No Bosses Here

AFTER COMPLETING THIS COURSE, YOU'LL BE ABLE TO:

• Identify practical strategies for communicating your value, surfacing concerns, and making a case for change with supervisors and administrators.
• Recognize how your own approach impacts workplace dynamics and adjust it to reduce friction and build credibility.
• Navigate common managing-up challenges in library contexts, from mismatched communication styles to bureaucratic roadblocks, with more confidence and less friction.

You will leave with honest, actionable strategies drawn from colleagues who have faced the same dynamics and found ways through them.

This course is especially helpful for:

• Library staff at any level who need to communicate ideas, concerns, or requests to supervisors
• Librarians who feel stuck navigating workplace dynamics or internal decision-making processes
• Staff responsible for advocating for programs, services, or resources
• Managers and supervisors who also need to manage up within their organization
• Anyone working within a hierarchy where communication and influence affect daily work

If that sounds like your role, you will probably see yourself in this course.

If you are someone who:

• Has ideas you care about but struggles to get traction with leadership
• Feels like your work isn’t fully seen or understood by decision-makers
• Is dealing with a supervisor whose style doesn’t match yours
• Has tried to advocate for something important and hit resistance or silence
• Wants to improve these dynamics without damaging relationships or overstepping

This course was built for you.

UNCONFERENCE WELCOME | 1:00–1:10 pm ET

SESSION BLOCK #1 | 1:10–2:00 pm ET

How to Make Hard Conversations Work (Recorded)

Difficult conversations are inevitable. Hear about ways to maintain relationships while having difficult upward conversations as well as how to document conversations to protect yourself.

How to Advocate for Yourself at Work (Recorded)

What do you do when you're going through a tough time and aren't receiving the support you need from your supervisor? How do you present ideas to leadership in a way they'll actually hear you? This session is all about the multiple ways self-advocacy can show up in the workplace.

How to Manage Up to a Non-Librarian Supervisor (Recorded)

How do you communicate with and get adequate support from your supervisor if they aren't a librarian? This session will cover tricky dynamics of reporting to someone who isn't familiar with the actual work you do.

Better Together: Relational Approaches to Managing Up (Unrecorded)

Hear about ways to manage up by working collaboratively. You'll learn about how to use horizontal and rotational leadership approaches and to build peer networks to manage up, and discuss all the complicated considerations in this non-recorded session.

Navigating the Curse of Competency (Unrecorded)

What is the “curse of competency,” and how can you protect yourself from it? Hear about vocational awe, burnout, and managing up in this candid, non-recorded conversation.

Break | 2:00–2:05 pm ET

SESSION BLOCK #2 | 2:05–2:55 pm ET

Leading from a Non-Leadership Role (Recorded)

How do you build influence and simultaneously protect your peace when you lead from a non-leadership role? Discuss the complicated dynamics and learn practical ways to manage up while not burning out.

Neurodivergent Workers, Neurotypical Bosses (Recorded)

How do you communicate effectively with your supervisor if you're neurodivergent and they aren't? This session will discuss practical ideas for navigating workplace challenges that are inclusive of multiple ways of thinking.

Managing Up in Dual Relationships and Complicated Dynamics (Not Recorded)

Relationships can be tricky. Discuss the complicated dynamics of work relationships when people shift roles, get promoted, or now have authority when they used to be your peer. Leave with ideas for how to navigate these relationship dynamics in your own organization.

To Pivot or Stay: Career Fit and Sustainability (Unrecorded)

What do you do when success stops feeling successful? How do you know when it's time to step away from librarianship? Discuss these tough topics with candor and among peers in this non-recorded session.

Dealing with Fear and Other Big Feelings (Unrecorded)

How do you deal with supervisors when everything feels like it's crumbling? How do you deal with your own emotions about difficult situations? Join this honest, non-recorded session to share wins, challenges, and ideas for moving forward.

Break | 2:55–3:00 pm ET

SESSION BLOCK #3 | 3:00–3:50 pm ET

Rebuilding and Responding to Setbacks (Recorded)

How do you rebuild after a toxic boss? And how do you rebound after difficult feedback? This discussion is all about rebuilding, recovery, and rebounding from hardship.

Creating Emotional Flexibility, Resilience, and Curiosity (Recorded)

Being curious instead of judgmental can be a lot easier said than done. In this session, you'll discuss practical ways to deal with challenging emotions at work and create a culture of curiosity.

Advocating Up for Your School Library (Recorded)

Hear about ways to manage up and advocate for your school library. You'll learn about how to “speak administrator” and communicate the value of the school library. Leave with ideas for how to replicate these ideas in your own library.

You're Toxic, I'm Slippin' Under: How to Deal with Challenging Bosses (Unrecorded)

Having a challenging supervisor can feel debilitating and hopeless. What are your options for moving forward? Join this candid, non-recorded conversation to get real about toxic bosses.

