The 10 Minute Campaign
Last year, I became NJASL’s AASL Chapter Delegate. This involves attending national meetings to share what NJASL has been up to, and finding out what’s going on in other parts of the country. It also means that during the ALA 2025 conference, I attended the chapter delegate meeting. Leading up to that meeting, I was invited to run for the position of Chair-Elect for the Chapters Assembly. And at that meeting, the candidates for open positions were invited to give a “stump speech” to the Assembly before they voted.
I hadn’t known going in that I was running against the amazing Carrie Wilkerson from Kentucky. I also was surprised when Carrie, preceding me, gave a speech that started out almost exactly the same as mine.
Great Minds Think Alike
Carrie and I both started by pointing out that, for all the elections we’ve been part of for any AASL and ALA positions, we’ve been spoiled for choice. We’ve never felt like there was a bad candidate running, and that no matter who won, they would be an excellent choice for the position. I’ve never doubted for a moment that those who ran for elected positions in the organization would do anything but advance the cause and calling of librarianship.
The rest of my speech was off-the-cuff, an explanation of my views on leadership. As I shared those thoughts with the Chapters Assembly attendees, I suddenly realized why all the library world candidates I’ve voted for have been so well-suited to their positions.
Steve’s Thoughts on Leadership
I explained to the Chapters Assembly members that I am a firm believer in the concept of the servant-leader. To my mind, a leader should always work to serve those they are leading. This means that they put others ahead of themselves. They lead by example. In military parlance, they lead from the front.
As I laid out my beliefs about leadership, it occurred to me that was why all the library candidates who I’ve seen run have been just this type of leader. They are people who are doing the work, and want to do that work on behalf of others.
The Illusion of Leadership
I know I’m not the only one out here who has looked around, seen leaders good and bad, and thought, “Well, that’s definitely not me.”
I think there’s a common misconception that good leaders are smarter, tougher, harder-working, always willing to be the first one on the field, bursting to be the first hand in the air. I bet I’m not the only one who thinks that leaders must have so much more knowledge, insight, and social gifts than I will ever possess. I usually think of myself as the last person to find out what’s going on. I get excited when I figure something out that most people solved years back. And socializing is not one of my Top Ten skills.
In short: When folks talk about leadership roles, I tend to sit back and appreciate those “natural leaders” who step up.
Surprise!
So I was surprised when the votes were tallied and I was named as the next Chair-Elect of the Chapter Assembly. At first, I was pretty sure the count was wrong, and/or that the voters had made a grave error.
But as the reality of the situation set in, I found myself reviewing what I’d said about servant leadership. And I remembered hearing Katie Capshaw on the School Librarians United podcast say that she was not someone who thought of herself as a leader.
“I’m Starting With The Man In The Mirror”
When she was first approached to run for a position in her state organization, she was flummoxed – she couldn’t understand why anyone would think she would be the right person to hold a position like that.
Eventually, she realized that leaders are just people. They weren’t any different than her. And she could do what needed doing – even had ideas for how it should be done. So why not take on the role?
I Am Library, And So Can You
All of this has been swirling around in my mind for the past month. And I’ve reached the conclusion that I am a leader, because my love language is “Acts of service.” I love librarianship, and I want to do whatever I can, however I can to help advance its precepts.
And as I thought about this, I realized that there are probably more than a few folks reading this and thinking, “That’s great, Steve, but what does that have to do with me?”
It’s a pretty regular occurrence that, in the course of chatting with school librarians and library students from all over, the idea of them doing something I’ve done comes up. And often enough, I hear folks say, “Well, I could never do that.”
The Dirty Little Secret
Here’s the thing: I’ve written about how if I can do it, so can you. But you don’t need me to forge the path for you to follow. ‘Cause here’s the dirty little secret that many of us don’t want to admit: We’re leaders.
Day in and day out, we are serving our students. We serve our staff. We serve our administrators and supervisors. Because when you boil librarianship down to its bones, one of the few things left is Service.
School librarians help people. We help them find information; we help them find their next read; we help them learn information literacy skills. I’d be willing to bet that one of the most-repeated phrases by school librarians is some variation of “How can I help you?”
You’re Soaking In It
We serve. And in doing so, we lead by example. We’re on the front lines and we model what we do so others can see how we handle the requests they bring us. We are constantly out there finding the next great resource, the next amazing book, the next engaging activity, the next awesome collaboration.
We lead from the library on a regular basis. And I think we don’t give ourselves credit for the leadership we live with daily, because we think of it as “just what we do.”
But it’s important to recognize that not everyone does what we do. Even if it seems like the everyday humdrum to us, it’s leadership.
The Reality of Leadership
I am trying to remind myself daily that, yes, I am a leader. I lead by doing, by sharing, and by helping, by coming up with new programs and activities, by seeking out opportunities, and by being a purposeful, mindful life-long learner.
If any of that sounds familiar, then you, too, are a leader.
Now, what are you going to do about it?
Hi Steve,
Thanks so much for this! I’ve had leadership roles and have also been a campus librarian, and I can tell you they are not much different. Sure, the issues I get to address in my leadership roles are a bit bigger in scope, and the day-to-day work is not identical, but I still rely on the fundamentals of our profession – access, literacy, instruction, inquiry, inclusion, collaboration, curation, engagement – these all apply and guide the work I do. I hope more of our colleagues start to view themselves as leaders.
Leadership is not a 4 letter word, and it’s something all school librarians should embrace! :)
Thanks so much for seconding, Len – I feel like so much of what I learned in my Ed Admin & Supv classes feels like it could come directly from my school library prep classes. I hope school librarians are encouraged to see themselves through that leadership lens and take pride in the fact that they can (and should) be labelled as leaders!