Let’s face it, managing employees in a public-facing environment like a library is not always easy. Sometimes staff doesn’t get along with each other, is not as service-oriented as you’d like them with be with your patrons, and can be dismissive, passive-aggressive, and even outwardly challenging toward your ideas, policies, projects, and approaches. Every employee that works for you has both a personality style and a preferred way to engage with you, other bosses, their colleagues, and the patrons. You already know there is no one “Perfect Way” to supervise people and manage for the goals you want to achieve and to get the collective outcomes your peers and other leaders are seeking.

If you have worked at any supervisory or leadership level in the library, you have already formed your opinions about which staffers are most aligned to your management style and which ones aren’t. While it’s not useful or fair to stereotype people based on their approaches to working, we can use the useful concept of “personality archetypes” (a collection of universally-specific behaviors, shown over time) to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of library employees. This webinar focuses on 15 of the most common types of those employees who can be challenging, primarily with their workplace behavior, more than their work performance.

National library service, security, and HR expert Dr. Steve Albrecht has managed each of these 15. He has written about them, coached them on behalf of their organizations, and coached and consulted with library leaders as to how to get the best out of them.

Learning Agenda: