but we also want leaders who make progress and get our organization to the place where the vision becomes reality. What sometimes gets overlooked is the need to create a workplace where people want to be while all the work is getting done...

Start With the Core

Prior research has led Schwartz to identify four areas that leaders need to recognize if they want to develop the right conditions for a better workplace. He identified these four core needs as:

Sustainability – Think of it as physical preventive maintenance. What does the employer do to make sure that employees are in physically good condition – or does it wear them into the ground with stress and lack of support for wellness.

Security – Mental well-being is equally important so employees need to feel recognized, valued and appreciated. According to Schwartz, only one in ten employees believe they are perceived as vital to the organization.

Self-expression – Fulfillment is derived from having the ability to apply individual skills and talents to complete work in a way deemed optimal by the employee. Leaders need to avoid micromanaging, parental treatment and other bad behaviors that make employees feel they are being constantly watched and controlled.

Significance – Believing their presence and work makes a difference can make all the difference in employees’ attitude. They also want to believe that the organization they work for stands for something significant and that they contribute to its cause in a meaningful way.

Leaders must take responsibility to determine whether or not, or to what extent, these core values exist in the organization. If this core is non-existent or only partially in place, the leadership needs to rethink its current policies and behaviors and determine what it can do to shift the culture. Schwartz has some suggestions for how to turn things around...

Zappos and Southwest Airlines are good examples of organizations that have achieved success by putting employees first through empowerment and engagement. Schwartz recommends four things leaders can do to start changing the culture."

Departing Pitt library director ‘‍finessed’ the system into 21st century; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6/26/14

Stephanie McFeeters, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Departing Pitt library director ‘‍finessed’ the system into 21st century:

"Mr. Miller believes these transformations have been largely positive. As director of Pitt’s libraries, he was always ahead of the curve and excited about modernization, planning in a way that involved the entire staff, his colleagues said.

When Mr. Miller arrived at Pitt in 1994, he judged the libraries to be disorganized and overcrowded. He set out to restructure the system and make it more efficient, closing half a dozen libraries, shipping books to a new storage facility and re-engineering back-room operations.

Tim Deliyannides, the university’s head of information technology, said Mr. Miller was forward-thinking and quickly shifted the library’s focus.

“From the very first time he came to Pitt, he had the vision and foresight that the role of the library would be completely redefined by information technology,” Mr. Deliyannides said. “He’s very bold in committing to a new activity and re-allocating resources, and sometimes that means we stop doing things we have always done because we’re moving in a new direction.”"

LLAMA Webinar Explores New Methods of Collecting Building Use Data: July 23, 2014 1:30 PM - 3 PM (CDT)

Library Leadership & Management Association (LLAMA); LLAMA Webinar Explores New Methods of Collecting Building Use Data:

As the use of library space continues to evolve rapidly, the collection of building use and space data has become increasingly crucial for all types of libraries. The Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA) will present “Beyond the Gate and Counting: Collecting and Organizing Building Use Data in Public and Academic Libraries,” on Wed., July 23, at 1:30 – 3:00 PM (Central time).

Description: Organized by the LLAMA MAES Data Collection for Library Managers Committee,this webinar will feature two presentations exploring multiple aspects of collecting space and building use data.

The first presentation will focus on the sampling methodology used to gather space utilization data within an academic library. In order to have a better understanding of physical space usage, detailed examinations of physical space usage were performed in the Thomas Cooper Library, at the University of South Carolina's Columbia campus. In that study, a correlation method was devised to assist in the data collection of reference statistics, avoiding the need for daily tallies.

The second presentation will review the latest iteration of the data collection process at The University of Arizona Library (UAL). Formed in 2011, the Library Space Usage Assessment project sought to answer questions about how public spaces in the library were being utilized. Using iPads and a newly developed online data collection form, they gathered observational data on customer activity throughout the library. This presentation will demonstrate the tools used, the lessons learned, and how data collection has been incorporated into ongoing customer needs assessment and strategic planning.

By the end of this webinar participants will:

Understand methodologies used to collect building use data.

Be familiar with the tools used to collect building use data.

Learn the various types of building use data that can be collected.

Know how to organize the building use data that is collected.

Presenters:

Presentation 1: Daniel S. Dotson, Mathematical Sciences Librarian, Science Education Specialist, The Ohio State University, University Libraries; Joshua Garris, ILS Administrator, University of South Carolina

Presentation 2: John C. Miller-Wells, Library Information Analyst, Access & Information Services Team, University of Arizona Library

Target audiences: librarians who collect data on building use or those who are interested in learning more about this topic

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.).

