James LaRue - myliblog

My partner and I just finished co-teaching a leadership institute for librarians in the Western States. But I keep thinking about it. Some people, I know, think leadership is all about power. But I always wonder: power to do what? To make or to break? Over my 40-odd years of administrative experience — and some of them have been very odd indeed — I’ve boiled my idea of leadership down to three things. Know thyself . That is, have a relatively clear-eyed assessment of your strengths. Build on those strengths. But also learn how to recognize in other people the strengths that you do not have. Play well with others . Leadership begins with listening and paying attention. Then it moves into emotional intelligence — the ability to read and respond appropriately to human communication. The good news is that emotional intelligence is a skill set. It can be learned. The bad news is that a lot of people don’t bother. Make it better . There’s no point in leadership that makes things worse. Good ...

Thanks to the kindness of my friend Peggy Sullivan, I had the chance this evening to see Imogen Cooper, performing Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major, K. 503. This was both my first time to see Cooper, and to visit the Harris Theater. My seat was the very last row, but right in the center. And Peggy was right: the view, and the acoustics, were fantastic. The rest of the show involved Jane Glover conducting Mozart (Ballet Music from Idomeneo, K. 367) and Haydn (Symphony No. 101 in D Major (clock). A terrific show. I just love  Baroque music, and the venue was great. Thanks, Peggy.

I spoke over brunch last Saturday with Peggy Sullivan (American library luminary and a fascinating, insightful conversationalist) about the definition of leadership. Based on comments one of Peggy's bosses once made (and I'm paraphrasing), here it is: figure out where you want to go do stuff that gets you there Any questions? The more I think about it, the more powerful it gets. In so many libraries - in so many organizations of any kind, public or private - we have "leaders" who don't lead. "Where do you want to go?" is usually some variant of "where do we  want to go?" That is, direction is not just the independent judgement of the putative boss. Ideally, it's the best thinking of an informed and thoughtful staff, facilitated by (and contributed to, certainly, by) the leader. If that staff and leader have any smarts at all, direction is grounded in user (customer/member) needs or aspirations. To reverse that flow: who do we s...