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+Coaching Styles: How They Can Help Manage and Motivate Librarians and Their Staffs More Effectively.

Bruce Reid The Pennsylvania State University Nesbitt Library Wilkes-Barre Campus Lehman, PA. 18627 bdr5@psu.edu

ABSTRACT: Can the management styles of highly esteemed and successful college coaches, Joe Paterno, football coach at Penn State University, John Wooden, famed basketball coach at UCLA, Mike Krzyzewski, successful basketball coach at Duke University, and Herb Brooks, former hockey coach at the University of Minnesota and the Olympics, apply successfully to academic librarians and their staffs. Can library management and their staffs be positively affected by using their methods? Three principal factors that were fundamental to the success that characterized their coaching styles were discovered to be fundamental to, and consistent with each of their coaching programs. The three common factors are a strong core value system, excellent organizational skills, and a history of life-long mentoring. How these principles can assist and help motivate librarians and their staff is examined.

INTRODUCTION:

For years experts in many professions sought to export their management styles and organizational schemes to a demanding public. Librarians in a university setting are commonly seeking a fresh approach towards a managerial style that would be practical and productive, deal with university students, and yet be adaptable to library functions. Coaching sports on a collegiate level contains all the relevant ingredients needed. Coaches at the Division I level must be able to manage, motivate, and win consistently, or they are simply replaced. Many librarians have been involved with sports in some fashion as a player, coach, or as an official, and are still intrigued with the methods and strategies of coaching. In times of stressful competition, or the “dog days” of a long schedule, great coaches are able to motivate and elicit the very best from their players. One might be convinced that successful methods used in coaching collegiate sports can be transferable to any work environment, including libraries. Whether one is coaching a team or leading a library staff, certain management strategies and principles can equally be applied. “Effective leaders are those individuals who understand interrelationships between people. They understand what motivates others into action. Teamwork is a mutual commitment of action striving for a common goal. This mutual cooperation leads to a winning philosophy” (Esposito, 2003, ¶ 3). The very concept of teamwork and management styles of some librarians may have been influenced by coaches they have played or worked with throughout their lives.

Four college coaches were selected: Joe Paterno, football coach at Penn State, John Wooden, Hall of Fame basketball coach at UCLA, Mike Krzyzewski, successful basketball coach at Duke, and Herb Brooks, hockey and Olympic coach at the University of Minnesota. These coaches are among the most successful coaches in college history-consistently winning championships, being

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Reid, B. (2006, June), Coaching Styles: How They Can Help Manage And Motivate Librarians And Their Staff More Effectively Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--495