For questions about this webinar or other LLAMA programs, contact Fred Reuland. freuland@ala.org

About the Library Leadership and Management Association

The Library Leadership and Management Association (www.ala.org/llama) advances outstanding leadership and management practices in library and information services by encouraging and nurturing individual excellence in current and aspiring library leaders. LLAMA is a division of the American Library Association.

Unblinking Eyes Track Employees: Workplace Surveillance Sees Good and Bad; New York Times, 6/21/14

Steve Lohr, New York Times; Unblinking Eyes Track Employees: Workplace Surveillance Sees Good and Bad:

"A digital Big Brother is coming to work, for better or worse.

Advanced technological tools are beginning to make it possible to measure and monitor employees as never before, with the promise of fundamentally changing how we work — along with raising concerns about privacy and the specter of unchecked surveillance in the workplace.

Through these new means, companies have found, for example, that workers are more productive if they have more social interaction. So a bank’s call center introduced a shared 15-minute coffee break, and a pharmaceutical company replaced coffee makers used by a few marketing workers with a larger cafe area. The result? Increased sales and less turnover.

Yet the prospect of fine-grained, digital monitoring of workers’ behavior worries privacy advocates. Companies, they say, have few legal obligations other than informing employees. “Whether this kind of monitoring is effective or not, it’s a concern,” said Lee Tien, a senior staff lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco."

Don’t Do What You Love; Do What You Do; Harvard Business Review, 6/17/14

Charlotte Lieberman, Harvard Business Review; Don’t Do What You Love; Do What You Do:

"Miya Tokumitsu has critiqued Do What You Love (DWYL), the “unofficial work mantra of our time,” as elitist and untenable, “a worldview that disguises its elitism as noble self-betterment” and “distracts us from the working conditions of others while validating our own choices.” Tokumitsu’s overarching argument is, well, relatively inarguable: the idea that we should all embrace the notion of DWYL makes the false assumption that getting a “lovable” job is always a matter of choice. (The DWYL framework ignores those who work low-skill, low-wage jobs – housekeepers, migrant workers, janitors. These individuals are not simply failing to acquire gratifying work that they “love.”) The idea of DWYL, as Tokumitsu points out, privileges the privileged, those who are in the socioeconomic position to perpetuate this “mantra” as a way to rationalize their professional success and most likely, also their workaholism.

To explore these ideas further I talked with Sharon Salzberg, author of a new book entitled Real Happiness at Work, in which she describes a myriad set of actionable ways to find “real happiness at work” – even at “jobs we don’t like.” By practicing techniques of concentration, mindfulness, and compassion, Salzberg argues that that work is “a place where we can learn and grow and come to be much happier.” When we practice the art of mindfulness, we can tap into what is an opportunity for learning and growth on the job...

So try out the mantra “Do What You Do” (DWYD) – and maybe love will emerge from different places, professional or personal, at different times."

Manage a Difficult Conversation with Emotional Intelligence; Harvard Business Review, 6/19/14

Susan David, Harvard Business Review; Manage a Difficult Conversation with Emotional Intelligence:

"Emotions cannot be ignored. In fact, research suggests that suppressing your emotions – deciding not to say something when you’re upset – can lead to bad results. Have you ever yelled at your spouse or child after a frustrating day at work – a frustration that had nothing to do with him or her? That’s what psychologists refer to as “emotional leakage.” When you bottle up your feelings, you’re likely to express your emotions in unintended ways instead, either sarcastically or in a completely different context. Suppressing your emotions is associated with poor memory, difficulties in relationships, and physiological costs (like cardiovascular health problems). Emotions matter.

When Karl came to me with questions about his upcoming meeting, I walked him through a plan based on the principles of emotional intelligence. This plan would help him acknowledge logic and emotion during the meeting...

Emotionally intelligent leaders are aware of what causes their emotions, and they also think through what outcomes are most desirable...

Emotions aren’t just the result of a workplace conflict. In fact, emotions usually are the conflict. They need to be acknowledged and planned for. Recognizing emotions, assessing their impact on thinking, understanding them, and managing them is a roadmap for navigating through those often-murky (and anxiety-provoking) waters."

