goals

Reflection (Assessment 2 – Part B)

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I know that I possess leadership qualities. I also know that my effectiveness as a leader is not consistent. The case studies in this unit of work have helped me to understand why this is so.

Control

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Having control is my comfort zone and I often find that I will take charge and get things done when I’m frustrated by a lack of understanding or when things are moving slowly. What I have failed to see is that I am not only creating more work for myself, but I am excluding others and preventing them from having a voice or making a contribution.

Moving forward I need to be aware of the importance of working outside of my self-imposed bubble if I want my impact to be across the whole school.  I cannot (and should not) try to perfect all of the skills that are required to make meaningful change. As was discussed in case study #1, working collaboratively and building capacity within the group will provide more opportunities for change (Harris, 2014).

Conflict

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In a previous post, I reflected on the way I respond to conflict and now that we are at the end of this unit of study, I see things differently. I am an active listener and am able to problem-solve but I tend to remove myself from conflict situations that are uncomfortable. If I want to be a leader, I need to be prepared to step up.

Case study #3 highlighted some strategies that I can use to prepare for uncomfortable conflict situations in the future. Rather than only working with those I like and see eye-to-eye with, I need to work towards developing positive relationships with all staff. I need to be prepared to model the professional behaviours that I expect to see in others (Gottlieb, 2012) and be clear in both the vision for the library and the overall vision for the school.

Advocacy & Promotion

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I was raised to achieve quietly and not toot my own horn. While it has been obvious to me for a long time that this strategy has harmed me, it is the work case study #5 that has helped me to understand why.

It is too simplistic to say that this trait has seen me looked over for positions of responsibility or meant that I have watched others take credit for my work- there are bigger stakes here. Advocacy and promotion affect my colleagues, my ability to fulfil the school and library vision, and student outcomes. If what I am doing is not visible, others cannot see how we can work together towards a joint goal.

I have been making the mistake of seeing advocacy as self-serving. I have been worried that I am showing off or will appear arrogant but it is my lack of advocacy that shows arrogance. A two-fold approach of listening to and supporting what others value (Weisberg & Walter, 2011, p. 111) and finding ways that we can work together will much better support my goals.

References

Gottlieb, H. (2012, October 30). Leading from the middle: Bringing out the best in everyone. Creating the future.

Harris, A. (2014, September 29). Distributed leadership. Teacher magazine. https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/articles/distributed-leadership

Weisburg, H.K. & Walter, V.A. (2011). How does advocacy develop leadership? American Library Association.

Case Study #3

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When working with a group of people I already know, the boundaries are clear, and working towards a goal is satisfying. When working with people I don’t know, it can be hard to use tools that I usually rely on because they can be misinterpreted (humour is an example of this). Without facial and body language cues, I question a lot of what I am doing because there is little or no immediate feedback. This helps me to understand the importance of face to face interactions within the school context.

As far as the case study work for ETL504 goes, the first attempt felt messy. I wanted a leader to step up and provide direction. I didn’t want to be that leader. I did eventually get the ball rolling but because I never wanted to take responsibility, there was no clearly articulated way of tackling the task.

From this, I take away the knowledge that it’s important to have conviction and be straight with others about what I want to achieve early on in the process.

Management is not administration

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How does Colvin’s (2000) article, Managing in the info era, relate to school libraries?

Point #1

Libraries, like businesses, are filled with humans and these humans are not oxen incapable of thought.

Point #2

Libraries are organic in nature- the people using the organisation change constantly and their needs/wants are unpredictable.

Point #3

Teams that share common values and goals will work more effectively than those who do not. Positive interactions and relationships are the backbone of well-managed teams.

Point #4

Encouraging creativity, good judgement and imagination while providing recognition where it is due will assist with points 1-3.

Reference

Colvin, G. (2000). Managing in the info era. Fortune, 141(5). http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2000/03/06/275231/index.htm?iid=sr-link1.