After listening to the very compelling and inspiring keynote from Karen Bonanno, at the ASLA Conference in 2011, I have been deep in reflective thought.

Some see our profession as the Invisible Profession and even Scholastic has been know to say that TLs are an endangered species. Bonanno referred to the The Five Finger Plan, originally developed by Trump & Kiyosaki (2011), Midas Touch, and has taken what was originally was for the business world – I have to admit I have not read this book.  Karen has found some wisdom in their expertise and has made a inspiring connection in promoting ourselves as TLs.   

To give those reading this I will give a brief rundown of what I mean when speaking to The Five Finger Plan.  Each finger stands for a different element in building success:

• Thumb – Strength of Character, reputation, presence and how we are perceived
• Pointer – F.O.C.U.S; Follow One Course Until Successful – goal setting, perseverance and trial & error
• Middle Finger – Your Brand: know who you are; your values; your authenticity
• Ring Finger – Relationships with staff, community and students
• Little Finger – The Little things we do that count, your uniqueness.

The Middle Finger was the most defining, ‘light bulb’ moment for me (of course!).  We as TLs know our value, but not many teaching staff do. Karen identified that maybe 40% will engage with what we offer, on some level.  When Karen was elaborating on the five different elements of the 5 Finger Plan she reflected, “How important is the TL without the other elements?”

As I mentioned The Middle Finger refers to our ‘Brand’.  With the other elements Strength of Character, FOCUS, Relationships and The Little Things that make us Unique we are merely left flipping people the ‘bird’.  I see this as the The Brand Bird, this to me says without the full complement of all five fingers we are all talk, preaching without substance or grounding.

We hold our success as a professional and in our core business in contributing to the academic excellence of our students, in the palm of our hand.  We need to be present with our fingers outstretched so that we can reach out to the Staff, the curriculum, the Teaching Standards and our community.  By having Strength of Character, FOCUS, our Brand, positive Relationships with our stakeholders and fine tuning the Little Things we can reach success and give everyone our own ‘High 5’.

 

References

Australian School Library Association (ASLA) (2011) A profession at the tipping point: Time to change the game plan. Keynote presentation, Karen Bonanno . Retrieved from https :// vimeo .com/31003940