(First of all: gold stars to all of us old enough to remember when the title phrase bounced all over the 1988 presidential campaign. No worries kids: your present will eventually be dimly-remembered history too!)

 

Vision is one of the things that separates leaders from everyone else.

That seems like a bold statement, and like anything else so broad and deep – we could unpack it philosophically for hours.

But I’m not really interested in that kind of thinking. (Please carry on with it, if that’s for you!) Instead, I like to get right to the heart of things.

Anyone can be a leader.

You don’t need a fancy job title. You don’t need a degree. You don’t need experience. You don’t need to be wonderful, perfect, and a delight to everyone who meets you.

You can still be a leader.

And if you are working in a library, you should strive to be a leader!

Why? Why should you bother? You aren’t in charge anyway. You are only part-time. It’s somebody else’s responsibility. Your colleagues are jerks who wouldn’t listen to anyone anyway.

Well. That’s quite a list. I’ve heard all of these, and more when I talk to people about leadership.

And – not to sound too uncaring here – but I don’t care.

It’s easy to make excuses why you can’t help. It’s much easier to complain when you don’t like things than it is to help build something better.

But we all know, deep down, that’s just wussy.

Vision does not have to mean “changing the world and everything in it!!” Probably, in fact, it’s better not to do that.

Vision in library work can mean all kinds of things.

• Making your job, and/or department, more efficient
• Trying new things, taking on new tasks
• Reaching out to a new person, or new people
• Thinking about different ways to do programs
• Setting up a social media account, or revamping the current one
• Learning some words in a language new to you, so you are ready to provide service
• Doing some evaluation of your current materials/programs/services to find out what you can do better
• Stopping some stuff you have done, but probably doesn’t need to happen
• Work out a new scheduling process
• Reading about new ideas, and trying them out
• Doing some purposeful continuing education so you can reshape your job to be something more interesting

Just this week I’ve listened to a podcast about a small company in Alaska working on building streets and sidewalks that are heated – so we can cut out a lot of the danger of slippery icy streets, and the environmental hazards of salt everywhere. I heard an architect talk about building skyscrapers with wood instead of concrete, to make them more environmentally friendly and also sturdier. And I just read this article about a city in China that wants to put up “moons” (satellites) in space to help them light their city at night. This is estimated to save them nearly $250 million in electricity costs each year!

You don’t have to think on that kind of grand scale.

But…you could if you wanted to! You could try new things, experiment a little bit. Learn a skill you don’t have right now – even if you aren’t great at it.

Vision.

It’s trying out things, and continuing to improve.

It’s for you!

(Check out our Linking Our Libraries podcast episode on Vision, with Guest Host Valerie Horton from Minitex!)