You’re invited to join a small group of library leaders who are dedicated to building more engaged and empowered teams.
Commit to:
🌟 Cultivating mindset shifts that will help you build more positive relationships with your team, so that you can mitigate conflict, increase employee retention, and create a healthier working environment for your entire team
🌟 Developing core coaching skills for leaders to transform how you interact with your team, so that you can help employees become more engaged, take more ownership of their work, and navigate the many challenges that come your way
🌟 Applying this approach in practical leadership scenarios
🌟 Consistently practicing small changes to build habits that lead to lasting change
“You’ll leave the course with enhanced tangible skills and more of the confidence needed to thrive as a coaching leader. Since completing the program, I’ve become more adept at asking insightful coaching questions during 1:1s with my direct reports, managing up more effectively, and becoming more self-aware when old habits surface – such as giving advice instead of facilitating reflection to make space for others to resolve issues.”
Lorin
Give me the full sales pitch
It’s almost cliche to say that librarians love finding answers. We love the reference interview that lets us figure out what it is that the patron really needs, even if they didn’t know to ask for that. And we love the challenge of figuring out the best way to get to that information.
Some of us give the patron an answer – here are a couple of sources that would be great for that topic.
Some of us teach them how to get to the answer – here’s how you search a library database or catalog for the type of source you need. But even then, it’s too easy to feel like our way to go through the process of finding those sources is the best way, instead of staying open to other strategies that might work better for others.
That works at the reference desk, but that’s not always the best way to lead an engaged, empowered team.
You built your career being praised and promoted for having the answers and being great at your job.
It can be a little jarring to go from that to figuring out how to support others in becoming the ones with the answers and the ones who are great at those jobs.
That’s where Leading With Purpose comes in
Definitions for managerial coaching are all over the place. My approach is to focus on developing a coaching mindset, as defined by the International Coaching Federation, and building skills to shift how you interact with the people who report to you.
That means embracing curiosity. That means keeping your mind open, even when discussing something that’s outside of your comfort zone.
If you’re still reading, I’m guessing you’re already part of the way there, and you’re ready to do the important work necessary to create a healthier culture in libraries.
So how does this approach help you build an engaged and empowered team?
Think back to the last time that you went to your supervisor with a difficult situation – whether you needed to figure out how to motivate a low-performing member of your team, or talk through the best way to structure a new initiative, or balance conflicting demands, or whatever.
How did they respond, and how did that make you feel?
If they immediately jumped to giving you advice or a simple solution, what did you learn about thinking through that challenge?
What if their first response was to ask you what ideas you’ve already thought of?
What if they spent the next 10 minutes asking questions that would help you think through parts of the situation you maybe hadn’t considered before, so that you came around to your own solution?
Personally, I would feel a lot more empowered in that second scenario. I would feel like I had the individual support that I needed to work through the problem, AND I would feel like my supervisor genuinely respected my professional abilities. I would feel like they trust me as a competent professional, even when I need a little guidance or even additional training.
This program focuses on building the mindset and skills for you to intentionally create that sense of support and empowerment in your team members – two important factors in improving employee morale.
This leads to better solutions overall. When the boss throws their idea onto the table, it takes a lot of psychological safety for the rest of the team to suggest other ideas – because that implies the boss’s idea wasn’t the best idea. But you know the first idea isn’t always the best idea, and no one has the best answer every time!
Supporting your team in learning to work through challenges on their own means more ideas make it to the table.
Coaching sounds like it would feel good but take a lot of time, and I don’t have a lot of time to spare. How else will this approach benefit me?
Building a coaching culture is an investment up front that pays dividends over time.
When employees feel empowered and supported, they learn to solve common challenges on their own. They know that you’re available when they need to talk through more challenging problems, but that you trust their judgment on the regular stuff.
That means they’re not taking up your time getting approval for the decisions they’re fully capable of making.
How much more could you get done if you weren’t being distracted by those minor details on a regular basis?
It does take more time up front to build this relationship. That’s especially true if you just stepped into leading a team who is accustomed to coping with a micromanager or some other less than ideal dynamic. But it’s time well invested.
There’s also evidence that adopting a coaching approach increases productivity and reduces burnout and employee turnover. It costs less in both time and money to invest in developing an employee than it costs to replace them.
“I particularly appreciate the small group setting, which has significantly enhanced the learning experience by making it easier to engage in productive conversations and practice new skills in a supportive environment. Connecting with other leaders and sharing insights has been invaluable”
CJ
Give me the bullet point overview
Participants learn to help members of their team develop problem-solving skills, take greater ownership of their responsibilities, navigate difficult challenges, and identify areas for further training and development.
