This ties into the post I did last week about Rock Stars, Rock Steadies, and Rock Bottoms. As a leader, important to regularly assess if you’re punishing your rock stars for being so good at their job (and maybe ask colleagues too as we all have our blind spots.)
I was recently out for supper with a bunch of friends including one high level manager who oversees a Canada-wide IT team for a large corporation. It was interesting to compare notes about our workplaces. He said he is all about high performers and strongly believes in performance management, expecting high results but also rewarding […]
This isn’t really advice I was given by someone but more of a personal observation I’ve made after seeing it repeatedly over the years. Whenever there is something decided, especially when its some sort of major decision, there’s usually an overt reason people give for the decision but also a covert reason they may or […]
I first heard this advice years ago when I was still in the role of Organization Development Specialist at Regina Public Library. In hindsight, I don’t think I appreciated what an amazing job that was to have right at the start of my library career. Our Director (still the same guy all these years later) […]
A long time ago, a colleague gave me a way to think of hiring that totally changed how I view the process of selecting a candidate. Before, I was just thinking “Who can best do this job?” but he pointed out that you’re not just hiring the person for the immediate job but potentially for […]
We didn’t see eye to eye on everything but I was very fortunate to have the first manager in libraries that I did as he was very experienced and knowledgeable (obviously people have to start somewhere but it can be a lot tougher if your manager is someone who’s newly hired or has only been […]
I was once in an interview where I was asked about my definition of leadership. I was in a terrible head space so I froze up then gave an answer that basically insulted everyone in the room! I’ll probably try a “redo” of that question in blog form some day as I have lots of […]
This advice is based on something that was inspired by the nicest compliment I have probably ever received as a librarian, only six short months into my career. The context was that I was doing a probation review with my first boss in libraries and he asked he what my strengths were. “I’m a real […]
This was a lesson I learned from my first manager at RPL (who also happened to be the Manager of HR so had tons of great insights into managing people, dealing with conflict and so on.) The context was that I was in a very unique role as Organizational Development Specialist, responsible for all staff […]
I’ve been thinking about actions vs. words a lot lately. One of the things that really brought home this important distinction was when I had to leave the Regent Place branch of Regina Public Library after eight years as Branch Head following a re-org of supervisors and managers. It was a pretty emotional time and […]
