Goal 5: Effectively communicate and collaborate to deliver, market, and advocate for library and information services.

Outcome 5c. Demonstrate leadership principles in an educational, professional, or community context.

Leadership and Libraries

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         Leadership styles have been discussed and theorized since there have been leaders. Even today there are many different philosophies and theories on leaders and leadership. Looking at a few examples and applying them to the library will help create a well-rounded philosophy. Some of these leadership styles will come from the book Be An Awesome Boss!: The Four C's Model to Leadership Success by Tim Burningham, various academic articles, and interviews with library professionals. With these sources, we can see how to better improve library leadership.

         Learning about leadership has shown that there are many different leadership styles and there are many different ways to be a good leader. One theory about being a good leader comes from Be An Awesome Boss!: The Four C's Model to Leadership Success by Tim Burningham. In this book, he shows how clarity, consistency, celebration, and charity are vital to any leadership style. Even though he is talking about a corporate setting, and specifically health care centers, I think his model can be easily translated into the library world.

         Clarity is the first “C” that is discussed in the book. Burningham emphasizes that clarity keeps a team functioning well together. Burningham says, “Think about the anxiety that comes from people worrying about whether they’re doing a good job or whether they’re doing what their boss wants them to do. Leaders who can create clarity around what is most important and what a good job looks like will get better results from their people because they won’t be worrying all the time” (32). Even though he is talking specifically about how to be a boss, these ideas translate very well for anyone working on a team. Clarity helps everyone stay in sync and know the goals that need to be accomplished. Clarity is one of the main ways to combat confusion and misunderstanding in the workplace.

         Clarity also goes well with this article from 2006 titled “Sources of Motivation, Interpersonal Conflict Management Styles and Leadership Effectiveness: A Structured Model” by John Jr. Barbuto. This article took a sample of leaders and their teams and measured different leadership styles to understand how they were affected. With their findings and the styles they tested, they found that there was only 28% verity in the style’s effectiveness (19).  This connects to clarity because it is not just the style of a leader that matters but the values behind how they lead. If a leader, or even a team player, is not clear about instructions or expectations there is going to be frustration. If Barbuto had measured how clear the leaders were, the results might have differed. Regardless, clarity is a valuable trait to have as a leader.    

          To learn more about leadership in a library setting I interviewed two library professionals who work in an academic archive and special collections department. Heather is the director of the special collections department and her colleague is Louise. As I interviewed them, I asked about the specifics of what library leadership is like in their organization. I also used what I had learned about leadership to see if they applied it in their organization.

           For the principle of clarity, Heather said that she often struggles with making herself clear as a boss and it is something she is trying to work on. She said part of this comes with creating and changing policies. An example she gave was she would tell her interns one way to do a project then realize there is a better way to complete it and will have to change her instructions. Heather acknowledged that clarity is something she wants to work on. Louise, who oversees some of the archive’s volunteers, found that clarity was a strength of hers. She shared that she works with volunteers who have learning disabilities. With these volunteers, instructions need to be very clear and nothing should be assumed. Louise shared that working with these volunteers helped her to learn to have clarity.

            The second “C” in the book by Burningham is consistency. Burningham writes “Consistency is a lot about creating trust through dependability and reliability even with the simple things” (119). Consistency is a vital part of leadership because it lets a team feel comfortable about expectations. Inconsistent bosses and leaders lead to feelings of frustration because it is confusing to know what is expected of them. Instead, leaders should keep expectations and even their actions consistent enough that their team does not feel like they do not know what is expected of them.

             Part of seeing the benefits of consistency is looking at some of the negatives of different leadership styles. In a 2021 article about negative leadership titled “Impact of differential leadership on innovative behavior of employees: A double-edged sword.”  Mengyun Wu explains how different leadership styles can negatively impact a work environment. Wu writes about the negatives of outside and inside leadership and says “If outsiders strive to improve their innovative behavior, they may not receive favoritism from leaders immediately, which can induce stress and anxiety” (2). Stress and anxiety are not conducive to a healthy work environment. Different leadership styles cannot just be avoided though, different people are going to lead differently and inherently have different styles. Part of the importance of consistency is having team members understand your leadership style and how you work. This will give better expectations and help promote cooperation within the organization.  

               Consistency is another leadership theory that is easy to apply to the library world. There are many library structures of leadership. Talking with Heather and Louise I learned that working in an academic setting is very different from working in the public library setting. This was emphasized by Heather, who was an archivist for a public library for several years. She shared her frustrations with me that leadership was not consistent about projects in her prior job and there was a hierarchy of approval that she had to wade through to complete anything. Now she finds that there is consistency in her workplace because she does not have the overhead that she used to. Instead, she can work on projects that she designs and feels are a priority.

            Another comment that she shared with me is that in the academic setting, responsibilities are more shared than in the public library. When she needs help with a project, she can ask a colleague and they often ask for help as well. She explained that the leadership structure was more “horizontal” than at the public library. It sounded like she felt more like a part of a team than on a leadership ladder. Explaining this to me she seemed much happier with this setup. In this instance, it is not so much about the chain of command that seems to be the problem but the consistency of what is expected.

