Servant Leader

I was called a "servant leader" last week.

From wikipedia (what a terrible thing to do, Mr. Librarian): "Servant leadership is both a leadership philosophy and set of leadership practices. Traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid.” By comparison, the servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible."

You know who else has been called a servant leader?  Jesus.

I'm not Jesus, and I'm definitely not Christ-like, as another person soon commented.  I do want the best for my staff, and I want them to succeed.  I also step in wherever needed so that the job gets done.  Lately, it just seems like our staff has gotten smaller and smaller, and the only way for us to tread water is for me to step in, which I don't mind doing at all.  I've been doing this a lot.  I even missed some deadlines (oops).  I want my staff performing well and doing good work.  The behind-the-scenes work is important, but it's secondary to the service we provide, and it should always be that way.  Maybe that's surprising to some people?

Call me Jesus; call me Your Lordship; call me Al.  Whatever.  Actually, don't.  Just call me Dan, or something along those lines.  Give me a normal name to counteract the weirdness in which I bask constantly.

Blog on Blog Action

I got to lead a book talk this week.  That is something that I've never done before.  What possessed me to do such a thing?  Well, it wasn't about a specific book, or even books at all.  It was about blogs.  I am in a book club with other assistant managers and we traditionally talk about library/management books.  It got to the point once where the authors of these books seemed too far removed for practical application.  It wasn't all of them; just a couple.  This got me thinking about actual application to our jobs and how blogs may be a neat topic to cover for one month.  I found that many bloggers are in the profession, and suffer the same workplace ailments that I do; that other library managers do.  Often times these bloggers can be related to more easily (you like that proper grammar?).  This may be because they seem like real people, or because they talk about issues in the way I talk about them.  As I told the group on Thursday, I feel like I do belong to something.  It's also comforting to know that, even though my library has some quirks and differences, a lot of libraries operate similarly and deal with the same issues.  It's a sort of online camaraderie.

These are some of the blogs that were mentioned:
bossladywrites.com (authored by the brilliantly snarky & adorable @winelibrarian)
Practical Librarian (the nitty gritty on a lot of common library... things)
Genealogy Decoded (obviously for Genealogists, but a plethora of useful information)
In the Library with the Lead Pipe (2012 General Library Blog Winner and a very scholarly in-depth blog)
Annoyed Librarian (though the consensus was that he is markedly less annoyed since Library Journal acquired the blog)
Librarian In Black (hadn't updated in a while, but she's back)
Screwy Decimal (2012 Quirky Blog Winner, and yes, she is that quirky)
Prison Librarian (a great blog that will cause you to really think outside of what you might think a library does, it also gives some amazing, and sometimes sad, statistics)
A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette (playing up the sarcasm and relating to their readership by injecting humor, a nice place to take a break from the grind)

Each person chose a different blog, and from those different blogs, we had some great conversation, even if we went off-topic.  I wonder if other people out there feel the same way.  Books or blogs when budding in a profession...

Little Things

It's the last day of November.  I have been at Red Bridge for barely over a week.  Even though my time has been short, I have found new things to experiment with at the branch.  They tend to be common sense things, but often times we are blinded by familiarity.  Admittedly, I have had the same thing happen to me.  It's not a bad thing; a new set of eyes may help discover things that have since faded into the fog.

I don't like doing unnecessary work in order to get the job done.  I want the job done efficiently and with little chance of getting injured.  It's not even the paperwork aspect of it; it just sucks getting hurt.  So, if given the choice between (a) filling a box on the ground just to pick it up and unload it onto a cart and (b) placing items on a cart so that it can be rolled out and transferred to another cart, I will always choose (b).  Not only is it easier, it's less hazardous to someone's health and well-being.

I decided that, instead of keeping 3 sheets of paper for branch programming, the branch should consolidate all programming onto one legal-sized sheet.  I love legal-size paper.  I can't explain it; it just happened.  However, I cannot take the credit for coming up with the idea because another co-worker had the idea some time ago.  I just executed it.  I guess we'll see how it goes in December.

Maybe I'll try to work in an ask-off calendar next month too.  Small but vital, an ask-off calendar can make it easier for people to take time off and make it easier for the scheduler to see how thin the crew will be throughout the month.  I can thank my former manager for that idea.

Anyway, I guess I'll wait to see how many ripples my little splashes will make.

That's Not Manager Work

I helped unload totes today at my new branch.  This is commonplace in the library world of MCPL.  When I was at Blue Springs South branch, we would always unload totes in the mornings.  The totes held items returning to our branch for shelving and those items that have come in for patron requests.  It's a pretty uneventful job, but it is absolutely necessary in order to process holds in a timely manner when there are many totes.

As I stationed myself in between some totes, I had an interesting encounter with... we'll call her Trudy.

Trudy:  "What are you doing?"

Me:  "I'm helping you unload totes."

Trudy:  "Are you supposed to do that?"

Me:  "I always have, so I figured I would help out.  It needs to be done."

Trudy:  "But the managers don't really help with totes in the morning."

Me:  "Oh... Well, I am.  I actually kinda like it."

Trudy:  "Well, you certainly are a breath of fresh air."

I don't know about you, but I found this to be pretty amazing.  I've never been one to follow rules (even unwritten ones) perfectly, and I was blown away that normal clerk stuff seemed off-limits to managers.  I may be new to this manager stuff, but I don't think it's a good practice to ignore the "clerk work."  I did that stuff for three years, which I know is a short timed compared with many library workers.  I am happy that I am not required to do that anymore, but that doesn't mean that I won't still do it from time to time.  I know that I have a lot more stuff that needs my attention now, but helping unload the totes, as mundane as it seems, is not only a great way to break the monotony of sitting at a desk, but also a great way to get to know the staff, even if I am technically above them.  Just because I have a different title doesn't mean I'm better than them.  I've been asking a lot of questions during my first week, and I'm sure that I will ask a lot more.  Anyway, manager work is manager work, but manager work is also clerk work.  By the way, clerk work may also be page work at times.  Although, I could just be a weirdo librarian.