Leadership and Future Proofing the Profession

Margaret Haines, Past-President of CILIP
East of England Branch AGM – 17th June 2005

This presentation begins with the premise that the U.K. library and information profession will face a potential leadership crisis unless something is done urgently about leadership training and development. Evidence will be offered of the profession’s need for leadership development, including comments from the CILIP’s various Executive Advisory Groups. We need to prepare library and information professionals not just for leadership roles in our own professional community but also for leadership roles in other sectors. The NHS Modernisation Agency’s leadership qualities programme for all professionals working in the NHS will be used as an example of the latter kind of multidisciplinary programme ( www.nhsleadershipqualitities.nhs.uk ).

Examples will be shared of current provision from national organisations such as SCONUL (www.sconul.ac.uk) and CILIP (www.cilip.org.uk), as well as initiatives from other countries such as the American Snowbird (http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlevents/winston99.pdf),Canadian Northern Exposure (http://www.ls.ualberta.ca/neli/invitation.html)and Australian Aurora (http://www.alia.org.au/aurora/history.html)
leadership programmes.

CILIP’s responsibility for leadership development within its membership and within the wider professional community will be highlighted in the context of the emerging corporate plan. The HEAG Implementation Group recommendations on leadership will also be discussed.

Many of the skills and attributes required by leaders overlap with those required to future proof the profession and individual careers. The remainder of the presentation will focus on future-proofing, with examples drawn from the presenter’s own career. Finally, ten tips for successful future-proofing will be offered and the presentation will conclude with some humorous advice on leadership and future-proofing.

You can download Margaret's PowerPoint presentation by clicking on the symbol above