LIS 650 Leadership and Management Treatise

Final Assignment Leadership and Management Treatise

I.

Leadership and Professional Model

A.

Leadership Mission and Values

As a leader, I want to learn about my employees and guide them to utilize their strengths
to provide outstanding customer service and create raving fans both internally and externally.
After the readings for this course, I realize how important it is to focus on strengths of people
because everyone has a particular bent and personality and most people will not change their
weaknesses as easily as they can improve their strengths. Also, providing extraordinary customer
service is what will bring customers back again and again and have them telling others about
your business.
1.

Communication

Communication is central to good relationships between managers, employees, and

customers. As a leader, I want to have open communication with others on my team, both
above me and below me, so that problems can be addressed quickly and smoothly. I want my
team members to know that I am available to them and will be discreet and trustworthy.
2.

Focus on Strengths

I want to learn the strengths of those around me and use their talents to strengthen my
team. I want to place them in the best job that makes use of their special talents whenever
possible to use their strengths to improve customer service, moral, and my department.
B.

Talents and personal/professional development plan

I do everything the best as I can. I am a bit of a perfectionist and I like order. I find that

people tend to find me easy to talk with and I am an empathetic person. My common sense and
faith has helped me through many situations in life. I started a family early and spent the last
twenty years focusing on raising my children. I decided to go back to college and begin my own
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career. Due to my passion of nutrition and exercise, I went that direction in school only to find
that after getting my degree, there were no positions suited for me where I was in my life and I
was unable to work as if I were a healthy young adult that could do anything I wanted.
The next step has brought me to graduate school to pursue my passion of books. I
wanted to go into Library Science when I was younger, but as a young mother there were no
schools that I could go to without moving and acting like a normal student. Since that was not a
possibility for me, I let that dream go, but never my love of books. Now that technology has
changed so much, my dream can be realized.
I have several paths that I am interested in and not sure which one I will follow in the
coming years. I am looking into archives, but I also have a dream of retiring with my husband to
Oak Island, NC. I have the idea that one day I can become the librarian on the island. In that
position I would have a leadership role. I can already envision the programs I would plan for
tourists and local residents to give people a place to gather. Though, if I go into archives, I am
not sure that it will lead to this path. I have always loved Washington, D.C. and would love to be
part of keeping history alive and real for future generations. Of course, I could do archival work
in other areas of the state or country, even in the Wilmington, NC area and still retire on Oak
Island. Wilmington is brimming with history and culture and I have always wanted to live in the
area. Working at The University of North Carolina at Wilmington or doing something else in
archives with the local Historical Society would be an awesome job to have.
In fifteen years I see myself in a stable position no matter where it is. I am sure by that
time, I will be a grandparent, so I also hope to have enough leeway in my job to spend time with
my family and do some traveling. I want to explore the country and its history and hopefully get
to see other countries as well and their rich history. I would like to be able to take some

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temporary or visiting positions and work with other agencies around the world in their archives
departments.
C.

Generate a professional cover letter and resume

Attached at end of document

II.

Vision for an Ideal Library

A.

Vision of an Ideal Library

My ideal library is a small intimate library in a small town. It needs to be welcoming and

painted in colors that are relaxing and calming. There would be several comfortable coves with
overstuffed furnishings for holding book clubs or just getting comfortable with a book and
coffee. There will be an outdoor seating area, so that patrons can enjoy the nice weather and
fresh air and commune with nature. It will act as a living room for the community (Imam,
2014).
Even though it is a small library, it will house up-to-date technology. There will be
computer labs for adults and children, Wi-Fi, copiers, faxes, and self-checkout stations. A small
attached caf will provide coffee, coffee drinks, teas, soft drinks, and smoothies as well as
morning bakery items. Any rare or special books and items that be checked out of the library,
that could be damaged by the drinks, will be in a section where food and drinks are not allowed.
Customer service will be the number one priority. I want my staff to know the regulars
by name and always be willing to go out of their way to provide outstanding service. Staff should
be able to deliver consistent plus go one step beyond every time (Blanchard & Bowles, 1993).
The childrens area will have puzzles, games, Legos, and Lincoln Logs that can be used
while they are in the library and at special times when the parents may want to be in book club
or taking a class. A quiet room will be available for studying and an activity room will be

