At the 2018 SLA annual conference, Karen Kreizman Reczek was recognized with our Association’s top honor, the John Cotton Dana award for lifetime achievement. Among her many leadership roles with SLA, Karen served as LMD chair in 2015 and has recruited and inspired many other LMD leaders.
In this interview, we asked her to share with us her thoughts on personal achievement, motivation, and leadership.
You have demonstrated continuous high achievement in your career. What are the sources of your motivation?
I have always been an over-achiever, pushing myself and strive to excel. I believe it’s hard-wired in my personality. I am very Type A (Type AAA, I joke, but those who know me know it’s not a joke!) and need to be working on a bunch of projects at one time. I love contributing and am motivated by feeling that I am making a difference in an organization, in someone’s life, in society. You can see this drive in my volunteer work with SLA and SES (Society for Standards Professionals) and the work I have done on library boards and with students. I have found it very rewarding to contribute to professional development in the library and information field as well as the standards and conformity assessment field.
You have run your own consulting company. Has that impacted your perspective on management and career development?
I had spent my entire career from my first job in 1987 until 2010 in the corporate world. Suddenly, I was self-employed and running a business. Consulting gave me a new perspective on work-life balance. I was lucky to get a couple of contracts from the get-go and I realized that I didn’t have to work long hours to feel satisfied and earn a good salary. I was approached about a contracting job at the government because of my SLA network connections. I always knew that having a solid network was important but I realized how key it can be in finding the right fit and something new. My consulting business had a subject emphasis on standards and compliance, based on the work I had done in the last 14 years. The consulting business forced me to develop a new network of colleagues in standards and conformity assessment.
I believe I changed what I wanted (or thought I wanted) in a job based on the consulting work. I turned down offers at two other companies because they weren’t a good fit. I took a job at an insurance company (what was I thinking?!) and left after 6 months rather than stay in a job I hated going to every day. I had the consulting work to fall back on until I could find the right job. Consulting with the government led to my next move, as they valued me so much that they wanted to hire me. Today, I love my role at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and it has evolved considerably since I took the position in 2013. I know that I made the right choice not to take the first job offer I received, but to wait for the right offer.
Is there any particular achievement as an SLA leader which you consider to be your most important contribution to the Association?
I am most proud of being the founding member and first chair of the Competitive Intelligence Division in 2004. This was the first new division in SLA since the late 80s or early 90s. Then, I was a founding member and first chair of the Knowledge Management Division in 2005. Both fields are very relevant to our profession and I wanted members, including myself, have access to good content and networking in these areas. An SLA staff member, John Crosby, called me the Johnny Appleseed of Divisions! After these, two other new Divisions were founded: the Government Information Division and the Taxonomy Division. I’d like to think that showing the Association membership that it’s possible helped to pave the way for those divisions.
Not to sound corny, but I believe my most important contribution to the Association is my continued contribution. As an old-timer, I bring a wealth of “corporate memory”. I still give and serve in some capacity to SLA every year, and I will continue trying to promote and better the Association and our profession.
You have held a number of volunteer leadership positions, with SLA and other organizations. How have those experiences contributed to the development of your career?
Those positions have helped me grow as a leader and as a team member. I have learned so many leadership and management and marketing skills through volunteering mostly through trial and error. I have learned how to motivate someone to do a task, and how to nicely ask people to step down. I have learned to deal with difficult people. I have learned calmness and politeness from colleagues. I learned a lot of skills by watching others lead and participate. As I mentioned before, the network I developed through volunteering has had a huge impact on my career development. I have had great mentors along the way. I enjoy taking things from ideation to implementation, and the collaborative nature of building something together. That has driven me to continue to participate and lead.
What do you consider to be your leadership strengths? Are there leadership skills you want to develop?
I seem to be able to rally people around a shared sense of purpose. To me, leadership is motivating people to work together towards a common goal. I am a master delegator but I am also a doer. I can be very strategic and I am very creative. I am extremely organized and results-oriented. I want to learn new fields, new software, new concepts. I love learning from other people. I feel great when I leave a meeting having learned something new. Another key to leadership is a friendly attitude which helps people open up and feel at ease. It’s a lot easier to get someone to do something if they feel good about the person who is making the “ask.”
However, I have a lot of skills that could use improvement. I need to be a better listener. I think quickly; as often I have already finished a thought someone starts and moved on. That is not good, as listening is such an important leadership trait. I need to continue to work on that. I have had to do a lot of “mediation” in recent years in my role in forensics. I would like to develop more skills for facilitation and negotiating. I would like to learn more skills on motivating drivers in people. Mediating is draining if you can’t find the motivators.
You have made a move into another role somewhat removed from information and library management. How do you think your leadership skills have prepared you for this role?
I currently serve on a board and chair a national committee of a very diverse group of people dealing with forensics. After 29 years serving in various leadership capacities in SLA, I know I can lead a committee of volunteers and produce results as well as be an active and contributing member of any board. I have learned how to influence people vs. dominate them and how to sell ideas. I have learned that sometimes it’s about timing and sometimes it’s about personalities. I possess a skill set that motivates people around a common purpose regardless of how diverse their perspectives can be. These skills transfer to any setting.
No single person has all the answers. Says David Taylor, CEO of Procter & Gamble, “While we each can accomplish a lot individually, a diverse, inclusive, motivated and empowered team can accomplish so much more.”
Thank you, Karen, for sharing your insights on leadership!
Karen Kreizman Reczek is Program Manager, for Standards Coordination Office, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Previously, Karen worked as a consultant for two years in her own company, and before that was Senior Manager, Information Resources Center at Bureau Veritas Consumer Products Services, responsible for the global information, content and knowledge management, and competitive intelligence. Her first professional position was with Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Karen has served in many SLA leadership positions, including as a founder and first Chair of both the Competitive Intelligence and Knowledge Management Divisions, as well as Chair of the Leadership and Management Division and as a candidate for SLA Treasurer, and SLA President. She is a published author and has given numerous presentations throughout her career. She has been recognized as a ProQuest Dialog Quantum InfoStar, been honored by the PH&T Division and the Upstate NY Chapter for her contributions, and as an SLA Fellow.
Karen serves on the Board of Directors of the Society for Standards Professionals (SES), as Education Council Director. She is a member of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) for Forensic Science Standards Board (FSSB) and Chair of the OSAC Quality Infrastructure Committee. Karen currently serves on two standards development technical committees, ISO Technical Committee (TC) 272 Forensic Sciences and ASTM International E30 Forensic Science (as the E30 Membership Secretary).