Moving into Management

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Moving into Management

• Instructor
• Nancy Bolt
• nancybolt_at_earthlink.net
• An Infopeople Workshop
• Winter 2007-2008

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This Workshop Is Brought to You by the Infopeople
Project
Infopeople is a federally-funded grant project
supported by the California State Library. It
provides a wide variety of training to California
libraries. Infopeople workshops are offered
around the state and are open registration on a
first-come, first-served basis. For a complete
list of workshops, and for other information
about the project, go to the Infopeople website
at infopeople.org.
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Introductions

• Name
• Library
• Position
• What was the last leadership position you held in
  any context library, church, community group,
  family trip planner, etc?

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Workshop Overview

• What is management?
• Six key roles of effective management
• Tips for a successful transition
• Personal planning for management

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Myths and Reality

• Myth
• You can get things done
• People will do what you tell them
• You just have to know the subject area

• Reality
• You are dependent on others
• Compliance is based on respect
• You have to know the subject and the people and
  the organization and the policies...

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• Myth
• You have to be the expert
• You learn to be a manager through formal training

• Reality
• Your staff and peers have valuable knowledge
• You learn on the job from experience

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What Is Management?

• Dichotomy between leadership and management
• management is doing things right
• leadership is doing the right thing
• Is this true???

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• Why are people chosen to be managers?

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• Apart from the relationships, the hardest thing
  for me was learning the business of management.
  I had to go from task-oriented to
  concept-oriented work I wasn't ordering books
  for patrons anymore, I was creating policies for
  how to deliver services. I wasn't dealing with
  patrons face-to-face as much as I was advising
  staff on how to do customer services. Wise
  hiring, effective training, fair and reasonable
  discipline, well-planned mentoring and coaching,
  negotiating between staff and upper management,
  planning new services, justifying expenditures,
  running good meetings, effective and appropriate
  delegation...I didn't learn ANY of this in
  library school. And the ongoing needs of a
  department don't go away just because the
  supervisor is learning. I didn't think I would
  EVER catch up that first year.
• From a Colorado librarian in an email

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Move from Individual Contributor to Manager

• You were chosen because you do your job well
• BUT
• You dont do your old job as manager
• Need to learn new skills

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An Effective Manager

• Has competence
• Has confidence
• Takes risks
• Makes a commitment

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Competence

• Competence means you have the skills and
  expertise to be successful in your environment.
• Competence comes when you
• complete assignments successfully
• overcome adversity or failures
• learn from past mistakes
• continuously learn both formally and informally

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Confidence

• Confidence comes from increased feelings of
  competence
• successfully complete assignments
• learn from mistakes
• self-reflection
• recognition by others
• stretch yourself

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Taking Risks

• Builds on
• competence
• confidence
• Happens when you
• volunteer for stretch assignments
• are willing to make mistakes
• reflect on what worked and didnt
• As virtually every leader I talked with said,
  there can be no growth without risks and no
  progress without mistakes.
• Warren Bemis, On Becoming a Leader

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Why Do People Want to Become Managers?

• Power to accomplish something
• Better pay
• Bored in current job
• Make a difference in the organization
• Recognition

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What Is Expected of a Manager?

• By subordinates
• By supervisors
• By peers
• By library users

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Subordinates Want Managers to

• Meet their individual needs and take care of
  their worries
• Deal successfully with outsiders
• Bring back resources
• Protect them from demands from above
• Provide feedback on their work
• Be fair and equitable

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Supervisors Want Managers to

• Be accountable
• Integrate with the larger organization
• Handle problems
• Follow policies and procedures
• Keep the supervisor informed
• Provide good customer service
• Be a team leader and a team player

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Peers Want Other Managers to

• Represent their unit
• Cooperate
• Share resources
• Negotiate conflicts
• Be a team player

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Users Want the Library to

• Provide what they came for
• Serve pleasantly
• Offer modern services
• Be a safe and welcoming place
• Be run cost-efficiently

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Managing your supervisor
Managing your staff
Managing yourself
Managing your peers
Managing outside
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In Summary

• In some ways its an impossible job. A manager
  is a jack of all trades, a chameleon, who has to
  please everybody.
• Anonymous quote from Hill, page 41

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Six Key Roles of a Library Manager

• Supervisor
• Direction setter
• Team builder
• Networker
• Team player
• Administrator

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Manager as Supervisor

• What challenges will you face as a supervisor of
  other people?