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available for programs and group gatherings. A conference room will also be available for small
meetings or group study sessions.
I see this library having family nights with movies and popcorn on the lawn in the
summer and other night time programs that allow families to get closer to nature such as a Great
American Campout event (Great American Campout, n.d.). Teen clubs will be offered to allow
kids time to hang out, mess around, and geek out (Tripp, 2011). Fandom clubs are very popular
and allow kids time to be with others that have the same interests as themselves and express
themselves in ways that allow them to grow in self-confidence. The library will have programs
for everyone to allow the community to come together and grow with one another.
B.

Management Tools
1.

Budget

Budget
Salaries
Technology
Maintenance
Collections
Other

$ 100,000.00
$ 25,000.00
$ 10,000.00
$ 10,000.00
$ 15,000.00

Total

$ 160,000.00

2.

Discuss the role and value of strategic planning

Strategic planning is important in order to know where you are heading as a company
and how you are going to get there. Like the old saying goes failing to plan is planning to fail.
Planning allows everyone to know and understand the goals of the company and for everyone to
be on the same page working toward the same goals. Without it some may be working on one
idea while others a completely different one and each are going to butt heads and there is going
to be chaos.

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3.

Discuss the role and value of a needs assessment

The needs assessment is important because it shows exactly where the goals are not
being met and what the customers actually want instead of just what the company thinks they
want. It allows management to work on the areas that are not meeting the customers needs and
not focus on anything that is unwanted.
4.

Discuss the role of quality control and quality management principles

Without quality control or quality management there is no standard of how things

should get done. Management needs to set a guideline so employees know how things are
expected to get done and the level of customer service that is expected. Then there needs to be
someone in charge of follow-up to make sure that those items are being completed as directed.
Without the follow-up or assessment, no one will know if the quality control measures are being
met and if the employees know there is no follow-up then there is no reason for them to
perform as requested.

III.

Top Five Questions

1. Define my own management style
Through group work, I have come to realize that I am a micromanager and I do not
like that, so it is an area that I need to continue to work on. I have always felt I had more of an
eclectic management style. I am not sure that this area was defined in this course.
2. Learn and understand marketing strategies
I do not feel that I learned anything about marketing strategies in this course or at
least not enough to understand enough about them.
3. Learn about my own strengths

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I am a perfectionist which can be a strength and a weakness. I am good at
communicating with others, which is a necessary skill in any field. I enjoy research and precision
work.
4. Learn to manage my weaknesses and deal with those of others
In this course, I learned about dealing with others, not necessarily how to deal with
their weaknesses, but definitely how to deal with others. As far as my own weaknesses go, one
way that I learned to deal with them is through planning. I am a very busy person and have
health problems that sometimes cause me to have to stay in bed. One way to deal with this is
that I need to be careful not to overdo it physically. Another is that I need to plan to take more
time than I think is needed to complete tasks and then plan appropriately. I also need to plan
rest days into my schedule and when I know something is coming up that could cause stress or
exhaustion then I need to make sure I have planned extra time into my schedule to get them
done. I am a procrastinator and I work well under pressure, but it leads to exhaustion. I have
learned that I must begin working on projects well in advance and stick to a very strict timeline.
The most important thing I have learned in this course is how to deal with my own weaknesses
in new ways.
5. Increase communication skills
This class also helped me to increase my communication skills. I had to learn to accept
others weaknesses and allow them to handle certain aspects of the project in their way, which
did lead to some confrontations. I then had to be willing to swallow my pride and admit that I
was wrong and ask for forgiveness. Having to talk with others using chat created some problems
because tone was not evident and some things were taken out of context. It meant that I needed
to not only think about what I wanted to say, but write it in a way that would come across the

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way I wanted it to as well. Communication is such an important skill and I am glad that I was
able to work on this skill and learn more about myself in the process.

