Adventures in Leadership
At the start of 2012, I became one of the members of the inaugural class of the Penn State Library Leaders Program. Described in this issue of the Interview newsletter, it is a program that will foster leadership among the librarians here at Penn State by providing educational opportunities and focused mentoring. Needless to say, I’m very excited by the opportunity to hone my own leadership skills and knowledge, and develop strategies that will help make the work I (and in turn we) do here better.
One of the first challenges that I’ve had as a member of this program is articulating exactly what area(s) of leadership I want to pursue. Perhaps a better way to ask it is what areas of librarianship/life/etc. do I want to strengthen by applying my leadership in those areas?
When it comes to “real life,” the answer is a simple one for me. I want to be the best mother I can be. Reality dictates that I must do this while also growing a professional career. I bring to the Library Leaders table a strong desire to succeed in my own endeavor to balance the work/life scales, as well as the hope to bring awareness about and impact to the lives of countless other parents who are doing the same. I am also specifically interested in what it means, takes, etc. to be a female leader.
In my work at the library, it can be slightly more challenging to focus. I’ve learned through experience that the academic environment lives by its own set of rules when it comes to organizational structure and decision-making. What makes academia great is our drive to constantly improve what we’re doing, and thereby improve education and opportunities for future generations. Such a weighty endeavor, however, is prone to weighty processes that sometimes run the risk of clouding the vision. With an awareness of that, I have decided to look to organizations and professionals outside of academia that can serve as models to help us become more responsive and agile, no matter the task at hand. In my position as an Information Literacy Librarian, and the Coordinator of Instruction to first-year gen. ed courses, this means that I want to adapt our teaching of library resources to be responsive to student attitudes, behaviors, skill sets, expectations, etc. I want to apply the principles of good leadership (whatever they might be) to my work with library project teams, research partners, teaching colleagues, and students.
To this end, I’ve decided that I want to step outside of the comfort zone of academia and look to the corporate world (gasp!) for some guidance.
My first foray was to attend the Simmons Leadership Conference (#slc12), which took place two weeks ago in Boston.
I knew that I wasn’t in Kansas any more the moment I entered the pre-conference reception and program, titled “Whip up your Wardrobe.” Academics don’t exactly have a dress code. I’ve seen everything from shorts and polos, to tattoos and nose rings, to suits and heels, and virtually every level of style in between on campus. The crowd, mostly composed of female executives from New York City and Boston, gracefully floated about on their five-inch pumps, and gathered around the cocktails table in small packs, just as stereotypes say we women do when we go to a restroom. (my opinion? all stereotypes are rooted in the truth.) I was very glad to have read Peter Bregman’s “How to Attend a Conference as Yourself” earlier that afternoon. Over and over, I found myself practicing his recommendations. Walk with confidence. Talk about something other than my resume. Learn whose company I’m in. Be myself. By the end of the evening, I’d had several meaningful conversations with other women, very few focused on higher ed or libraries, and had thoroughly enjoyed the experience of watching a NY clothing designer show us the ins and outs of simplifying our wardrobes (to the tune of thousands of dollars, but who cares?!). By freeing myself of the baggage of worrying about how different I might be from the norm at the conference, I was able to enjoy meeting other women, and ended the night feeling very good about myself and what I bring to the table.
This is an experience and sentiment that I would not have as easily had in my own “natural habitat.” At library conferences, it’s too easy for me to blend in, and to stick with the flow of what’s happening. I stay in my comfort zone, and don’t often meet new people unless in the context of a committee meeting (side note – there were NO COMMITTEES to be found at this conference. it was completely for personal growth and learning.) Being out of my element forced me to push myself to new levels, to engage with conference content and people in a new way. During the next 24 hours, I would hear presentations by some of the most renowned female leaders in the world – Meg Whitman, CEO of HP (formerly of ebay); Vernice “Flygirl” Armour, former marine pilot in Afghanistan; Robin Chase, founder of Zipcar; Michele Norris, recently published author and NPR anchor; Rhonda Kallman, co-founder of Boston Beer Company (Sam Adams); and Billie Jean King, tennis champion and champion for equality among men and women. Each woman had an incredibly inspiring story and message, but there were several common themes related to leadership that they each shared as the day progressed.
Here are the messages that I heard over and over. I found them inspiring, empowering, and definitely worth repeating:
Be true to yourself.
It was Rhonda Kallman who said, “There is and ‘i’ in team. It’s spelled t-e-i-m.” While all of the leaders also spoke about working as a part of a team being essential to their own success, they also passionately shared the sentiment that you, yourself, need to be doing what motivates you. You should pursue what you feel is important, what you dream about, and do work that makes you feel good about what you’re accomplishing. If you can’t do this where you are, you need to make a change.
Success depends on gathering a strong team and empowering them.
Surround yourself with others who are driven to succeed, and who share your vision. Communicate clearly with them, and empower them to make decisions.
Mistakes are fine and part of the process. Don’t worry about them.
A good follow-up to the previous statement, mistakes will happen. We should celebrate, rather than fear, them. Use them. They will make us grow. They will get us where we need to be. Occasionally, they’ll lead us down another path that we would not have seen if it weren’t for that mistake.
Follow your dream and don’t get bogged down by the ‘how.’
Every single leader I heard speak talked about the fact that she had always dreamed of doing something impactful. For instance, Billie Jean King knew from the age of 12 that she wanted to work to make opportunities equal for boys and girls. That has always been at the core of what she does, and she has made her decisions according to that credence. Whether we want to go into business for ourselves, get an advanced degree, put our children through college, travel the world, or all or none of the above, it’s easy to get mired in the roadblocks to the end goal, to the point that we never get there. The message I heard was “Don’t worry so much. Everything leads us to the next thing.” If what I want to do is publish a books, for example, I should do it. End of story.
There were so many other great lessons from my experience at the conference. But these are the four that I heard again and again, and that I knew I had to carry with me into the future in order to be a successful leader in my own right. For more of the day’s events, check out #slc12 and my own twitter feed @annielivre
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