Last week, I offered my free webinar introducing coaching skills for library leaders. If you haven't attended one before, or just want to check out what new examples I included, here's the link to view the recording (passcode = Curious1s!), available until May 11. It's a one hour overview of what coaching is (and isn't), the coaching mindset, and then the core coaching skills that are most relevant for leading a team.
With just an hour, and making sure to leave time for questions, we can really only skim the surface. So my hope is that attendees leave with two key takeaways: the value of being curious and a reminder to actively listen more often.
Coaching sounds really simple, because the most important core skills are active listening and asking questions. You've done reference interviews, you've got this, right?
In reality, though, I've yet to meet anyone who found it really easy to stay in coaching mode instead of jumping into giving advice, problem-solving, or trying to convince the other person to see their perspective. Those are the ways most of us have been socialized to interact. We help others by offering advice or brainstorming possible solutions. In conversations with peers, everyone shares their opinions and perspectives, and often want others to agree with their viewpoint. It takes a lot more effort than I realized at first to stay fully curious and nonjudgmental, and to ask coaching questions instead of trying to lead someone to your solution.
And that's why I spend so much time discussing a coaching mindset.
Actively paying attention to your mindset, to staying curious, is an essential part of adopting a coaching approach to leadership.
Last month, I wrote a post in ACRLog on Coaching as Critical Leadership Praxis, discussing the connections that drew me from using critical pedagogy to teach critical information literacy to becoming a coach. And that gave me an excuse to revisit some of bell hooks' writing on engaged pedagogy, which includes an emphasis on self-actualization.
Hooks wrote that
teachers must be actively committed to a process of self-actualization that promotes their own wellbeing if they are to teach in a manner that empowers students. (p. 15)
Hooks goes on to quote Thich Nhat Hanh:
the practice of a healer, therapist, teacher or any helping professional should be directed toward his or herself first, because if the helper is unhappy, he or she cannot help many people. (p. 15, my emphasis added)
While there are important differences between being a healer or therapist and being a library worker or leader, helping is a huge part of what we do in libraries. Whether you're teaching classes or just teaching people one at a time to search the catalog at the help desk, teaching is also a huge part of what we do.
Leading a team can include teaching new skills or procedures. It also means helping your team members develop professionally – build their confidence in their work, access the ongoing training they need to reach their goals, and so on. And, for those of you managing in the middle – whether you're a department head reporting up to a director, a dean reporting up to a provost, or a director reporting up to a city administrator or board – leadership means balancing a lot of competing demands and needs and complaints.
All of that takes a toll, especially given the political and budget pressures facing libraries these days.
Not surprisingly, professors who are not concerned with inner well being are the most threatened by the demand on the part of students for liberatory education, for pedagogical processes that will aid them in their own struggle for self-actualization. (p. 17)
Whether we're focusing on liberatory education – an approach that encourages students to critically evaluate the connections between the material they're learning and the social and material realities of their lives, and then take action to transform their lives for the better – or focusing on empowering employees to take more ownership of their work, this process can be challenging.
It is so much easier to just give people instructions to follow. Especially when you're short on time. Especially when you're feeling intense pressure from above to get this thing just right.
Coaching someone through figuring out their best path to the outcome you need them to reach means giving up some control. It means being willing to trust them to reach that outcome, even if the path looks very different from the way you would get there.
And that is really freaking hard when you're stressed and anxious and on the verge of burning out yourself.
This is one of the joys of education as the practice of freedom, for it allows students to assume responsibility for their choices. (p. 19)
This is also one of the joys of actively embracing a coaching mindset - it reminds you that they are capable professionals who are responsible for their choices.
How are you taking care of your wellbeing, so that you can become more self-actualized and embrace your coaching mindset?
How are you creating space to pay attention to what you need to feel fulfilled instead of burning out in your work?
Some of the practices that come to mind for me here include:
🌻 Setting and maintaining boundaries – whether that's saying no to adding another project onto your plate or shifting the way you respond when a colleague drops by for yet another hour-long complaint session about things neither of you can control.
🌻 Refocusing on what matters most in your work – why do you do what you do, and how can you keep that front and center in all of your decisions (including decisions about those boundaries!)?
🌻 Creating and maintaining a regular reflective practice – a safe space to examine what assumptions went into your reactions, what led you to jump to a conclusion before fully listening to all of the details, how you can more fully embrace your curiosity in your daily interactions, and so on.
What else comes to mind for you?
These are all practices that you can work on by yourself. If you're not sure where to even start, then I encourage you to consider signing up for Cultivate Curiosity.
These are also all things that I help clients work through in individual coaching packages. There's no shame in needing support and structure to build these habits into your regular practice, especially if you haven't been encouraged to prioritize your own wellbeing in your current role. I'm always happy to talk about how I can help you become a more self-actualized leader – click here to schedule a free, no-obligation chat when you're ready!
Work cited
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: education as the practice of freedom. Routledge.
* Last week, I also took an unplanned extra week between issues, because I decided to take some time off to celebrate my birthday earlier this month! I assume no one else is paying as close of attention to that as I do, but explaining it here helps me hold myself accountable!