Eight Proven Ways to Motivate and Inspire Your Library Team

02/03/21 • 15 min

Hello librarians! Thank you for joining me.
Are you a library director, manager, or supervisor who’s struggling with a burnt-out or demoralized staff? Or maybe you feel disconnected from your team and unable to get them on board with any of your initiatives? If so, stick around.

Every member of your team has greatness within them. Every staff member, volunteer, and student aide has a meaningful role to play in your library’s mission.

But how do you inspire them to reach for their best?

In this episode, I’m going to share eight proven ways to motivate and inspire your library team. Even if you have only volunteers or student workers or you’re not currently supervising anyone, these tips can be useful for you. Show notes are available at masterfullibrarian.com/ep-9.

Say good morning

Every morning, as soon you arrive, say good morning to the people you work with – and especially those who work for you. Do your best to greet every team member. Be genuinely happy to see them!

This small and simple action not only makes your team members feel seen and appreciated - it also creates a warmer, more welcoming atmosphere and culture in the work space.

And who doesn’t want a little more of that?

Manage by walking around

Don’t let a week pass without stopping by the desk of each team member just to chat and stay connected. If you can do it daily, that’s even better.

Make an extra effort to do this with team members who don’t work anywhere close to your office or your normal traffic routes. Working for someone you never see, except in formal meetings, can be demoralizing for many employees – they can begin to feel disconnected from leadership.

As though you don’t care about them.

A disconnected employee is often a demoralized employee. It’s hard to feel valuable to the library if you feel overlooked.

While serving as a high school librarian, I had four principals in nine years. Of the four, only one of them took the time to get to know me or to stop by just to visit and see how I was.

And because he acted like he cared and he asked questions about me, my life, my library, my program - I was willing to go above and beyond for him.

My happiest and most productive years in that job were under his leadership because his attention made me feel like I mattered.
For six more tips and complete show notes, visit masterfullibrarian.com/ep-9.

Every member of your team has greatness within them. Every staff member, volunteer, and student aide has a meaningful role to play in your library’s mission.

But how do you inspire them to reach for their best?

Say good morning

Every morning, as soon you arrive, say good morning to the people you work with – and especially those who work for you. Do your best to greet every team member. Be genuinely happy to see them!

This small and simple action not only makes your team members feel seen and appreciated - it also creates a warmer, more welcoming atmosphere and culture in the work space.

And who doesn’t want a little more of that?

Manage by walking around

Don’t let a week pass without stopping by the desk of each team member just to chat and stay connected. If you can do it daily, that’s even better.

As though you don’t care about them.

A disconnected employee is often a demoralized employee. It’s hard to feel valuable to the library if you feel overlooked.

While serving as a high school librarian, I had four principals in nine years. Of the four, only one of them took the time to get to know me or to stop by just to visit and see how I was.

And because he acted like he cared and he asked questions about me, my life, my library, my program - I was willing to go above and beyond for him.

Previous Episode

#BetterTogether: Three Great Reasons to Join Your Library Associations

Welcome! I’m glad you’re joining me today. Complete show notes for today can be found at masterfullibrarian.com/ep-8.

Over the last several days, the American Librarian Association held it’s annual Midwinter Meeting. The meeting was virtual, of course, but still filled with great speakers, programs, and events. ALA programs and conferences never disappoint. There was so much to learn and see!

Being a part of this conference got me to thinking. One of the most effective ways to up your librarian game and have greater impact in your work is to become an active member of your library associations.

At a bare minimum, we all should belong to our state and any local library associations or consortia. Our state associations often do the most specific work to help out libraries.
If at all possible, join the American Library Association and the divisions relevant to your work.

For instance, if you’re a school librarian you should definitely join the American Association of School Librarians or AASL, which is the school division of ALA. If you’re in a public library, join the Public Library Association, and if you’re an academic, the Association of College and Research Libraries. There are many other professional groups you could consider as well. I’ll put a list with links in the show notes.

If there’s one thing I know for sure it’s that, as librarians, we are definitely better together. I’m always amazed at how many librarians don’t take advantage of that. Today, I’m going to give you three good reasons for joining library associations.

Education

If it’s one thing library associations and consortia do well and do often, it’s education. Whether it’s in-person workshops or online conferences and webinars, there are always opportunities for learning.

Although some of the highest quality events are not free and may even have a substantial fee, many others are free or extremely low cost.

Here’s where it’s especially smart to be a member. Many associations allow attendance at events by non-members, but that will almost always cost substantially more.

I’ve noticed that during the pandemic, there’s an opportunity for learning with some association or division almost every week. Some weeks, there’s something almost every day!

I think this is especially important for people serving in libraries who don’t have an MLS or who have never taken any coursework. There’s so much to know about library work. If you don’t have the professional educational background, please take advantage of association offerings.

Even if you do have an MLS or coursework, things are always changing and we all need to keep up. If you want to deliver the highest quality service to you library community and have the greatest impact, you must keep your knowledge base current and your toolkit strong.

In my experience, the saddest, most ineffective libraries are the ones where no one on staff has received any type of library education or where continuing education and professional development don’t happen because no one cares.

For two more reaons and complete show notes, join me at masterfullibrarian.com/ep-8.

Next Episode

Older Librarians Can Be Gold

Hello Librarians! Thank you for listening in to the tenth episode of Masterful Librarian Podcast. I am really grateful for your listenership.

If you’re enjoying the podcast, please visit my website, masterfullibrarian.com and sign up for my email list.

I promise all you’ll receive are notifications when I publish a podcast episode, and occasional offers or information I might send out. When you join the email list, you can download my free gift, 4 Simple Steps for Achieving Greater Relevance, Meaning, & Impact. So please take advantage of that.

My episode today is short. That’s because I had an entirely different episode ready to go until Sunday night.

Then I watched Super Bowl LV and saw one of the oldest quarterbacks in the NFL, Tom Brady, age 43, coached by one of the oldest coaches in the NFL, Bruce Arians, age 68, lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a decisive victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.

It got me to thinking about age. And about how, in our culture, we embrace the myth that older workers are somehow less competent, inspired, and valuable. And that’s exactly what it is – a myth. So I changed the topic of my podcast to talk about this.

In the past, I didn’t much care for Tom Brady. (My apologies to any Patriot’s fans out there!) But I’ve grown to admire him over the last few years. Why? Because of his personal effort, focus, commitment to excellence, and his ability to inspire his team.

And that’s something you can find in many experienced, older librarians.

The truth is that in a world where longevity has become more the norm than the exception, many people are at their professional prime in their 60’s and 70’s. These are the people with the most experience, the greatest wisdom, and the largest number of failures and iterations under their belts. They know what they know not from theory, but from experience and they bring that to bear in their work.

And that is gold.
For complete show notes, go to masterfullibrarian.com/ep-10