This approach to leadership enables leaders to both:
- support high performers in their ongoing development
and - support those with performance shortcomings in identifying the root cause in order to find effective resolutions
Outcomes include:
⭐️ Improves managers’ communication and feedback skills
⭐️ Improves employee morale, as team members feel heard and supported
⭐️ Creates a culture of continuous learning and improvement
⭐️ Contributes to a culture in which more valuable ideas make it to the table
⭐️ Enables managers to spend more time on higher level work, as employees learn to take more ownership of their work and take initiative in solving problems
⭐️ Builds more productive and collaborative teams
⭐️ Reduces turnover and “quiet quitting”
“I would tell a colleague to absolutely sign up for this if they were interested in developing their skills as a manager or leader. This program helped me develop my active listening skills, be less reactive and more reflective, and to feel less overwhelmed as a manager with a large number of direct reports.”
Jenny
Who will get the most out of this program?
Those who regularly have opportunities to practice using coaching skills at work will get the most out of this program.
That generally means people who manage a team, whether that’s 2 student employees or a whole library system.
There are some exceptions to that, though. The skills we discuss are valuable in a wide range of contexts. So if you do a lot of mentoring or lead active committees and work-groups, even if you don’t officially supervise anyone, this could be a fit.
Past participants have included a library faculty member who supervised student assistants, department heads, deans, and a higher ed administrator whose unit included the library. And participants have come from both academic and public libraries.
If you’re not sure whether you’re a fit, let’s talk. Worst case scenario, we agree that you’re not, and we both got to meet someone who cares about making libraries better for library workers!
What does this program look like?
⭐️ Meet in a small group of up to 7 people
⭐️ 90 minute meetings every other week on Zoom starting the week of January 13, 2025
⭐️ 10 meetings total, spanning about 5 months
⭐️ Meetings include:
- Discussion of learning materials
- Group coaching support for actually putting these skills into practice
- Opportunities for participants to practice actually coaching one another to get constructive feedback for continual improvement (starting after we’ve built foundational knowledge about this approach!)
⭐️ You’ll log in to Moodle to:
- access all of the learning content (readings and videos) for the program
- use the discussion forums to share how you plan to put that week’s lesson into practice before the next meeting
Why enroll in THIS program?
⭐️ It was created by a librarian for library leaders, focusing on the skills and scenarios that library leaders experience
⭐️ Intentionally designed to optimize building new leadership habits
⭐️ The approach and skills are grounded in coaching as defined by the International Coaching Federation
⭐️ Participants put these skills into practice and receive constructive feedback, improving their effectiveness in using these skills with their teams
One of the critiques of other programs to help managers develop a coaching approach is that it’s a lot easier to talk about it than to actually put it into practice.
So we start with discussions, but move into a structure for participants to practice actually using a coaching approach to help one another work through small challenges they’re facing.
Who’s facilitating the program?
Hi, I’m Angela!
My path to leadership looked a little different than many other librarians.
For the first half or so of my library career, I focused on teaching a credit-bearing information literacy course and learning to use a critical pedagogy approach in my teaching. Classes were capped at 24 students and I wrote my own syllabus, so I had a lot of opportunities to try teaching strategies that would have been impractical in a larger classroom or a one-shot format.
As I moved into leadership roles – first informal, then more formal leadership – I adapted the skills I built in the classroom. That focus on critical pedagogy influenced the way I facilitated meetings and the way I led my team as a department head.
And then, I learned about coaching. And that felt like the next step in my journey toward working to empower people.
I completed an ICF-accredited professional coach training program in 2022-23.
Now I want to bring some of what I’ve learned as a professional coach back to support library leaders in building healthier workplaces that empower instead of burning out their workers.
Developing a coaching approach to leadership is a crucial part of that.
How do I apply?
0️⃣ Join the waitlist to be the first to know when enrollment will open next!
1️⃣ Sign up for a 30 minute enrollment call on Zoom or Google Meet during the open enrollment period.
2️⃣ Join the enrollment call for an informal conversation to give you a chance to ask questions and to make sure this program is the best fit for you.
3️⃣ Complete the scheduling poll that will be sent after the enrollment call.
4️⃣ Watch for an email with next steps. This will include a payment link for those who are accepted.
Tuition
Early bird rate
Pay in full by TBD
$2750 USD
Regular rate
Payment due by TBD
$3000 USD
I also accept electronic transfers in British Pounds and Euros.
Take your learning to the next level
Experiencing individual coaching while learning about how to coach others can enhance your learning and help you be more effective in using these new skills.
As a participant in this program, you have the opportunity to add on 4 months of individual coaching at a discounted rate.
