Personal Effectiveness and Professionalism

1. Personal Effectiveness and Professionalism Professor Sheila Corrall Chair in Librarianship & Information Management Head of Library Management & Public Policy Research Group

2. E is for Effectiveness Aston University – November 2004 “Personal Effectiveness and Professionalism” Presentation outline • Definitions of key terms • Changes in the professional landscape • Continuing professional development needs • Competency models and skills toolkits • Sources and options for professional learning

3. Definitions Personal . . . Belonging to or affecting a particular person rather than anyone else. Effectiveness . . . Success in producing a desired or intended result. Professionalism. . . The competence or skill expected of a professional. Oxford Dictionary of English. 2nd ed. 2003 Personal Effectiveness and Professionalism

4. Concern with impact Diagnostic use of concepts Efficiency orientation Proactivity Conceptualisation Self-confidence Use of oral presentations Managing group processes Use of socialised power Perceptual objectivity Self-control Stamina and adaptability In a work context . . . Personal Effectiveness is often conceived as a set of competences, capabilities or qualities, eg Boyatzis, R.E. The Competent Manager: A Model for Effective Performance. Wiley, 1982.

5. Professionalism is a broader concept – Profession . . . A calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive preparation including instruction in skills and methods as well as in the scientific, historical, or scholarly principles underlying such skills and methods, maintaining by force of organization [and] concerted opinion high standards of achievement and conduct, and committing its members to continued study and to a kind of work which has for its prime purpose the rendering of a public service. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, 1966.

6. Defining characteristics Body of knowledge Code of conduct Framework of qualifications Maintenance of competence Independence of judgement Relationship of trust Responsibility to colleagues Continuing Professional Development & Personal Responsibility self-appraisal target-setting planned learning Professions and Professionals

7. Professionals and Organisations • Lifespan of initial professional education is shortening as the pace of change accelerates • Knowledge is becoming more volatile with the depth and breadth of its boundaries expanding • Expansion is leading to increasing specialism and web of intra- and inter-professional relationships • Boundaries among specialists and between professionals and managers are blurring • Professionals are working in new flatter structures with devolved responsibilities and team working • Information-intensive professions are adopting Evidence-Based Policy-making and Practice

8. Key Professional Development Needs • Specialist information-related knowledge, skills are necessary, but not sufficient for professional competence • Information work at every level involves management of something, eg collections, budgets, projects, time, etc • Research suggests the most significant skills gaps and shortages are in business and personal competencies, especially strategic management and critical thinking • Information professionals also need to understand how different disciplines use information and technologies • Library staff need to work across traditional boundaries and be proactive in collaborating with other specialists Battin 2001, Skelton & Abel 2001, Fisher 2002, isNTO 2003

9. All professionals need a complex mix of specialist, generic and contextual knowledge, skills, behaviours and values Survival Skills (needed by all professionals) Essential Enablers (bothgeneric and context-specific skills/knowledge) Interpersonal Organisational Professional CPD Technical Managerial Personal Professional Knowledge Base– will evolve and expand over time Core Competence (necessary, but not sufficient)

10. Professional Partnerships Overlapping Boundaries Teaching & Learning Research & Consultancy Project Roles Libraries & Information Services Information Literacy Team Work Electronic Library Study Skills Learning Development Information Technology Learning Technology Increasing Specialisms Expanding Knowledge Base

11. Broadening and Deepening Professional CompetenceMore Comprehensiveness at Higher Capacity more Professional specialisms depth Subject knowledge breadth technical capacity Business understanding Information formats Service offerings less functional comprehensiveness User population less more Adapted from Revolutionizing Science and Engineering through Cyberinfrastructure. NSF, 2003

12. LTSN-ICS Key skills: Communication, IT, Working with others, Application of number, Improving own learning Personal skills: Self-mgmt, Organisational mgmt, Interacting with others, Decisions, Intellectual Professional skills: Info res, Info service and org mgmt, Info systems, Environment HIMSS Learning Framework Managing activities Managing finance Managing people Managing information Managing projects Strategic management Leadership Specialist skills and knowledge 31 questions 4 levels Personal Development Planning Tools Other models of professional development have 5 or 6 levels (eg see Eraut 1994)

13. www.ics.ltsn.ac.uk/ILS/recordingilsskills.html Recording Skills Development for Information and Library Skills

14. www.tfpl.com/skills_development/skills_toolkit.cfm Knowledge and Information Skills Toolkit

15. www.himss-lfo.bham.ac.uk/intro.asp Career Development to Senior Management

16. Sources of Professional Learning mentors tutors supporters of learning managers purveyors of experience interpreters of knowledge People insights into routine readings for courses keeping things going Experience Publications briefings on issues putting things right solutions to problems doing new things lessons from failure learning from innovation

17. Challenging assignments Cross-functional projects Mentoring relationships Networking activities External secondments Speaking at conferences Reading, thinking and writing about professional initiatives or issues UC&R Award Carrying out research or consultancy work Undertaking further study eg MBA, MEd University of Sheffield Masters-level modules Educational Informatics Information Literacy ResearchNEW for 2005-06 or MPhil / PhD Personal Development Options

18. Any Questions? Prof Sheila Corrall Department of Information Studies Regent Court, 211 Portobello Street Sheffield S1 4DP s.m.corrall@sheffield.ac.uk