Stuck in the Middle: Managing Up as Middle Managers (Unrecorded)

Discuss the complicated dynamics of being a middle manager, including managing up. This session will be a non-recorded, safe space for middle managers to share challenges and strategies for managing up while also having to manage down and sideways. Leave with ideas for how to replicate these ideas in your own library.

COURSE SPEAKERS

Jess Alexander, Youth Services Librarian, Morton Grove Public Library

Allison Barnett, Business Services Coordinator, UNC-Chapel Hill

Hali Black, Assistant Dean of Learning Resources, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College

Anthony Chow, Full Professor, Former Director of SJSU iSchool, President of the California Library Association, and CEO of Nexaverse-group

Kristina Clement, Assistant Director of Academic Engagement & Instruction for the Collegiate Librarians, Kennesaw State University Libraries

Nadia Clifton, Special Collections Instruction Librarian, UNC-Chapel Hill

Lena Darnay, Director of Communications, Central Indiana Educational Service Center

Melissa Dennis, Head of Research & Instruction Services and Professor at UM Libraries

Sandra Desjardins, Clinical Services Liaison Librarian-Senior, UT Health San Antonio

Melanie Townsend Diggs, PhD, South Area Director, Prince George's County Memorial Library System

Stephen Fincher, Director of Access & User Services at James Madison University

Prairie Hanson, Youth Services Assistant, Vermillion Public Library

Sarah Lane, Business Librarian, Management Library, Cornell University

Caitlin Mannion, Director of Research & Education Services at James Madison University

Jenny Meslener, Director of Mason Square Library & Social Sciences, George Mason University

Kameron Morton, Bookmobile Librarian

Shaylene Newman, Assistant Principal

Keely Nudo, Director of K-12 Library Media Endorsement, Antioch University

Meghan O'Neill, Library Assistant, Squamish Public Library

Alicia Pearson, Library Resource Manager, Siena University

Rachel Riter, Education Librarian, California State University, Fullerton

Lolita Rowe, Assistant University Archivist for Outreach and Engagement, UNC-Chapel Hill

Manda Sexton, Interim Director of Resource Strategy and Management and Associate Professor

Lorri Steinbacher, Director, Ridgewood Public Library

Amy Steinbauer, Library Director, Berkeley Heights Public Library

Hannah Stewart, Director of Libraries, City of Lubbock

Rebecca Tolley, Director of Academic Research Services, East Tennessee State University

Louisa Whitfield-Smith, Senior Library Consultant, Mississippi Library Commission

Brandi Young, Teacher Librarian at Westerville South High School

Shellie Zeigler, Senior Library Consultant, Mississippi Library Commission

Make your work life easier by learning how to manage up effectively and relationally.

We've all had tough bosses. It can feel impossible to talk about it without the fear of repercussions. But if you don't talk about it, how will anything change? That's where this UnConference comes in.

What this UnConference is NOT: A place to complain about your boss without any solution seeking.

What this UnConference IS: A place to share concerns and get real ideas for solutions from people who REALLY get it.

Modeled on the open, participant-driven unconference format, this course puts the expertise back in the room where it belongs: with the librarians who are living these dynamics every day. There is no single instructor delivering a tidy framework from on high. Instead, you'll bring your real experiences, your real frustrations, and your real questions into structured peer conversations that generate real answers—the kind that come from people who have actually figured out how to work effectively with a difficult supervisor, navigate a bureaucratic approval process, or make a case for change without burning a relationship in the process.

You'll explore what managing up actually means in library contexts—from communicating your value to leadership, to surfacing problems before they escalate, to building the kind of credibility that earns you a seat at the table when decisions get made. You'll examine your own role in the dynamics around you, swap strategies with colleagues who have cracked codes you haven't, and leave with an honest, practical sense of what to do differently.

SESSIONS AND PRICING

This is a live online session. If you can’t attend in real time, you will receive access to the recording.

GROUP OPTIONS

Training a team? Choose the setup that matches how you want to plan and pay:

Group course enrollment: Enroll 3+ staff in this course and save.

Bulk course credits: Prepay once, get the highest per-seat discount on every course, and assign seats later.

Unlimited annual licensing: System-wide access for a year with no per-course approvals.

Request Discounted Group Pricing

Questions? Email groupsales@libraryjournal.com.

COURSE FORMAT

This is a live, 3-hour online session using an UnConference format, with structured peer discussions instead of a traditional lecture.

EXPECTED TIME COMMITMENT

Plan for approximately 3 hours for the live session, plus optional time for reflection and applying what you learn.

ON-DEMAND ACCESS

You will have access to the session recording for six months after the live event.

CREDIT & CERTIFICATE

You will receive 3 professional development credit hours and a Library Journal certificate of completion.

ACCESSIBILITY

All sessions include auto-captioning. If you require accommodations, please email course-support@libraryjournal.com upon registration and we will make our best efforts to support your needs.

SUPPORT

For technical or course-related support, please contact course-support@libraryjournal.com.