AtoZ Blogging Challenge – Understand

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.

One of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey is, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood,” is a great phrase to keep in mind as a leader. I am continually reminding myself to gather all the information I can before making a decision. It can be difficult when there are so many people who work on a single aspect of the library work, to really understand each part of what is going on, but it’s so important to know all the details before jumping in and making changes. But, when you do understand, then you can make decisions that will make a difference.