Quick Thoughts on the SLJ Think Tank #sljtt

This past Friday, I was able to attend the second annual School Library Journal Public Library Leadership Think Tank. The day-long event focused on the theme of "Accelerating Your Impact"--namely, making library services more meaningful and impactful for our communities.

I'm going to be thinking about everything that happened at the Think Tank over the next week or so, and then I'll post some larger, more thought-out posts throughout May. For the time being, however, I wanted to note a few big thoughts from Gretchen Caserotti's keynote. I'd love for fellow attendees to chime in in the comments!

Quick Takeaways from the 2014 SLJ Think Tank Keynote by Gretchen Caserotti

• "Fill your well." - It's important to take care of yourself, to do things that are for yourself, and to take things in and live in the moment. If we don't center ourselves first, we can never really focus on others. Taking care of ourselves is the first step toward excellent customer service.
• "Avoid drama. Just because we work with young people doesn't mean we should act like young people. If we act like young people, we run the risk of being infantilized and not taken seriously as professionals." - Yes. Just, yes. We need to be mindful of always conducting ourselves as professionals and not get sucked into workplace/organizational/association drama that looks exactly like the gossip and fights our kids and teens have.
• "You don't need to be a manager to be a leader." The two are not necessarily synonymous, and you can be an outstanding leader for your organization from any position. It's about doing excellent, transformative work and motivating/facilitating others to do the same.