Post What Was Useful from 2009 LLAMA Leadership Webinars

Hi!

Because of a mysterious technical hiccup, I lost my phone connection during the Q and A part of the class today. I am going to answer the remaining questions, plus any others that surface.

It is easy to sound glib when there are only a few lines in which to respond; I apologize in advance.

Pat Wagner - patwagner@mac.com

Q: I agree with you about the importance of supervision, but I find that it is harder to find employees who understand it. Some of it is generational - no one wants to be told what to do anymore. How do you recruit great supervisors?

A: Two issues here. First, I don't think most libraries actually recruit for potential and current supervisory expertise. They recruit for credentials and experience, but mostly in either professional skills (cataloging, reference, collection development) or support skills (circulation, tech services, programming). What if the proven ability to elicit the best from people using positive reinforcement and project oversight was the #1 on your list? I think it is hard to teach management, easier to teach librarianship. This is true of most of the degreed professions. I have heard people tell me that learning to manage people in a hospital was harder than medical school! 

Second, more and more libraries I visit are hiring outside the profession, mainly because most library schools don't do the best job of teaching practical management and supervision. I meet people in libraries who have backgrounds in the ministry, military, computer science, hospitality, politics, nursing, law, retail sales, restaurants, ranching, law enforcement and journalism. They learned their management skills elsewhere, sometimes in classes in business and public management, sometimes in on-the-job training, sometimes by making mistakes on someone else's dime. And many get their MLS after they are hired.

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