In 2008 the Harvard Business School celebrated the 100th anniversary of the launching of the prestigious MBA, a degree invented by Harvard and emulated by business schools around the world. In addition to its centennial celebrations, the school used the occasion as an opportunity to evaluate its program in the context of the changing demands of leadership in a global environment. The evaluation involved unprecedented cooperation with competitor business schools, the Center for Creative Leadership, leading academic critics, business executives, and recruiters.

Harvard has yet to announce the full nature of changes to its MBA curriculum, as this work is ongoing. Preliminary findings have led to one recommendation that the program revise its approach to leadership development if it wishes to remain true to “the School’s mission to educate leaders who make a difference in the world.”¹ In particular, one recommendation was that the approach to leadership taught at the school be broadened to include such soft skills as self-awareness, the capacity for introspection and empathy, communication skills, and critical and creative thinking.

The fact that Harvard Business School, the source of so many of the prevailing notions about leadership, is contemplating soft skills as key attributes for the leaders they will graduate is revolutionary and hopeful. For those of us charged with hiring and grooming the next generation of leaders, whether in the business world, or in libraries, this news serves to validate what our experience has led us to believe. We need leaders capable of empathy and introspection. We need leaders with fine-tuned communication skills, what we commonly call people skills. We need leaders who understand that what we are able to achieve is entirely dependent upon the quality of our relationships. It is through relationships that we do everything else!

In libraries, as in other sectors, we need leaders committed to the arduous work of building and sustaining an expandable web of trusting, respectful, and mutually empowering relationships. In the words of Olson and Singer in their 2004 ALA publication, Winning with Library Leadership, “connection is the new glue of leadership.” It is the quantity and, even more so, the quality of our connections that dictate what we are able to achieve in advancing the cause of the libraries and communities we serve.

At Southern Ontario Library Service we have developed the Advancing Public Library Leadership (APLL, pronounced apple) model of leadership that identifies a set of nine leader practices representing the work of effective public library leadership.² The model emphasizes the leader’s work in creating the conditions necessary for broad ownership of the library’s mission and vision, and shared responsibility for achieving that vision. The leader practice that is central to the model is that of cultivating relationships.

The remaining practices are organized around four phases of organizational work: sustaining a shared purpose; doing the work; attending to how we do the work; and taking care of ourselves. Sustaining a shared purpose involves the work of holding the vision and reaching for exemplary service. These practices ensure that everyone in the organization has a shared understanding of the library’s purpose and the vision of exemplary library service that drives them to excel, individually and collectively.

Doing the work involves making intelligent decisions and embracing strategic change. These practices address the need to think and act strategically, choosing to change in ways that improve library service and advance the library in the community.

Attending to how we do the work involves the practices of creating a learning environment and developing individuals. The leader has a responsibility to behave in ways that foster a collective sense of learning and growing together, while also attending to the particular needs of individuals.

Taking care of ourselves involves sustaining a healthy workplace and navigating municipal and community connectedness. These practices are about ensuring the library’s well-being and sustainability over time by putting it in the hands of healthy, creative people and connecting it to its larger political context.

Collectively, these leader practices illuminate the work of building the relationships and creating the conditions that enable library staff to be responsible, resourceful, and strategic in the planning and delivery of exemplary library service. In essence, the APLL leader practices highlight the soft skills being contemplated by Harvard Business School, the people skills so necessary in healthy, productive workplaces. In doing so, the nine leader practices make possible leadership at every level of the organization. They are less about authority or positions of leadership than they are about knowing what it takes to make things happen, and how to motivate, encourage, and utilize the unique contributions of everyone on staff. The leadership we need in libraries is leadership that builds our capacity to advance our libraries by working together creatively and strategically.

Anne Marie Madziak is a Library Development Consultant with Southern Ontario Library Service and the Coordinator of the APLL Institute. She also teaches Professional Leadership and Libraries in the MLIS program at the University of Western Ontario. ammadziak@sols.org

1. Roger Thompson, “Harvard Business School Discusses Future of the MBA,” Working Knowledge, November 24, 2008, hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6053.html.

2. Southern Ontario Library Service is an Agency of the Ministry of Culture. The APLL model of leadership was developed as a training tool for the APLL Institute, a two-year leadership development program for public library staff, currently in its first cycle. For more information about the APLL Institute see the training section of the SOLS website, sols.org.