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A New Role and Responsibility

• New role in relation to past peers
• Dealing with the new and older staff
• Individual vs. team supervision
• Dealing with diversity
• Delegation

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• My biggest pitfalls Trying to be friends with
  everyone. Since I had been one of them I wanted
  to prove that I wouldn't "turn into management."
  Big mistake. I undermined my own authority. I
  didn't have to turn into a stuck-up tyrant, but I
  also couldn't be the same person I was when I was
  shelving or working the front desk. I had
  different and more responsibilities.
• From a Colorado librarian in a personal email

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Dependency

• As in individual contributor you could do your
  job
• As a manager, you do your job through others
• Formal authority is rarely productive and
  successful over time

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Manager as Direction Setter

• Set direction for your unit
• Develop goals and objectives for projects
• Participate in setting direction for the library
• Involve staff
• Accountability

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Manager as Team Builder

• Show value of team
• Make a team assignment
• Select a team and its leader
• Coach a team
• Evaluate a team
• And oddly enough, the more willing you seem to
  be to let people participate, the less need they
  have to force participation. Its the threat of
  being left out that exacerbates their ego
  problems and creates clashes. Bennis on
  Becoming a Leader, p 134

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Successful Teams Have

• A leader
• An innovator
• A detail person
• A people person
• How much of each are you?

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Manager as Networker

• Networking a major key to success
• Must be purposeful and constant
• Network with people
• you can learn from
• you need
• who need you
• who would oppose you

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Manager as Team Player

• Look at the big picture
• Find A Place at the Table
• If you want to be part of the decision-making
  process, you have to have a place at the table.
  Kathleen de la Peña McCook, A Place at the Table
• Never miss an opportunity
• Volunteer
• Seek recognition and visibility

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Communicating with Your Supervisor

• Emphasize
• impact on larger unit
• networking
• never present a problem without a proposed
  solution

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Hold Regular Meetings with Your Supervisor

• I just wanted to bring you up to date on what the
  library (department, unit) has been doing
• Our plans for the last six months were
• We accomplished most (all) of this (give data)
• Our plans for the next six months are
• Major issues we are facing
• We need

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Manager as Administrator(Enforcing Library
Policy)

• Expected by subordinates, supervisors, and peers
• Eats up time
• Must know policies and procedures and when you
  can ignore them
• Often frustrates

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What Kind of Manager Might These People Be?

• Cataloger?
• Reference librarian?
• Childrens Librarian?
• IT ?

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Tips for a Successful Transition

• Listening skills
• Decision-making
• Art of asking questions
• Meeting management
• Mentoring

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Why Listen?

• Listen to learn
• Listen to care
• Listen to impress
• Listen to communicate

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Five decision-making options

• Decide and announce
• Gather input from individuals and decide
• Gather input from group and decide
• Consensus between you and a group
• be sure you are willing to compromise
• Delegate with parameters
• Make sure the decision-making step is clear to
  all!

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When to Use Each Option

• Impacted by time available
• Input almost always produces better decisions
• Input almost always produces happier subordinates

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BUT Need to Be Adaptable

• Never have enough information
• Analysis paralysis
• Ready, Fire, Aim

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The Art of Asking Questions

• Can you give me some examples?
• Why do you think that happened?
• How do you know that?
• What do you think?
• Why do you believe that?
• Whats next?

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• Can you clarify what you mean? Im not sure I
  understand.
• What will you do?
• Who is in charge of this project and when is
  something due?
• Whos the final decision-maker on this project?
• What are we trying to accomplish?
• And be prepared to answer
• these questions yourself!!

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Listen to Learn

• Find a partner.
• The first person picks a topic on which they have
  a very strong opinion and share this with their
  partner.
• The partner asks clarifying question to better
  understand. Do not share your own opinion.
• Switch roles.

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Managing Meetings

• Why do we hate meetings?

