SummaryThis book is intended for professional Library and Information Services (LIS) staff and LIS students who want to be more successful as information professionals. The LIS profession is one of the most challenging in the 21st century, combining expertise in information management with information technology skills and knowledge of marketing. The author has written a practical and concise book on the key characteristics, with practical tips and techniques. Readers will find this book to be a guide to the diverse characteristics of the information professional, helping readers to achieve greater success in their jobs and careers.
Key FeaturesWritten by an enthusiastic, creative and knowledgeable authorBased on the practical, day-to-day experience of the authorProvides a good overview of the key LIS profession characteristics plus techniques and tips to improve themCan be read as a whole or as selected chapters. Each chapter is focused on one characteristic with an introduction, techniques and tips and a conclusion
The AuthorDennie Heye is an information scientist at a Fortune Global 500 company, focussing on innovative information management projects and global library development. He has lectured and written about different topics on library and information science. Dennie has a Master degree in Marketing and a bachelor degree in Library and Information Science.
http://www.dennie.heye.nl
ContentsEach chapter contains a characteristic of the successful information professional; each has an introduction, techniques on how to improve them and a conclusion. Examples of characteristics include:
- Become an Internet search engine expert
- How to market yourself as an information professional·
- How to use persuasion
- Learning to say no and focus on what is important·
- Effective time management
Order the book via:The publisher: CHANDOS
Amazon.com
Excerpted from Characteristics of the Successful 21st Century Information Professional by Dennie Heye. Copyright © 2006. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
(excerpt from chapter 7)
You can persuade others
As an information professional you will have to convince your management, your colleagues or customers about your ideas. Whether it be the case that you want to upgrade a software application, adopt a new strategy for your department or implement an organisation-wide project – you will need to persuade others. Simply put, persuasion is the way of changing someone else’s point of view or behaviour to your own.
Persuasion is a game we all play on different levels every day. Commercials and advertisements use persuasion to sell products. At home, we use persuasion with our family to influence our loved ones to go and see the movie we like or eat at that restaurant we really like.
For the Ancient Greeks, the ideal method of persuasion was to use reasoning alone, which they named logos – the appeal to reason. They understood that humans do not follow reason alone, but that other persuasion techniques should be used as well: the appeal to character (ethos) and the appeal to emotion (pathos).
By combining logos, ethos and pathos you can define the optimal mix of persuasion techniques for a particular situation. In this chapter, I will describe different techniques you can use to persuade others. Persuasion is close to coercion, as they both aim to change the other person’s attitude or behaviours. But where coercion uses fear and intimidation, persuasion refers to more positive methods by using emotional or rational appeals based on common values and understandings (Pruitt, 1986).
Techniques
By using persuasion you apply reasoning, urging or convincing to get others to change their behaviour or point of view. In order to motivate others to the best effect, you must use different persuasive techniques, such as the following.
Understand other people’s interests
With every new idea, people always think ‘what’s in it for me?’ Your idea might be very logical, but bear in mind that people usually put their own interests first – their personal interest, the interest for their team or organisation. Be aware of this, and look at your idea from the other side. What benefits can you offer people to persuade them?
For example, early in my career I had to convince the general manager of the company I worked for to implement a web-enabling module for our library catalogue which contained our library collection and customer files.
This meant a significant investment in times when IT spending was declining and the acquisition of new software was challenged every time. I knew, however, that the general manager was very keen on making all employees work more efficiently. The board of directors had set several targets for him in this respect, and the general manager was always looking for proposals in the area.
So when I put together a short proposal for the investment, I referred to his efficiency programme and explained how all employees now had one-click access to all relevant customer information. Rather going to the library about a customer file or specific letter, employees could now easily search and browse the catalogue and access it immediately. The vendor was able to deliver a case study of another company, where the implementation of the module was a great success regarding efficiency.
So rather then seeing my proposal as just a cost, the general manager saw it as an investment in making the company work more efficiently and enabling him to score on his targets.
Expertise
Expertise is a convincing factor in persuasion, as people tend to be influenced by experts on topics they know less about. When we want to read a book on a certain topic, we select the book not just by the content, but also by the author’s credentials. Knowing you have expertise also makes you feel more confident, as you have the knowledge and are prepared for questions or issues. Of course, it takes quite some time and effort to acquire expertise. Identify experts in your organisation or industry and learn from them, and make sure you are up to date with the latest developments via courses, journals and conferences. You can gain recognition as an expert on a topic by expressing your ideas in articles, giving advice or presenting papers at conferences.
Many thanks to the author Dennie Heye for providing the required information with an excerpt of his book especially for LIS Cafe, and to his willingness to participate in discussions.
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