http://www.ohio.com/editorial/commentary/112365744.html
"...we have to keep investing, so that we survive the downturn and emerge ready to thrive in the good times."
But let us invest in what is effective. Let us re-evaluate all current practices, and discuss alternative ways of thinking and working together.
"Now is the time to come together for the future ... and to make decisions wisely so that those who come after us can enjoy, just as we did ..."
Let us come together with some shared visions, and missions for our work. Let us work toward a common goal.
In the work of children's librarians, our shared goal is to effectively implement Every Child Ready to Read -- to educate and support caregivers and youth in the ways of loving to read and learn together.
Showing posts with label vision. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vision. Show all posts
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Collaboration Through Technology
As I prepare for my first American Library Association committee meeting at the midwinter conference next week, I reviewed Maureen Sullivan's "Leadership Principles and Practices" handout that I received during my Emerging Leader experience.
In my last post, I set up a vision for 2010 that utilizes more technology in my professional life. Therefore, it is important that Sullivan's handouts reminded me of the underlying purpose of using such technology; Technology aids collaboration.
The connection and collaboration of individuals around the world through the internet is indeed "... a synergistic process through which the outcomes are greater than the sum of the individual efforts."
I am excited to meet my fellow committee members next Sunday and am interested to experience their unique collaboration techniques and tools.
In my last post, I set up a vision for 2010 that utilizes more technology in my professional life. Therefore, it is important that Sullivan's handouts reminded me of the underlying purpose of using such technology; Technology aids collaboration.
The connection and collaboration of individuals around the world through the internet is indeed "... a synergistic process through which the outcomes are greater than the sum of the individual efforts."
I am excited to meet my fellow committee members next Sunday and am interested to experience their unique collaboration techniques and tools.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
New Year, New Visions
It seems that I am moving toward becoming even more immersed in the technological world, especially with how it can be used in my professional life.
This afternoon I became a member of the free, social networking, and book-focused site called Shelfari. I envision that it will replace my Excel spreadsheet of read books. As a librarian, a list like this provides me with helpful reminders for book talking or, in other words, for marketing titles to readers. Not only will Shelfari organize this list in a more detailed, visually stimulating, and interactive way, it also offers instant reading recommendations ... a feature librarians refer to as "readers' advisory."
I also have a firsthand understanding of widgets through the successful addition of a Shelfari widget to this blog.
Cheers to another year of Learning!
This afternoon I became a member of the free, social networking, and book-focused site called Shelfari. I envision that it will replace my Excel spreadsheet of read books. As a librarian, a list like this provides me with helpful reminders for book talking or, in other words, for marketing titles to readers. Not only will Shelfari organize this list in a more detailed, visually stimulating, and interactive way, it also offers instant reading recommendations ... a feature librarians refer to as "readers' advisory."
I also have a firsthand understanding of widgets through the successful addition of a Shelfari widget to this blog.
Cheers to another year of Learning!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Leading Effectively and Dynamically
I just found an awarding-winning website about leadership through the Think Quest website.
I will explore the site further at a different time. However, I did notice an interesting article that contrasts "leadership" and "management" ... concepts that I would have thought were more similar than dissimilar.
I also took the Student Leadership Scale (quiz). My results:
Integrity = Excellent
Servanthood = Very Good
Empowerment of Subordinates = Very Good
Appreciation of People = Very Good
Shared Vision = Good
Innovation = Very Good
It is interesting that "Shared Vision" ranked lowest, since this is what I struggled with during my Emerging Leader experience.
I will explore the site further at a different time. However, I did notice an interesting article that contrasts "leadership" and "management" ... concepts that I would have thought were more similar than dissimilar.
I also took the Student Leadership Scale (quiz). My results:
Integrity = Excellent
Servanthood = Very Good
Empowerment of Subordinates = Very Good
Appreciation of People = Very Good
Shared Vision = Good
Innovation = Very Good
It is interesting that "Shared Vision" ranked lowest, since this is what I struggled with during my Emerging Leader experience.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Onward and Upward
Now that our team has a clear vision of our goal, it seems like the biggest challenge has been successfully completed. Of course, I am talking from my own perspective, so perhaps what I should be saying is ... Now that I have a better vision of the goal, I feel more confident about my contributions.
