Leadership as a resource & mdash interpersonal skills

Abstract

My theme under the heading ‘Leadership as a resource — interpersonal skills’ will focus attention on recognising, developing, constructing and resourcing a major, albeit often unrecognised, and apparently intangible, factor in the success or failure of ‘adaptation’: the skills, perseverence and abilities of ‘leaders’ to guide, see, support and motivate people through change. There is, of course, nothing new in change, although perhaps it would be true to say how the pace of that change has increased in recent years. Indeed, it surrounds us at this conference in the changing world of information retrieval — a long way from philistines such as myself who refer to ‘librarians’ and visualise piles of paper, rubber stamps and dusty archives. Far removed from the key resource we now represent within organisations for the competitiveness and dynamism of the organisation itself. I have in mind the ‘Big Bang’ mentality of the city, or the competitiveness of industry and commerce, where information is increasingly knowledge and knowledge aids decisions, and decisions create action and management policy. And those who get it right in our competitive climate will survive and prosper — others will not. Adapting to change is not new. I am reminded of a quote:

Citation

Feldman, D. (1987), "Leadership as a resource & mdash interpersonal skills", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 39 No. 10, pp. 299-301. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb051069