By Butch Ward

LEADING LINES

Learn more about leadership in one of our seminars. Sign up to receive Leading Lines by e-mail: * Click here (sent Wednesdays)

My friend, Andrew Smith, is in his first editing job. And he has questions.

I heard some of them during the week we met in January, when Andrew came from Newsday to Poynter's Leadership Academy, a weeklong program designed to help journalists demystify some of the secrets of effective leadership.

Over the months since, we've stayed in touch by e-mail. This one arrived in late February:

Newsday Andrew Smith

"Over the course of our week, we heard about various things you had to deal with as managing editor at the Inquirer and you talked at times about the last few months and years there. I realized that what I should have asked you about was what it was like for you the first couple of years when you were an editor and a leader. If you're inclined at some point, could you spare a few words on what that was like…"

Sure, I responded. "But if you're game, Andrew, let's have this email conversation in public -- because I'm sure there are lots of editors in your position with similar questions. My colleague, Jill Geisler, recently wrote about the 'inner voices' that torment new bosses, and invited her readers to tell her about young bosses who are doing good things. I'm betting she'll hear about some fine work."

Andrew responded: "Sign me up."

So here goes, Andrew. I'll start.



I had only been a journalist for about 18 months when I was asked to give up my chair on the rewrite desk of the Baltimore News American and edit two of the paper's new daily zones, in Harford County and Eastern Baltimore County. I was never sure whether my bosses saw leadership potential or were desperate to get the kid who typed with one finger away from the relentless deadline demands of the rewrite desk.

Whatever. My new wife and I needed the money.

The passage of 30 years has dulled some of my memories of that first editing job, but several impressions remain vivid. First, at 25, I was younger than almost everyone in the newsroom. The reporters I was assigned to supervise had a lot more experience than I had. What made me think they would do what I asked? Or suggested? Or demanded?

Second, I was suddenly responsible for more than my own work. And by the time the first evening of editing was over, I had a sobering realization: I'm responsible, but I'm not in control.

I am dependent upon others to succeed.

And finally, I remember wondering: Do I have to distance myself from people I call my friends in order to manage them?

Do any of those feelings ring true for you, Andrew?



They absolutely ring true, Butch, even though my path to an editing job was somewhat different from yours. I had been a reporter for almost two decades and might have been content to do that long into the future when an editor talked me into seeing how it felt to be an assigning editor. I agreed to give it a shot. Within months, a round of buyouts and the resulting shuffling of editors left me running criminal justice coverage at Newsday.

Some of my experiences were much like yours. I had covered courts most recently, so all of the people I was now supervising had recently been my peers. Some were my friends. Like you, I had never been in the position of being responsible for anyone's work other than my own. And when I realized that someone letting me down would result in me disappointing someone else, that was sobering.

One of the things I struggled with the most was feeling comfortable with my own authority. In part because Newsday's coverage of crime and courts was evolving at the time I started that job, I sometimes doubted the value of my own judgment and experience. It probably didn't help that I was starting this job at a time of incredible turmoil. In my first year and a half on the job, there was another set of buyouts, further turnover on the desk, a reshuffling of reporters' beats and editors' assignments and the angst associated with union contract negotiations. It was a lot to deal with.

It also took me more time than it should have to realize that not everyone worked the way I did when I was a reporter. Some people needed to be told what to do. Others needed to be encouraged to cooperate with colleagues. A few had issues in their "real" lives that affected how they did their jobs. All of this was new to me.

For weeks, I was convinced I could do this job well, if only I knew how to do it. And that's the reason I asked you my question after I got back from Poynter: I realized then that no one ever showed me how to do this job, and that this is probably the way it is everywhere.



No question that the single most common complaint of assigning (and other mid-level) editors is about the training they received upon accepting the job -- or, should I say, the training they did not receive. Poynter and a number of other organizations, such as APME NewsTrain, are attempting to help more mid-level editors get some measure of help with doing their jobs.

Looking back, Andrew, my initiation to the job was pretty similar to yours -- except the News American was not yet going through the same level of change. (It would, within a few years -- but that's another story.) Most of what I learned came from watching editors I admired and talking with them endlessly about how they did their jobs. I also learned a lot from the reporters who worked for me.

In fact, not only did I learn a lot from reporters, I found that I liked them. Why is that a big deal? Well, not all of my fellow editors appeared to feel the same way -- some spent a lot of time complaining about the reporters who filed late, needed too much stroking, never seemed to learn from yesterday's editing, and on and on.

