First Year Report Card

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I’ve just completed my first year in my new role. I was reflecting on the time while it’s still somewhat fresh. The rule of thumb is not to change too much in the first 12 months, but that wasn’t possible in this role. What is most interesting is to look back at a list of potential criteria for some other candidate for this role that I created before I was recruited to apply. I thought I’d assess some of the strengths and opportunities to grow with that hindsight.

This post makes me a bit uncomfortable to write. It’s right on the border of what I’m comfortable publishing. Self-assessments are inherently tricky because they are not objective. I’ve written before about a Board member who handled my performance review and each year thought I’d rated my self lower out of some false modesty. Of course, it doesn’t mean I’m not right.

At the same time, as a law library director or any sort of executive officer, it is very difficult to get feedback. Your boss, the governance Board, doesn’t really know what you do day in and day out. That’s why they hired you, to run things that they don’t know how to run. They can’t respond to things they don’t know about, which may only be what you document for them, unless they take the time to inquire of your staff. For better or worse, particularly for your staff and operation, you have a lot of autonomy before a Board will insert itself.

What We’re Looking For

This story starts over 2 years ago, when a recruiter contacted me about the role. I had already noted on social media that it was a great role, but it was not one that I was going to apply for. For one thing, I did not have any status to work in the U.S. at the time and I didn’t know when I would.

The recruiter contacted me for input about the characteristics of the potential candidates they should be looking for. I drafted a short list to prepare for the chat. Here’s what I listed, based on a bit of research about the role and on my own previous experience informing the expectations of what this role might need or benefit from:

San Diego Candidates

- public library partnerships may mean good pool to recruit over to law library

- assumption: that 2014-2020 strategic plan was successful, and that technology is not an issue and that funding is stabilized

- would make a law degree optional; utility is in governance role, not in operations, and only because lawyers and judges can exclude those without law degrees.  No inherent benefit in the degree (and can impact cost of employee)

- making decisions quickly (analysis of low training engagement at branch, for example, should have been evident w/o pandemic) and who has experience delivering without reliance on physical space

- revisit the vision - out of alignment with law library delivery - and has experience with governance boards, especially shifting them from their previous work

- strong personnel skills.  The staff seems large to me for a 2 location county law library, and with financial stress, it may be that this would be a cost-savings place.  Someone who has dealt with staff reductions would be better placed to handle this

- entrepreneurial skills:  the borrower packages seem underpriced; the outreach events seem popular (small business 101, for example), to generate additional revenue

I’ll reiterate that this was not a list of my qualities. At this point, I was not considering a job change. I just wanted to help the executive recruiter find a good match. These were the ones that, from the outside looking in, it seemed like this organization needed. In fact, I wouldn’t have been confident that I was the right person for this role, based on my own criteria.

Some of those perspectives have been borne out in fact. I’ve got some extremely capable operations staff. This happens to mesh well with my management style, which is to stay out of the way of the people with more expertise than you. Some of my guesses were probably accurate but were not informed by the operational realities. And, having now been in the role, I missed some things entirely.

Decision-Making and Self-Actualization

I started last year with a very hands-off approach so that I could learn how the organization operated. In short order, that approach started to need a rethink. We had a key staff person go on leave and I needed to deal with a number of personnel issues. In fact, I didn’t make it through my first day without having to deal with a lingering personnel issue.

I would say there are two things that are consistent in my decision-making: one, I don’t have a problem making them. I was called “Mr. No” in a previous role (maybe more than one?), because I said no when it needed to be said. Two, I tend not to make decisions immediately, as much to temper my negative-first-reaction as to gather information. If anything, I probably take too long for non-critical decisions.

When I look back at the initial interaction with the recruiter and the interview process, I realize a bunch of other questions I should have asked. It is hard, in hindsight, to know whether you would have known enough to frame those questions without having had the experience. In truth, when you are hired by a governance board or hiring committee, even they may not know the answers to those questions. Some challenges just don’t surface until you are in the role.

I was only a few weeks in when I had to go through a very uncomfortable decision with our Foundation board. It would have been useful to have had more time but the reality is you make the best decision you can with the information you have.

People Person

I have had more personnel challenges in my first year than I have had in my entire career. The library environments I’ve worked in have had highly stable workforces. As we came out of the pandemic, this law library went through a lot of personnel changes. Some staff left for fully remote work, some retired. We had a 20% staff turnover in 6 months. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned that I was part of the impetus for their choices, even though I’d only been in the role a few months.

If this was my first library, I would be more concerned. But I have run a couple of law libraries and never seen this kind of turnover. That isn’t to say I didn’t have a catalyst role in that turnover, but each law library is different. One of the things I’m proudest of in my current role is the early modifications in our work culture from what it was when I arrived.

Are you worried about your personnel management and turnover? Do what I did, and look at previous turnover and staff longevity. It will give you a sense of how unusual your experience is from the historical culture of the organization. This perspective can help you calibrate the impact you are having.

Like so many post-pandemic changes, it is too early to tell what role I have had, good or bad, in our personnel evolution. We have experienced the shift back to full open hours. We’ve added a hybrid work policy and, due to staff changes, enacted a lot of process change. Those changes are not examples of me being directive—executive decisions without input and communication, and a management style that rubs me the wrong way—so much as adapting to our new circumstances.

I have set myself a number of discrete personal goals related to our staff. Markers might be a better term. The closer we get to those markers, the more confident I’ll be that this organization is moving the direction I think will be best for it. These markers are likely to be among the only identifiers I’ll have for whether I’m successfully managing my people, as feedback from above or below can be fraught when you’re a director.

