My Blake-Mouton Managerial Grid scores placed me in the category of “Team Leader” (The Vision Council, n.d.). This type of leader has a “concern for both people and production” (Moran & Morner, 2018, p. 344). I believe I can benefit from being aware of my strengths and weaknesses.
Tasks are my strength; my score total was 8.4. I love efficiency. I will, however, draw the line if a given task intrudes upon something I have deemed as having a greater value. I think I prioritize very well; I get a lot done. I believe that sometimes it is necessary to call “good enough” to save my sanity as well as the sanity of everyone else. After living through a stint as a perfectionist, I have come to believe it’s dangerous. Do as well as you can. Move on. I feel this strength will be beneficial for fulfilling a library position in a school. Through their work in the Lilead Program, DiScala et al. (2019) report that “44 percent of supervisors said they spend a portion of their time on something other than school library services” (p. 70). From observation, it is clear that these extra tasks are also pressed down from district library supervisors to building-level librarians, a position in which I foresee myself beginning this career path.
My people score was slightly lower, so I look here for improvement. I plan to grow in areas I ranked lower in, and believe I can, now that I have identified them. I know that building these competencies and people skills will help provide a better workplace for myself and others, and I am also aware that increasing my people skills will increase efficiency from a leadership and/or management perspective.
As I look towards growing as a leader and manager in a library setting, I anticipate taking the advice of Becnel (2011) to heart and “be willing to listen and to compromise, to serve as well as lead” (p. 30). I am hopeful that my designation as “Team Leader” will lend itself well to the structure of most libraries, which today are neither mechanistic nor organic but rather “hybrid structures moving gradually toward the organic end of the continuum” (Moran & Morner, 2018, p. 197). I like knowing what I need to work on because I can put it on my list and, with some effort, check it off.
References
Bencel, K. (2011). When you’re not (exactly) the boss: How to manage effectively in a “coordinator” role. In C. Smallwood (Ed.), Library Management Tips That Work (pp. 28-30). Chicago, IL: American Library Association.
Moran, B.B., & Morner, C.J. (2018). Library and information center management (9th ed.). Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.
DiScala, J., Weeks, A. C., & Kodama, C. (2019). The school district library supervisor and the National School Library Standards. Knowledge Quest, 47,(5), 64-71.
The Vision Council. (n.d.). The Blake and Mouton managerial grid leadership self assessment questionnaire. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h07zdMPVzfE0jpl9cCVEqkY_4_rNYyEq/view