How do you show up with a coaching mindset even when you're frustrated?In case you missed it: be sure to grab 7 ways you can use coaching to build a more inclusive culture with your team (even in areas that are hostile to DEI efforts)! Maintaining a coaching mindset – being open, curious, and flexible – is the foundation for using a coaching approach to leadership. To be able to effectively help your team members find the useful lessons they can take away from a mistake or figure out some productive next steps in a tricky situation, you need to be able to tap…Read more
How can Slow Librarianship help you build a coaching culture?Have you heard about Slow Librarianship yet? I’ve come across it a few times over the past couple of months, and I’m thrilled to see this becoming a wider discussion in libraries. If you’re not already familiar with it, Slow Librarianship is an approach to library work that draws inspiration from the Slow Food movement, emphasizing thoughtful, deliberate, and human-centered practices in contrast to the fast-paced, “do more with less” norms that are all too common in libraries these days. Slow…Read more
What should I do next?This past Friday, 15 Aug, I celebrated the first anniversary of my last day as an academic librarian! 🎉 https://www.pexels.com/photo/cupcake-with-chocolate-icing-and-sparkler-2190381/ I’d like to invite you to celebrate with me – I'm offering a free coaching session to the first 5 people who reply to this email (limited to those who haven't had a free session before)! That’s not a sneaky way to get you on a video chat for a sales pitch… At least not directly! The best way to understand the…Read more
Exploring the problemI talk a lot about the benefits of using a coaching approach, but I also hear a lot about employees who are resistant to the idea of coaching because of how that label has been used in the past. Coaching is a skill that you need to develop through a combination of passive learning, active practice, and constructive feedback, just like teaching or doing effective reference interviews. You can learn a lot about any of those skills from reading on your own, but to really get good at using these…Read more
How do you handle really difficult conversations with members of your team?I have two news items to share before jumping into the newsletter for this week: Registration is still open for my free workshop on Using a Coaching Approach to Leadership on June 25. And registration is officially now open for the next cohort of Developing a Coaching Approach to Leadership this August through December! This is an opportunity to join a small group of library leaders meeting every other week for 5 months to practice building your coaching skills and building lasting habits. We…Read more
What is your "why"?Why do you do what you do? If you’re already in a leadership position, why do you lead the way you do? If you’re not already in a leadership position, why do you want to develop your leadership skills? I recently started working with a new business coach, and one of the first questions she asked me was why I do what I do. It's important to be really clear on that "why", because that's going to guide all of our work together. I need to be clear on why I'm doing this in order to make decisions…Read more
Inclusivity and CoachingInclusivity and coaching is a heavy topic. On one hand, I see a lot of potential for a coaching mindset and a coaching approach to working with your team to contribute to making your workplace more inclusive. This comes to mind pretty frequently on LinkedIn, where I follow several people who talk about making workplaces more inclusive with regard to neurodiversity and disabilities, parts of DEIA work that I was less informed on until the past couple of years. Last week, I engaged with a post…Read more
In case you missed it: be sure to grab 7 ways you can use coaching to build a more inclusive culture with your team (even in areas that are hostile to DEI efforts)! Maintaining a coaching mindset – being open, curious, and flexible – is the foundation for using a coaching approach to leadership. To be able to effectively help your team members find the useful lessons they can take away from a mistake or figure out some productive next steps in a tricky situation, you need to be able to tap…Read more
Have you heard about Slow Librarianship yet? I’ve come across it a few times over the past couple of months, and I’m thrilled to see this becoming a wider discussion in libraries. If you’re not already familiar with it, Slow Librarianship is an approach to library work that draws inspiration from the Slow Food movement, emphasizing thoughtful, deliberate, and human-centered practices in contrast to the fast-paced, “do more with less” norms that are all too common in libraries these days. Slow…Read more
This past Friday, 15 Aug, I celebrated the first anniversary of my last day as an academic librarian! 🎉 https://www.pexels.com/photo/cupcake-with-chocolate-icing-and-sparkler-2190381/ I’d like to invite you to celebrate with me – I'm offering a free coaching session to the first 5 people who reply to this email (limited to those who haven't had a free session before)! That’s not a sneaky way to get you on a video chat for a sales pitch… At least not directly! The best way to understand the…Read more