National Leadership

Leadership in the National Arena

by Maureen Sullivan

The experience of being a member leader in a national association can be one of the most rewarding you can have in your career. It brings opportunities to have influence in a broader arena; a network of professional relationships which extends across the country; new ideas, approaches, and learnings; challenges to your ways of thinking and practices; and a deeper sense of pride in the profession.

My 20 years of volunteer leadership at the national level have given me opportunities to learn, develop, and contribute that would not have been possible if I had focused only at the local or regional level. Leadership in professional associations at the national level exposes you to a more diverse set of people, ideas, issues and challengesit is a terrific place to enhance your development as a professional, within and beyond librarianship.

To become an effective leader in a national professional association requires planning and preparation.

Learn about the opportunities available.
Think about ALA and its various divisions, but consider other possibilities, too. Talk to colleagues in Texas who are active on the national scene and seek their advice about where to start.
Ask those colleagues to introduce you to individuals who can help you become involved in activities of interest to you. See this as an early step in building your network or extending your local network to the national level.
Think beyond library associations and activities. Look for opportunities to contribute in educational, scholarly, technology, or subject-focused organizations.

Once you have an opportunity to be a member leader at the national level, focus your attention where you can make a difference. Take time to clarify your strengths, your areas of potential contribution, and your interests. Be ready to spend a significant amount of your time building relationships with other leaders. Leadership at the national level is very much a collaborative enterprise, and leaders spend a great deal of time interacting with others.

Some of the important skills for effective interpersonal relationships are critical. These include: active listening, clearly and succinctly articulating ideas and points of view, managing disagreement and conflict, negotiating, balancing advocacy for one's ideas with and active interest in hearing the ideas of others, managing one's own feelings and influencing others. It is also important to be aware of how your behavior and personal style affect others. Be prepared to adjust your style as the needs of a particular situation may require.

One of the most effective models for understanding effective leadership comes from the work of James Kouzes and Barry Posner. In their 1987 book, The Leadership Challenge: How to get extraordinary things done in organizations (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass), they present a set of five leadership practices: challenge the process, inspire a shared vision, enable others to act, model the way, and encourage the heart. This set applies well to the exercise of leadership in librarianship at the national level.

Leaders in librarianship challenge the process when they seek new opportunities to contribute something of significance, when they question the status quo, and when they seek to improve their national association or group. This practice of leadership requires a willingness to take risks, to speak up, to suggest different approaches, and to search for opportunities for innovation and experimentation.

We inspire a shared vision when we focus on the future and engage others in envisioning a positive, compelling picture of possibilities. This arises from careful attention to changes in the world around us and consideration of the challenges and opportunities these changes bring. An optimistic outlook and a firm belief in a strong and vibrant future for libraries and librarians is critical to this practice.

Effective leaders enable others to act by creating opportunities for their colleagues to contribute and by fostering collaboration. This practice recognizes the importance of involving others in committee work and special projects; identifying the strengths and abilities in others and encouraging them to become involved; and letting others pursue their activities following their preferred style and approaches.

Library leaders model the way, behaving in accordance with their principles and values. This requires a clear understanding of one's values and principles and awareness of one's behavior and how it affects others. This also includes regular attention to leading by example.

Leaders in librarianship encourage the heart by taking time to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of other member leaders, especially those who have pursued initiatives and achieved results which advance the association's work and the profession. This recognition can take the form of thank you letters, certificates of appreciation, or more tangible items such as those offered for sale by TLA. Small tokens of appreciation and especially personal notes are what touch the heart of most people. The other important part of this practice is to celebrate accomplishments. This can be an opportunity for you and others to decide what would be the best way to celebratethe key for you as a leader is to identify accomplishments and find ways to celebrate them.

Leadership at the national level is a wonderful opportunity for personal achievement, development and contribution. It also requires a strong commitment to working with others. This leadership is best described as a partnership with others to advance the profession and to make a difference in people's lives. This requires skills, commitment, collaboration, investment of time and energy, persistence, and continuous awareness of changes and opportunities. Consider what you can bring and pursue your interests.

Maureen Sullivan, principal in Maureen Sullivan Associates, has been a facilitator for the TALL Texans Leadership Development Institute since 1995.

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