Now don't get me wrong -- I did my share of grousing about some reporters and their work habits. (And they, no doubt, found plenty to critique in me.) But most of the time, I enjoyed the collaboration that produced the stories for our section (even the seemingly endless stories on landfill reclamation and fish kills in Back River). And as we got to know each other better, our collaboration improved. The trust between us grew.

Fact is, they were teaching me how to be an editor -- how to help them do their best work.



One of the big surprises I've had to cope with in this job is that not everyone is exactly the same as me. Shocking, right? I found myself caught off guard a few times when I figured reporters would take care of certain things, simply because that's what I would have done. And, on the other hand, I continue to irritate certain reporters by reminding them to do the kind of things I might have forgotten -- but, of course, they'd already taken care of those things.

What's been more difficult for me, however, is learning how to work well with other editors. As a reporter, I existed in a pretty small universe. I'd talk with my editor and the photographer working with me on a particular story and, in many cases, that would be all the contact I'd have with my newspaper. All I needed to know was how long my story had to be and when it was needed. Obviously, it doesn't work that way for editors on a busy news desk.

Being an editor requires the use of different muscles, and it's possible some of the muscles I needed to use had atrophied (or never been used). I've had to learn to be more careful about what I say -- some people actually think it's important now. I've had to learn how to approach different people in different ways. I deal with dozens of people a day at the paper now, instead of one or two, and I constantly have to remind myself that not everyone shares my sense of humor, my news judgment or my point of view.
A lot of this rattled my confidence that I knew what I was doing. So here's my semi-facetious question, Butch: How do I know when I'm doing the right thing?



And here's my semi-facetious answer, Andrew: you'll know when you see whether anyone signs your going-away card.

Facetiousness aside, if you want to know how you're doing, you should consider asking your staff. After all, for an editor who is determined to serve the public well, it's all about the staff -- the people you rely upon to come through every day. It's all about their stories, their development, their contribution to the overall success of the news organization.

Sometimes you can take a somewhat objective approach and examine the work you are producing together. After all, your leadership is a big factor in your staff's effectiveness and growth.

Ask yourself: Are the staff's stories generating response from our audience? Is our coverage deepening over time -- are we breaking new ground? Is the staff perceived in the newsroom as "hot" -- a place where others want to work? Are our stories hitting Page 1? Are members of the staff being promoted?

That's one way to know -- evaluate the impact of the work. Then there's that other way:

Ask the staff: How am I doing?

It's a question that works best when it fits comfortably in the relationship you're building together. Is it one-way or two-way? Think about it: you can offer your staff members regular feedback on their performance, and that's crucial. But if it stops there, it's a one-way relationship. How about making it comfortable for the staff to give you feedback, too? Don't our best relationships -- inside and outside the office -- work both ways?

Sure, you can end every annual job evaluation with an invitation to the staffer to offer you feedback. But think of how much more effective it is to spend five minutes on any given morning, reviewing the previous day's work and asking what each of you did to make it good -- and what you could do next time to make it better.

Many editors find that the simple act of asking a staff member for feedback deepens the trust between them. That's valuable in itself.

And, chances are, those everyday conversations will get richer over time. They can help you learn what each individual on your staff needs most from you: Maybe it's more coaching, maybe it's a bigger challenge, maybe it's some understanding during a tough time at home. And you'll get some clear indications of whether you are "doing the right thing."

You know, Andrew, an important realization I came to as my first months as editor turned into years (and then decades), is that I would never stop learning -- never stop wondering if I was doing the right thing. Yes, I was blessed to work with some truly great journalists, and together we did some good -- and even some important -- work. Nevertheless, years into my editing career, on any given day, I made mistakes in judgment, failed to provide my reporters and editors with what they needed to do their best work, and put stories in the paper that could have been better.

Perhaps one test of leadership is how we respond to those days.

Most of the time, I like to think, I came back to work the next morning a little more determined to listen instead of pronounce, involve instead of decide, and serve instead of demand. On the days when I did those things -- which almost always required that I spend more time with the staff and less on my own busywork -- our relationships deepened and our work better served the public.

It's a journey, Andrew. Hopefully, a long one. And more than ever, it's an important one. I pray you enjoy it.



I do enjoy it, Butch. It's rich and rewarding work most of the time. My main frustration has been that I didn't realize how many different ways there are to screw up. I sometimes feel like I'm racing down a back road at night with my headlights off, trying to stay off the trees. The flip side of that, of course, is that it's exhilarating when I make it through without hurting myself.
E-mail this item | Add/View Feedback (1) | QuickLink this item: A100433


SuperVision Archive

View items published between:		and
	(MM/DD/YYYY)		(MM/DD/YYYY)

MAIN | Back to Top