Leadership and the Next Generationof Museum Professionals

Rachel SmithIAM Annual Conference 2014

Developing the next generation

• Mentor junior staff

• Encourage leadership abilities

• Support professional development

Illustration by Al Murphy – ‘The Misery of Mentoring Millenials’

Mentor junior staff

• What is a mentor?

• Formal and informal mentorship

• “Mentoring the Next Generation of Nonprofit

Leaders”

Encourage leadership abilities

• Delegate tasks and responsibilities

• Get involved in new projects

• “Leading When You’re Not In Charge”

Professional development benefits all

• Professional development benefits EMPs,

other employees, visitors, and the museum

sector as a whole

• ICOM Guidelines for Museum Prof Dev• “The Teaching Museum”

ICOM Guidelines for Museum Professional Development

1. General competencies2. Museology competencies3. Management competencies4. Public programming competencies5. Information and Collections management

and care competencies

Why a Teaching Museum?

• NMAS – its assets and opportunities • Diversify the workforce – staff reflect the profile and aspirations of local communities• Broaden entry routes to the profession• Bring new ideas, enthusiasm and talent into NMAS• Deliver better services to our users

Take-away points

• “Mentorship and sponsorship are crucial for career progression”.

• Mentoring relationships benefits nonprofits in many ways.• The supervisor is the most obvious mentor, while external

mentors are particularly important for smaller institutions.• Encourage leadership abilities through project work and

increasing responsibility.• There is a personal responsibility for professional

development.• Remember that professional development benefits

everyone – so invest in it.

Thank you!

Rachel Smith

Email: rsmith19@artic.eduTwitter: @racheljsmith