2014 Gale/LJ Library of the Year: Edmonton Public Library, Transformed by Teamwork; Library Journal, 6/11/14

John N. Berry III, Library Journal; 2014 Gale/LJ Library of the Year: Edmonton Public Library, Transformed by Teamwork:

"For 101 years, Alberta’s Edmonton Public Library (EPL) has galvanized its ever-growing city. From its beginnings above a meat and liquor store in 1913 to its current configuration as a massive, team-driven enterprise, EPL has served as a pioneering gathering place, connecting people and expanding minds. In the process, it changed the parameters of what it means to be a public library and transformed itself. Having the spirit and creativity to do that meant taking risks, innovating, and embracing change. It made EPL a model for all public libraries and the winner of the 2014 Gale/Library Journal Library of the Year Award. A place where “Europeans and Aboriginals always met and traded,” today, people come “to start fresh, build something new, try something out, and make their mark,” says EPL’s entry for this award."

In Silicon Valley, Searching for Diversity in an Algorithm; Fox Business, 6/9/14

Jennifer Booton, Fox Business; In Silicon Valley, Searching for Diversity in an Algorithm:

"Mountain View, Calif.-based Google said its 46,000-person workforce is “miles” away from where Google would like to be. It blamed education, and touted its efforts to try and fix the problem such as sending engineers to historically black colleges to reinvent IT curriculums and investing in education for girls...

“My concern is the 99% of other companies who want and need diverse teams but don’t have the team to recruit them,” Bischke said. “This could help level the playing field.”

What Entelo provides is more than 20 million profiles of potential employees filled with publicly-available data pulled from sites like Twitter (TWTR) and LinkedIn (LNKD).

Its proprietary algorithms then sort through this information using big data, predictive analytics and social cues, to determine the likelihood that people fall into a number of demographic subsets: female vs. male, white vs. black, etc.. It also identifies U.S. military veterans.

"We realized we could do this with a high degree of accuracy,” Bischke said.

The idea is that it would help companies to more cost-effectively and efficiently scour a wider group of potentially ethnically-diverse and qualified candidates, freeing up resources to focus on innovation, training, and ideally develop these people into future industry leaders."

Managing Two People Who Hate Each Other; Harvard Business Review, 6/9/14

Liane Davey, Harvard Business Review; Managing Two People Who Hate Each Other:

"Managing people is never easy, but when the animosity between two of your direct reports escalates to the level of hatred, how do you minimize the drama and keep your team on track? Before you call for a professional mediator, remember that this is a fundamental part of your job as a manager. If you can get to the root of your employees’ fear, you can help them rebuild their relationship. And if you do it the right way, the shared vulnerability will start to foster trust in place of hate. Try the following approach to get at the root of the problem and resolve the conflict once and for all:...

When you are ready, relentlessly provide feedback whenever you see symptoms of the poor relationship. For example: “When Giselle spoke, you rolled your eyes. For me, that demonstrated a lack of professional maturity. What caused your reaction to what Giselle was saying?”

Take every opportunity to call out bad behavior and don’t hesitate to provide feedback on the absence of behavior either, as in: “I noticed that you didn’t say anything during Giselle’s presentation. What was going on for you?” In each case, ensure that your feedback ends with an open-ended question that gets the person talking."

National Library management 'no confidence' threat; BBC, 5/20/14

BBC; National Library management 'no confidence' threat:

"National Library of Wales workers have threatened to pass a motion of no confidence in the institution's management.

The move comes after the library's board gave two members of the executive team responsibility allowances equal to a 10% payment.

It comes as unions are unhappy more than 200 of their members have not had a consolidated pay rise since 2009...

A Prospect Cymru spokesman said its 170 or so members felt that management - consisting of the library's board and chief executive Aled Gruffydd Jones - were not treating all staff equally and there was no transparency in its decision making.

She said members were aggrieved, adding: "In February we were unable to support the most recent pay offer because it did not deliver the living wage."

One Reason Cross-Cultural Small Talk Is So Tricky; Harvard Business Review, 5/30/14

Erin Meyer, Harvard Business Review; One Reason Cross-Cultural Small Talk Is So Tricky:

"A good way to prepare is to ask yourself whether the new culture is a “peach” or a “coconut”. This is a distinction drawn by culture experts Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner. In peach cultures like the USA or Brazil people tend to be friendly (“soft”) with new acquaintances. They smile frequently at strangers, move quickly to first-name usage, share information about themselves, and ask personal questions of those they hardly know. But after a little friendly interaction with a peach, you may suddenly get to the hard shell of the pit where the peach protects his real self and the relationship suddenly stops.

In coconut cultures such Russia and Germany, people are initially more closed off from those they don’t have friendships with. They rarely smile at strangers, ask casual acquaintances personal questions, or offer personal information to those they don’t know intimately. But over time, as coconuts get to know you, they become gradually warmer and friendlier. And while relationships are built up slowly, they also tend to last longer."

Buildings and Books; New Yorker, 6/2/14

Ian Frazier, New Yorker; Buildings and Books:

"Observers could be excused for finding the plan too complicated and strange to think about at first. The library’s management and board of trustees developed the C.L.P. without the public’s knowing much about it, but as the time for construction approached, and more public meetings were held, it became clear that the C.L.P. represented a major retrenchment. Anyone with experience in household austerity and the cost of modern real estate could get the picture. The main research building was like the elderly but still healthy parent; the Mid-Manhattan Library and SIBL were the grownup offspring. Pressed for cash, the family was selling the kids’ apartments and moving the kids in with the parent. To make room, some of the parent’s belongings would have to be put in storage in New Jersey. When the sacrifices that the C.L.P. would entail sank in, thanks in particular to reporting in The Nation and n+1, library users began to object loudly and persistently. The protests, the new mayor’s lack of support, and the fact that the financial projections did not add up eventually undid the C.L.P.

The biggest problem was the money...

The Schwarzman Building stands on the site that once held about half of the Croton Reservoir. Massive stones from the reservoir’s walls make up part of the building’s foundation. The reservoir stored much of the city’s water, carried by an aqueduct system for many miles from upstate. New York City has created visionary civic projects in the past; its public library is chief among them. America now has the highest level of income inequality in the developed world, and New York’s is among the worst in America. The public library has always been a great democratizer and creator of citizens, and a powerful force against inequality; it must not retrench, especially now."

Does the New York Times Know How to Fire Someone?; Harvard Business Review, 5/16/14

Ben W. Heineman, Jr., Harvard Business Review; Does the New York Times Know How to Fire Someone? :

"In many organizations, top leaders have issues that emerge from 360-degree reviews or other systematic (and fair-minded) assessments. Often, boards or senior executives try to be clear about areas where a leader needs to improve. Assuming that leader has other very positive qualities (clearly so in Abramson’s case), he or she is then given a real opportunity over a reasonable period of time to address those issues, customarily with some guidance or assistance. And given that Abramson had worked for the paper for 14 years before her promotion to Editor, it would seem unlikely that her flaws – everyone has some – would be totally unknown to her bosses.

If the Times and Sulzberger want to make “management” the issue, then they have an obligation not to hide behind a vague sentence or phrase — or a non-disparagement agreement — but to explain what the problems were and whether Abramson was given a fair chance to correct them. At this point, with the expected media scrum — and with important issues very much in the public eye — Abramson shouldn’t be complicit in the silence.

This is a big story about an important event at a national institution: The firing of one of the most senior leaders in journalism. The Times would never let another major institution off the hook with such a cursory account of its reasoning."

NYPL: Why We’re Changing the Central Library Plan; Library Journal, 5/13/14

Anthony Marx, Library Journal; NYPL: Why We’re Changing the Central Library Plan:

"The Library’s trustees patiently explored all of these issues, listened to concerns and critics, studied all options and, based on the new facts on the ground, decided to alter the plan. This is as it should be: when the facts change, the only right thing to do as a public serving institution is to take a look with fresh eyes and react to the facts as they present themselves.

But we also know that our goals of a renovated Mid-Manhattan Library, better protection for our research collection, and more access to the Schwarzman Building were the right ones. That’s why we have announced changes to the plan that deliver on those goals at less cost, and with greater flexibility and less risk. Instead of removing the Schwarzman stacks and placing the Mid-Manhattan Library in that space, we’ll renovate the Mid-Manhattan Library at its current site. This renovation will add much-needed computer labs and an adult education space, and an inspiring, comfortable space for browsing our largest circulating collection."

