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Juanita posted this in Conferences, Leadership on February 7th, 2012 Wendy Hicks of Stratford Public Library created and moderated a session with an incredible mix of seasoned managers offering their top ten tips to be an effective manager. Although they didn’t say it, I heard the overall message as “Keep in touch.”
1. Keep in touch with the front line: Know what front line staff knows. Go on the front line occasionally to find out what the customers are thinking, and what staff is experiencing.
2. Keep in touch with yourself: Govern your temper, put everything in perspective, and be the calm centre of any storm. Be in control of yourself. 3. Keep in touch with staff: Be respectful of staff, and that respect will then be reciprocated. Acknowledge and highlight the work someone does well. Don’t just point out flaws. While it’s important to make sure staff knows what they can improve, it’s important that they know what they have done well.
4. Keep in touch with the golden rule: Give 100% of the credit to everyone else when a project has gone well. Heap praise on them. Be front and centre when criticism comes your way. Project your people. Take the burden of blame. Build trust, show you have their back and people will do their best for you.
5. Keep in touch with the culture: Keep your style flexible to reflect the style needed in any given environment.
6. Keep in touch with opportunities: Look for opportunities to guide people. Don’t try to control. Identify people’s
Continue reading OLA Superconference 2012: Top Ten Management Tips
Rebecca Jones posted this in Leadership on January 31st, 2012 Too often we find ourselves in a leadership role – whether as a team lead, supervisor, or manager, before we’ve really prepared ourselves. And, can you prepare? Or do you learn on the job? Come & discuss this on Thursday Feb 2 at the OLA Superconference in Session 309 @ 9:05 a.m.
The Accidental Manager
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Rebecca Jones posted this in Leadership on January 24th, 2012 I’ve been away from the blog for too long. I’ve always been amazed at how our colleagues write such powerful blog posts – daily (Stephen Abram!). I admit it – I can’t do it. Projects and clients and family and faith have been my focus for the past few months. I have so much to say! So, projects or no, it’s time to get back to contemplating and sharing the insights we get while on these projects.
Projects will be much more manageable with Juanita Richardson on board. YEAH! We’re delighted that Juanita has joined D&J as an associate. I’m supposed to put her “official photo” in this blog post, but I like this pic with Jane much better — it shows Jane and Juanita as they are — full of life and fun! You can see the “official” one in the About Us section.
Juanita Richardson joins D&J from Richardson Jalakas & Associates – an information strategy company she founded in 1998. Juanita has experience on both sides of the information industry. Most recently, she worked for many years as Business Development Consultant for CEDROM-SNi. Prior to that, she was Manager of Licensing, Product Strategy and Client Services with InfomartDialog. Before “crossing the street” she was Manager of the Business Information Centre for Deloitte & Touche and held positions in the Research Departments of Wood Gundy and ScotiaMcLeod. She is an instructor at Seneca College’s Library and Information Technician program.
Bilingual, with an MLS, MBA and vast experience in the
Continue reading Welcome Juanita Richardson
Years ago I got really excited about “neoteny” when I read Warren Bennis’ book, Geeks & Geezers: How Eras, Values & Defining Moments Shape Leaders (2002). I love the word and the concept, and so does Joichi Ito, the director of the M.I.T. Media Lab, according to this article on innovation in the New York Times. He says, “Neoteny, one of my favorite words, means the retention of childlike attributes in adulthood: idealism, experimentation and wonder. In this new world, not only must we behave more like children, we also must teach the next generation to retain those attributes that will allow them to be world-changing, innovative adults who will help us reinvent the future.” Also, “education is [not] about centralized instruction anymore; rather, it is the process establishing oneself as a node in a broad network of distributed creativity.” Ito is also the general partner of Neoteny Labs.
I have given several talks on why libraries fail, and published an article on the topic, and one of the things I include in developing leaders is “the ability to retain youthful qualities as adults — curiosity, playfulness, eagerness, fearlessness, warmth, energy. Certainly this is the season for it, so strengthen your neoteny!
Thanks to Cindy Gordon who gave me a copy of the book she just wrote with John & JoAnn Girard, Business Goes Virtual: Realizing the Value of Collaboration, Social and Virtual Strategies. I will be interviewing Cindy for the Education Institute Conversations with Leaders series on Tuesday December 6th at 2pm EST. The book begins with a definition of virtual business and the new face of organizations which is being enabled by social technology. Another enabler in the virtual world is leadership and Chapter 3 of the book shares stories of a number of businesses and the strategies that have been successful for them — lots of tips for any organization here! The culture of sharing and collaboration is another enabler for virtual business and the book includes some great stats on the return on collaboration. Virtual worlds and their adoption by tweens is covered and discussed as an impact for organizations of the future. Strategies for and examples of successful organizations abound — you’ll get lots of ideas and insights from the book and from my interview with Cindy. Get the latest strategies and insights for any organization as our world becomes more virtual. Join us. Register here.
