In our field, career paths often resemble a game of Chutes and Ladders rather than a linear climb. Whether you’re seeking a formal library leadership role, stepping into interim role, or routinely project-managing huge initiatives; leadership has a way of sneaking up on us.
Reflecting on how much leadership responsibility you have and want is vital to embracing leadership or protecting your existing workload. Leadership should be a challenge you tackle when you’re excited and ready, not solely because you feel your organization needs you to. You can prepare for leadership instead of letting it happen to you!
Let’s explore three key stages in the library leadership journey and what you can do to empower yourself and reflect on your path at each stage.
Looking to Lead
If you are interested in pursuing management, it can be scary to know when to make the jump. To ease that anxiety, look at what you’re already doing. Library positions ask a lot of employees! Areas where you are taking the lead can be used to highlight your leadership skills.
There isn’t always a clear next step to follow. Take time to look at job descriptions for leadership roles that interest you. Can you connect with folks in these roles? Are there any job duties you do not have experience with? Can you create opportunities to develop these skills in your current role or through professional service?
Have conversations with your manager about their work, your desire to lead, and the kind of experience you’d like to develop. If they know this is your goal, a good manager will help mentor you.
Think about what you enjoy most about your current position and what you would happily give up. Do you see things in leadership roles that would replace what you love about your current position, or would you be sacrificing what you love most to do more of what you don’t enjoy now?
Making Time to Lead
You might find yourself here, having skipped section one. For many (me included) leadership is added to our existing work as part of making a formal transition to a leadership role. To succeed in this capacity, you must be adequately compensated for additional responsibilities. Next, you have to carve out space for this new facet of your work.
Create protected time to be available for the staff you lead. Make it clear to your team that you are there to support their work and develop their skills. Reflect on your current workload and what you can delegate to make this happen. Know that the work you are doing can be done by someone else. The product might not look the same, but embracing and directing that difference is an essential part of managing staff.
Don’t kill all your darlings. If there is one program or initiative that you hold particularly dear, keep doing it! This can be your shelter in the storm of transition.
Get comfortable giving and receiving feedback and celebrating others’ wins as your own. If you’re unable to have hard conversations or celebrate work without getting the credit for it, you need to seek training and consider if management is the path for you.
Landing in the Right Spot
Often, we’re conditioned to see success as upward progression. The terminus of your career path doesn’t have to be serving as a Library Director! Where you can make the greatest impact and find the deepest personal fulfillment is unique to you! Your evolving experience, life circumstances, and interests are all to be considered in your leadership journey.
At the 2024 ALSC Institute, I attended a fantastic session about navigating the transition into management. You can read more about it and even watch it through ALA eLearning. The final portion of the session centered on Mary Fellows’ experience climbing higher on the leadership ladder than she wanted, and her decision to climb back down a few rungs.
It can be easy to find yourself far from the work that first interested you in libraries. Youth services staff love the audience they serve. As you move up and focus more on initiatives and structures to support youth and the staff serving them, think deeply about whether this work gives you the same fulfillment and joy.
Regular self-reflection and a deep understanding of where you feel your skills and passions lie will empower you to more confidently move up, down, or stay where you are.
Conclusion
So, if you find yourself in need of a push from the nest or place to rest after soaring high, let this blog give you that gentle nudge or sturdy lower branch. Wherever you land, you have the tools to build your path, and to alter it.
Eleanor Howell-Shryock (she/they) is the Head Children’s Librarian, managing family and outreach services at Burlington Public Library in Burlington, Washington. They are the Chair Emeritus of the Washington Library Association’s Children and Young Adult Services Section. They are excited to highlight some of the unique challenges and opportunities of working in small and rural libraries for the ALSC blog.
The post Navigating Your Unique Path in Library Leadership appeared first on ALSC Blog.
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