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How to Make Meetings Successful

• Engage in active listening
• Look for ways to participate meaningfully
• Follow-up on opportunities

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• Ask clarifying questions
• What are the goals of a project?
• Whos working on this?
• Whos in charge (or wants to be)?
• Can my unit be involved (who wants to be
  involved)?
• When is something due?
• Have we decided to proceed?

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Power of the Pen in Meetings

• Volunteer to take minutes
• on a computer in the meeting
• Take notes and study them
• Use notes to refresh your memory
• and others
• Highlight actions and answers

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And If You Hold Meetings

• Make sure you need one
• Have an agenda
• Ask for input
• Make decisions using the options
• to proceed
• whos in charge
• when is something due

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Mentoring For You

• New managers often are
• afraid to ask for help.
• Why?

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Finding Your Mentors

• You dont need just one mentor
• Talk to your boss
• Find peers
• Find an outsider
• Join a professional peer group

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• My biggest pitfalls Not admitting when I needed
  help. I was afraid, especially after I got my
  MLS, that people would think I wasn't qualified
  to do the job if I asked too many questions.
  Even though others did look at me that way
  (generally long-time "non-MLS' employees), I
  needed to have the confidence that I was
  qualified. That truly learning my job correctly
  and delegating appropriately were what I needed
  to do and that those who were criticizing me were
  going to do it no matter how well I did my job.
• From a Colorado librarian in a personal email

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Mentoring by You

• Help staff be their best even if they might
  leave
• Increases your network
• Improves the units success
• Makes for more productive and happy staff

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Some Realities of Moving into Management

• Those First Months
• must transform from an individual contributor to
  a manager
• less control over time and work
• trivial competes with consequential for attention

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Stress(The Dirty Little Secret)

• Almost everyone is terrified at first
• There is often emotional upheaval
• Find someone to talk to
• Dont take things personally everyone fears
  change

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• They expect me to hit the ground running. I
  want to do the job well, but Im so afraid that
  Ill fail. Its the biggest fear Ive ever had
  and I know I wont be graceful about it if I do.
  It is important to me to be good at what I do. I
  have to feel that Im making a difference. These
  days sometimes I feel like I shouldnt accept my
  paycheck.
• Hill, p 177

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What to Do in the First 90 Days

• Learn
• Observe
• Interact
• Trust
• Evaluate
• Reflect

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Factors that Make the Transition Work. Be
Willing to

• Accept the new role and move from an individual
  contributor to a manager point of view
• Sort through conflicting demands from staff,
  peers, and supervisors
• Engage in personal introspection and learning

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• So,
• What are the benefits of being a manager???

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Benefits of Being a Manager

• Personal growth
• Opportunity to contribute to a unit and thus the
  librarys success
• Opportunity to make a difference
• Variety of learning experiences

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• Public recognition for accomplishments
• Ability to train and mentor other people
• See staff develop and improve because you
  challenged them to do more
• Thrill of risk taking

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Your Personal Plan

• How can you prepare NOW to be a manager?

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Prepare Now for Management

• Build a wide and powerful network
• Volunteer for more responsibility now
• Never miss an opportunity to show what you can do
  as a leader/manager
• Show interest in the entire library, not just
  your job/unit
• Offer solutions, not problems

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Preparing (2)

• Find a mentor
• Be visible
• Observe managers at work
• Dress the part
• Watch out for second-in-command syndrome

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Commitment

• Commit the time
• Commit the energy
• Do not be dissuaded
• Fire in the belly
• Reap the results
• The essence of leadership is the communication
  of commitment
• Charlie Robinson, Former Director of the
  Baltimore County Public Library

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In Summary

• Confidence
• Competence Risk Taking
• Commitment
• SELF AWARENESS AND SUCCESS
• The most powerful drive in the ascent of man is
  his pleasure in his own skill. He loves to do
  what he does well, and having done it well, he
  loves to do it better.
• Jacob Bronowski in The Ascent of Man quoted in
  Bennis, On Becoming a Leader p. 135

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• Thanks for coming.
• Be sure and complete the evaluation form.
• Good luck in your management position!