Empowering Leaders in Every Department
By Geri Thomas
Having worked
in museums for many years, both in the United States
and abroad, I now have the privilege of interviewing
museum staff across the country--from directors to
administrators--and very often because a board has
asked me to step in at what I call a "leadership
crisis moment." Recently, these "moments"
have ranged from staff asking that a director resign;
the hard realities, economic or otherwise, that lead
to restructuring departments or entire divisions;
staff burnout; or to see why the application of a
commercial business model is unable to solve issues
of productivity and accountability.
There is a perceived leadership crisis in both the
private and public sectors, and leadership theories
abound. The tragic world events of the past year and
the current disillusionment with business, civic,
and religious institutions have called into question
our very notions of what leadership is, who can rightly
be called a leader, or why leadership matters. Corporations
and the private sector have been quick to adopt various
leadership theories over the years, for better or
worse, but museums are just now beginning to appreciate
the value of staff development training in this area.
Increasingly, my associates and I are working with
museums to offer opportunities to provide leadership
training for all levels of staff to meet mission and
business goals. The emotional intelligence and primal
leadership theories of Daniel Goleman, coupled with
Warren Bennis' focus on the individual, and a touch
of practical Dale Carnegie, adapt well for the museum
community with its social context and emphasis on
inclusion and process. Training crafted form these
theorists has the potential to empower leaders in
every museum department, increase staff potential,
and make museums better places in which to work.
Warren Bennis, founding chair of the Leadership Institute
at the University of Southern California, has worked
extensively with not-for-profit organizations and
business alike, and is the author of numerous books
and articles on leadership and management theory.
Bennis believes that a shift in the paradigm of leadership
needs to occur since many myths about leadership pervade
our thinking. Two myths that are particularly relevant
when working with museum staff are that leadership
exists only at the top of an organization, and that
leaders are born not made. Nothing could be further
from the truth.
Using these principles in museum leadership training
sessions, we ask participants to recall what persons
were considered leaders in their families and what
were the characteristics and traits that made them
a leader. In addition to fathers and mothers, other
family leaders are named, including siblings, grandparents
and an occasional wizened aunt or uncle. When participants
are asked who they consider to be leaders in the museum,
responses are even more varied--director, department
head, registrar, head of a project, the lead visitor
service representative, the chair of the board. The
characteristics named for both groups include trust,
vision, responsibility, empathy, and the ability to
share knowledge and make decisions. Through these
and other training exercises, it becomes evident that
there are many leadership roles within the museum,
and that leadership traits are competencies that can
be developed through self-reflection and commitment.
Sessions like these are particularly useful for museums
that are experiencing a lack of accountability among
staff, or where individual and group responsibility
needs to be bolstered or encouraged.
In his groundbreaking work, Emotional Intelligence,
and subsequently in Primal Leadership, Daniel
Goleman and his colleagues at Harvard reason that
how we conduct ourselves and out relationships may
contribute more to personal and organizational success
than our IQ. The emotional climate within an organization
can either make for a productive, balanced--or resonant
-- environment, or the opposite can occur: poor working
relationships can turn an atmosphere into one of dissonance,
doom and gloom. No one wins; few are happy; individuals
and the organization struggles.
In our initial interviews with museum staff across
the country, we ask the question " what does
your museum feel like," based on Goleman's premise
that there is a link between the human climate of
an organization and performance. Overwhelmingly, initial
answers start with the statement that " we are
a dedicated staff.....", followed by real concerns
regarding the quality of relationships and the lack
of communications. We try to tune into the emotional
climate of the museum and how individuals give and
get information through an exercise where participants
discover their unique communication style and learn
to recognize and appreciate the styles of others.
Less threatening than Myers-Briggs, and more fun,
it is an immediate self-assessment tool and a real-time
learning experience. It also contributes to organizational
awareness and coupled with other activities, can assist
in breaking down the perceived divide between the
" business" and " creative" sides
of the museum.
The long-held leadership model in Dale Carnegie Training
emphasizes empowerment--rather than pushing people
to meet deadlines and objectives, leadership is more
about "creating environments that influence others
to achieve group goals." The Carnegie focus is
on developing skills or competencies based on people
(relationship) skills, self directed individuals and
work groups, and leading towards continual improvement.
Through activities utilizing some of these principles,
participants in our training sessions learn to make
shifts towards thinking more as a leader. Where traditionally
a supervisor might say " It's your job,"
or "Your report to me," a more leadership
focused statement would be "Tell me how I can
support you." In this scenario, people are more
readily able and willing to accept responsibility,
become accountable, utilize their strengths and knowledge,
and work collaboratively. These empowerment principles
are particularly useful for museums that recognize
the benefits of teams across divisions, departments
or functions--leadership and management teams: exhibition
development teams; education and programmatic teams,
etc.
Museums are not businesses, but they must be run
in a business-like manner. The goals of the museum
are different than business; instead of profits, museums
are driven by their mission, a much more elusive measure
of success. Yet museums and museum need to become
even more accountable for the work they do. Museum
work-life is often not easy. Although museum professionals
are the source of progressive, often revolutionary
ideas--like inclusion, diversity, the meaningful display
of cultures--there remains a large gap in the quality
of the museum workplace. Meaningful and productive
communications, or lack thereof, accountability, recognition,
and compensation are areas cited most often that need
improvement.
No single leader can save the day. In museums and
in the larger society, effective leadership will need
to be based on empowerment, respect, team building
and collaboration. What the leadership theories of
Bennis, Goleman and Carnegie have in common is the
development of the self: self -awareness, self-development,
and self-management. This keen awareness of who we
are and how relationship skills are vital for individual
and group achievement and satisfaction affect the
quality of the museum workplace and, ultimately, the
way in which the museum presents itself to its varied
internal and external audiences.
About the Author
Geri Thomas is President of Thomas & Associates,
Inc., a firm that offers staffing, consulting and
staff development training to museums and art businesses
nationwide. She has conducted numerous leadership
sessions for individual museums and boards, and communications
and leadership workshops through the American Association
of Museums. As Adjunct Professor at New York University,
she teaches Museum Management in the School of Continuing
and Professional Studies.
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