Coaching in the Library: A Management Strategy for Achieving Excellence

by Ruth F. Metz

Overview

Experienced librarian and coach Ruth Metz outlines a focused and results-oriented plan for achieving the best results from staff members through a coaching style of management. Real-world examples and coaching scenarios specific to library work will help you

• Be both a coach and a player by learning the terminology and techniques
• Recognize and utilize the abilities and talents of staff at all levels
• Guide individuals toward a unified goal
• Encourage innovation, flexibility, and problem-solving
• Spotlight the big-win opportunities

Complete with new forms, reader-friendly tables, and annotated references, this revised edition is for any library that wants to maximize the potential of all staff on the playing field in order to achieve peak performance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780838910375
Publisher:	American Library Association
Publication date:	12/27/2010
Edition description:	Enl
Pages:	122
Sales rank:	1,094,132
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Ruth F. Metz is the principal consultant for Ruth Metz Associates, Portland, Oregon. Ruth’s firm specializes in strategic planning, organizational development, and leadership development. The purpose of her work is to help community leaders as they plan, manage, and develop their libraries. This work includes coaching for boards, executives, and emergent leaders in libraries and the public sector. Ruth has held senior management positions over a 30 year career at Multnomah County Library in Portland, the Oakland (CA) Public Library, the Bay Area Library and Information System in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Colorado State Library, and St. Clair County Community College in Port Huron, Michigan. Metz earned her master's degree in library science from the University of Michigan.

Editorial Reviews

Surely, management must be one of the toughest roles in any organization, and the performance appraisal function must be the most difficult task any manager must perform. From the world of organized sports has come a litany of works on applying the principles of coaching to improve employee performance and productivity inside business. Metz (deputy director, Multnomah Cty. Lib., Portland, OR) summarizes and wonderfully applies these important principles for use by any manager in any library. She defines coaching as "the purposeful and skillful effort by one individual to help another achieve specific performance goals," and her focus is to provide a structural basis for coaching and for learning how to improve coaching. Topics Metz discusses include barriers and paths to performance excellence, a basic structure and overview of coaching, basic coaching behaviors, and solid descriptions and illustrations of coaching scenarios with individuals, teams, leaders, and managers. The intended audience includes supervisors, leaders, and managers, and the overarching reason for coaching to make the library more effective in serving its community rings clear throughout this important title. The inclusion of the numerous examples of actual coaching sessions help further apply this concept in a practical manner, but many readers may cry out for hands-on training to practice this style of managerial communication, especially as they struggle with staff demonstrating poor job performance. Highly recommended. Dale Farris, Groves, TX Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Coaching is described as a method to "develop your sensitivity to conditions that threaten the effectiveness of your own library." The descriptions, scenarios, and management techniques have been drawn from public library settings, but the ideas presented relate to a variety of personnel management issues that arise in any type of library. Situations include complaints about a coworker, addressing a staff member's poor performance, and coaching a team to come together. In each chapter, a prelude sets the scene or context, followed by what, why, and how sections. Scenarios are realistic, and should provide librarians with ideas for resolving work and people-related problems, whether coaching an assistant, a library clerk, or a volunteer. This book offers objective solutions and methods for resolving personnel issues. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal