Category Archives: Uncategorized

Tuesday’s post was about managing the library agenda in a macro, high-level way, by being careful to avoid the mistake of allowing your organizational agenda to be driven by the person who happens to be making his case in your … Continue reading →

Sometimes the most important lessons we can learn as leaders are the ones we already understand intellectually, but have yet to learn experientially – or to get all the way down into our hearts.  For example: all of us know … Continue reading →

We’ve all heard the aphorism that the leader who tries to make everyone in her organization happy will only succeed at making everyone unhappy. Most of us probably believe it. (I certainly do.) But what does that aphorism mean, and … Continue reading →

When you’re in a position of leadership, people are going to lobby you – either for things they want for themselves, like raises or budget increases, or for initiatives they believe the library should undertake. In previous columns I’ve addressed … Continue reading →

Every library has at least one; many libraries have two or more: the employee who reflexively objects; who seems constantly to be looking for reasons to be outraged; who thinks everything the library currently does is wrongheaded, but looks at … Continue reading →

Everyone knew that the election of Donald Trump would result in some level of disruption once he was inaugurated. But I think most of us were taken by surprise by the sheer scale, depth, and immediacy of the changes he … Continue reading →

One of the things about being in a position of organizational power – whether you’re an internal unit head or a library director – is that people will be constantly trying to convince you to do certain things. Those things … Continue reading →

Some of the worst examples of leadership I’ve seen over the course of my career have been provided by people who seemed to feel that being the leader had to mean being the smartest person in the room at all … Continue reading →

In Tuesday’s post, I shared the experience of hearing fellow managers say “My library really needs to do [X], but my staff would never accept it.” To which I tended to respond (silently, in my head) “If you’re going to … Continue reading →

Many years ago, I gave a conference presentation on a controversial change that my department had made to its workflows. At the encouragement of my dean at the time, I had investigated the possibility of eliminating what was generally considered … Continue reading →