You Have an Unlimited Fund of Something Highly Valuable. Want to Know What It Is?

I’ve spent the last 20 years or so in library administration, and it’s taken me almost that long to figure out something essential. It’s simple, and it’s probably obvious to most people, but for me it took quite a while to sink in.

I finally realized, just a couple of years ago, that as a library director I am carrying around with me – at every moment of the workday – a big sack of something that is very much like money. But the "money" is unusual in several ways. First of all, it’s functionally limitless; I can spend as much of it as I want, and my supply is never depleted. Second, it’s of no value to me; I can’t spend it on myself. It only has value when I spend it on others.

A third thing that makes this "money" unusual is that it’s difficult to define it with complete rigor, and difficult to enumerate all the units of currency by which it can distributed. I can provide a few examples, though:

Encouragement. At any given moment on any given day, someone in your organization is discouraged and frustrated. Obviously, you can’t know the mood of everyone in your library at every moment – but you can pay attention, and when you see or hear that someone is struggling, you can take a minute to seek them out and express your support for and confidence in them. When you’re the library director, such expressions carry extra weight because of your position. They amount to something unusually valuable that you can give away without diminishing your supply of it.

Appreciation. Deep down, most library employees believe that their director has no idea what they do all day and doesn’t really understand the value of their work. They would love to be proven wrong. To the degree that you can (and the bigger and more complex your organization, the more difficult this will be), learn what’s happening on the front lines of your library, and take opportunities to express well-informed appreciation for the work your people are doing. I know it sounds obvious and simplistic, but the impact of such expressions can really be huge.

When you're the library director, expressions of encouragement, appreciation, gratitude, and support carry extra weight because of your position. They amount to something unusually valuable that you can give away without diminishing your supply of it.

Gratitude. Gratitude and appreciation are closely related, but are not quite the same thing. Simply saying “thank you” is easy and quick and highly impactful – especially when it’s the library director saying it. Not all expressions of gratitude are equally valuable, of course; as with appreciation, the more they reflect real knowledge and understanding of the other person’s efforts, the more valuable they are. But no expression of gratitude is without value. Saying to your collections manager “I heard about that publisher negotiation you were involved with last week and I understand you saved us tens of thousands of dollars – that was really great work and I’m so glad we have you fighting for the needs of our students and faculty” might be worth more than just sticking your head into someone’s office as you walk by and saying “Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for the work you do – I’m really glad to be your colleague.” But even just doing that can be very valuable. 

Support. When I was a middle manager, one of the things that often held me back from doing things I felt were wise or even necessary was being uncertain whether my director would back me up in the event of a challenge. Now obviously, this is where alignment comes in – the director shouldn’t back up a manager who is trying to move the library in the wrong direction. But your people need to know that when they do the right thing, and especially when they do what you ask them to, you will be there to back them up if someone gets upset with them. The way they know this is, first of all, by you explicitly telling them you will; and second of all, by seeing you do it. Expressing support for your managers and making clear that you’re behind them is tremendously valuable, and costs you nothing. (Well, at least until you actually do have to back them up.)

Physical presence. I had an odd experience a few months ago. I was looking for a particular library employee, and I went to the area where she works, which is kind of out of the way, back behind a service desk, where there’s a bunch of cubicles and work stations. To be honest, I don’t think I had set foot in that area more than once or twice since coming to my current position four years ago. But when I came through the door, there were four or five student employees working at their desks, and one of them looked up and said “Oh my gosh, you guys, Rick is here!”. They were absolutely (and I think sincerely?) delighted to see me. Now, in sharing this story I want to make one thing very clear: none of those students knew me – they were not excited because I'm awesome and they love me. They were excited because the library director had come to their work area. Doing so cost me nothing; my presence in their area was nevertheless valuable to them. That moment taught me a very valuable lesson that I’ve been trying to do a better job of applying ever since.

Takeaways and Action Items

• As a library administrator, you are in a position to provide highly valuable encouragement, support, gratitude, and appreciation to the people you lead, at no cost to you.
• Consider setting a goal for yourself of saying “thank you” to a certain number of your colleagues every day. At least twice, make sure that your expressions of gratitude are detailed enough to make it clear that you genuinely understand the value of what you’re thanking them four. But hand out a few simple “thank yous” as well. 
• Ask yourself what areas of the library see you the least, and go out of your way to visit those areas more regularly.