2019 Amigos Member Conference - schedule

Employees who are empowered are more satisfied with their jobs and have better perceptions of management and leadership. Empowering others in the library also helps to banish the "romance of leadership" where leaders get all the credit and all the blame while making everyone else a passive agent in events. A library of empowered people has a greater sense of shared responsibility and accountability and is better at collaboration. This session will explore the benefits of empowerment for leaders, followers, and the library and discuss ways we can empower librarians and library staff.

Member update from Amigos' CEO - Alan Kornblau, Board of Directors and election voting.

People can identify with multiple groups at any given time based on department, library, gender, culture, politics, etc. The psychological effects of group identity dictate a team’s success. Attendees will learn about this phenomenon and how to facilitate a shared group identity for a more cohesive team and to encourage effective teamwork.

Each summer our department (library plus tutoring and the assistive technology lab, with around 60 part-time employees and just 10 full-time) hosts an internal staff development day. After several years of the same old format, run by the same staff, we decided to innovate our approach by mimicking a conference schedule: plenary lunch-and-learn plus multiple concurrent workshops in the afternoon. This empowered our employees to have more ownership of their learning by choosing which to attend and gave others a chance to shine by leading sessions of their own. This presentation will describe our planning process, best practices and pitfalls, and the response we've heard from staff.

Pioneer Library System's IMPACT PLS is an internal leadership program developed with the express goal of empowering employees of all levels to lead from where they are. This session will explore the process of creating a competitive and dynamic program open to all levels of staff. Participants will learn the key factors to success of an internal leadership program and will leave able to craft sessions of their own around topics such as advocacy, project management, emotional intelligence and career development.

So where are you? Most of us know exactly where we are. We can look at an organizational chart for our institution and plot our place. We know who we report to and who reports to us. An organizational chart is the perfect tool for showing who the bosses are. It is not effective for showing who the leaders are.

Leaders and bosses are not the same thing. Leaders do not need responsibility and authority to make a difference. Leaders at all levels set the tone for an organization and contribute greatly to its effectiveness and success

In this session you will get a quick, practical overview of:

• ways you can lead when you don't have budgets and power (and how to highlight those leadership activities in job interviews and performance evaluations)
• several leadership assessments and why you want to better understand your leadership style
• some basic questions to consider when looking at your professional network so you can strengthen it.

This program explores five areas of dynamic leadership: accountability and expectations; failure; initiative and creativity; library narrative; and, communication. Through the combination of these five areas, participants will begin to better understand the type of leadership their library needs to best serve their team(s) and patrons. As libraries continue to evolve, leadership needs to evolve in order to meet the needs of patrons, professionals, and partners.

Vince Lombardi famously said, "leaders are made, not born." But what recipe do you follow to create a success leader? A key ingredient of leadership development is the identification and cultivation of strengths, both within oneself and in others.

At Randall Library at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), members of the Senior Leadership Team have selected and implemented a set of activities that achieves this goal. Utilizing established tools including "CliftonStrengths," the "Forte Communication Style Report," and "Crucial Conversations" training as well as activities incorporated into the strategic planning process, leaders at Randall Library now have a much clearer understanding of their own strengths as well as the strengths found within the library faculty and staff.

These strengths have enabled clearer, more productive communication and have fostered a higher level of appreciation for individual faculty and staff. Faculty and staff can more clearly see how their individual strengths can be strengths for the organization. This session will outline the impetus for exploring these activities, an overview of the implementation, and the day-to-day and long-term impact. Anyone looking for free or low-cost methods for strengths-based leadership development can benefit.

Most formal training programs in librarianship do not stress the nuts and bolts of leadership and professional development. Understanding this process is essential for current managers as well as those interested in pursuing a management path.

Using empathy as a starting point, I will discuss the simple, sequential steps of performing a self-assessment of strengths and skills, how to identify and remedy weak areas, and how to promote yourself in a reality-based, practical way which will benefit your community. This process is applicable to librarians of all types and all levels of experience.