Strengths-Based Leadership, Strategic Thinking, and Growing into Library Directorship
- Sara Lauren Purifoy
- May 31
- 6 min read
...learn something by being nothing a little while but the rich lens of attention. - Mary Oliver, Entering the Kingdom
Six months ago, I stepped into my first full-time library director role at the age of 33. I joined a library in transition; like me, many of my teammates were new to the organization or new to their roles within it. It was an exciting time, but also a vulnerable one: there was vision, but not set rhythms; talent, but not cohesion.
So far, I’ve spent my career across public, academic, and special collection settings, always driven by a passion for literacy advocacy and community-centered service. But leading a library, not just contributing to one, meant shifting how I think about time, trust, and strategy.
This post is part reflection, part encouragement for others considering a similar step into library leadership. If you're weighing a move into a director role, or just stepped into one yourself, here’s what’s been working for me, and what I’m still learning.
Starting from Center: Listening Before Leading
One of my first decisions as a new director was to resist the very real pressure to “prove” myself quickly. It’s tempting, especially when you’re new and younger than most of your peer colleagues, to try and demonstrate authority through action by making big changes, rolling out new initiatives, and solving problems fast. But I knew that I needed to first feel trust and start earning it in return, not just deliver results.
Instead of rushing in with assumptions or a personal agenda, I took time to observe, listen, and ask (what I hope were) thoughtful questions. I spent time with workflows and long-standing practices, not necessarily with the aim of overhauling them, but to understand the logic behind them. The goal wasn’t to disrupt, it was to discern: What’s working? What needs more support? What are we actually solving for?
This observational phase reminded me of birding, a personal passion of mine. When I’m out in nature, I don’t look to control the landscape. I get quiet. I notice patterns. I let the space reveal itself on its own timeline. Leadership, I'm finding, requires the same presence. Similarly, my meditation practice has taught me to be still even in moments of uncertainty, to ground myself in the pause before the action. That stillness, far from being passive, helps me create space for insight to emerge.
What I found was a team full of energy, ideas, and a strong sense of purpose. My role, I realized, wasn’t to fix, but to clarify. To shine a light on what’s working, identify what needs more support, and make space for shared problem-solving around what’s not.
This mindset of centering people and purpose led me naturally to strategic thinking as my leadership anchor. Strategy, like birding, is about watching for what wants to take flight and knowing when to either lean in or step back so it has room to.
Building with Strengths (Not Just Job Descriptions)
Through the encouragement of other institutional leaders, I quickly adopted a strengths-based lens for team development. While I hadn’t used Gallup CliftonStrengths before stepping into this role, I’ve always been drawn to personality frameworks and tools that help uncover how people think, feel, and relate to the world. As a former psychology major with a deep interest in behavioral science, I find this kind of insight especially powerful in organizational life where motivation, communication, and learning styles shape everything from how we collaborate to how we adapt to change.
Not to mention we work in an increasingly complex, technological, and now AI informed landscape, where people aren’t just information users but information seekers, navigators, and interpreters. Understanding what drives someone internally can help unlock the how behind the work. That is, not just what gets done, but how it gets done best.
I started using Strengths both personally and as a tool to guide conversations with my staff. My own top strengths (Discipline, Strategic, Achiever, Learner, Individualization) help me spot patterns, gather context, and tailor support to meet people where they are. I’ve found that these strengths give me a natural foundation for seeing the big picture and the individuals within it. It’s not about pushing everyone toward the same kind of success, it’s about designing a team where each person is able to contribute in a way that feels both authentic and energizing.
Rather than fitting people directly into their job descriptions, I aim to build around what they already do well. In one-on-one meetings and project planning, I'm trying to encourage staff to reflect on what energizes them, what drains them, and what success looks like on their terms. This doesn’t mean we ignore responsibilities or timelines. Instead, my hope is that the approach enriches accountability by rooting it in ownership and purpose.
Leading with Strategy (Not Just Tactics)
I believe strategic thinking isn’t just a skill; it's a mindset, a way of framing challenges and choosing what to focus on. In these early months, I’ve leaned on it constantly. With a new team and evolving expectations, it’s been essential to pause and ask: What’s the real problem we’re solving? What’s the bigger picture here? Sometimes, the immediate challenge isn’t the thing that actually needs addressed. Instead, what’s missing is context, clarity, or cohesion.
It's easy to get pulled into the tactical weeds. Libraries are full of moving parts: service points, calendars, complex workflows, resource ecosystems, partnerships, and programs. It’s tempting to chase every task with the same urgency. But leadership, especially during a time of transition, requires discernment. It’s about pacing the work, connecting the dots, and holding space for both what’s urgent and what’s important.
To move from reactive busyness to intentional progress, it became clear to me that we needed to define a shared framework, something flexible enough to evolve with us, yet structured enough to guide our day-to-day priorities. Fortunately, our institution is in the process of adopting a practical goal setting concept to translate strategy into focus called OKRs (Objectives and Key Results).
What I appreciate about OKRs is that they encourage clarity and accountability without becoming overly rigid. They help us see not just what we’re doing, but why we’re doing it, and how we’ll know when we’ve made meaningful progress. Instead of chasing checklists, we name objectives tied to purpose, and define measurable results that signal impact. This approach, when managed correctly, should encourage collaboration, transparency, and accountability without micromanaging anyone’s process. For a team still building its rhythm, I felt that kind of shared structure was liberating. The eventual language of goal-setting across departments will help align our local efforts within the library space with broader institutional priorities to build a more connected, strategic culture.
One of the first places I wanted to try applying this was in our website redesign project, a high-visibility effort that touches nearly every staff member in some way. With the larger objective of creating a more refined and user-centered site, I broke the project into phases and, from there, focused key results within each phase. Come July, we will be entering Phase 3 of the project, and I've privately celebrated each mini-success along the way.
Lessons I'm Carrying Forward
Trust is built daily, not declared. Small follow-through moments build the foundation.
Structure unlocks creativity. OKRs and the Strengths framework don’t box us in, they guide us forward.
Leadership is collaborative by design. I don’t have all the answers, but I create space for the team to find them together.
Strategy is a discipline. It’s not a one-time planning session, it’s a constant return to purpose and clarity.
Growing Into Leadership
There’s no perfect moment to feel “ready” to lead. But I’ve learned that leadership is less about having all the answers and more about asking the right questions, supporting people with care, and staying grounded in your values.
For me, that grounding comes from a mix of curiosity, observation, and reflection, traits that show up in both my professional and personal life. Whether I’m watching for birds, tracking team communication, or exploring new personality frameworks, these habits all come from the same place: a deep interest in how things connect and evolve.
If you're stepping into a leadership role, especially as a younger professional, trust your instincts, lean on your tools, and invite your team into the journey. You don’t need to have it all figured out to make a meaningful impact. Start with what you know about people, pay attention to what matters, and lead with intention. The rest will come.
Further Reading
Clifton, J., & Harter, J. (2019). It's the manager: Moving from Boss to Coach. Gallup Press.
Doerr, J. (2018). Measure what matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation rock the world with OKRs. Portfolio.
Oliver, M. (1979). Twelve moons. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company.
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