Professionalism takes multiple forms

What does it mean to be professional? Several recent visits to area restaurants have given me the privilege of watching for signs of professional behavior in the appearance of the building, staff and management. If I were looking at this simply from my "middle age" point of view, I would quickly say that there are few truly professional restaurants in our city. A case in point is during a visit to a local steak house: A man came up to our table while we were eating, wearing a baseball cap and no name tag. He asked us if we were enjoying our meal. Of course we replied that we were, but I had no idea who that man was! I realized he must have been a manager, but was really surprised that although their college-aged staff were casual in their appearance, a manager surely would be more appropriately attired and labeled!

But the key word there is "appropriately"...what is appropriate for this customer may not be necessary for another. So how do we find a "standard" for what is professional if the rules are always changing?

In analyzing my experience at two other restaurants, I think I have an idea of what professionalism could mean. The first is a "normal" steak house variety restaurant, where you are greeted at the door and shown to the table. During our meal, we were greeted by a manager (a woman), who wore a name tag and was dressed "appropriately" for the setting. While she did not linger long at our table, I did notice her with another group of customers (all women), taking time to chat with them and having obvious interaction with her guests. To me, that is a good mark of a manager.

The waiter at this particular establishment, however, was less than professional. His appearance was not neat, as his shirt was partially untucked and not pressed. A common faulty trait I find in most servers is their inability to deal with customers who either don't hear well or have accents (my husband fits both categories). For me, a mark of a quality server, is one who can look their customer in the eye and listen in order to establish a line of communication. No one wants to be overlooked, and a professional will always seek to focus on the customer and give him value.

In contrast to this "fancy" restaurant, we also went to one of our favorite hangouts that is run by a friend of ours who hales from another country. It is not, perhaps, up-to-date in modern decor, but it is welcoming to all who enter in. One of the recent improvements to the establishment is new plastic table cloths that the owner brought back with him from his home country. They are colorful and attractive -- and of course, enable the tables to be easily cleaned after use. What I find professional in this place is the owner, who greets each person as they enter (sometimes by name, if he knows them). He also can remember what they like to eat and drink. He carries on a conversation with each person and after they begin their meal, he'll go to their table to make sure everything is alright. This "personal" touch has won him more than one local award for favorite restaurant in his category.

Professional? Maybe not in the classic sense, but right on target for someone who is meeting his customer's needs AND expectations. I would much rather have less on the "appearance" side of professionalism and win big on the "expectation" side of professionalism. After all -- it's all about the customer!

Knowing how little we don't know

An essential part of the librarian's job is to have the answers. The problem with this expectation is that it is impossible to fulfill. I was recently reminded of how few answers I have as I sought to accomplish a "reference resources scavenger hunt". This seemingly simple exercise should not have proved so difficult. After all, I am the person responsible for determining what online resources we have in our library and pay the bills for them too. So, when I got slightly stuck on what I saw as a trick question of how many treaties are listed in a particular online resource, I did the smart librarian thing and went upstairs to our reference queens for assistance.

I was relieved to find out that they too found the task a challenge, and we ended up putting an answer down that we weren't 100% sure was correct, but close enough for the information we had to go on! This went against my "having to give the exact answer instinct", but I pressed on to finish the assignment. The online reference resources conquered, I moved on to "print" materials. This was easier, but I caught myself doing something that surprised even me -- instead of straining my brain to remember the Dewey numbers for a particular subject, I cheated and looked at the subjects listed on the end of each row of books! Ouch, that hurt my Dewey Pride! However, the task was accomplished with only one call for help from the queens.

I did learn several lessons from this exercise:

• Librarians don't know and don't really need to know everything, but it does help if they know where to look. 
• We all need to periodically take a challenge using our own resources, because if we can't find it -- nobody can!
• Looking at our resources from a patron's perspectives is eye-opening, and can help us to improve service.
• We need each other in our libraries. I was so happy to be able to call on my colleagues for help, which is a good practice. When we are weak in a certain area, don't be afraid to admit it.
• There are a LOT of great resources that our libraries have -- we just have to know how to get the word out to those who can use them.

Back to the office

The reality of the Monday morning after being away at a week's training experience can sometimes be overwhelming. I was determined not to allow the experience of networking and learning with a great group of fellow librarians be forgotten as soon as I walked through the door of my library. Here are several ways I found that have helped to keep the information fresh in my mind and not lost under the "to do" list:

1. Check work email throughout the week during the conference/training.

• By getting rid of junk email and quickly answering easy work-related questions, I could eliminate the amount of stuff in my inbox on Monday morning.

2. Be ready to share with staff highlights of the week at the Monday morning staff meeting

• Staff need to know that you were not just goofing off and enjoying the scenery all week (though I did enjoy the scenery, and told them so). 
• By verbally sharing about time away with colleagues, they realize that what you learned will also benefit them.

3. Get Monday morning tasks done and out of the way as quickly as possible.

• We all have a lot to do at work, but being slow to complete the tedious tasks of paying bills and finishing up emails does not help. Get it done quickly and then be ready to move on.

4. Take time to organize the notebook from your week of training.

• Once I finished all the Monday work duties (by one hour before I left for the day), I set the timer on my Pomodoro and went through the papers from the conference, making sure everything was behind the proper tab and remembering the speakers and their topics. 
• Organizing the notebook will also help me when I give a verbal report to my board next week.

