Visioning as a map

We met as a trio last week with J, the library's ambassador to the LLDP program (she helps us find our way, and makes us more comfortable there, so that's how I think of her. It's not her actual title, in fact she's like our sempei in that she's already completed the LLDP training and now is there to liaison and help us through it too. ). During the meeting we talked a lot about what we had covered during the last two sessions, coaching and visioning. I've already written about coaching so today I want to go over having a vision statement.

My mother often listened to those motivational tapes growing up, she was especially fond of Zig Zigler.I don't know why but I got it into my head that doing so was a little silly (I was six and pretty much unformed play-doe) and I've kept some of that feeling ever since. Of course your brain is a powerful tool, and you can use it in many ways to better your life, or even to help keep you physically healthy. This kind of thinking is being studied by scientists and far from silly as I once believed, but still the idea of it has kind of eluded me. It took an explanation from B (my book making friend) to really help me understand why we vision. She said to put your goal on the path you want to take and then move back from there to where you are. Not only can you see where you want to be (motivation) but every step you take on the path is now clearer. One decision may look nicer, but it could take you further away from your goal. In that sense a vision statement is like having a map to where you want to be. If it wasn't for B, and E (my trio) and Ambassador J I would not have this understanding now. I still haven't really learned to fully use this new skill, but I hope to. I have some pretty clear goals that I'd like to get out of this program.

Anyway the next two sessions are next week. We're working on collaboration, so I need to go do the pre-reading and find an article. I'll write more again after the sessions.

Coaching

I have been thinking some more on coaching, and while it has bee difficult to practice I've been trying to implement it more in my daily life. Not so much at work, because I don't care what they say about leading from where you stand there are some lines that you just don't cross (especially as a young person). So I've tried doing it with the students I've worked with at the desk and with my friends. It's HARD to not give advice when people tell you their problems, like really hard.

So I get that the main idea behind coaching is to help people come to the realization about what they want to do in a situation, which outcome suits them best. Giving advice may feel better to the giver but it can wildly miss the mark too, and occasionally leave the receiver very upset. For personal examples I'll offer up my poor dad, who just couldn't understand why I wouldn't major in a science in University. I could never explain why it wouldn't do, even though it should have been easier for my dyslexic self to manage. But then I am pretty stubborn, and will often take the hard path out of spite just to prove I can.

Coaching is kind of a difficult skill to learn, although it seems like it wouldn't be. It involves active listening, and asking pertinent open ended questions. That's pretty much it... I guess I'll follow up again after the next session?

LLDP intro

Well I'm back in a new library learning situation, so I thought I might get back into blogging a little. It won't be as interesting as the manga stuff, but I'm sure you'll all love to hear about it anyway.

So our Library Leadership Development programme has been running at our library for many years, and ours is the fifth set of people to go through it. Apparently almost 50% of our staff will have done it by the end of our group, which is pretty major given the size of our system.

The first two sessions ran over the last couple days, so I'll have some time to work on the homework until the next sessions next month. I'm most interested in meeting with my trio, who are badass ladies. One of which reads my blog, so I'll be careful to say nothing but high praise for her :P Joking of course, since she's my partner in crime and a book making goddess extraordinaire. My other partner is not well known to me, but she's a full librarian and seems super nice and sweet too. I'm excited to get to know her as well, and maybe by the end of this I'll have nifty new praise words for her too.

Well that's the intro, I should probably talk about what we learned (so much) or the food (so good) but i don't have much to say about vision statements or coaching skills. So next time kiddies, next time.