Old Advice is Still Good Advice

We are very quick in today's world to throw out the old to embrace the latest and newest, and yet today I was again reminded that much of the old is still very relevant and useful for leaders today. I was given a book, courtesy of the Tennessee State Library and Archives, by Dale Carnegie entitled: "How to Win Friends and Influence People." This book, written in 1936, is timeless in its value for leaders, and I look forward to digging into it in a deeper way after the overview we received.

The talk began on the importance of our frontline staff providing the lasting impression on all who enter the library, and how Carnegie's book can help us in training them in this area. I thought what could a 1930's book do to help me with my staff in the 21st century? Yet, as I saw the principles from the book I was amazed at how spot-on Carnegie was and still is for how we can influence not only as frontline staff with our pratrons, but as leaders who seek to influence staff, patrons and governments on behalf of the library.

So, be sure there will be more to come from Mr. Carnegie in future blogs, but in the meantime don't dismiss the old as we seek to impact the world around us.

Team Work -- Really?

Ask me to do something, and I'm all in; ask me to do something with a team, and I instinctively roll my eyes. Teamwork is not a natural thing for me, but is something that requires me to get outside of my comfort zone. When I am put in a situation that requires me to work as part of a team, I have to consciously step back and become something that is outside of my nature.

Is it fun? No. Is it easy? No. Is it beneficial, Yes. I have to admit that when I'm forced to work with others, it helps me be a better leader, because I force myself to think of others, who they are, their gifts and even their weaknesses. I find myself working to encourage and push others out of their comfort zones in order to grow, all the while knowing that I'm doing the same -- growing, learning, becoming vulnerable and ultimately a true part of a team.

What do I learn from being put in team-building situations? I learn that when I'm pushed outside my comfort zone, I can still find ways to grow as a leader and take what I learn back to my library as I seek to grow my own team for the betterment of our institution and patrons.

So team work, really...yes, because it's an chance to grow and consider others for a change.

Fear's affect on the workplace

Do you fear change? It’s understandable, many people do. If change is hard for you, as it is sometimes for me, I hope you’ll find encouragement in some steps for facing fear that I recently heard via Rory Vaden.

The first thing to realize is that in the majority of cases, FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real. Ask yourself the question: How many of the things you have been afraid of have truly come to pass? Our imaginations and creativity are wonderful tools for work and productivity. They can move us in positive directions for finding solutions to problems and developing new initiatives, but when fear enters the picture, that same creativity can be moved in a negative direction as our minds begin to imagine all the horrible things that can happen as a result of what we perceive to be happening as a result of the change.

We all have fear, that is a given, but how we deal with fear varies. Rory gives some great helps in overcoming fear from a book by Jon Acuff, entitled: Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters.

1. Label it. Write it out on paper or speak it out loud. When you voice the fear, it begins to lose its grip on your mind.

2. Counteract it. Refute it with truth. Put your creativity to use in a positive way, and find the supporting evidence for why this thing is not likely to happen. This helps you gain confidence

3. Share it. Fear fears community. Fear impacts the individual, but when we share it, others will start to share their perspective of how ridiculous what your fear sounds. This helps us to see that we were actually allowing something to affect us that was not true, but only lived in our imaginations. 

Creativity is a wonderful thing in the work place. Which will yours be – positive or negative? Don’t let fear hinder you from making a positive and productive impact to your library.

Little Things Make a Difference

Sometimes it’s the little things that make the most difference. A staff member sent me an email this week that reminded me of that when he shared that many patrons have commented on how much they like the changes happening at the library – he was referring to things like the flash drives we now sell. It seems such a small addition to the services we offer, but to the patron who needs to save an important document, it makes all the difference in the world to be able to buy the jump drive on the spot.

I think it’s actually been more rewarding to see how these little changes affect our patrons rather than having a one-time huge new building to wow them. Why? Because it shows our community that we are moving forward to meet their needs. All I have to do is look at the patron suggestion list and know that we’ve come a long way in responding to their desires. Let me show you some examples directly from our patrons of what I mean:

May 2012:

• Books are handled by many hands -- to keep hands cleaner we need paper towels in the rest rooms, please! DONE 2015!
• Many children’s series books such as 39 Clues and the American Girl books are written by multiple authors and are located all throughout the juvenile fiction area. My kids are trying to find the next book the series have a hard time finding it. Our last library had a section for series books where all the books in a series were shelved together making them much easier to find. We would suggest the same for Linebaugh libraries. Made posters to help them with these series 2013!

June 2012:

• I wish we could be allowed to bring water into the library. No more major restrictions on beverages 2014!
• In the future, could there be a “quiet computer room” for people without children and talking. Just quiet. Appreciate the computers. Computer Lab 2013!

December 2012:

• Please find a more efficient way to shelve/display DVD’s. Done! 2013 – 2015!

April 2013:

• Have more children computers. Done Fall 2014!
• I think there should be a play area for kids. Added Duplos, puppet stage for kids 2015!
• Fix the men’s restroom door handle. Changed all bathroom handles 2013!

November 2013:

• Scanners. Coming May 2015!

June 2014:

• Simplify getting a computer upstairs. Done Fall 2014!
• Add Signage to indicate where NF is located. Not on sign pointing upstairs. Done 2015!

Are we listening to our patrons? Yes, in small ways and large, and as a result, I know we will continue to hear even more good things about how our libraries are viable, valuable and vibrant!

