Synthesis Statement
I find that one of the most effective ways for me to understand leadership is to reflect on the leadership of others. That is why I have used my group presentation, with Susan Cahill and Effie Eisses where we examined the leadership of Carmen Werder, as my artifcat to demonstrate learning towards this outcome. Carmen has led many efforts in her time at Western, including currently serving as Director of the Learning Commons. I find her model of leadership compelling because she has largely led from the middle, as I need to do when I effect change within the Libraries, and she has had remarkable success in doing so. Many of the issues she discussed as ongoing leadership challenges are similar to ones I highlighted in my leadership self assessment.
As a member of the Western Libraries faculty I have often had to provide leadership in an academic setting. I was hired as the librarian serving the Extended Education programs, and in that capacity had to lead on a variety of projects to extend services to students and faculty in those programs, an effort that continues to this day. For example, when we implemented a new virtual reference system that could also track our interactions with patrons it fell to me to lead the process for implementation, train users on how to use the application, and provide ongoing support for the system (Gossett, Stephan, & Marrall, 2012).
More recently I have moved into a more explicit leadership role as the Head of Research Consultation. I supervise three Reference Specialists staff, three student employees, and coordinate the work of ten faculty librarians in providing research support services to patrons. This puts me into an interesting leadership role position as a mid-level manager where I am in a tenure-track position coordinating a group of mostly tenured librarians while also directly overseeing the work of staff. This is a unique leadership opportunity for me and I often reflect on the complex social connections and subtle power relationships that need to be navigated in this role. The actual work that goes into the Research Consultation service itself would probably be described by Whetten and Cameron (2007) as “clan-like”, while also working within the larger Western Washington University hierarchy. At the same time there are also elements of “adhocracy” that I try to encourage in to help the team be innovative and dynamic. At first glance these organizational structures may seem to be overly complex, and there may be some truth to that. However, as Brafman and Beckstrom (2006) point out, flattened hybrid organizations can actually be more resilient and dynamic, so long as everyone is allowed to feel connected with their work. In my leadership self-assessment I identified the need to be better about acknowledging the work of others, something that is all the more important now that I am formally being looked to for leadership and helping to connect personnel to the work that they are doing.
As I have already found, working as Head of Research Consultation, these complex structures and the competing interests for resources, even within a relatively small organization like the Libraries, means that many things that seem like they should be simple are not necessarily clear-cut. For example, if I want to advocate for a sign to be better identify Research Consultation services, as I recently did, it sounds like a fairly simple request, except that it ends up being something that needs to be negotiated with multiple partners for consistency with other Learning Commons departments in the Libraries and with other wayfinding efforts that happen to be underway.
Coming back again to my leadership self-assessment and how it connects to the leadership of Carmen Werder, one of the things I remind myself about often is the need for patience and dialog in making change happen, or even the need for those attributes when simply trying to advocate for why there should not be a change in resources. This is why I look to Carmen as a good model for leadership because she points out that most change can be accomplished through this kind of dialog, accompanied by a little subversion of the status quo when needed. As I continue in my academic career I will, no doubt, continue to look to role models like Carmen for inspiration about how to deal with the frustrations and work towards successes.
As a member of the Western Libraries faculty I have often had to provide leadership in an academic setting. I was hired as the librarian serving the Extended Education programs, and in that capacity had to lead on a variety of projects to extend services to students and faculty in those programs, an effort that continues to this day. For example, when we implemented a new virtual reference system that could also track our interactions with patrons it fell to me to lead the process for implementation, train users on how to use the application, and provide ongoing support for the system (Gossett, Stephan, & Marrall, 2012).
More recently I have moved into a more explicit leadership role as the Head of Research Consultation. I supervise three Reference Specialists staff, three student employees, and coordinate the work of ten faculty librarians in providing research support services to patrons. This puts me into an interesting leadership role position as a mid-level manager where I am in a tenure-track position coordinating a group of mostly tenured librarians while also directly overseeing the work of staff. This is a unique leadership opportunity for me and I often reflect on the complex social connections and subtle power relationships that need to be navigated in this role. The actual work that goes into the Research Consultation service itself would probably be described by Whetten and Cameron (2007) as “clan-like”, while also working within the larger Western Washington University hierarchy. At the same time there are also elements of “adhocracy” that I try to encourage in to help the team be innovative and dynamic. At first glance these organizational structures may seem to be overly complex, and there may be some truth to that. However, as Brafman and Beckstrom (2006) point out, flattened hybrid organizations can actually be more resilient and dynamic, so long as everyone is allowed to feel connected with their work. In my leadership self-assessment I identified the need to be better about acknowledging the work of others, something that is all the more important now that I am formally being looked to for leadership and helping to connect personnel to the work that they are doing.
As I have already found, working as Head of Research Consultation, these complex structures and the competing interests for resources, even within a relatively small organization like the Libraries, means that many things that seem like they should be simple are not necessarily clear-cut. For example, if I want to advocate for a sign to be better identify Research Consultation services, as I recently did, it sounds like a fairly simple request, except that it ends up being something that needs to be negotiated with multiple partners for consistency with other Learning Commons departments in the Libraries and with other wayfinding efforts that happen to be underway.
Coming back again to my leadership self-assessment and how it connects to the leadership of Carmen Werder, one of the things I remind myself about often is the need for patience and dialog in making change happen, or even the need for those attributes when simply trying to advocate for why there should not be a change in resources. This is why I look to Carmen as a good model for leadership because she points out that most change can be accomplished through this kind of dialog, accompanied by a little subversion of the status quo when needed. As I continue in my academic career I will, no doubt, continue to look to role models like Carmen for inspiration about how to deal with the frustrations and work towards successes.
Artifact
The Leadership of Carmen Werder Presentation
References
Brafman, O., & Beckstrom, R. A. (2006). The starfish and the spider: The unstoppable power of leaderless organizations. New York, NY: Portfolio.
Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2007). Developing management skills (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Gossett, J. G., Stephan, E., & Marrall, R. (2012). Implementing reference statistics collection software at multiple library service points. New Library World, 113(5/6), 235–248.
Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2007). Developing management skills (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Gossett, J. G., Stephan, E., & Marrall, R. (2012). Implementing reference statistics collection software at multiple library service points. New Library World, 113(5/6), 235–248.