Impact: SLA Leadership & Management Division Blog

Reciprocal agreement between SLA and AIIP

SLA has recently partnered with the Association of Independent
Information Professionals (AIIP) to offer reciprocal discounts on
new-member membership fees and on the organizations' upcoming
conferences.   This is a limited time offer. Please click here http://www.sla.org/content/membership/mbrbenefits/aiip/index.cfm
for details.

These two associations share many common interests as well as members in common. This is a unique opportunity to take advantage of the benefits of AIIP membership if you are not already a member.

Seven Skills of Highly Successful Information Professionals

Looking to get the most out my SLA membership in these lean times, I elected to attend a ClickU webinar for professional development. I found it very worthwhile and full of good tips and reminders. ClickU courses are free to SLA members and a great source of ongoing learning and development.

Seven Skills of Highly Successful Information Professionals, Dennie Heye
Information professionals need a more diverse set of skills to succeed in the 21st century. New roles are offering more exciting jobs and projects, but we need to expand our set of skills to meet those challenges. Based on his own experience and research for his book Characteristics of the Successful 21st Century Information Professional, Dennie Heye outlines seven key skills with practical examples. Members can click here for a replay

I've included my rough notes of some of the key points I took away from Dennie's presentation. It's a little long for a blog post, but, in my opinion, they're really useful.

• Stimulate creativity: an environment for innovation has to be created, creativity can't be forced
• Create a map of manager, stakeholders, customer and understand their priorities and struggles.
• Go to lunch with new people from different functional areas.
• View complaints as recommendations for changes, new ideas.

 

• See the big picture: if you understand the big picture (company/industry trends), you can spot opportunities. It also helps with making decisions and setting priorities for your department. How do you relate to the company's mission?
• Translate reports into more fluid language, ideas.
• Talk to people one level above you in your reporting line or another reporting line. How do they see your department and how it fits into the biz strategy?

 

• Show leadership: You can be appointed a "manager," but you are not necessarily a "leader." Get people to work for a common goal.
• If you can't get leadership experience in the workplace, use professional association for practice/experience. (Alert: personal favorite here!)
• Challenge things - ask why.
• Failure is ok. Start small in a protected environment.

 

• Persuade others: Appeal to logical way of thinking as well as character and emotion (like TV commercials try to do).
• Study buzzwords in your company and tie them into your presentation/idea. Listen to what other people are saying and work that into your conclusion. How can you mitigate people's worries?
• Be a trusted person. Deliver what's promised. Set a service level agreement on a personal basis. Outline your credentials or use a reference. Demonstrate that you know what you're talking about.

 

• Managing time and saying "no": We want to help people and please them, but it goes along with saying no and setting priorities.
• Negotiate: would a short solution work for now? Alternate solution? Better person for the job?
• Keep a running to-do list and block short time to go through it and check off quick items. Then plan the longer projects, but don't book back-to-back so you have flexibility for new projects.

 

• Adding value: it's perceived value by the customer, not just the value you perceive it has.
• Make things easier for the customer, not just how you perceive it would be easier/better
• Look at quality times service divided by the cost and time. It's not just what you put in, but what the customer gets out of it.
• Service is more than providing a service, but also exceeding the customer's expectations.
• Ask customers how you did. Did we meet your expectations? What could have been better?
• Keep statistics, use benchmarking.
• Get narratives, ask managers for quotes about how valuable you are.

 

• Have effective presentation skills: practice. It gets better.
• Know your audience and what they are expecting. And tailor your presentation to the group -- small=interactive, etc.
• Define the purpose of your presentation and the message.
• Know your national presentation style - formal, informal. Don't force humor if it's not your style.
• Practice and get feedback on body language, how fast you're speaking, tone of your voice.
• Check out meeting room in advance. Plan backup - have handouts ready or screenshots. Can you verbally reiterate your message if the projector isn't working?
• Don't fill slides top to bottom - use as few words and pictures as possible. You can give handouts afterward. It's hard to listen and read at the same time. Give them time to read or put it in your own words.

Let me know if you attended this webinar or watched the replay and please leave a comment to tell me what you thought.

Intro, new LMD blog chair, Michelle Dollinger

As Jamal mentioned last month, I'm Michelle Dollinger, the new LMD blog chair. I'm pleased to have this responsibility and I look forward to providing some useful posts and encouraging division member participation.

Below is a short bio by way of introduction.

Michelle Dollinger is the immediate Past-President of the SLA New York chapter and continues to serve on its board. She aims to increase the visibility of information professionals both within their companies and to the general public. Michelle promotes her skills in ways that encourage employers to see value rather than to simply wonder what a “librarian” does.

Michelle currently is the global intranet manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York,NY where she is responsible for the information architecture, user experience and content management of the global portal.

She joined PwC from Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, where she researched topics for business development, editorial and product testing. Also formerly at The New York Times, she served as a research assistant and worked on various computer-assisted-reporting projects. She also has researched consumer marketing and demographics at Guideline (formerly FIND/SVP).

Michelle earned her B.A. in Journalism from S.U.N.Y. Buffalo State College and her M.S. LIS from Pratt Institute in 2006. She received SLA's Rising Star Award in 2009. She also serves as a board member of Beta Phi Mu, Theta Chapter (International Library and Information Studies Honor Society).

Feel free to get in touch with any ideas, suggestions or requests for this blog by leaving a comment or contacting me through any of the ways below.

Michelle Dollinger, http://www.michelledollinger.com, http://www.linkedin.com/in/michdoll

AIM/Meebo: michdollny

Gmail Chat: mdollinger

Twitter: mdoll