Hi everyone! When Cheryl approached me with her idea to start this leadership roundtable, I was thrilled-- especially after she introduced the articles and authors that we would use to begin our discussion. I started reading several articles by Jim Collins and immediately fell in love with his no-nonsense way of writing that I read the entire book, GOOD TO GREAT. I couldn't put it down. Collin's essentially talked about the experiences I've had while working in successful (and unsuccessful) teams, projects and workplaces. Jim Collin's observations are so simple yet emotionally complex that by the time he poses the question, you would have arrived at your answer. I appreciate Collins' example of First Who...Then What--getting the right people on the bus. Here we are, in our profession, concerned with the feelings and perceptions of being helpful to and for others on a daily basis. We try to maintain a sense of tranquility and a safe learning enviroment to assist people when they walk into the doors of our libraries. However, when that safe and peaceful environment is disturbed, we quickly try to restore order. Sadly, when it is time to help ourselves progress to the next level in the effective delivery of services or maximization of staff performance, we make several allowances to accomodate a few people who have no desire to get on the bus. When and how long does one attempt to travel with those who would rather stay home? I certainly can not give anyone the answer but I hope through inquiry we can continue to challenge ourselves to ask the basic questions to address these leadership questions. I look forward to everyone's comments within this forum. I think this will be an exciting opportunity to discuss topics that can be applied to our work.

Greetings SEMLS leaders!
Vickie and I are really excited about beginning these leadership roundtables. I am hoping this will be the encouragement that gets me reading all those exciting leadership materials I've seen on bibliographies for years and meant to read, but put off for more pressing tasks. I'm hoping this roundtable will be an opportunity for all of us to reinforce each other to "sharpen the saw" as Stephen Covey puts it, or as I think of it replenish the well so we can provide leadership and encouragement to the people we work with.
We choose the Jim Collins article for our first discussion because we really like his ideas; and we thought beginning with an article, rather than a whole book, would be less challenging for time stressed people to participate. We have chosen some books we would like to use for future sessions. but we also think this should be a member driven group. So we will make our suggestions, but we will all consider your suggestions too. We will post the title we will be discussing in two months after each session of the roundtable for those of you participating online.
I was very impressed with Jim Collins when I first discovered him a few years ago. I like the importance he places on the right people for the job, and sustained effort. I also think the fact that his research showed greatness wasn't the result of high salaries and bonuses is very encouraging to libraries where we see very little of either high salaries or bonuses. I think the images he uses of moving a huge flywheel getting easier with sustained effort and the hedgehog analogy for understanding our root issues help make them memorable.
So what did you think?