Encouraging article and clever actions

I was starting to feel that my leadership skills were not up to the task of getting my Inspire project happening, especially after meeting with the TLs and realising how much I don't know. I read a good article about setting goals, it's old but I found it helpful because it mentions "goals that are both specific and difficult lead to the highest performance” (Locke, 1996, p. 119). I'm hoping that the fact that I find my goals difficult will lead to high performance.

Also the leader of the LLG invited some extremely clever people to our meeting. I was surprised, I thought we never do this, I wonder why? Three seconds after they started speaking I understood. It is clear they are experts in their fields and will bring so much to the mentoring program that we clearly cannot supply in the timeframe through simple research. They bring experience and a different level of thinking to the group.

This was a great experience for me to see that asking for help, seeking out experts beyond the frame of reference is an important option that i will now never forget.

Locke, E. A. (1996). Motivation through conscious goal setting. Applied and Preventive Psychology, 5(2), 117-124.

Mentoring

At the end of 2013 he Library Leadership Group (LLG) visited all the campuses to talk to the staff in small interview groups about their desires for our leadership model and to describe one thing that would make their working life better. The most requested thing mentoring.

LLG took this fabulous idea to the Library Team leaders meeting and their feedback will live in my memory forever! LLG went to the meeting full of enthusiasm - YaY let's doing mentoring! We decided to go around the room to get feedback and the first speaker asked us for our definition of mentoring. We suggested a few things that had come up from our discussions with staff and the reply was 'half of that is mentoring as I see it and the other half is coaching' - from this LLG learned we needed more refined parameters.

The next person asked how would it work and how much time would team leaders be expected to incorporate into their regular workflows.

The next asked if there would be an expectation that TLs be mentors ... they were all sensible, informed questions. It was a great jumping off point for further research that was most clearly urgently required. It was also a great demonstration of the "thinking hats" procedure as, in looking back at it I can see the value particularly of the black hat in this situation.

In short there were more questions than we had answers for and I felt both embarrassed at my own naivete as I headed back to the drawing board and awed by the experienced talent in the room.

workshop 1: 6 March 2014

My first Inspire workshop - wow what a lot to take in. I'll admit I felt a bit lost probably because I hadn't done the HMM module beforehand. That was because Feb-March is so crazy busy at work I just couldn't fit it into the work day - one of the things I hope to get out of this program is some time-management skills. this is an area I really need to get under control.

One takeaway from this workshop is that I can do the Inspire work at work.  This might not seem amazing but the idea of blocking out some time just for this work, like setting aside time for a meeting, was an epiphany for me.

Going through the 360 survey was very interesting, I learned a lot about myself but mainly that I perceive myself differently to my peers. The main thing I think I need to work on is having confidence in myself. If I can develop my confidence it will make things easier for me but also for my team because it will help me to be consistent and stable.

Actions from this workshop:

• start reading
• get the material organised
• start the HMM modules