NVNR Keynote: When Booksellers Lead with Julia Fabris McBride

Julia Fabris McBride opened her keynote address to booksellers at the New Voices New Rooms conference with the question "So what do you what kind of culture do you want in your bookstore? What kind of culture do you want to live and work in?"

Answers from the audience came quickly:

"A culture that is sustainable for employees and the business and empathetic to its workers."

"That celebrates what we provide -- expertise, deep knowledge of books, warmth, empathy, innovation, creativity, and inclusivity"

"It's about being open with the people around you. I want to be where everybody is really being honest."

"When I think about culture, I think about connection. Not only to the community, but between management and employees, us and our authors, us and our publishers. To everyone"

McBride used the responses to discuss our concept of leadership as a verb, an activity, rather than as a position, or a statment of authority.

"We've actually seen the research that the kind of leadership we're talking about this morning. leadership that's an activity not a position actually leads to these kinds of cultures, where people feel more empowered, more able to do their jobs, and more able to make progress. "

Fabris's book, When Everyone Leads, explores the concept of Leadership as a Practice, and its benefits in facing tough challenges, such as reconciling being a space where all are welcome with being a space where everyone feels safe.

Leadership, she noted, is often seen as an individual act, but when you view it as a practice, it is something every individual in the store can exercise. This in turn makes the store more resilient, more adaptible in the face of challenges, more flexibility and able to turn situations into opportunities. And the staff not only feels more engaged and more empowered, but also more aware of their own responsibilities: when leadership is a practice, we are never "not in charge" and there is never a situation where we can say, "that's not my department."