An interesting study by MDC Partners & Allison & Partners called the C-Factors Report points to creativity, collaboration and culture to re-engerize today’s global economy. They surveyed leading CEOs & CMOs who view creativity as a criticial driver of the global economy. Great stats & insights:
* 73 % of respondents think we’ve entered the “imagination” economy, with 98 percent affirming that creativity is critical to economic success today
* 76% state that creativity has a significant impact on driving business forward
* over half (57%) strive to develop a strong creative culture within their organizations; & 80% believe creativity must be generated and fostered by industry leaders in order for new and innovative thinking to survive
* 73% of senior executives will place an increasing emphasis on creatively inspired communications in the coming years
“Creating a vision, and building a defined culture around that vision, was a strong theme. Thought leaders from start-ups such as Inkling, to legacy companies such as IBM, all cited the need for deep discipline and a firm self-audit process to unleash the broadest creative efforts possible within a corporation.”
I’ts exhilarating for Rebecca and I when we work with clients to create visions that are so exciting and forward thinking that organization leaders can build strong support for their strategies to guide them towards that positive future. I love the “imagination” economy mentioned in this study and the fact that leaders realize innovative thinking and creative cultures are so important today. Goes back to my favorite Walt Disney
Continue reading Creativity, Visions & Success
What a great fall day when we celebrate Jim Henson’s 75th birthday and wish he was still with us. What a creative genius who dared to do something different and made a difference in so many lives! I love this post from last year about leadership lessons from the Muppets: so many positive words from such interesting perspectives including Kermit and the Fraggles. Rebecca and I have been talking a lot lately about critical thinking and the necessity of looking at challenges from difference frames or perspectives. So check out those from the Muppets, they’re great!
And also have a look at Search Engine Land’s post about today’s Google Muppet doodle. It explains the interactivity of this doodle even if it doesn’t have audio like lots of net curmudgeons complained about this morning. Life is too short — Henson died at 53. Be happy and creative; enjoy your weekend and Henson’s Google Muppet Day!
We’re very excited about this new event taking place in Monterey, Oct 17-18. The first of it’s kind, the Library Directors Digital Strategy Summit focuses on “Strategic Choices for 2020″ in an intimate and interactive conversation. Strategic choices and decision-making are a challenge for all directors, deans and senior managers especially in the digital age. Options and alternatives abound, so how do we choose what best fits for our communities, campuses, corporations and governments? The new Library Directors Digital Strategy Summit is an interactive event which includes leading edge thinking, collaborative opportunities for evaluating different future scenarios, various perspectives and viewpoints, industry experts, and more. Digital strategy has been defined as the process of specifying an organization’s vision, goals, opportunities and initiatives in order to maximize the business benefits digital investments and efforts provide to the organization. This summit pushes us to clarify our visions and goals for digital strategy in library environments, shares opportunities and initiatives, and looks carefully at the benefits our investments can achieve.
This two-day summit is an interactive forum for library directors, CEOs, and CIOs of academic, public, government and special libraries to problem-solve, discuss, and network with colleagues. It features a mix of high level presentations, expert panels, round table and facilitated discussions with lots of networking/peer engagement time. It features one on one time with leading thinkers:
*John Seely Brown, Chief of Confusion; Visiting Scholar at USC; Independent Co-Chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge, & Author, The New Culture of Learning
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Continue reading Digital Strategy Summit
Today a popular and well-respected politician, Jack Layton, lost his battle with cancer. Two days ago he wrote a letter to all of us. It echoes strongly of talks I heard at IFLA almost exactly four years ago in South Africa — from Albie Sachs, Justice of the Constituional Court of South Africa, and other politicians. Even though they lost arms, eyes, and dignity during apratheid, and were imprisoned, they never gave up hope, were determined, and DID make change. And here are Jack Layton’s words to all of us. Let’s take them to heart and be forces for positive change.
To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. … As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the
Continue reading Echoes, Impact & Change
We live in interesting, and somewhat scary times, as much of what we know is changing. Just think about the financial industry (where I spent many years) or the recent riots in London. Change is not always for the better in our minds. However, if we want to move forward, survive and thrive in our local or global ecologies we have to choose a positive direction, work together, and compromise. Nothing is perfect and neither are we. We all have our strengths and together those strengths can achieve amazing results. We have to keep in mind that something is better than nothing, and whether it’s a country or community, an association or organization, we can’t just rail about the problems and try to tear down those who have aided in the change; we have to get together and find positive solutions that work for the majority and will survive for future generations. Are you with me?
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