Competency M

Introduction

A Google search for “business leadership” (with quotes) turns up about 9.7 million results. “Library leadership,” meanwhile, returns just 621,000. Boatright (2015) recognized that libraries have lagged behind the business world when it comes to implementing leadership theory and practices, and believed that librarians could and must remedy this situation and become leaders within their institutions, even if they are not in management positions (p. 344). This need for information professionals to become leaders in their organizations is the main idea behind Competency M as well. The competency further tells me that in order to become a leader, I must develop the right skills, with communication being foremost among them.

Leadership Skills

Many of these skills an information professional must possess in order to become a leader are interconnected. Boatright (2015) stressed the importance of time management in asserting that we are all “responsible for how we spend our time at work and for meeting the basic job performance criteria set by our employers” (p. 354). Good leaders naturally want to go beyond the basic criteria, and to do so, they must also be adept at setting and working toward personal goals whose outcomes align with those of the overall organization. When a leader understands their institution’s overarching priorities, they can then practice better time management, making better decisions about which tasks and projects they should prioritize. Farrell (2017) echoed this notion in arguing that “Individuals need to develop methods that work for managing oneself while also meeting the expectations of the particular institution” (p. 216).

These skills—time management, self-management, and goal setting—are not the only ones that are interconnected. Leaders often have teams of people who report to them, but even when they do not, being a leader still means having influence over other people, and this requires good people management skills. Even managing other people requires good self-management, though, as developing relationships requires self-awareness, which Hernon (2017) described as the leader’s “ability to recognize and understand their own needs, emotions, and drives as well as the effect they have on others” (p. 4).

Good people management also means the ability to foster teamwork, and this allows the leader to take advantage of colleagues’ strengths and vice versa, leading to mutual success and positive outcomes for the organization. Furthermore, when leaders ensure the people on their team are clear on the greater priorities, it gives those team members motivation by showing them how their work fits in with the organizational mission, and it helps ensure they are planning their work accordingly rather than wasting time on non-essential tasks.

This clarity further helps the team members understand the need for delegation, which is another skill that information organization leaders must develop. Good leaders utilize their team members’ strengths so that together they can accomplish things no individual could accomplish alone. Farrell (2017) brings this back to time management, as the leader must recognize when it makes more sense for somebody else to spend time on a task (p. 218).

At the heart of many of these interconnected leadership skills and duties, and those involving people management in particular, is clear and robust communication.

Communication

Good communication underpins many key leadership activities, and is widely recognized as an essential skill for library leaders. The Special Libraries Association (SLA, 2016) tied several of these core leadership concepts together in listing “Relationship building, networking, and collaboration, including the ability to foster respect, inclusion, and communication among diverse individuals” (Enabling Competencies section, bullet 4) as essential enabling competencies for information professionals. Hernon (2017), in explaining the four central domains of the emotional intelligence (EI) theory of leadership, noted that relationship management includes, among other traits, the ability to communicate clearly (p. 5). The American Library Association’s (ALA, 2017) Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA), listed communication skills first among 14 foundational competencies for library leaders, stating they are necessary “to interact with employees and stakeholders, conveying information clearly and efficiently and using active listening for consistent, mutual understanding” (p. 1).

To communicate effectively, leaders must understand both common barriers to and best practices for communication. Technology can be at the root of both. Digital means of communication, primarily email and chat, have become indispensable tools for leaders and others, and they will remain so for the foreseeable future, especially for communicating over distances. They are easy, convenient, and fast. Yet, their main limitation is that they strip messages of much of their context: It is difficult to convey moods and tone over email or chat. Emoticons can help, but might be seen as unprofessional.

Leaders cannot afford to be misunderstood, so they must be aware of these limitations and put in extra effort to be as clear as possible when communicating over these channels with individuals or groups. This means providing background when needed and putting messages in their proper context. It also requires understanding the communication’s intended audience and using clear, jargon-free language when appropriate, especially when the audience includes non-native speakers of whichever language the message is in.

It also means avoiding overcommunicating. This barrier to clear communication is common when it comes to email and chat because of how easy it is to compose and send messages over these tools. However, it also holds true for all types of communication, digital, in-person, or recorded. Giving people too much information can result in them tuning out, or otherwise in making it too difficult for them to pick out the important parts of the message. This does not always mean being brief, as it is sometimes necessary to use longer communications to explain complex topics, but it does mean avoiding redundancy and irrelevant information.

Conclusion

There are many leadership skills and characteristics that are widely agreed upon as being essential both in the business world and specific in library and information settings. My coursework taught me that in order to be an effective leader in an information organization, it is necessary to be aware of these skills and characteristics, and to understand the key principles of time management, people management, self-management, and other skills and how they relate to and build off one another.

I also learned the central role that communication plays in leadership. As Barrett (2006) succinctly put it, “Through effective communication, leaders lead” (p. 385). Only through communication skills, Barrett wrote, can leaders build the trust they need to get others to follow. My classes have given me the chance to develop all of these skills so that I may put them to use as a future information organization leader.

References

American Library Association. (2017, May). LLAMA’S 14 foundational competencies for library leadership and management. Library Leadership & Management, 31(3), 1–8. https://search-ebscohost-com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lls&AN=122931055&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Barrett, D. J. (2006). Strong communication skills a must for today’s leaders. Handbook of Business Strategy, 7(1), 385–390. https://doi.org/10.1108/10775730610619124

Boatright, B. (2015). Leading the library (when you're not in charge). College & Undergraduate Libraries, 22(3-4), 343–357. https://doi.org/10.1080/10691316.2015.1070702

Farrell, M. (2017). Time management. Journal of Library Administration, 57(2), 215–222. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2017.1281666

Hernon, P. (2017). Reflections on library leadership: An examination of four leadership theories. Library Leadership & Management, 31(4), 1–12. https://search-ebscohost-com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lls&AN=124438585&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Special Libraries Association. (2016, April 13). Competencies for information professionals. https://www.sla.org/about-sla/competencies/