Our challenges on Thursday!

   The activities today were awesome.  Gave us a little outdoor exercise!  But I especially enjoyed the yarn artwork on the wall and the message we built with Nolan's blocks.  That gave me something to think on!

The group project is moving right along.  We are getting to do a lot of our group project independently, as I am sure some other groups are. 

   Today,  Mary Carpenter shared the 30 Principles that Dale Carnegie wrote many years ago in "How To Win Friends & Influence People" and, not surprisingly, they still apply today!  It was so powerful that I actually noticed a difference in the PLMI students for the rest of the day, which proved that our words really do make an impact and people ARE watching us! 
   What I noticed was that people seemed to be much more interested in finding out more about others than in talking about themselves, and this enabled us to get better acquainted with each other, especially during our meals together.  It was like an awakening.  I enjoyed it so much, and I had already read about half the book.  I will  keep this book and refer to it often, and maybe memorize all the principles.  Some of them, of course, were not new to us but Mary was a real motivator and helped us to realize how important it is to use these principles in our everyday life as well as our jobs.
   This makes for a great leadership philosophy and I only regret that time did not allow us to dig a little deeper and possibly study the entire book!  I just now am having the idea of using this book as a library book club discussion.  We will see how it goes!  I know it will be beneficial to everyone who reads it.

PLMI TEAM

   Greetings from the PLMI Team "Ever Clear"!  I am impressed with how this team is already being productive after just two meetings!  It is so amazing to see how it fits together when we are all honest and feel free to express our opinion and agree to disagree in a nice way.  I am anxious to see the end result of the work we are putting into this, and I am especially happy that our team is priviledged to give the first presentation at graduation!  Our Library Section is "Outreach" and we will be sharing the following policy areas:  library use, late materials, and cell phones.

PLMI is ending!

Hello to everyone!  Looking forward to seeing you in a couple weeks.  Have not found a single moment to even "log in" to my blog but thought I would test it out today.

Yes, I think we all agree that it is a good things to finish up with PLMI although we will miss our fearless leader so very much.  She is a great organizer!!!

"Empowering Staff"

  Robert Benson was my favorite speaker of the day.  Robert works with the Roane State Community College Library.  We enjoyed our interaction with him because not only did he listen to us - he understood exactly how we felt about different issues concerning our libraries and he was able to help us find solutions to questions we asked.

  He recommended the following three books:  The One ThingYou Need To Know, by Marcus Buckingham, Start With Why, by Simon Sinek, and Good to Great, by Jim Collins.  These books should help us with leadership development.  Robert pointed out many things which would help guide us in our decision-making pertaining to staffing and building an engaged team.

 

  He reminded us that our libraries were a place for personal connections, emotional connections, and people connecting with people.  We need to engage people to help support our library!  My focus will be on building an engaged team within our city, our friends group, our library volunteers,  and our county library board of trustees.   Our region and state are always there to help us and advise us, and I am so glad.

  I am going away with a great plan to try to focus on my strengths, things that I am good at so that I will be able to achieve all that I possibly can.  Robert pointed out that we tend to focus on our weaknesses.  He said we don't need to waste time doing that.  Truthfully, I had not looked at it that way at all!  I will definitely work on that and then maybe someday I will be brilliant.  (maybe even by next year so I can help my team win at library jeopardy!  (ha!)





Where I am NOW and Where I WANT to be

  I do have one small change I will tell you about - though it may turn into a GIGANTIC project if it is successful, and I believe it will be!  I am going to put it into high gear when I get home because I plan to meet with our city planning commission, and then meet with our city LEO's!  I believe they will like what I will have to say about my plan to "build on" to the little baby library. 
  The city, and especially the library has such a small budget that this is going to require lots and lots of time applying for grants, but I know it can be done and if nobody takes the initiative to do it - guess what, IT WON'T GET DONE!
  I feel like I am the one with the vision, therefore I should carry through with the plan.  The community is desperate for a bigger library, so I will have my work cut out for me.  I have been given some tips this week at PLMI on how to slowly get people use to the idea, so I would rather go a little slow and have more people on board than strike out on my own, pushing my own agenda.  I really believe if it is a team effort - it will be worth it all!
  It will be for the community and I feel good about leading something I believe is the right move to make.  We have plenty of land beside the library so we should be able to keep the library open while building on - almost up to the time when it is finished and a wall has to be changed or a window made into a door.  We will see.  I have many ideas and I will be happy to let you know the progress!
  Good luck to all of you in the changes you will be making in your libraries also!