“Or you got it or you ain't”: the nature of leadership in libraries

Abstract

PurposeTo examine the nature of leadership as a set of skills that can be acquired, vs the argument that they are skills a person either has or has not, and discuss this in relation to the recent focus on leadership in libraries.Design/methodology/approachThe article is a reflective opinion.FindingsArgues that an over‐emphasis on leadership in the library manager is a potential danger to the collegiality of the profession, and that leadership is such a diversely interpreted term that it leads to a mishmash of ideas and emphases within the wider profession.Practical implicationsRelates to a topic much debated and discussed in recent years within the library profession.Originality/valueThe article takes a reflective and critical stance towards the discourse around leadership.