I spent several hours this evening drafting one of the team's ideas and am looking forward to how all the ideas will be fitting together.
In other news, I had an enlightening conversation about leadership two nights ago. In talking with my parents, I came to realize that in my past leadership or group experiences in organizations, I have never had the opportunity to work on such a focused task -- concentrating on one vision over a substantial period of time.
Additionally, I gained a less self-centered perspective on the circumstances that bring a certain individual into a leadership position than those first explored in my December post entitled "What Makes Some People Leaders and Others Not?" Watching movies like Milk and W has also given me a background to think and talk about this issue.
Overall, I am learning from and grateful for the experience that the American Library Association Emerging Leader program is providing for me.
I spent several hours this evening drafting one of the team's ideas and am looking forward to how all the ideas will be fitting together.
In other news, I had an enlightening conversation about leadership two nights ago. In talking with my parents, I came to realize that in my past leadership or group experiences in organizations, I have never had the opportunity to work on such a focused task -- concentrating on one vision over a substantial period of time.
Additionally, I gained a less self-centered perspective on the circumstances that bring a certain individual into a leadership position than those first explored in my December post entitled "What Makes Some People Leaders and Others Not?" Watching movies like Milk and W has also given me a background to think and talk about this issue.
Overall, I am learning from and grateful for the experience that the American Library Association Emerging Leader program is providing for me.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Fresh Breath
Whew!
I am feeling even better than at the end of my last post ... as I knew I would as my group continued to communicate and as we continued to receive guidance from our mentors.
The team (plus our mentor :) ) met today via Skype. Besides for a rocky start on my end (with my microphone "not working") and too many ideas than we had time to discuss, all went very well!
I have already posted the minutes to our wiki.
You will see that the audience and goal are indeed changed from what I interpreted in my last entry:
Audience: youth, parents, and families
Goal: to have the audience consider award-winning Coretta Scott King titles as purchases to populate children's home libraries
Our tasks now also support our new goal.
We still have a few team decisions to make in order to flesh out some of the new ideas, but overall, all of us now have the same vision.
This team excercise and overall experience definitely support the definition of leadership (idea of "vision") that I first blogged about on January 1 ...
I am feeling even better than at the end of my last post ... as I knew I would as my group continued to communicate and as we continued to receive guidance from our mentors.
The team (plus our mentor :) ) met today via Skype. Besides for a rocky start on my end (with my microphone "not working") and too many ideas than we had time to discuss, all went very well!
I have already posted the minutes to our wiki.
You will see that the audience and goal are indeed changed from what I interpreted in my last entry:
Audience: youth, parents, and families
Goal: to have the audience consider award-winning Coretta Scott King titles as purchases to populate children's home libraries
Our tasks now also support our new goal.
We still have a few team decisions to make in order to flesh out some of the new ideas, but overall, all of us now have the same vision.
This team excercise and overall experience definitely support the definition of leadership (idea of "vision") that I first blogged about on January 1 ...
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Frustration
All continues to be busy in my professional and personal life, and I feel even more busy since I was not at work at all last week.
As far as the Emerging Leader portion of my professional life is concerned, I am frustrated. I am guessing that many or all of my other team members are also frustrated.
Recent feedback from our mentors shows that our team is not on target. Here we are on March 19, and we seem to have come no further than when we started on January 23. We don't seem to have the correct goal in mind.
I believe that our team (self-titled "The King's Advocates") has great ideas, action plans, and networks/connections that tackle most of the aspects of our project description. However, it is challenging to determine where our ideas actually fit in the Coretta Scott King (CSK) committee's already in process, related projects. For example, in January we were told that a marketing firm had already been hired and was preparing for the July 40th Anniversary celebration of CSK.
I am confused and frustrated.
As I just re-read our project description, especially the title "Lift Every Voice and Read: A Personal Library for Every Child," I can see part of the reason why the teams' and mentors' vision may now be clashing. What we all discussed in January and have been moving toward since then is different from the written project description.
The Next Step
Each member of the team will again be looking individually at each task in the project description and will create or modify action plans for each task.
