Saturday, July 11, 2009, 9:15 a.m.   (Part of the Empowerment Conference)

Wow!  I successfully caught a shuttle bus!  I rode to the McCormick Center!  I got my badge holder! (they were out of them at the “satellite” reservation location.  I found the 9:15 session I wanted to attend, early, and there was plenty of room (not so later, when folks were standing, sitting on the floor in both the front and back of the room).

Alexis H. Sarkisian, Library Marketing Consultant/Adjunct Instructor, Dominican University, gave a great, interactive overview of a program she would present more detail on (twice) later in the day.  Some of the topics covered:

• Why do we need leadership in libraries today?  With downsizing and cuts we’re all having to take on new roles, and managers can’t be everywhere.   Speak up.
• What is communication?  Sender ->Message -> Receiver -> Feedback -> Sender.
• What is leadership?  Communicate your Vision.  If you’re not being empowered to, empower yourself.
• Respond to the speaker/leader in the way he/she speaks/hears.  Link your communication style to your leader.
• Noise (distraction, multitasking, thinking about something else, thinking about what you’re going to say in response, physical discomfort. . . etc. etc.) gets in the way of communication.
• People have to hear something 5 times to retain it.  (Wow!)
• When you are given a message about something that is going to change, paraphrase the message back:  “Are you saying that. .. ?”  “What do you mean by that. . .?”