AtoZ Blogging Challenge – Mentor

During the month of April, I’ll be participating in the 2017 Blogging from A to Z Challenge. For this year’s theme, I chose to look at leadership qualities as I’ve just recently (within the past 6 months) become the director of my public library. We have about 50 staff members, most of whom are part-time employees serving a 30,000 resident community by providing high-quality programs and resources. Each day, I’ll look at one trait and how it’s helped me to become a better director.

I think if you have the opportunity to find a mentor – grab it up! I have a few mentors – both in my local personal learning network and a few librarians that I have known since I was growing up in my hometown. Mentors provide you with knowledge about the field, suggestions, opinions, and are also a great place to go to vent (if necessary)! Again, as I talked about a few days ago, it’s important to ask questions and your mentors are there to help you answer them or at least give you an opinion or suggestion.

If you don’t have a mentor yet, find a colleague that you trust and respect and grab coffee together, or get involved in the state or national organization where often there are opportunities to be paired together with a mentor. These relationships have really helped me to become the best person for whatever job I’ve been in and continue to push me to become a better leader each and every day.