Abstract:
Leadership skills are the strengths and abilities of individuals which help the oversee processes,
guide initiatives and steer their employees toward the achievement of goals. Leadership skills
are an essential component in positioning executives to make thoughtful decisions about their
organization's mission and goals, and properly allocate resources to achieve those directives.
Valuable leadership skills include the ability to delegate, inspire and communicate effectively.
Other leadership traits include honesty, confidence, commitment and creativity. Librarian
should have Leadership Skills. The purpose of this case study was to explore Librarians’
perceptions of successful leadership skills in the 21st century. The data gathered from selected
University Librarians consisted of demographic information and responses to six open-ended
interview questions. From the Data analysis, several significant themes emerged regarding
successful library leadership skills in the 21st century at two levels: foundational and
interpersonal. At the foundational level, technical and knowledge skills form the building
blocks for the next level of interpersonal skills. Persuasion and collaborative skills are
interwoven with these interpersonal skills, both of which are at the core of the postindustrial
paradigm of leadership. These two levels of skills, with an emphasis on persuasion skills,
should form the basis of succession planning programs for next generation librarians.
Implementing such programs could lead to increased leadership diversity, greater job
satisfaction, improved job performance and effectiveness, all of which help retain librarians
and ease staff shortages.