✅ 8 sessions, 45-60 minutes each
This coaching can focus on:
- Unique challenges that you’re dealing with, like struggling to manage conflict between members of your team, employee retention issues, or being completely overwhelmed by a team that comes to you to solve every tiny detail for them so that you barely have any time for your own work
- Leadership development goals beyond those covered in the program
Price: $1500
Payment may be combined with payment for the group training or paid separately.
This discounted price is available until the group program is 25% completed.
Full testimonials
Participating in this cohort program was transformative. The small, intimate cohort fostered valuable connections, allowing us to openly share frustrations and best practices as we navigated the complexities of adopting a coaching mindset as leaders in academic libraries.
In addition to Angela’s curation of the rich array of tools, skills, speaking prompts, and extensive resources—ranging from articles to podcasts—what truly stood out was the personal growth I experienced with my cohort. I developed more of my unique approach to leadership, rooted in coaching principles. The program emphasized the precise definition and value of adopting a coaching mindset. It equipped me with the skills to ask powerful, open-ended questions that drive professional (and personal) development for myself and others. I learned that developing a coaching approach requires the knowledge that working with others in this way is a live, dynamic, reciprocal relationship that requires time, attention, intentionality, and care.
This class is invaluable if you’re seeking practical, hands-on experience in coaching peers. You’ll leave the course with enhanced tangible skills and more of the confidence needed to thrive as a coaching leader. Since completing the program, I’ve become more adept at asking insightful coaching questions during 1:1s with my direct reports, managing up more effectively, and becoming more self-aware when old habits surface – such as giving advice instead of facilitating reflection to make space for others to resolve issues. Angela’s approach is an excellent balance of asking challenging questions, while maintaining an approachable style. She’s instrumental in helping you elevate your leadership skills while having fun.
~ Lorin Jackson, Assistant Director and Professor
The most valuable aspects of [this program] have been learning practical inquiry-based techniques and connecting with a supportive cohort of library leaders. Your program showed me how to help team members develop their own solutions rather than me giving them immediate solutions. This approach integrates well with my servant leadership style.
What would you tell a colleague who is considering signing up for this program about your experience and the value you got from the program?
I would tell them this would be a great way to start their leadership professional development journey. The skills learned apply to any leader. I’d also share that the cohort model is really great for allowing them to reflect on their own work context and get a better understanding of how to approach their leadership development, as well as the support and networking opportunities that the cohort provides.
~ Ian Coronado, Dean
So much of this program was valuable to me! I found it particularly useful to be able to practice using a coaching approach and to get feedback on that in a supportive environment. It was also really affirming to hear that others are struggling with some of the same management challenges that I face. Being a manager can feel really isolating and it can be hard to get support within my own institution, so having this group of like-minded managers to share with was extremely valuable to me.
I would tell a colleague to absolutely sign up for this if they were interested in developing their skills as a manager or leader. This program helped me develop my active listening skills, be less reactive and more reflective, and to feel less overwhelmed as a manager with a large number of direct reports.
~Jenny Dale, Department Head
I particularly appreciate the small group setting, which has significantly enhanced the learning experience by making it easier to engage in productive conversations and practice new skills in a supportive environment. Connecting with other leaders and sharing insights has been invaluable in building my own coaching habits. The peer learning aspect of the program has offered diverse perspectives and practical strategies that have enriched my journey towards becoming a more effective and empowering leader.
Angela’s guidance on practicing active listening and embracing curiosity has significantly altered my approach to leadership to help build a more empowered and collaborative team environment. The program’s focus on enabling us to facilitate growth within our teams, rather than providing direct answers, has changed how I interact with my team and deepened my understanding of my role as a facilitator of their professional development. This course also encourages me to reflect on my default behaviors that may hinder progress towards my leadership goals.
~CJ Ivory, Interim Dean
More FAQs
Can this count as professional development?
Yes! Past participants have used professional development funding from their employer to pay for their enrollment.
Here is a one page pdf to help you make the case for your employer to approve funding.
What forms of payment do you accept?
I accept payment by credit card or direct deposit, no paper checks.
I also accept electronic transfers in British Pounds and Euros. We can do the exchange rate math when payments are due.
What is the refund policy?
I don’t offer refunds on this program unless something truly out of your control prevents you from participating. In that case, I will offer you the choice of rescheduling to join a later cohort or receiving a refund of the purchase price minus payment processing fees, available until the date of your cohort’s first meeting.
If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me to discuss them before you enroll. I’m happy to discuss the program via email or video chat.
Will this program lead to any sort of certification?
No. This program focuses on adapting a coaching mindset and using some core coaching skills to become a more effective leader, but it is NOT a formal coach training program and will not lead to any sort of formal certification.
“Angela’s guidance on practicing active listening and embracing curiosity has significantly altered my approach to leadership to help build a more empowered and collaborative team environment.”
CJ