CILIP | International approaches to developing leaders

How are library leaders being developed in fellow LIS communities? Roisin Gwyer et al learned more
about different approaches, from leadership institutes to workplace learning, at an international conference.

Leadership is a hot topic in the UK library world, with organisations considering ways to develop leaders to replace the many who expect to retire in the next 10-15 years. The move towards flatter organisational structures has made the problem of the ‘greying’ of the profession more acute, as different ways to develop leadership skills need to be found now that traditional Deputy Librarian roles are becoming rarer. Added to this is the fact that younger librarians (the so-called Generations X and Y) have different ways of working.

We went to South Africa this summer to see if an international conference would provide some answers.1 The conference was arranged around four themes.

1 International, national and cross-cultural programmes
The need for diverse leaders was persuasively argued by Professor Karen Downing (from the University of Michigan), with colleagues from other university libraries in the US. Concern has been expressed that there are relatively few non-white people working in librarianship and those that are present are less visible in management positions. In order to redress this, the American Library Association and the Association of Research Libraries have introduced various programmes in recent years. One of the programmes (the Spectrum Scholarship) has developed leadership skills in some 500 librarians.

Two papers were given on very different approaches to developing leadership programmes in national libraries. Michel Netzer outlined the impressive training schedule for the 156 managers in the French national library, such as specific training, team coaching and individual coaching. And Lek Choh Ngian from the National Library of Singapore explored different facets of their leadership programme.

At the Mortenson Center at the University of Illinois, modules for international library leadership are being developed and tested, funded by the US Institute of Museum and Library Services. Director Barbara Ford described both the challenges and the advantages in delivering leadership training to people from diverse countries and culture. She outlined the positive learning that emerged when librarians from different countries interacted, and shared experience and perceptions as they undertook the leadership modules.

A recurrent concern was the need to develop leaders from within a library. Worries about recruitment have resulted in various projects and programmes aimed at developing current and future leaders and preparing them for top positions. Mary Chute, Deputy Director for Libraries at the Institute of Museum and Library Services in the US, described six projects that addressed building institutional capacity for leadership. The UK public library perspective was outlined by consultant Tom Forrest. He described the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council’s leadership development programme which has trained more than 660 key library staff from England. The importance of leadership capacity building was further developed in a presentation by Betsy Pittman from the University of Connecticut. She described work that had taken place at the University of Fort Hare Library in South Africa to develop exchange programmes to support leadership development.

2 Workplace learning and leadership training workshops
The theme of workplace learning and leadership training was delivered via workshops, with opportunities for interaction and discussion. The first session explored the potential for e-learning in developing leadership skills and approaches. It was delivered by colleagues from WebJunction (Marilyn Gell Mason and Rachel Van Noord), based on their research in North America on ‘Trends in E-learning for Library Staff’.2 Given WebJunction’s remit and the principles on which it is based, it was no surprise that the session encouraged collaboration to develop an e-learning approach.

The second session asked ‘Which Leader Are You?’ and was a very lively workshop led by Dr Marielle de Miribel from Paris. She suggested that there are three ‘hats’ of leadership: the responsible leader (who has authority); the effective leader (who has influence); and the psychological leader (who has personal connectivity with others in the team). The workshop explored when we need to use which type of leadership, the pros and cons of the different types, and if one leader can combine all three elements. She concluded by highlighting the need to balance the energy coming from leaders with the energy coming from the team.

3 Leadership institutes
In a plenary session delivered by William Garrison and Victoria Owen, we heard about the Research Library Leadership Fellows programme in the US. Operated through the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), with a focus on prospective research library leaders, the curriculum has been designed to build on self-assessment in a group setting. The format of the programme is three, week-long Strategic Issues Institutes which feature leaders active in the ARL community, along with visits to ARL libraries and attendance at an ARL membership meeting. The programme has completed a successful first year, with final evaluation highlighting the success factors as commitment from senior staff, programme content, mentorship, and discussions with ARL directors and ongoing contact with Fellows and directors. Fellows reported that they had begun to participate at a higher level within their own institutions, with some co-ordinating service-wide projects and others promoted. This programme has shown how an institute approach can work, but it is expensive and, coupled with the need for Fellows and directors to invest time in their staff, this means the decision to support staff attendance could not be taken lightly.

The plenary session was followed by concurrent sessions looking at a number of approaches from the UK, Hong Kong and the US.

Sue Roberts and Coral Black, formerly of Edge Hill University, focused on a local approach to leadership development. Recognising that they had a large number of staff in the service who needed support and development, and that funding prohibited attendance at external events, a year-long programme was developed to provide the necessary training and development. The programme was tailored to the needs of the selected group, starting with a skills analysis exercise and resulting personal development plan. The programme included a range of training sessions, from Emotional Intelligence, Problem Solving and Decision Making, to Managing Performance and Service Development. This was supplemented with visits to other libraries and a number of lectures from service heads from outside the organisation. A strong element of the programme was mentorship, with advice and guidance provided at every stage. Evaluation focused on the ‘impact on individuals’, with the production of a reflective paper by each member of the group. This highlighted some common themes, including confidence and self-perception, critical reflection, contextualised learning and networking and relationship building. Participants felt the programme was a major step on their journey of development as leaders and managers and that it was part of a continuum. While the commitment in monetary terms for this programme was relatively small, in staff time it was big. This approach can be viewed as ‘learning leadership’, where senior managers show commitment to staff and their personal development.