Keeping the Library a Place of Integrity

I want to share some thoughts I’ve gleaned through Rory Vaden’s books: Take the Stairs and Procrastinate on Purpose. I’ve enjoyed these books, because they have helped me to work on focusing and purpose in my own life. One area Vaden speaks about deals with integrity, which he describes as the congruence between your words and your actions. There are six ways to strengthen your integrity as well as six ways to weaken it.

Vaden’s 6 ways to keep your integrity:

1. Give yourself AR’s (Action Required). When you speak with someone, or respond to an email or phone call, you use phrases like: “I’ll get back to you on this in two days” or “I will finish this by Thursday”. This provides the person a specific time when they can expect something from you and allows you to show that you can fulfill what’s asked of you.
2. Always be on time. This helps others to see that you respect their time, your work schedule, or other obligations.
3. Over-deliver always on what you promised. People take notice when you produce more than what you said you would do. It adds weight to your words. It also allows for forgiveness during those times when perhaps you are not able to complete something on time or as well.
4. Don’t exaggerate the extent of your problems or magnitude of your achievements. Basically, this means don’t over exaggerate. Let your words speak of the reality of what’s going on in your life.
5. Tell people what you are afraid of and what you’re disappointed in. When you share your fears or struggles, it adds to your integrity, because it shows you’re honest.
6. Go directly to the source of any conflict you have. Watch out for the gossip triangle!

All these will increase the power of your words and strength of your integrity.

Vaden’s 6 ways to weaken your words:

1. Breaking promises.
2. Uncontrolled language.  Keep your language intentional. Don’t let words fly out of your mouth without thinking about what you want to say.
3. Tearing others down. It’s always a big deal to talk bad about other people, because even if the other person has the same opinion, they will know that you might do the same about them with someone else.
4. Creating backdoors for your commitments. Making commitment qualifiers: “I should be able to…” or “I’ll try to…”
5. Using too many words. Mark Twain said: “Brevity is the essence of wisdom”. Using too many words always dilutes the impact of your message.
6. Intellectual dishonesty. Allowing someone to believe something you know is not true.

                                                                         

Though we know the definition of integrity to be the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. I also like the second one given: the state of being whole and undivided. When we strengthen our integrity, others will see us as a person who is whole, sure, and trustworthy. I think these are all values we can not only work on as individuals but also as a staff, as public libraries have long been considered places of integrity. 

Significance

When I looked at my last post, I realized that it was related to the same author I wanted to discuss today: Rory Vaden. I have just completed his second book, Procrastinate on Purpose. Like his earlier book, Take the Stairs, this one focuses on time management or more specifically how to multiply our time. One of the most important messages I took from this excellent book is boiled down to the word: significance.

I have always been a person who prioritized and made a To Do list for each day, but Vaden took this to a whole new level for me, and I think it is very relevant for anyone in management. Not only do I look and analyze what I have to to do, but I need to think about the significance of each action, appointment, email, and telephone call. This affects every area of my life, not just professional, as I think about the significance of all I do in life.

For a person who is seeking to make a difference as a leader, this means that I will be saying "No" to certain tasks or even people and "Yes" to others. There is a constant evaluation process going on in my head to literally judge everything that faces me each day.

While it can sound tiring, I realize that as time goes on, I develop the skills to more quickly and painlessly evaluate and organize my actions each day. This can have dramatic effects on our libraries and how we lead and model leadership for others. I encourage you to read the book and look at how you invest not just your time, but yourself in the things you do that will make a difference for tomorrow.

Taking the Stairs

It is amazing how many opportunities I’ve had lately to either read or hear about change and organizational structure. What is exciting about each one is how they can be applied to all that is happening at Linebaugh or with our strategic planning process. Let me share with you some snippets from a recent speaker at the monthly Rutherford CABLE meeting, Rory Vaden. He is the co-founder of Southwestern Consulting and New York Times bestselling author of Take the Stairs: 7 Steps to Achieving True Success, published in 2012.

Vaden shared a study of U.S. employees that reveals that the average worker admitted to wasting 2.09 hours each day on non-job-related activities. This costs employers $10,396/year per employee! What is the source of this? Procrastination.

We all know about procrastination, and most of us admit to falling prey to it, whether as a college student and waiting till the last minute to study for a test or finish a project or in just cleaning the house. Vaden shares three forms of procrastination:

1. Classic procrastination – You know when you do it.
2. Creative avoidance – Unconscious procrastination. It’s doing menial work just to be busy and avoiding what really needs to be done.
3. Priority delusion – Allowing your attention to shift to less important but more urgent tasks.

Vaden’s premise in Take the Stairs is that success in life comes down to the choices you make, especially when no one is looking. Really successful people formed habits of what they knew they should be doing even when no one else was doing it. Nobody wants to take the stairs, because we live in an escalator world. Even though a broken escalator becomes stairs, some will complain and look around for the elevator. That convenience has turned into entitlement and a majority of people are no longer willing to do the work. (I see this a lot with the handicapped button in our front entrance…but I digress).

Negativity in life comes from continuing a bad habit and putting off what we knew we should be doing in the first place. Vaden says the solution comes from something we all know about but don’t like to hear – discipline. “Success is never owned, success is rented and the rent is due every day.”

I was thinking of this principle recently as an email was sent to remind staff to “slow down and be more careful with checking items in.” Being more purposeful in our work takes discipline, and though we may see it as going slower, the end result is better efficiency. With the changes happening in our system, we will all have to change some habits that we’ve grown comfortable with but which no longer meet the needs of our patrons or organization.  As we look to the success of our libraries, we will all have to pay the rent of a disciplined mindset and work ethic each and every day. So, let’s take the stairs to get on the bus!