5. Keep a "to do" list for homework assignments and potential work assignments from the training.

• Though I could not get to these on Monday, I was able to accomplish some on Tuesday. Having a list of expectations helps me to work through them as I'm able. They become a part of my daily tasks and make it more manageable.
• I also made a list during the last day of the conference of all the things I heard during the week that I wanted to consider implementing in my library. Now, I can look at that list and add some of the ideas as tasks on my Google calendar or send an email to a colleague to schedule a time to discuss a new idea with them. 
• Everything does NOT have to be done today -- Keep the ideas out there, but spread them out and be reasonable about a time frame for accomplishing them.

6. Use the blog to keep the momentum going. 

• Having to set up a blog was the best part of this training. I look forward to being able to convey my thoughts about library management and learn from others as well.
• I also see the blog as a way to test ideas and keep the concepts learned in front of myself and others. 

It was a great week, and I won't forget it!

We all have a past

We all come to the present carrying our past with us, and this runs true with libraries as well. Some libraries struggle to overcome their past, whether it relates to a poorly designed building or badly worded policies, while others can never live up to their past "glory days". All of these issues have to be taken into account with any current library administration, the writer of this blog included.

For this reason, I am very grateful to have access to the history of the Linebaugh Public Library System. Linebaugh's Reference Supervisory Associate, Lisa Ramsay, has done an excellent job in providing a clear and concise history of our public library system, which you can read here. Linebaugh has much to be proud of, and even if we do struggle with a difficult name to pronounce and spell, we are happy to have the opportunity to share the great story behind that name. When he learned that his hometown had no public library, Henry T. Linebaugh gave $5,000 toward the establishment of that important institution. The only stipulation was that it be named after his mother, Mattie V. Linebaugh. So, we have her name to remember a son's love not only for his mother but for the value of libraries in a community.

Henry Linebaugh's initial donation was not to be the last, and in reading our history, we see other generous gifts of both time and money to make our library system what it is today. I'm grateful for every person who has given of themselves to enhance the work of the public library in our community. We have a great past and an amazing future ahead.

It's all about communication

I was pleased to be able to be a part of the "organization" group today when preparing presentations on various aspects of leadership. It was right down my road...and yet, we still had to talk about those sticky areas of organization -- people! OK, I'm not anti-people, I'm just more of a task-oriented leader and people always seem to work to get me off task. However, it's not the end of the world, just the reality of life, so the common word that come up in our group came up in everyone else's too. Can you guess what it is?

It's all about COMMUNICATION. The more effectively we communicate as we organize, direct, control and manage, not only will the task-oriented manager be less stressed, but the people we supervise will be engaged and empowered and even motivated to join us in accomplishing all the wonderful goals and objectives we envision for our workplace.

So, while it may take effort on our part, the end result is so worth it. I'm willing to work on this in my life, and I look forward to blogging about the results! No pain, no gain...and I really do want everyone to be HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY!

Closing your eyes is scary

When someone says: "Close your eyes", I have a tendency to rebel. There is something about closing one's eyes that makes you feel like you no longer have control, and to turn that control over to a total stranger is even harder. Well, that's what Dr. Catherine Self asked of us today after we had enjoyed her talk, which I summarized in the earlier blog.

Being a relatively compliant person, I obeyed and closed my eyes, and after some nice relaxation techniques which almost led to a nice nap, Dr. Self asked us to reflect on this: Our most memorable moment in our current job. When I took time to delve into my psyche over a particular event based on her probing questions, I was able to open my eyes with a new perspective. Surprise -- there are ways that we all receive affirmation in our workplace, but we forget them because we don't stop to breathe and reflect.

I knew this already, and I've even encouraged others to stop and reflect (complete with a cup that reads "breathe" on it), but practicing it in my own life? Not as good at that. But today is a new day...a new chance to start a new habit. So, I will close my eyes more often while I'm sitting behind my desk with a pile of work in front of me; forget the work and reflect on what keeps me sitting at that desk day after day--the memory of a great moment!

Serving takes strength

Dr.Catherine Self, P.T., Ph.D., is President and CEO of the Baptist Healing Trust, and it was an honor to be able to hear her today as she shared with us about servant leadership. While some may find this title a misnomer, it is actually a concept that has been around even longer than the 1970 book by Robert Greenleaf to which Dr. Self referred. As a Christian, I find the prime example in Jesus Christ, so the concept was not foreign to me as she shared today.

Dr. Self's premise is that leadership is about relationship. Who do we lead? Followers -- who are the followers? Anyone that's watching us. For me, this includes staff and customers, but also can include those above us, such as bosses, boards and local government authorities. However, leading from a servant perspective does not mean that we are working out of weakness but working out of relationship. Not a top down, "I'm here to help you" position, that leads to someone being indebted to you, but a walking beside position, as mutual individuals with differing needs and gifts. 


Wow, does it take effort to lead this way? Absolutely! A task-oriented leader, like I am, will naturally have a tendency to judge behaviors as they see them. However, a servant-leader, like I'm striving to be, will realize that every behavior is a result of feelings that stem from a deeper need that has been met or not met. Now the challenge is for the emerging servant leader is to stop, listen to the other person and ask questions to discern not just the feelings that led to the behavior but the felt need beneath. 

What does it mean for your work environment? It means first of all that staff know you care about them as persons. When someone realizes you both hear them and care about them, then they are encouraged and empowered to do their job better. They will seek to be better which can only benefit everyone around them. This is a good thing.