When you get right down to it, coaching is all about:
- setting goals that are personally meaningful to you,
- making a plan to reach those goals,
- identifying what's going on under the surface when you get caught up on some obstacle,
- and figuring out how to get past those obstacles.
It sounds so simple when it's outlined like that!
For most of this year, my Coaching Librarian posts have focused heavily on leaning into your curiosity, because that's the foundation for using a coaching approach to leading your team.
Embracing your curiosity helps you build trust with your team.
Embracing your curiosity helps you slow down to actually listen to what's really going on, instead of jumping to giving advice that may not be as great a fit for their situation as you think it is.
The next step is to use your curiosity to help your team members set and achieve goals that matter to them.
In your day to day work as a library leader, the reality of this is messy and iterative.
But in an ideal world or in the defined container of a coaching program, we start with getting (1) a realistic view of the starting point and (2) a clear view of what is actually important to the person we're coaching.
That realistic view of the starting point can be pretty holistic. It's useful to know how much autonomy someone has in their role, what skills they have, etc. But it's also important to know how they're feeling about their work. What parts do they look forward to, and what do they dread? And why?
That “why” helps with getting a clear view of their values. So, for example, as a librarian, I enjoyed doing liaison consultations, but I absolutely dreaded getting stuck doing chat reference. Other people didn't mind or even enjoyed chat reference, so why did I have such a strong reaction?
First, my experience of chat reference questions was always very transactional, while liaison consultations felt personal. I value that deeper connection, instead of the quick chat with a random stranger.
Second, I enjoyed the more in-depth research-focused questions from students whose professors told them to come see me. I value the curiosity that goes into exploring topic development. I value empowering students with the knowledge of how to find and evaluate sources on their own.
Those who enjoyed chat reference had different values – helpfulness, service, etc. Neither set of values is inherently better. Students benefit from having both options available for different points in their research journeys.
Once you've helped your team member articulate the values that matter most for them at work, then you can explore how they can explicitly connect their work with those values, within the bounds of their job description. That can lead into conversations about where those values intersect with the mission of your library, and how their work connects with larger projects, which helps build a stronger sense of purpose.
So you help them (3) set goals that actually matter to them, instead of just creating a checklist of action items that seem like they'll look good to someone else.
Cool.
Now comes the hard part of actually accomplishing those goals!
That means realistically (4) evaluating what else is already on their plate, to see where they can create room for work toward this goal.
That means taking some time to (5) prioritize all of that work.
That usually means finding a way to clear some low impact work from their plate. What can be automated or streamlined? What can be discontinued? What can they move to a back burner to simmer for the next 6 months without worrying about it?
And that can mean (6) building a plan to keep their focus on their goals, even as people keep asking for this or that. This means work on boundaries and getting better at saying “no” or “not right now”.
That's a LOT easier to do after having done the ground work of evaluating what's on your plate and getting really clear on what your priorities are!
Of course, for your team member, you clearly communicating that you support them in saying “no” when needed will also make it a LOT easier for them to maintain these boundaries!
So, this is a nice linear view of a process that tends to be a lot messier in your regular day-to-day work in the library.
Because you're working with your team all year round, you'll have times when you'll need to loop back around to re-prioritizing work because of a request from above that you can't actually say “no” to. Or institutional needs will change because someone goes out on medical leave, and suddenly everyone's goals need to shift a little to make sure the desk is covered. And you may just now be trying to start using a coaching approach to help them reach a goal they came up with last January.
And on top of all that, you're balancing individual interests and the interests of your team, which adds even more complexity.
But those are layers of complexity added on top of this foundation.
This nice linear process is also the road map for the New Year Focus Lab!
So you'll get support in setting your own goals AND learn strategies and exercises to use with your team.
I hope you'll decide to join me in January 2026!
And click through to sign up for the Black Friday deal updates (including a sneak peek at the discount code!)