IV.

Review and discuss the course student learning outcomes

Please identify all that have been met and strengths and weaknesses of the course. Discuss each
of the four SLOs and each of the subareas for each outcome - which ones were met?

Student Learning Objective (SLO)

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs)

1. Advanced Communication Skills

1. Verbal- speaking during group sessions,

This objective was met in many ways. The

presenting in class projects

group interaction provided a lot of time to

2. Written- weekly discussion board posts,

learn to communicate more effectively.

papers
3. Listening- listening to lectures and
group members
4. Presentation- presented to my group
and to the class as a whole
5. Discussion
6. Conflict Resolution- had several issues
that needed to be talked through and
worked out among group members

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2. Organizational and Personnel
Management Skills

1. Strategic Planning-met objective by

having to plan timelines with group to

This is an area that I need more work in. I am

complete needs assessment in timely

not as organized as I need to be to get

manner and make sure each person had a

assignments and group work done to the level

role to play.

I require of myself. The class met these

2. Policies (Establishing and Refining)-

objectives, and I was able to implement many

worked on this in class and group work.

of them in class, but need to work on some of

3. Budgeting-discussed in class and worked

them on a personal level.

on in group setting
4. Meetings-had time in group setting to
learn to run a meeting.
5. Personnel Management-topic of books,
readings, and lectures
6. Resource Allocation & Managementclass lectures and being selected as the
project manager on the needs assessment.
7. Hiring and Firing-class lecture and
discussion.
8. Diversity of thought and values
9. Research & Development-class lecture
10. Needs Assessment- a lot of time was
put into this area in class lectures and
group project.

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3. Relationship Management,

1. Lateral Leadership- discussed in class

Professional Development, and

lectures.

Teamwork Skills

2. Self-Regulation and Self-Awareness

Again, in this area I need to work more on

3. Group Development- had a lot of time

these skills personally, but the objectives of

to work in group settings.

the class were met through the class lectures

4. Conflict Resolution- I learned a lot

and group work.

about myself and how I deal with conflict

through working with a group.
5. Resonant Leadership
6. Evaluations-given the opportunity to
evaluate others on group work and
presentations
7. Professional Development Plan- class
lecture
8. Revised Resume- had to work on
resume for class assignment, discussed it in
lecture

4. Knowledge of Leadership and

Management Theory

1. Leadership styles- class lecture

2. Leadership and Management Theoryclass lecture

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Class lectures covered these topics. I would

3. Leadership and Management Research-

have preferred a text book on these topics to

class lecture

help understand it better and have something

4. Case Studies

to look back on in the future.

V. Final thoughts about your leadership and management potential and general future
over the next five years
I have found that I am a micromanager and I need to learn to allow others to do things in their
way and be fine that it is getting done even when it is not done the way I would do it instead of
stress out and worry and try to rework things and create extra work. This is an area that I saw
myself as the complete opposite until working on this group project. Now that I have learned
this about myself, I can work to improve and allow others more control and learn to delegate
responsibilities. I have the potential to be a great manager as long as I continue to work on my
skills and remember the lessons learned in this and other courses. Customer service is a priority,
but I have learned that there are two types of customers internal and external. I have always
been focused on the external and never thought about employees as customers. See them that
way changes the way I know that I need to treat them. If I look at employees as customers then
I want to give them the same customer service as the actual customers and that allows me to act
very differently.

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References
Blanchard, K., & Bowles, S. (1993). Raving fans: A revolutionary approach to customer service.
New York: William Morrow and Company.
Great American Campout. (n.d.). Retrieved from National Wildlife Federation:
http://www.nwf.org/Great-American-Campout.aspx
Imam, J. (2014, April 14). Libraries are dying? Think again. Retrieved from CNN.com:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/14/travel/irpt-library-fascinationtravel/index.html?hpt=tr_c1
Tripp, L. (2011). Digital Youth, Libraries, and New Media Literacy. The Reference Librarian,
329-341. doi:10.1080/02763877.2011.584842

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