Introduction

Welcome back to Linking Our Libraries! This week we are going to talk about Vision. This is one of the most commonly mentioned skills leaders need to be successful; so let’s chat about how to develop it for yourself!

We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and we are here to chat with you this season about building your leadership skills. We provide support and training for all types of libraries, and our work can be used by anyone who wants to build skills, and to become a better leader in your own organization.

Do you want to talk with us further about leadership skills? Do you need some training organized for your organization? We are here for you! Check out our website: cmle.org and let’s get this started!

And now, on with the show! Who is here this week? Joining us this week is Valerie Horton, director of Minitex!

 

The Basics

Vision can mean different things to different people. But nearly every study of leadership skills and competencies agree that this is one of the most important leaders can develop. For our purposes, vision means looking at the future and see where the library can go; articulating directions to others.

Of course, if we all had crystal balls and perfect views of the future, this would be so easy! “Let’s do this! Let’s try that! Oops! Money will be short next year; let’s start on some grants now!”

Sadly, few of us will have those skills. We have never yet met a leader who always knew what was going to happen in the future, and could also make perfect predictions. (Check out our episode on planning for other ideas!)

But vision is bigger than that. Vision means that you look at the present, you understand the past, and you think about where you want to go in the future. It is a deceptively complex skill, because you cannot ever know you are doing exactly the right thing –but if you do not have vision, you and your library go nowhere.

Mistakes are okay. Not understanding how to set a course for the future, and how to inspire other people to go with you, are going to be serious flaws in a leader. This is one of those less-tangible skills, so there are not specific exercises we can recommend to strengthen your skill level. Instead, you need to work on talking with people across the profession, reading material about libraries, following social media accounts and the future of business ideas, and anything else you can build your perspective on the issues that affect your library. Think broadly, explore everything, and bring it all back to get ideas for your own vision of libraries!

 

Now we have some vision in leadership. So let’s build on that and talk with Valerie about how to really make it happen!

 

 

Books We Read

American Lady: The Life of Susan Mary Alsop, by Caroline de Margerie  “Henry Kissinger once remarked that more agreements were concluded in the living room of Susan Mary Alsop than in the White House. A descendent of Founding Father John Jay, Susan Mary was an American aristocrat whose first marriage gave her full access to post-war diplomatic social life in Paris. There, her circle of friends included Winston Churchill, Isaiah Berlin, Evelyn Waugh, and Christian Dior, among other luminaries, and she had a passionate love affair with British ambassador Duff Cooper. During the golden years of John F. Kennedy’s presidency—after she had married the powerful journalist Joe Alsop—her Washington home was a gathering place for everyone of importance, including Katharine Graham, Robert McNamara, and Henry Kissinger. Dubbed “the second lady of Camelot,” she hosted dinner parties that were the epitome of political power and social arrival, bringing together the movers and shakers not just of the United States, but of the world. Featuring an introduction by Susan Mary Alsop’s goddaughter Frances FitzGerald, American Lady is a fascinating chronicle of a woman who witnessed, as Nancy Mitford once said, “history on the boil.””

 

Demon Crown, by James Rollins “Off the coast of Brazil, a team of scientists discovers a horror like no other, an island where all life has been eradicated, consumed, and possessed by a species beyond imagination. Before they can report their discovery, a mysterious agency attacks the group, killing them all, save one: an entomologist, an expert on venomous creatures, Professor Ken Matsui from Cornell University.

Strangest of all, this inexplicable threat traces back to a terrifying secret buried a century ago beneath the National Mall: a cache of bones preserved in amber. The artifact was hidden away by a cabal of scientists—led by Alexander Graham Bell—to protect humankind. But they dared not destroy it, for the object also holds an astonishing promise for the future: the very secret of life after death.

Yet nothing stays buried forever. An ancient horror— dormant in the marrow of those preserved bones—is free once more, nursed and developed into a weapon of incalculable strength and malignancy, ready to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting world.

To stop its spread, Commander Grayson Pierce of Sigma Force must survive a direct attack on the island of Maui. To be there first has always been the core mission of Sigma Force, a covert team forged to be America’s front line against emerging threats. But this time, even Sigma may not be able to decipher the deadly mystery, one that traces back to the founding of the Smithsonian Institution.

With each new discovery, the menace they hunt is changing, growing, spreading—adapting and surviving every attempt to stop it from reconquering a world it once ruled. And each transformation makes it stronger . . . and smarter.

Running out of time and options, Commander Grayson Pierce will be forced to make an impossible choice. To eradicate this extinction-level threat and expose those involved, he will have to join forces with Sigma’s greatest enemy—the newly resurrected Guild—even if it means sacrificing one of his own.”

 

Enchantment Lake, by Margi Preus “A disturbing call from her great aunts Astrid and Jeannette sends seventeen-year-old Francie far from her new home in New York into a tangle of mysteries. Ditching an audition in a Manhattan theater, Francie travels to a remote lake in the northwoods where her aunts’ neighbors are “dropping like flies” from strange accidents. But are they accidents?

On the shores of Enchantment Lake in the woods of northern Minnesota, something ominous is afoot, and as Francie begins to investigate, the mysteries multiply: a poisoned hotdish, a puzzling confession, eerie noises in the bog, and a legendary treasure said to be under enchantment—or is that under Enchantment, as in under the lake? At the center of everything is a suddenly booming business in cabin sales and a road not everyone wants built.

To a somewhat reluctant northwoods Nancy Drew, the intrigue proves irresistible, especially when it draws her closer to the mysteries at the heart of her own life. What happened to her father? Who and where is her mother? Who is she, and where does her heart lie—in the bustle of New York City or the deep woods of Minnesota? With its gripping story, romantic spirit, and a sly dash of modern-day trouble (including evil realtors and other invasive species), Enchantment Lake will fascinate readers, providing precisely the charm that Margi Preus’s fans have come to expect.”

 

Conclusion

Thanks so much for joining us today! Thanks to Valerie for helping us to build our own vision of libraries and leadership.

Tune in next Thursday for another important leadership skill! We are looking forward to chatting with you then.