Poster Sessions

Description

Middle managers in libraries are leaders of organizational change! But this was not always the case. Decades ago, middle managers were task masters, serving in the most vulnerable, sacrificial positions of an organization. Middle managers are still sandwiched between administration and staff, but the emerging trend shows them as leaders of organizational change. They now serve as the platform and catalyst for enabling our libraries to survive, succeed, and thrive in the continuous evolution of change. Although still embedded between library administration and library staff, middle managers in libraries are no longer charged simply with managing people and their work. Instead, they acquire and apply a specific set of leadership skills – networking, influence, communication, and alignment – to manage complex, interdependent events with accountability and authority. Middle managers in our libraries are sandwich artists! This presentation will highlight the unique and multi-faceted skills of middle managers and share why these skills are fundamental for leading change in our libraries.