I am hopeful that this exercise as well as continued direction from our mentors will bridge the gap in our visions.
As far as the Emerging Leader portion of my professional life is concerned, I am frustrated. I am guessing that many or all of my other team members are also frustrated.
Recent feedback from our mentors shows that our team is not on target. Here we are on March 19, and we seem to have come no further than when we started on January 23. We don't seem to have the correct goal in mind.
I believe that our team (self-titled "The King's Advocates") has great ideas, action plans, and networks/connections that tackle most of the aspects of our project description. However, it is challenging to determine where our ideas actually fit in the Coretta Scott King (CSK) committee's already in process, related projects. For example, in January we were told that a marketing firm had already been hired and was preparing for the July 40th Anniversary celebration of CSK.
I am confused and frustrated.
As I just re-read our project description, especially the title "Lift Every Voice and Read: A Personal Library for Every Child," I can see part of the reason why the teams' and mentors' vision may now be clashing. What we all discussed in January and have been moving toward since then is different from the written project description.
The Next Step
Each member of the team will again be looking individually at each task in the project description and will create or modify action plans for each task.
I am hopeful that this exercise as well as continued direction from our mentors will bridge the gap in our visions.
Monday, January 12, 2009
First EL Assignment
In order to prepare for an activity during the EL Town Meeting on Saturday, January 24, we have been asked to read Business Week, 2/4/08 p 88 (ISSN 0007-7135), and "highlight three sentences that resonate with you."
I was pleased to read this article because it provides more insight into this blog's posed question, "What is leadership?"
Below I have copied the three phrases that resonate with me. Beside each phrase I have also written a keyword, two of which ("vision" and "execution") are actually named in the article:
Vision: "... a clearly conceived, inspirational mission is critical for real progress."
Education/Learning: "... Every time you fail, you get back -- wiser ..."
Execution: "... promises get kept and plans get completed ..."
It is interesting to reflect on my January 1, 2009 post entitled "Leadership Defined: My View" and see (in only 12 days) how my definition may have already changed. In that post, I also addressed three components of leadership. They were Commitment to an Idea, Marketing, and Open-ness.
Let's see how what I discovered then compares with my discovery above.
In my Commitment to an Idea, I actually used the word "vision." However, I lumped it together with the (article's) idea of execution without giving it proper elaboration. In my thoughts, I didn't come to the necessary and clear wording " ... plans get completed..." that this article captures.
In the article, the paragraph on vision also refers to inspiration which I included (and expanded) in my Marketing paragraph as I covered the idea of communication and interaction with others. Here, too, would be an excellent place to detail the execution in interpersonal relationships and say "... promises get kept ..."
The article's paragraph about resilience says that " ... Every time you fail, you get back -- wiser ..." I have keyworded the phrase as "Education/Learning" instead of "resilience." This keyword allows the phrase to supplement my Open-ness paragraph. In that original paragraph, I should include the statement that a leader needs to be open to mistakes by accepting and learning from them.
Overall, I am still pleased with my previous definitions, but today's information allows me to add more detail and better understand my original definitions.
I was pleased to read this article because it provides more insight into this blog's posed question, "What is leadership?"
Below I have copied the three phrases that resonate with me. Beside each phrase I have also written a keyword, two of which ("vision" and "execution") are actually named in the article:
Vision: "... a clearly conceived, inspirational mission is critical for real progress."
Education/Learning: "... Every time you fail, you get back -- wiser ..."
Execution: "... promises get kept and plans get completed ..."
It is interesting to reflect on my January 1, 2009 post entitled "Leadership Defined: My View" and see (in only 12 days) how my definition may have already changed. In that post, I also addressed three components of leadership. They were Commitment to an Idea, Marketing, and Open-ness.
Let's see how what I discovered then compares with my discovery above.
In my Commitment to an Idea, I actually used the word "vision." However, I lumped it together with the (article's) idea of execution without giving it proper elaboration. In my thoughts, I didn't come to the necessary and clear wording " ... plans get completed..." that this article captures.
