It does.  You have all the elements needed to be a leader but must accept the role and recognize how you are showing it in order to fully take on that challenge.  You self-perception affects how others see you.

To get past having to assume the somewhat daunting title of leader, start with Manager. Managing is one aspect of leadership and you are likely to feel more comfortable in developing and displaying that skill set first. Managing has to do with working with groups, building consensus, and working toward a common goal.

If you have volunteers, you definitely want to manage them.  While they may initially come to see their child, they will stick around and do a better job if they feel valued and know their time produces worthwhile results.  Share your Mission Statement (you should have one) with them and explain how their work contributes to it.  Acknowledge them on your website.  Where possible give them jobs to match their talents.  They can do displays, help with photos or videos of students in action, or even take on a section of the library collection tied to their personal interest.

Building relationships with teachers requires managing ability. All of them need to know you are there to work with them and help them achieve their objectives. Common Core gives you an easy unifying goal, but you can also focus on a smaller scale such as ensuring students develop Enduring Understandings as a learning out of a unit.

Serving on building or district committees is another opportunity for managing, even if you aren’t chairing it.  Using your Emotional Intelligence (see the blog from July 13), you can ease any tensions, help build consensus, and share your expertise without bringing any ego to the table. You probably would have done all these things but, being aware of what a manager does reminds you of this role you have in the educational community and makes it easier for you to recognize you are a leader.

I don’t want to suggest that Managing is the same as Leading.  It’s just easier to take on the title of Leader once you have accepted you are a Manager.  Leaders make decisions, take risks, and propose a vision for the future. When others develop respect for you as a manager, it simplifies the transition to full leader.

Building confidence as a manger helps ready you to take risks such as proposing a new program.  You have support from faculty members who trust you and have seen your expertise in action.  The administration knows you are a team player has confidence in your ability to get the job done.  Now you can create the exciting vision of where you want your library program to go, have a plan for getting it there, and know many are ready to help you achieve it.

Baby steps are all you need to do to get started.  Just put one foot in front of the other.  Trust and believe in yourself.

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The Mission Statement of School Librarian’s Workshop is:

To be your library program’s silent partner, keeping you informed, inspired, and invaluable – a leader in your building – indispensable to your students, teachers, administrators and community.

The key word, of course, is “indispensable”, but the operative word is “leader.”  One sure way to be recognized as indispensable is to be seen as a building leader—an integral part of the educational community, working with all components to achieve the results they want effectively and efficiently.

The first step is to know what makes your school library program and your role within it unique.  You must provide a service or solution to others’ problems that no one else can do.  Can you identify what unique skills and knowledge you bring?  If you can’t do it, no one else can.

Posted infographics can be one way to get the message out.  This pin by Joyce Valenza and Gwyneth Jones http://www.pinterest.com/pin/438678819923058694 and this slideshare from Jennifer LaGarde (Library Girl) http://www.slideshare.net/jlagarde/librarians-are-ready  can get you started.  Search for more on Google images—and then create your own.  If you are unsure how to do it, look for an article on it in the upcoming December 2014/January 2015 issue of School Librarians Workshop.

Infographics alone won’t help if you are not delivering.  Look at what contributions they highlight.  Do you do these?  If you don’t, why not?  How can you integrate them into your program and then get the word out.  Many successful school librarians are creating LibGuides available to parents as well as those for students and teachers.  These aids, available 24/7, promote your program and how you are integral to student learning.

One of the participants in my recent e-course Being Indispensable: A School Librarian’s Guide to Proving Your Worth and Keeping Your Job is heading up a School Librarian Interest Group for NEFLIN (Northeast Florida Library Information Network). For this year their word is “Indispensable.”  You might want to adopt the idea.  Focus on all ways you can demonstrate you and your program are vital and Indispensable.

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