           Continuing with Burningham’s model of the four “C”’s the third “C” is “celebrate”. This is an interesting one to consider because there is a connotation of frivolity behind the word celebration. However, Burningham states “Without some element of fun, measurement, or recognition, you’re missing the mark with celebration. And celebration is most powerful when it emphasizes results” (p. 158). “Celebrate” is not just about Friday pizza parties or having cake for a birthday. It is about really letting colleagues and team members know that their accomplishments are being seen and acknowledged. This seems to be a challenge in the library world. It seems so often librarianship is a hard and thankless job and by having leaders and teammates lift each other and celebrate each other, morale will be lifted up.

             An important part of celebrating is keeping morale up and stamina for intense projects. In the 2013 article “Are You Tired? Overcoming Leadership Styles That Create Leader Fatigue” by Karlene M. Kerfoot she discusses how different leadership styles can be exhausting for some people. Kerfoot writes “Being an over-controlling leader is exhausting because nothing ever goes your way and you are perennially unsuccessful. Once you have surrounded yourself with great people and effective structures with self-directed teams, it is easy to kill off initiative and joy by over-managing, by being unable to give up the rewarding parts of your- job, and by structuring dependence on yourself for everything” (147). This quote highlights one of the problems presented in the article, leaders are easily burnt out. And when a leader is burnt out their team becomes frustrated and unmotivated. This is where celebration comes into play. It helps add relief to the team and leaders. It’s a respite that is vital to the team refocusing and rallying their efforts.

            Celebration and appreciation are also important in the library setting. During my interview, Heather brought up how as a leader and team player she strives to celebrate others' efforts and accomplishments. One story she told concerned a boss who was very toxic to work with. This supervisor would often take credit for things that Heather had worked on. This made Heather more aware of how other people feel when their work is not being appreciated. Louise recently curated a project by herself and Heather supported her but when it was displayed and advertised Heather made sure that the credit went to Louise. Celebrating accomplishments and hard work helps everyone in the team feel appreciated and seen.

Going back to the model of the four “C”’s, the final “C” is charity. Burningham shares what charity in leadership means “Charity is about how people feel at work—whether they feel accepted, known, and respected…It’s whether they feel cared about as a person” (p. 166). Charity is a valuable concept for anyone working as a leader or a team member because it shows a genuine interest in the people you are working with within the organization. Charity is showing that people matter not just for their work as employees but as people. By creating real meaningful relationships people will feel that what they are doing matters and is making a difference.

            This is important in many different fields but it is particularly important for leadership. Burningham emphasizes in his book that charity is not something that can be faked but it has to come sincerely. In a 2020 article titled “How Self-Sacrificial Leadership Influences Employee Voice: Psychological Safety as a Mediator,” Jie Zhang researched how self-sacrificing leaders were able to get better results from their team

             Charity was another important part of the interviews I conducted. Louise praised Heather for being a caring person. Louise stated, “Heather treats everyone the same.” She then explained how important it was to their work environment. This helped her get along and admire Heather as a supervisor. Heather also mentioned that charity was important to her in getting to know people and making sure they felt respected and heard.

             I think that good leadership skills are a vital part of any good organization whether you are simply a team member or in management. The skills and theories I discussed are all things that can benefit libraries. Clarity and communication make sure that everyone in the library understands the part they play and their responsibilities. Consistency shows what expectations are expected from responsibilities. Celebration helps everyone feel that their work is making a difference to the library and the community they serve. Finally, charity helps team members feel valued as a person and makes them want to succeed. This is not the only theory on leadership that works but I think it is a valuable one to be considered when looking at leadership styles for libraries.    

Works Cited

Barbuto, J. . J. E., & Ye Xu. (2006). Sources of Motivation, Interpersonal Conflict Management   Styles, and Leadership Effectiveness: A Structural Model. Psychological Reports, 98(1), 3–20. https://doi-org.dom.idm.oclc.org/10.2466/pr0.98.1.3-20

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Burningham, T. (2019). Be An Awesome Boss!: The Four C's Model to Leadership Success (Kindle Edition ed.). Houston, TX: Tim Burningham.

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Kerfoot, K. M. (2013). Are You Tired? Overcoming Leadership Styles That Create Leader Fatigue. Nursing Economics$, 31(3), 146–151.

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Wu, M., Zhang, L., Imran, M., Xu, J., & Yu, R. (2021). Impact of differential leadership on innovative behavior of employees: A double-edged sword. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 49(2), 1–12.  

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Zhang, J., Li, J., & Huang, J. (2020). How self-sacrificial leadership influences employee voice: Psychological safety as a mediator. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 48(12), 1–8. https://doiorg.dom.idm.oclc.org/10.2224/sbp.9555/doiorg.dom.idm.oclc.org/10.2224/sb