Works Well With Others

I mentioned to a law library colleague that I wasn’t sure I had a critical skill for this role after I’d been in it about 9 months. No organization is truly an island. There is relationship building that is necessary, whether you’re doing outreach with faculty or senior law firm leadership or politicians. An executive has to have a degree of comfort, if not confidence, in being able to do that outreach.

If you’ve come up through an organization, this is not something you may have been exposed to. If you’re an introvert, you may find this skill set very uncomfortable. This may be the area I need the most work in. I find it very difficult to parse out when an external relationship isn’t necessary and when I’m just uncomfortable working on it.

I originally termed my deficit as charisma. I’m not sure that’s exactly what it is, although I think that’s part of it. Some of it is network centrality, my connectedness to people who can influence our organizational success. Someone who has lived longer in this city or worked within this organization longer is better positioned to be successful with this aspect. So it’s partly charisma, but charisma and narcissism are intertwined and I’m not confident it’s something to aspire to cultivate.

This is made more difficult because relationships reflect organizational vision and operational need. I need a strong relationship with my governance Board in order to be successful. But Board members, and others, may have different perceptions of what relationships are valuable to our operations. They may have a historical perspective or one colored by their own external role.

This is complicated because you may be following someone who is fundamentally different from you. Your approach may be fine, even though it is at odds with how things were done in the past. But that disconnect creates uncertainty until you have had enough time to see whether your approach works as well. I’m still well within that uncertain period.

The important thing is to keep your focus on the library. This can put you at odds with organizations or perspectives that don’t align. For example, I had a sit down with a local legal professional who felt that the law library was missing an opportunity. As we talked, it became clear that (a) he hadn’t used the law library in a decade or more and (b) didn’t understand our budget or changes in our operational realities (growth in self-represented, drop in legal professional usage, etc.).

I felt like I was struggling to maintain relationships because they existed, and therefore needed to exist. One thing I’m reassessing is whether those relationships are still relevant to our operations. If they aren’t relevant any longer, they should be winnowed. But I also need to balance whether my assessment comes from the discomfort I experience or whether I’m making objective observations about them.

Biggest Gap

The one thing I didn’t think to mention in my list of skills was financial acumen. A director needs to know how to read financials. They may need to know how to run financials too and navigate a variety of organizational obligations: retirement systems, banking systems, and so on. This also means understanding audit-related obligations about internal financial controls and security.

I wonder how other candidates would have navigated the substantial financial upheaval our organization experienced in the last 12 months. Sure, I’ve managed large budgets in the past but budget management is not actually that hard. Most law library budgets—perhaps most library budgets—are non-discretionary facilities and personnel costs. It doesn’t take much to oversee that plus the remainder.

But if you’ve got to report financial information out, you may need to dig a bit deeper to understand the reports and the systems. Not everyone would have made the choices I made—to outsource part of the process, to keep part of the process in my own hands— but it was a reminder about how each director job brings its own challenges that are particular to that organization.

To Thine Ownself Be True

There’s a lot of first year job advice: don’t make changes or big decisions for a year, look for quick wins. I’m not sure any of it is very realistic. If I was to give myself some first year advice, it would be (a) focus on building trust through consistent actions and decision-making and (b) be transparent and share information by engaging in a lot of communication. The need to make decisions, and the potential for so-called “quick wins”, will take care of themselves.

Also, 6 months this and 12 months that is really arbitrary. If you’re joining a stable organization that was well-run, you may have a long period for your immersion. If you aren’t, then you can’t use an external rule of thumb to guide you. As the executive, you need to make decisions as best you can, and sometimes you can’t wait.

There was a lot more change to work through than I had expected, certainly more than I have experienced in other roles. There was a lot more change to work through than my staff and governance Board may have expected too, as it turns out. Is that also the pandemic? About 6 months in, I mentioned to a Board member that I wasn’t sure if I was resetting the organization for my own long-term benefit or for my successor’s. Sometimes an organization needs a change agent—a role I enjoy—and sometimes they need someone who can manage continuity. The work is important for the organization to be healthy and move forward but I’m finding myself exhausted.

One thing I was reminded about was that executive officers often have a tenure of only 3-4 years. Look at law school deans. And there is some conventional wisdom to support a 10 year maximum for an executive’s tenure. I have wondered if, even in long-lived roles like law library directors, we will see a change in longevity post-pandemic.

The first year on the job is going to take a lot out of you, perhaps especially if you’re coming from outside the organization, as I have done in nearly all of my job changes. I have changed jobs a half dozen times and the first year is always draining. You are trying to fit in and be successful, things that may be in conflict with the reasons you were brought in: to plot a new direction, to put out fires and steady a ship.

The reality is also that this is the first full year after a pandemic. The pandemic changed how we work. It is very hard for me, at this point in time, to separate out what the normal challenges of our law library operations are and what are the ones that will subside as we get further from the pandemic period.

All in all, I am pretty pleased with how the first year has gone. There was a part of me that, after 14 years in my last role and past the 10 years I’d planned to be there and long past the time I felt I was being challenged, wondered if I still had what it took to lead an organization. I’ve regained that confidence. But I’m pretty tired. I’ve started to inventory what I am doing, what I need to be doing, and what I want to be doing, and thinking about whether those lists overlap or not.

I have started to keep a list of the characteristics I think my successor should have. I’m not sure when the Board will need to look for my replacement, but I think I can provide some first-hand observations that might help them identify the person. Leadership potential is notoriously hard to pin down, and each leadership job has its own particular needs, and it may be that one of the best things I can do for our law library is document my perspective on those needs more clearly.