The Best Leaders Are Humble Leaders; Harvard Business Review, 5/12/14

Jeanine Prime and Elizabeth Salib, Harvard Business Review; The Best Leaders Are Humble Leaders:

"In a global marketplace where problems are increasingly complex, no one person will ever have all the answers. That’s why Google’s SVP of People Operations, Lazlo Bock, says humility is one of the traits he’s looking for in new hires. “Your end goal,” explained Bock, “is what can we do together to problem-solve. I’ve contributed my piece, and then I step back.” And it is not just humility in creating space for others to contribute, says Bock—it’s “intellectual humility. Without humility, you are unable to learn.”

A recent Catalyst study backs this up, showing that humility is one of four critical leadership factors for creating an environment where employees from different demographic backgrounds feel included. In a survey of more than 1500 workers from Australia, China, Germany, India, Mexico, and the U.S., we found that when employees observed altruistic or selfless behavior in their managers — a style characterized by 1) acts of humility, such as learning from criticism and admitting mistakes); 2) empowering followers to learn and develop; 3) acts of courage, such as taking personal risks for the greater good; and 4) holding employees responsible for results — they were more likely to report feeling included in their work teams. This was true for both women and men."

Stacks of problems: New N.O. libraries quickly in financial peril; WWLTV.com, 4/24/14

David Hammer, WWLTV.com; Stacks of problems: New N.O. libraries quickly in financial peril:

"Lacking leadership?

In December 2011, the New Orleans Public Library Foundation, a nonprofit that collects donations in support of library services, hired consultant Louise Shaper to assess the system’s performance.

New Orleans Public Library “is an underperforming organization that sorely lacks the leadership, clarity of purpose, and resources needed to provide even average library services,” Shaper wrote. “This state of affairs is a chronic condition, predating Hurricane Katrina.”

Charbonnet said that since the new libraries have opened, residents have been largely unaware of the underlying fiscal problems because of the spacious reading areas, interesting artwork, banks of new computers and the host of librarians.

But if the city can’t find new money soon, Library Director Charles Brown said he will be forced to cut back on staff, reduce hours of operation and cut back on maintenance.

Library leaders have not hidden their financial struggles, appealing each of the last few years at City Council budget hearings for at least some city general fund money. But with court-ordered costs for police, firefighters and the jail taking center stage, the libraries’ needs have received little public attention."

Beware the Next Big Thing; Harvard Business Review Magazine, May 2014

Julian Birkinshaw, Harvard Business Review Magazine; Beware the Next Big Thing:

"Where do new management practices come from? A few emerge fully formed from the minds of academics and consultants, but the vast majority come from corporate executives experimenting with new ideas in their own organizations. A case in point is the online retailer Zappos, which is replacing its traditional hierarchy with a self-organizing “operating system” known as holacracy.

Zappos’s experiment is getting a lot of attention. Like many management innovations before it, holacracy has an exciting zeitgeist appeal. At least a few executives in other firms are no doubt asking themselves, given today’s pressure to innovate and the changing nature of the workforce, is this the management idea of the moment? Could it give my company a competitive edge? What are the risks of trying to import it?

For decades, executives have been asking similar questions whenever management innovations burst onto the scene...

But importing ideas is risky. Even the most obviously useful theory or practice can go wrong if a company is unprepared to act on the insights it offers. And the value of most management ideas—and where they might take you—is far from obvious...

Publicity also has a downside: It raises the risk of hype, disappointment, and, sometimes, a repudiation of the idea. (See the sidebar “The Inevitable Hype Cycle.”) This magazine, for example, has debuted ideas that are now part of the management canon—and ideas that have been relegated to the dusty archive shelves. Your goal as a manager couldn’t be more different from those of the media and academia. You’re not trying to ride the next wave; you’re looking for the perfect wave."

Seeing Your Future Self: Do You See a Library Director? | Leading From the Library; Library Journal, 4/23/14

Steven Bell, Library Journal; Seeing Your Future Self: Do You See a Library Director? | Leading From the Library:

"At some career stage librarians may contemplate moving to an administrative leadership position with the goal of becoming a director or dean. Here are some things to consider as you dwell on your administrative leadership potential.

Deans and directors aren’t the only ones who lead in the library. If leadership is about the ability to influence others and get them engaged with an idea or vision, then leaders can emerge all around the library. However, the scope of your influence, particularly as the architect of a much broader vision for a library organization, will amplify in magnitude as a director. It is regarded as the optimal way to influence thinking at a larger scale, particularly if it requires support from stakeholders beyond the library. More than that, moving into library administration offers the opportunity to implement a personal and unique vision for how a library organization should operate and how it can impact community members."