“Plays Well With Others”

Better Results? Look For “Plays Well With Others”  is a great post at All Things Workplace. 

Sometimes you can’t improve upon some age-old advice.

Respect

In any field, respect is key.  Respect for those you supervise, those who supervise you, those you serve.  As well as respect for yourself, and your family.

Read The 12 Rules of Respect for some tips on demonstrating respect.

I found it helpful.  I hope you do too.

On the Edge of Greatness

The Edge Initiative, developed by a national coalition of leading library and local government organizations, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and led by the Urban Libraries Council, sounds like a great resource to me.  Its goal is to “[help] libraries create a path for the continuous growth and development of their public technology services.”  In addition:

Through an easy to use suite of tools, Edge supports libraries in making strategic decisions and identifying areas for improvement. The Edge Toolkit gives libraries a look into their local data, from operations to partnerships and programming, to assess how their community is using the technology and how best practices can be put into place to align future growth and services with community priorities. It also provides useful resources to package and showcase the data to other community leaders.

You will want to look at the resources, toolkit, and blog to learn more about this project. Try the article How to Get the Edge on Technology Access from American Libraries too.

Get on the edge!

“Leadership is Pursuit”

The Seven Pursuits of Leadership (on Leadership Freak, based on the book Hacking Leadership by Mike Myatt.)

Learn about six foolish pursuits, seven pursuits of leadership, and more.

Check it out!

Customer Service is Job One. . .

. . . isn’t it?  I mean, if not for our library users, why are we here?

Fostering a culture of extreme customer service is one of the most important long-term investments a library can make, and costs almost nothing. The returns, meanwhile, are valuable beyond measure.  (Delivering Extreme Customer Service, WebJunction)

If you, like me, and like Gretchen Caserotti, from Meridian Library District in Idaho, believe customer service is Job One, you will want to read the Delivering Extreme Customer Service post and view the webinar of the same name.

On your way to these, I leave you with some highlights:

• Customer service is a culture, not a checklist.
• Customer service it is at the heart of patron-centered service.
• Customer service is driven by the capacity of all library staff to act generously on behalf of one another and their patrons.

 

Be a Mentor. ‘Nuff Said

Simply stated, Be a Mentor, Learn a Lot (All Things Workplace).

What Have You Learned?

Although written about a career in business, 3 Pivotal Career Experiences and What You Should Have Learned certainly applies to a career in libraries as well.  The 3 experiences are:

• Your first management role
• Leading a high-profile project
• Starting at a new company (or let’s say new “organization” or new “library”)

If you’ve been around awhile, you’ve done all of these.  What did you learn from each of them?  There are certainly other pivotal career experiences.  What are they, in your opinion, and what did you learn from each of them?

 

 

 

Partnering for Good

I’ve spoken about library partnerships before, and the possibilities are just about endless.

Here is a wonderful example of a partnership that truly benefits the community—in particular, the community’s children.

• Detroit Public Library Provides Food to Fight Child Hunger
• Detroit Public Library, Forgotten Harvest, and the Chrysler Foundation Partner to Feed Young Hungry Minds

“Our kids come to our library branches starving. They can’t concentrate.”  This partnership helps address that need.  Well done, Detroit!

Refresh Your Collection

The humorous post Treasure or Trash Heap? (Will Manley, American Libraries) has some gems of wisdom.  Among them:

. . . it’s good to weed out the term “weeding.” A better name would be the “library collection refreshment program.”

Whatever you call it, it’s a good practice to make sure your collection doesn’t contain outdated, erroneous material.  Be sure to read Will’s post for a good laugh or two.

The Fine Art of Delegating

“If you rarely delegate, you are an individual contributor. It doesn’t matter what your title is. Leaders who don’t delegate are not leading.”

“Not delegating hurts.”

“But wait! Delegating hurts too.”

Read the rest here:  How to Delegate So the Gain Outweighs the Pain by Jesse Lyn Stoner.  I’m pretty sure you’ll learn some valuable lessons.