Aurora Leadership Institute, 2014
AGLIN Scholarship Winner’s Report
Dr Emma Banyer
Secret librarians’ business – What is Aurora?
The Aurora Foundation was established by the late Warren Horton AM,
former Director-General of the National Library of Australia. The
Foundation’s work focusses on developing strong leaders in the library and
information sector through Institutes, mentoring and networks, and other events. Leadership
development institutes have run since 1995.
The 2014 Institute – We’re all in this together!
I was privileged to be selected as the AGLIN Scholarship winner for the 2014 Institute, held
at Q Station, Manly NSW from 26 to 30 May.
The venue was beautiful! Q Station is a historic property spread over steep bushland
heading down to the water at Manly. It used to house smallpox patients and was also used
as a quarantine station for newly arrived migrants – but that was a long time ago!
Q Station is now a modern hotel run by Accor.
The views of the harbour are breathtaking!
Facilities
Q Station has modern facilities despite the historic buildings. The food was also very good,
with a healthy selection of fresh meals every day. The Tai Chi – overlooking at the view –
was a nice way to start the day.
My only complaint is the bathroom facilities – they are a long way from the conference rooms
we used, which caused people to miss out on parts of the sessions if they had to duck off
and it was awkward for a girl with a broken leg who attended.
All in all it’s a good venue. Great service and staff.
The Institute Program
The Institute itself was designed to develop:
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our understanding of ourselves, in particular our behaviour
our understanding of the behaviour of others, especially in meetings
our sense of ourselves as leaders
our sense of what it means to be an effective leader
relationships between ourselves and the other attendees and mentors
workplace project – including a presentation to the group.
The Institute program included:
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Life Styles Inventory (LSI) tool – a 360 degree behavioural analysis tool – self-rating
and rating by others – analysis
5 energies – different ways people behave and interact and how to deal with them as
a leader to get the most from your team
Small group discussions, preparation and then presentations of our projects
Discussions with mentors about our projects and our LSI results
Presentations from mentors who are high achievers in the sector – on career,
leadership, effectiveness, change, etc
Who was there?
There were 16 attendees with the majority from academic libraries, including a few from New
Zealand and one from Singapore. In terms of government libraries, there was only myself,
one from State Library of Victoria, and two librarians from the National Library.
Presenters
The presenters were David and Annie McCubbin from Coup
http://www.coup.com.au/default.aspx
They were quite amazing – highly-experienced and effective in bringing out people’s
individual “roadblocks” and areas where we needed to improve.
The hard stuff
LSI - I didn’t feel that this profile represented me at all.
The LSI provides results on how you assess your own behaviour, and how others assess
you. I was very surprised and upset about my self-assessment. I was extremely hard on
myself and rated myself low in the positive areas of achievement, humanistic-encouraging,
affiliative and self-actualising. These are the areas that you want to be high in:
My staff and managers rated me much better than I had rated myself:
I felt this was a much more realistic view of my behaviour. I know that my staff and
colleagues enjoy working with me and appreciate the contribution I make as a leader, and
deep-down I know I am a good leader.
This really got me thinking about why there was a such a difference between the results.
I ended up determining that:
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Under-rating yourself or ‘talking yourself down’ is not beneficial to your career or
confidence
I am much more of a perfectionist than I realised
I do have some work to do in not being aggressive or blunt, but overall I am heading
in the right direction
Women tend to underrate their own abilities and I don’t want to be one of those who
do that!
Overall it was a very enlightening experience for me. If I could take the test again I’m sure I
would rate myself much better.
The project presentation
During the week we worked on our projects, discussing ideas and feasibility with the mentors
and other participants. All participants had to give a presentation on the Thursday about their
workplace project. It was essentially a role-play, as we pretended to be talking to our team,
or managers, or whoever the audience was for our project. They really put us on the spot to
conquer our fears. We were watched, video-taped and critiqued, but all in an environment of
support. It was very challenging but rewarding!
My role-play was a practice for speaking with high-ranked
managers, which is something I sometimes struggle with.
I prepared for and practiced a conversation around options for
outsourcing or shared services models for government libraries.
The presenters had a high-ranking mentor stand in for the
one-on-one conversation, which made it more real. It was a really
challenging experience, where I had to know my material, stand
my ground, respond to unexpected questions and really learn to
calm down and listen under pressure –
instead of
rambling on!
The experience wasn’t about looking
off, it was about learning and I learned a
confidence, the importance of really
also brought back some great ideas
outsourcing and shared services and
good conversation about this with Sue McKerracher.
good or showing
lot about myself,
listening, etc. I
around
was able to have a
The good stuff
The things I enjoyed the most about the event were:
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Listening to and speaking with the mentors, including about shared services
Networking with peers (made me jealous of those in Uni libraries, to be honest…)
Facing fears and getting over hang-ups
Growing in confidence and realising that I AM good enough to be an influential leader
Being told I have a lovely voice by Annie
Where to from here?
Things I’ve been inspired to do by attending Aurora:
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Speak at Information Online 2015 – abstract submitted
Get more involved in AGLIN and perhaps ALIA – mentors really promoted this!
Keep working on being confident and present in conversations
Manage a larger library with more staff (at some point in the future)
Work in areas other than library (once again, at some point) to expand my skills
Maintain the network with Aurora Alumni (including through LinkedIn group)
Ensure the AGLIN scholarship has good promotion next year!
THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING ME! Emma Banyer