Talk:Who's a leader?

From PLN

What's Special About The Organizational Leader -- Blendedlibrarian 12:33, 1 January 2008 (EST)

In some recent posts at ACRLog I discussed some aspects of leadership that were offputting to some readers. In my posts I equated library administration with leadership. Some commenters were quick to note that leadership was not solely the domain of the library administrator. While I also subscribe to the philosophy that every librarian can and should be a leader in some capacity - and you mention a number of ways that can happen (innovation, technology, etc)the organizational leader must exhibit some unique forms of leadership. What, you say that not every library director is a leader? I would agree. Some have the position and title, but don't fulfill their leadership responsibilities - including influencing the staff to follow their unique vision (if they've even established a vision for the library within the institution). But I could counter that there are many non-directors, both managers and non-managers, who reject the notion that they too need to bring some leadership qualities to their positions. The information literacy coordinator who is unable to influence faculty to buy into the virtues of user education has probably failed to establish his or herself as a campus leader for information literacy.

What I think is unique about being an organizational leader, as I wrote about in those posts, is that other forms of leadership often do not require decision making needed for and knowing the appropriate actions to take in times of crisis. You can be a great innovation leader, but you will rarely need to make a clutch decision when a crisis hits the organization - especially when those decisions are likely to affect the lives and well being of others. A poor decision by the organizational leader could lead to layoffs or budget cuts. Those interested in further reading about this aspect of leadership and those who would like to strengthen their skills in these area should take a look at these three recent HBR articles:

Roger Martin "How Successful Leaders Think" - June 2007 - great leaders don't just make good decisions - they have the ability to take two ideas that are in conflict and develop a solution that merges those ideas to create a new innovation - one that hadn't even been considered previously. Martin calls it the "opposable mind"

Warren Bennis and Noel Tichy "Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls" October 2007 (a book excerpt) - good leaders are effective in developing people and strategy, but great leaders are adept at leading organizations in times of crisis. How do they do it? How can you make better judgments?

David Snowden and Mary Boone "A Leader's Framework for Decision Making" November 2007 - great leaders understand complex situations and how to react to get the organization through them. Leaders not only need to differentiate the context of different circumstances (simple, complicated, complex, chaotic) but need to have the right strategies to lead the organization in each situation. Leaders are often done in by their own belief that their always successful strategies will work in any situation, but great leaders know how to respond appropriately - even when it mean doing nothing - and some situations call for all four types of response - in varying degrees.

Yes, having followers is important, but how does one develop them? I think one way to do that is to lead an organization successfully in good and bad times - and to make the right calls. People will follow a leader in whom they have confidence and who they believe will make the right decisions to move the organization in the right direction. A leader who makes lousy decisions, squanders organizational resources, contradicts his or her actions in each new situation, will likely have a mutiny on their hands.

Oh - and speaking of followers, I am looking forward to reading Barbara Kellerman's article in the December 2007 HBR - "What Every Leader Needs To Know About Followers" - apparently not every follower is the same and leaders know how to manage each type.