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."

Libraries See Opening as Bookstores Close; New York Times, 12/27/12

Karen Ann Cullotta, New York Times; Libraries See Opening as Bookstores Close: "As librarians across the nation struggle with the task of redefining their roles and responsibilities in a digital age, many public libraries are seeing an opportunity to fill the void created by the loss of traditional bookstores. Indeed, today’s libraries are increasingly adapting their collections and services based on the demands of library patrons, whom they now call customers. Today’s libraries are reinventing themselves as vibrant town squares, showcasing the latest best sellers, lending Kindles loaded with e-books, and offering grassroots technology training centers. Faced with the need to compete for shrinking municipal finances, libraries are determined to prove they can respond as quickly to the needs of the taxpayers as the police and fire department can. “I think public libraries used to seem intimidating to many people, but today, they are becoming much more user-friendly, and are no longer these big, impersonal mausoleums,” said Jeannette Woodward, a former librarian and author of “Creating the Customer-Driven Library: Building on the Bookstore Model.”"

Nine Ways Successful People Defeat Stress; Harvard Business Review, 12/13/12

Heidi Grant Halvorson, Harvard Business Review; Nine Ways Successful People Defeat Stress: "It is more or less impossible to be any kind of professional these days and not experience frequent bouts of intense stress. The difference between those who are successful and those who aren't is not whether or not you suffer from stress, but how you deal with it when you do. In the spirit of Nine Things Successful People Do Differently, here are nine scientifically-proven strategies for defeating stress whenever it strikes."

You Can Go Home for the Holidays; Chronicle of Higher Education, 12/20/12

David D. Perlmutter, Chronicle of Higher Education; You Can Go Home for the Holidays: "Being a graduate student or a professor is a peculiar profession by the standards of most others—with quirks that are hard to explain. When switching jobs academics may give nine months' notice. We may work hard for many months to produce an article for which we get no direct monetary profit. (A graduate student told me that her grandmother, incensed at such an outcome, threatened to call a journal's editor and demand they "pay up.") In a typical university system we achieve only two promotions in our lifetimes (administration is less advancement than another track altogether). People pursuing other careers—CIA agent, lobster fisherman, banker—can be mystified by our system, its nomenclature, demands, and rewards. A recent story in The Chronicle, "Here's Smarty-Pants, Home for the Holidays," explored the particular difficulties that doctoral students from working-class backgrounds undergo with their families during holiday gatherings. But returning home—and talking about just what it is that we do—can be culture shock for most academics. Certain frames of mind, coping mechanisms, and practical tactics, however, can alleviate your anxiety and lessen possible clashes with the natal clan."

‘I Love My Librarian’ Awards Honor Three School Librarians; School Library Journal, 12/19/12

Rocco Staino, School Library Journal; ‘I Love My Librarian’ Awards Honor Three School Librarians: "Robert Massie, author of Catherine the Great, Portrait of a Woman (Random House, 2011) and winner of the 2012 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, praised the work of librarians in a speech. Massie, former president of The Authors Guild, also asked that librarians fight to maintain copyright, saying, “without copyright, there won’t be authors.” Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, said, “Sandys come and go, but libraries always stand.” Each honoree received a $5,000 cash award, a plaque, and a $500 travel stipend to attend the awards reception in New York City. Nominees must be librarians with a master’s degree from an ALA-accredited MLIS program or a master’s specializing in school library media from an educational unit accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education."

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh gets healthier; ’13 budget up by 3%; Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 12/18/12

Bill Zlatos, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh gets healthier; ’13 budget up by 3% : "The Carnegie Library has kept all 19 regular branches open, started a “pop-up” branch in Allentown last month and expanded hours, thanks in large measure to a new library tax, gaming table revenues and improved fundraising. On Monday, the system‘s board approved a 2013 budget of $28.7 million, which is 3 percent more than this year‘s $27.9 million budget... “Between that and the gambling money, you‘re talking about $3.7 million that didn‘t exist. They‘ve been very successful at implementing the strategy they put in place,” he said."

After Criticism, Public Library Offers Peek at Renovation Plans; New York Times, 12/19/12

Robin Pogrebin, New York Times; After Criticism, Public Library Offers Peek at Renovation Plans: "In the 10 months since the New York Public Library announced plans for a $300 million renovation of its Fifth Avenue flagship building, scholars and writers have accused the library of abandoning its commitment to research and questioned how the circulating library across the street could be shoehorned into a treasured landmark. But something crucial has been missing from this debate: what the transformed library will actually look like. On Wednesday, that will become clear when the library unveils the design by the British architect Norman Foster...The renovation will leave the main reading room on the third floor untouched. Nevertheless, Mr. Marx appears prepared for those likely to construe any change to the Fifth Avenue building, with its lion sentries, as sacrilege. “Anytime you engage in a renovation of a building as beloved as this one,” Mr. Marx said, “there is going to be controversy.”"

A Good Mentor Never Tramples on Big Dreams; New York Times, 12/8/12

Adam Bryant, Corner Office, New York Times; A Good Mentor Never Tramples on Big Dreams: Interview with Tony Tjan, chief executive of Cue Ball, a venture capital firm based in Boston: "Q. You must do a lot of mentoring. Any advice? A. One of my partners, Mats Lederhausen, has developed a good framework for mentoring. It was inspired by Deepak Chopra, but Mats has evolved it over the years. There are five questions to pose to someone you’re trying to be a mentor to: What is it that you really want to be and do? What are you doing really well that is helping you get there? What are you not doing well that is preventing you from getting there? What will you do differently tomorrow to meet those challenges? How can I help, and where do you need the most help? The sequence is important. You have to understand the larger purpose; understand the person’s self-awareness around their strengths; understand external or intrinsic blocks to doing that; and understand the person’s plan and motivation to change before you just assume you can help. It’s just as important, for clarity and to reinforce self-awareness, to have the person play back to you after the meeting in an e-mail what they heard and said."

[Video: 48 sec.] Tony Hsieh: 'I Fire Those Who Don't Fit Our Company Culture'; Inc., 11/15/12

[Video: 48 sec.] Inc.; Tony Hsieh: 'I Fire Those Who Don't Fit Our Company Culture' : "Tony Hsieh won't hire stellar candidates if they don't fit the Zappos culture--and he fires those who don't inspire it."