Planning
I really enjoy planning, especially strategic planning, because it is a chance to be creative and optimistic about the future of the library and to have some input into what it might look like.

What 3 things do you want to know or be able to do at the end of this planning course? What will make this course particularly useful for you?

One of the challenging things about planning for me is creating ways to measure our success (or our failure). Planning always brings with it the need to create ways to see if you have met your goals and how you are progressing. Without a concrete way to see if we are "where we want to be", strategic planning cannot be as successful. Its easy enough to measure circulation or walkin traffic but these don't necessarily completely reflect the success or failure of our new directions.

Another major challenge with strategic planning, is defining and deciding what activity or service to let go. This often means realocating budget resources. It seems that we are always pulled in two (or more) directions. We want to move forward and make the library a better, more relevant community place but there are expectations from our current (and very supportive) clients to continue to provide the services that we have always provided. In between we have staff who are trying to do more with the same (or sometime fewer) resources. The ability to effectively "sunset" services at the right time (with the least pain) is something I struggle with.

I also struggle with public input and its role in strategic planning. One of the articles pointed out that loyal clients most often don't usually envision a "different" library (just a "better" one). I find this statement to be true but struggle with the amount and type of client input that we need to solicit in order to make our strategic plan the best it can be. 

Leadership Strengths and Development
I see myself as an articulate, inclusive leader that has a ability to listen and foster ideas and co-operative decision making with others. I feel that my areas for leadership development are in compellingly articulating our vision, especially in the area of consciously sharing stories. Because of my cirrent position I don't have much experience with media relations or creating relationships with community leaders. I would like to develop my skills in this area. In the area of developing staff, I think I need to focus more on identifying and developing leadership skills in others and giving them projects and feedback to help them improve. As I develop further leadership skills I hope to become more aware of and deliberate in articulating our library vision, helping people in their leadership quest and confidently speak to media and community leaders about the library.

The reading I've done on leadership only scratches the surface of what is available. It seems that everyone has a view on leadership and there are almost an infinite number of ways to go about "improving" your leadership skills. Some of them are even contradictory. One of the things that struck me in this reading is the difference between managing and leadership. This is something that was brought to my attention a couple of years ago. It seems to me that both sets of tasks (leadership and managing) have to be completed but they often take quite a different skill set, this does make it challenging. I also noticed that several of the articles I read emphasized leadership throughout the organization - not just at the top levels. I like this concept and would like to investigate it further. I was surprised with leadership ideas based on the ideas of new science (Margaret Wheatly is the author who seems to have looked at this). Its certainly a concept I had not thought of nor heard of before. Overall surveying the literature is a bit daunting. Its hard to know where to start or how to make a plan to improve your skills. I think that it might be necessary just to jump in and try some of the techniques and see what seems most relevant to the leadership situations that I face.

What do I want in a mentor?
Having not really decided exactly what my focus for my project will be, I'm not sure what specialty I need in a mentor. However, I think that I need a mentor who will challenge my thinking and make sure that I am not accepting the status quo. A person who has a different approach and background than me would be ideal. I've been at this library thing a while. I need to make sure that I challenge my own assumptions and ask the right questions. This seems to me the best way to learn and grow.

I am a bit behind with this post - technical difficulties. But I'm getting back on track now. Let's see .... my learning style. If had responded to that question a couple of years ago I would have answered that I am a visual learner like a majority of the population - mainly learning by reading. I suspect this because that was the learning style I had been exposed to most often as a student. However in the last couple of years I've come to realize that as an adult I learn in many ways. I definately enjoy learning certain skills kinaesthetically. I learned to be an ILS administrator simply by doing the job. For me, it was the best way to learn that particular skill set! There is no question that I am not a good auditory learner. My husband and son are great auditory learners but I can barely follow an audio book so I don't think that method is my best. I wonder how I made it through University with all those professors lecturing at me.

The discussion about active learning also struck a chord. I do find dialogue with others a useful method of learning as an adult. Learning by doing in this framework made a lot of sense. We often have trainings and courses but I find the information is interesting and potentially useful but if it doesn't get incorporated into action then it fades quickly. An Assertive Communication course I took was a great learning experience because we used case studies and role play. I can hear people groaning but role play really worked in that course. We each had a scenario to react to and the others critiqued the role play based on the topic of the evening. For me, and apparently others in the course, it was a very helpful technique.

I was once more of a reflector. Sitting back and listening to conversations around me and trying to take it all in. As I've got older (and perhaps more impatient) I find myself more of a pragmatist. I like to solve problems and work in the real world rather than with theory.

Learning can be tough as an adult, especially when there is so much that needs to be done just to get through the day but when I've experienced excellent learning situations I appreciate and enjoy it even more than I did as a student. There is so much to learn.

My first blog post

I'm very excited to be participating in the APLL course starting next week! I am a collaborative thinker. I like to discuss ideas and work with a group because usually the product of a group is so much better than the product of a single mind - or at least my mind. In the last few years I have realized the importance of leadership skills specifically in the library profession and have been consciously working to improve mine. Bring on the learning.