This program offered specific, realistic suggestions about how people at all levels of the organization can be leaders in an appropriate, constructive way.

Jill Canono, Leadership Consultant at State Library and Archives of Florida, began by stating that shared leadership means shared vision, values, responsibilities, and accountability. It also means asking a lot of questions and really looking deeply at your organization, yourself, and your coworkers and employees.

• What do people do to make sense of a situation in your workplace?
• Who is involved? Who ultimately understands it?
• What skills and talents do people have that aren’t being utilized?
• What happens when you experiment and fail? (If the answer to this question is, “20 years ago we tried it and it didn’t succeed so we never did it again,” upper management is responsible for smashing that myth so everyone can move on.)
• How can you encourage experimentation?
• How do you share information? Which of those methods are actually effective?
• What communication barriers exist in your organization?
• Who within your organization thinks differently than you do? What are the reasons you may be resistant to having deep discussions with them?

After you ask all these questions and consider the answers, you also have to commit to change, even (especially) when it isn’t comfortable or easy. Canono’s presentation is available online.

Olivia Madison, Dean of the Library at Iowa State University, continued by talking about how committees work within organizations. A committee can be a microcosm of the larger group, which can be a useful way for managers at various levels to take an objective look at how things actually work. She recommends setting a goal of at least one decision or recommendation to be made for each meeting held. As a leader of a committee, she also recommends that one show enthusiasm, commit to a shared outcome, use/develop one’s project management skills, and get different people involved.

Nanette Donohue, Technical Services Manager at the Champaign Public Library, started by noting that she feels she has what she terms Kids These Days Syndrome: as someone who has been with the organization for awhile and is in a middle management position, it is difficult as you mature to see kids coming and playing on your lawn (read: invading your workplace with new ideas and varying degrees of background knowledge) and even more difficult not to want to tell them what to do. Leadership transition and sharing is about compromise and negotiation for everyone. We all have to learn how to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes, to acknowledge that this can be awkward for everyone and move on to the actual work to be done.

Donohue also noted that not all leaders will self-select, and as leaders at all levels we need to provide opportunities for everyone to lead. All opportunities are important, even if the outcome isn’t major. She also recommends being flexible, respecting the experiences of others, and not taking things personally, all of these especially when things don’t go exactly how you want them to or how you would have done them yourself.

As a middle manager, one also sometimes has to take the role of being a member of the group (not leading), and in those cases, you need to make a case for the change you want to make (it needs to resonate with whoever the final arbiter is). One should not be afraid to ask – the worst thing that could happen is that you are told no and (guess what?) it’s okay to be told no sometimes.

As a developing leader, if you’re not getting what you need at your workplace, get involved outside your organization: cultivate connections and participate in association work. Leaders in associations and similar groups are generally friendly and approachable, or they wouldn’t have been elected or even nominated. Donohue recommends the book The Courageous Follower: Standing Up to and For Our Leaders. Everyone follows at some point – even top leaders follow their constituent groups.