Leadership skills are critical for very profession, but especially for information professionals who very much need to be “at the table” or “in the game” in their organizations. In order to be indispensable to an organization or a community, information professionals have to have a deep understanding of their audience so that products and services can be developed that really matter to them and make a difference in their work or learning.

I found this week’s episode of West Wing discussing “the presidential voice” as a necessity for candidates running for president sparked the idea of an “at the table voice” for info pros. It reminded me of research that Rebecca did years ago for SLA which culminated in the development of an executive leadership program which she taught with knowledge management guru, Tom Davenport, and others.

Rebecca interviewed senior managers of organizations in the US to find out what it took for anyone to move to the “decision-making table”. She found they needed four things:
* Know where they’re going — have a clear direction which they can articulate
* Cross-functional experience, not just a career in one area
* Financial understanding of ROI and investments, not just budgeting
* Presence — the ability to be felt and heard when walking into a room

So, presence or an “at the table voice” voice is definitely one of the critical success factors for success in any organization. We’re working on ways to further develop the “at the table voice”.