NextGen: Move Mountains

NextGens making the jump into management, or those lucky (or foolhardy!) enough to do so right out of school, often find that the challenge of managing established staff takes some of the momentum out of the ability to effect change. Some older librarians find it hard enough to believe that NextGens are their peers; they simply shut down when faced with the thought that one might be their manager.

Last year, I surveyed a number of new managers on the greatest challenges and surprises of their positions. Those in their twenties and thirties invariably described challenges such as:

• "I was fairly young when I became a library manager, and often felt as though my older colleagues discounted my opinions and input."
• "I was the youngest person on the staff. Even the pages who shelved the books were older than I was! I had a bumpy beginning. It was difficult to curb my enthusiasm of finally working in a library. I had tons of ideas, being right out of library school. Trying to convince the older paraprofessionals with all their experience to listen to my ideas was a challenge."
• "I was the youngest person on the staff and I didn't know how to confront my older colleagues who had more work experience than I did."
• "My age when accepting the position was probably the biggest issue for everyone around me. When I started this job there was only one person…who was younger than I was. Gaining their trust and confidence in my abilities was a long effort—it actually took the better part of the first year for that to happen."

These similar experiences require NextGen managers to face their challenges head on. Most do find ways to get past these initial difficulties.

While generational generalizations can be dangerous, people do tend to share a certain commonality of background and experience with their age cohort that can lead to gaps in communication and outlook between generations. Your older staff may not share your views about what your library needs, no matter how obvious it may seem. Go in with the assumption that you will need to convince them of the benefits of any changes and have ammunition ready.

Demonstrate your willingness to connect with your staff and commit to your library by pitching in on the front lines, even for just a short time each week. Bring your NextGen energy and enthusiasm to all of the work you do, and show that you are a librarian as well as a manager.

Accept that getting long-established staff to listen to your ideas and take you seriously as a manager may be problematic. Consider how to break through that wall of resistance and build a foundation for working together effectively.

Begin by showing your staff that you take them seriously in return. Some may dig in their heels because they feel threatened, that their years of experience are being belittled, or, worse, that they were personally passed over for a deserved promotion to the position that you now hold. Turn your librarian thirst for knowledge to good use by asking questions and tapping the institutional wisdom that can help you build the foundation to move forward. Consider everyone's feedback, regardless of their "professional" status or official position in the hierarchy. Meet with parapros and other long-term staff to gather their input. See where their ideas complement your own.

Learn to recognize the difference between those who can change and those who have truly become "dead wood"—to borrow from Charlaine Ezell's popular "Dead Wood: Staff Who Won't Work and Can't be Fired" presentation at the 2004 Public Library Association conference. Distinguish when staff members' negative impact makes it necessary to remove them from the library.

When faced with staff who seem ageist and burnt out, it can be tempting just to dismiss them all as dead wood. Your task as a manager is to reinfuse your people with your own enthusiasm for this profession. Many NextGen managers might dream of working in a young, energetic environment, but few libraries yet experience that kind of turnover (and youth, of course, is no guarantee!). As recourse, let's energize the environments that we are in.

Managing these staff members requires the will to deal with conflict and face personnel problems head-on. Your willingness to handle counterproductive staff members will earn you the respect of others, as well. When others no longer feel dragged down by coworkers who don't contribute, they allow their own enthusiasm for the work to resurface. This might take some time.

Give your staff a reason to take you seriously, and they will. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but you will earn their respect over time by working hard for both your staff and your patrons.