In the article, the paragraph on vision also refers to inspiration which I included (and expanded) in my Marketing paragraph as I covered the idea of communication and interaction with others. Here, too, would be an excellent place to detail the execution in interpersonal relationships and say "... promises get kept ..."
The article's paragraph about resilience says that " ... Every time you fail, you get back -- wiser ..." I have keyworded the phrase as "Education/Learning" instead of "resilience." This keyword allows the phrase to supplement my Open-ness paragraph. In that original paragraph, I should include the statement that a leader needs to be open to mistakes by accepting and learning from them.
Overall, I am still pleased with my previous definitions, but today's information allows me to add more detail and better understand my original definitions.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Leadership Defined: My View Visualized
This "word cloud" was created on http://www.wordle.net/ using the text from yesterday's post.
It is interesting to compare my visual representation of the definition of leadership to that of the compiled comments from others.
Leadership Defined: My View
After reflecting on the thoughts of those professionals who have chosen to comment in this blog as well as looking at my labels for each of my posts, I have come to determine two fundamental qualities in a leader.
The first and most important quality is the leader's commitment to an idea ... a vision ... a goal ... a solution ... a resolution. As I think about historical leaders and continue to read Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins, I see the power and effects of one's ideas on one's manifestations. According to Robbins, if we wish to commit ourselves to a different outcome, we are required to analyze our current beliefs and their emotional connections. After such introspection, we will need to develop support ... new ideas and new emotional connections to these ideas in order to bring vision into reality. I will add to that thought the need for a leader to re-evaluate the support or action during the manifestation process.
In other words, a leader must actively and consistently undergo total evaluation (of one's self as well as the situation) to determine ideas (visions or goals) and commit to a focus (action and outcome).
The second key component of leadership is marketing. I use the term marketing to capture the idea of clear and meaningful communication through unique and specific means. In other words, a leader needs to be able to express his/her vision and interact with a diverse audience. He or she should understand various learning styles and modes of explanation (visual as well as verbal) in order to communicate effectively. Additionally, a leader needs to be sensitive to his/her audience by consistently listening to their ideas and recognizing individuals.
The beautiful and amazing part of a successful leader's marketing (communicating a vision) is the process of correspondence or friendly discussion with others which molds the vision as well as makes it a reality.
A key ingredient within each of these qualities, is the need for a leader to be open ... open to a change in personal thought ... open to trying different strategies ... open to incorporating others' ideas ... open to the sometimes timely and serendipitous moments ... open to traveling, to learning, and to experiencing different ideas ...
At the end of this year, I will again reflect on the labels of my accumulated posts and will re-evaluate today's conclusions.
The first and most important quality is the leader's commitment to an idea ... a vision ... a goal ... a solution ... a resolution. As I think about historical leaders and continue to read Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins, I see the power and effects of one's ideas on one's manifestations. According to Robbins, if we wish to commit ourselves to a different outcome, we are required to analyze our current beliefs and their emotional connections. After such introspection, we will need to develop support ... new ideas and new emotional connections to these ideas in order to bring vision into reality. I will add to that thought the need for a leader to re-evaluate the support or action during the manifestation process.
In other words, a leader must actively and consistently undergo total evaluation (of one's self as well as the situation) to determine ideas (visions or goals) and commit to a focus (action and outcome).
The second key component of leadership is marketing. I use the term marketing to capture the idea of clear and meaningful communication through unique and specific means. In other words, a leader needs to be able to express his/her vision and interact with a diverse audience. He or she should understand various learning styles and modes of explanation (visual as well as verbal) in order to communicate effectively. Additionally, a leader needs to be sensitive to his/her audience by consistently listening to their ideas and recognizing individuals.
The beautiful and amazing part of a successful leader's marketing (communicating a vision) is the process of correspondence or friendly discussion with others which molds the vision as well as makes it a reality.
A key ingredient within each of these qualities, is the need for a leader to be open ... open to a change in personal thought ... open to trying different strategies ... open to incorporating others' ideas ... open to the sometimes timely and serendipitous moments ... open to traveling, to learning, and to experiencing different ideas ...
At the end of this year, I will again reflect on the labels of my accumulated posts and will re-evaluate today's conclusions.
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