Making your career sing

Laura Caygill

Maverick New Professionals: Dynamic Self Leadership

Hiba Kanj #nls7sat#S6

Rebel New Professionals: Dynamic self-leadership for every library professional.

Hiba Kanj @kanjhiba

Parramatta City LibraryNational Convener ALIA SNGG

“Great Leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths. The key to developing great leadership is to build strengths.” – The handbook for leaders

3 StrategiesMaverick Librarianship – good rebel vs. bad rebelSelf Leadership Professional Leadership within an Organisation

Leadership - The term “Lead” is to show the way by going with or ahead - Cambridge dictionary

Rebel leadership or good rebels; is encouraging and implementing ideas differently so that the same or better

results are achieved while still aligning them to the organizations goals. It is tapping into the brilliance of others,

knowing that no one can create meaningful change alone (Kelly, Medina

2014 page 10)

Rebels tend to be…Future thinkersTend to work aheadAre different

Rebel StrategiesBuild Rebel network Increase your trustworthinessCommunicating your ideaManaging conflict

Some ideas for Radical librarianshipStudent and new Graduates Group – lead to speaking at events, convening streams at ALIA conferenceNew Graduates Advisory Committee/ NLS Committee and SpeakingAttending conference dinners – the extra stuffTweet ups – create them or join themSocial media – Get on it and utilize it effectivelyALIA volunteer experience – leadership positions SNGG – ALIA conferenceTransferable skills – others skills that you can use for you radical idea, youth worker, publicity, social media, comics, singing, artPrior experience/volunteer roles Conferences – speak, organize, not just library conference e.g. YAPAWork mocktails party - Have fun and create change

Self leadership Emotional intelligence is a key attribute

that helps leaders’ minimalise emotions that reduce individual

performance and facilitates emotions that maximize it. It will help you with

emotional management, what you proactively do to help maintain

productive emotions within yourself and others and emotional control,

what you do to effectively respond to strong emotions you experience

Free test online - 60 questions. https://www.123test.com/jung-personality-test

Extraversion and Introversion – describes where we get, and how we tend to express our energySensing and Intuition – describes our information gathering preferences Thinking and Feeling – describes our decision making preferencesJudging and Perceiving – describes our organising preferences

Ideas for self-leadership activitiesPut your hand up – demonstrate that you are willing to learnPush your comfort zone Develop your own skills Hound people, keep asking questions and be persistent especially if they don’t listen to youFind opportunities in your city and if you are in another city, find opportunities there too!Social media /peer network IRL Professional Associations / volunteering at other than library/different forms of leadership (diversity in skills)Involvement in ALIA or other associations e.g. Law Library, School Library, Museum.Start something in your community Read, read, read, different things, all the things Feedback – find trustworthy sources of feedback

Professional leadershipHow you can demonstrate leadership within the organization even though you may be new, young or relatively inexperienced in librarianship or that organization.

The challenge for us leaders is to filter through some very complex reasons for change into a few sentences or really succinctly – this means

identifying the core reasons behind the need for change and summarizing it into a couple of short

sentences or, even better a sound bite. Repeat over and over again until it becomes part of the fabric of

the organization. Message needs to be repeated and reinforced by the behaviour (Kehoe, 2007a)

Strategies for Professional LeadershipTake on smaller tasks; Develop others Leading by example Be availableDemonstrate that you can manage a projectResist perfection Celebrate

Ideas for Leadership in an Organisation

Trainings Recognition/Awards Professional Association/ getting certified Keep up to dateexpect boss to say no every now and then

Examples of Rebel Leadership and Librarianship

Army librarian – Adrienne Hannanhttp://matthewfinch.me/2013/07/28/guest-post-adrienne-hannan-the-strategic-librarian-part-ii/It's the Data Management Group:datamanagementgroup.wordpress.com/ @dataMgroupRadical Librarians – “The Radical Librarian Collective aims to build a network of solidarity for those critical of the marketisation of libraries and commodification of information”Hack Library School – “HLS was founded on the principle of students taking the future of librarianship into their own hands”

ConclusionsQuestions to ponder

What the most important to your boss? What is she afraid of? What does she need to makes decision? What annoys her?

What is one idea or change you will make in the way that you look at your leadership and career? Write it down, save it, memorise it.

What rebel tendency do you have and do you have more than one?

In an ideal world, what would be your radical librarian idea/s?  

Ask Me!

Hiba Kanj @kanjhiba

Hiba.kanj@gmail.com“Others grin and bear it. Others smile and change it”

– Unknown