The final session was delivered by Peter Sidorko from the University of Hong Kong, who described an Asian Library Leadership Institute set up to support library directors and senior librarians from across the East Asia region. The programme is now in its fifth year, with a total of 150 participants from all levels of library management. In common with other institutes it offers a programme of sessions with a strong focus on discussion, mentorship support and complex case-study work, with groups formulating solutions to problematic situations. Probably a unique element of the institute is that it is broken into themed sessions, with each one tackling a topic identified as a key issue facing librarians in the region at that time. This makes the programme very real to those participating. Over the years the themes have evolved from organisational change, problem solving and collaboration in 2003, to open access publishing, managing institutional repositories and scenario planning in 2006. Evaluation takes place at the end of each programme, revealing high levels of satisfaction. Participants welcomed the chance to understand the cultural differences that exist in the library community and to collaborate in this context. Participants from China, a country undergoing massive change, felt they really benefited from spending time with people in similar roles and facing similar challenges.

Leadership institutes have been successful in bringing people together to focus specifically on leadership and management development in a supportive environment. All the papers highlighted successes in the development of staff, who have gained skills, knowledge and confidence, with resulting promotions or increases in responsibility.

4 Generational differences and succession planning
Refreshingly a number of presenters were ‘Generation Xers’ who, we were told, prefer to work collaboratively and in an empowering way, using networking and relationship building rather than seniority and hierarchy. We heard from Julia Glynn (a first-time conference speaker) that young people (in the US) do not want to be ‘managers’. This was borne out by Blanche Woolls and Nancy Zimmerman, who surveyed new and graduating students in two large LIS schools in the US and found that few students elected to study leadership or management-type courses. Yet despite this reluctance to engage in management education the majority of students believed they would be taking on a leadership role immediately on leaving college − significantly most thought this would be in relation to their professional association or other social/religious associations.

The Canadian response to succession planning was described by Ernie Ingles, Karen Adams and Mary-Jo Romaniuk from the University of Alberta. They described the Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute (Neli) which is aimed at people who have been working in libraries for less than seven years and modelled on similar programmes in the business sector. Neli creates a feeling of being special, both for delegates and their mentors, by being held in the Canadian mountains, a venue described as inspiring and supportive of a spiritual dimension. The programme includes risk, self-awareness, ethics, teamworking, vision, creativity and self-knowledge.

The need for succession planning is particularly acute in geographically remote parts of the world. Liz Burke from the University of Western Australia described the ‘Taking a Lead’ programme aimed at senior library staff. This builds on the defined expectations that the university has of those in management roles (which include innovation and a high level of performance). The programme uses a 360-degree instrument to identify skills gaps and a behavioural style inventory which benchmarks scores against the Australian sector average. The programme is based on ‘creating the future we’d like to see’.

The theme of how to both engage and manage ‘Generation Y’ was explored by two librarians (Perri-Lee Sandell and Susan Vickery) from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. In common with other Generation Xers they wanted a better work/life balance once they had children, and explored this through a job share at management level. They argued that managers who achieve a work/life balance are well placed to demonstrate to younger members of staff (for whom this is a very important organisational attribute) the flexibility and sustainability of such work practices.

Finally, Graham Walton from Loughborough University explored the concept of ‘leadership for all’ which is one response to the constantly changing world of information work. Graham’s lively and interactive workshop looked specifically at barriers to this concept, which can include rigid hierarchies and traditions evolved over a long period of time, and how these can be overcome. This could be one approach to developing new leaders.

The conference gave us many ideas to follow up and discuss back home, helped by our copies of the conference proceedings.3 It was interesting to see different approaches, and to consider similarities in and differences between cultures. Disappointingly the presentations were dominated by librarians from North America and Australia − perhaps next time more librarians from the UK and other parts of Europe will consider presenting and attending.

References
1 IFLA 7th World Conference on Continuing Professional Development & Workplace Learning for Library & Information Professions, 14-16 August 2007, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2 http://data.webjunction.org/wj/documents/14077.pdf
3 A. Ritchie and C. Walker. Continuing Professional Development: pathways to leadership in the library and information world. K.G. Saur, 2007. (IFLA Publication 126.)
4 www.ifla.org/VII/index.htm

Roisin Gwyer (roisin.gwyer@port.ac.uk) is Associate University Librarian, University of Portsmouth. Coral Black (coral.black@london.ac.uk) is Head of Public Services, Senate House Library, University of London. Sue Roberts (sue.roberts@vuw.ac.nz) is University Librarian, University of Wellington, New Zealand. Graham Walton (graham.walton@lboro.ac.uk) is Service Development Manager, Loughborough University Library.
The Continuing Professional Development & Workplace Learning Section4 of IFLA holds a satellite conference every other year before the main IFLA World Conference. The next conference will be in 2009 in Europe.
The authors would like to thank CILIP, which provided some funding for Roisin Gwyer and Graham Walton, and CPD25, which sponsored Coral Black to attend.

Updated: 28 April 2008