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What do you do when you've got a problem? When you've got a mystery to solve? When you're looking for the right direction to take?

Most of us turn to somebody else, often someone older, perhaps someone more experienced: a teacher. An editor. Perhaps a spouse or partner. A wise man or woman. A rabbi. A coach.

Coaching rests on a simple, though seemingly paradoxical, foundation:

1.) You understand all your problems.
2.) You have all the solutions to all those problems.

There's a catch, of course. Often we need someone else to draw out that inherent knowledge and wisdom. An experienced voice, a more informed source, may be necessary.

But there's another resource that we rely on all too infrequently: Ourselves.

Basically, coaches need only do two things: Ask good questions, and listen to the answers.

Journalists don't need others to perform those two basic reporting skills. They can self-coach.

This became clear to me last week when a young feature writer, whose beat focuses on media and pop culture stories of national interest, wrote to ask about a dilemma she was facing. She asked to remain anonymous for reasons that will become obvious. She told me:

Some of the stories I'm assigned get covered in waves by other national papers. So as I begin reporting, I either find the stories have been done to some degree by another publication or literally come out just days before mine is set to run.

It leaves me with several concerns. I, of course, want to read what's been written as a matter of research, but I worry that those stories will influence my own too much. I don't want to use the same sources, but often it's necessary (the company president, the research statistics that support a new trend). I don't want to have the same approach to the story, but many times that's what my editors want -- and many times it's just what the story subject calls for. The story is the story, and putting a new angle on it can just seem forced.

Faced with this challenge, the reporter had two fears: committing an act of plagiarism and becoming a hack. She continued:

With the swirl of plagiarism accusations of late, I truly worry that a phrase from one of those stories stuck in my head will unintentionally make its way in my story (I obsessively check over my copy to make sure it doesn't). But more than all that, I wonder, what does constitute plagiarism anyway? Don't recycled story ideas, recycled sources, to some degree, amount to a form of plagiarism? It leaves me feeling like a hack when I write stories that aren't my original ideas. But at the same time, I know that just because a story has appeared in The New York Times doesn't mean a reader of [my paper] has seen it. And at the same time, I don't want to miss out on a fun writing opportunity just because [of] another paper on the other side of the country.

At first, I tried to respond to her questions and concerns.

"It's a difficult challenge," I e-mailed back. "My initial impulse is to have editors who say. 'Let's run the Times version with a local angle, credit the source after the last graf, as in "Material from The New York Times or The Associated Press contributed to this story."' That way, they can unleash their reporters to find stories that only they can tell.

"Can you plagiarize a story idea or an event or trend? I'd say not. You can, as you fear, lift stuff without being extra careful; keep careful track of your notes. The best approach is transparency, to credit your sources. I'm chagrined to hear your editors are satisfied with a mirror image instead of a different take, something that advances the coverage.
 
"Is there a way you can get ahead of the wave? The problem is that often it takes the imprimatur of the Times or The Wall Street Journal or the networks to establish a trend. Also, a metro paper like the one where you work usually sets parochial sights on the news.

I've been in the position of feeling like a donkey being led by media biggies, and you're right, it's hard not to feel you're just redoing somebody's else's stories."

I suggested she ask her newsroom colleagues for advice.

But I wasn't satisfied with my response, which I had dashed off between meetings. I knew there had to be a better answer. And I knew who had it, if only she would invoke the power of self-coaching.

"Tell me," I ended the message, "how you'd answer your own questions if someone else (a friend, a younger colleague) had asked them." Then I hit send.

Her response came early the next morning:

Thanks, Chip. That does give me some perspective. I'm trying to come up with more of my own original stuff to combat assignments based on other stories, but I do know [that], sometimes, the reality is [that] editors see a good story or trend and want us to get on it. Or sometimes, I think I've come up with my own unique observation, [only] to find [that] another paper did it a month ago. So I've thrown the question out to some of my colleagues here to see what they think.

But hmm. If I [were] to answer the question [for] a younger reporter, I'd say read what's been written just to see what's out there and then put it away. Don't use it as you go on to write or report. See what personalized or local angle, local voices, examples and experts, you can bring to the story. Make it your business to find out what's new in the story -- maybe a new development or new tidbit that previous stories lacked that you can use as a jumping-off point. If you need to use some of the same sources as another paper, ask them what part of the story hasn't been told, what [they] haven't been asked that they should be asked.

Ah, I'm my own journalistic guru, aren't I?

"Indeed, you are," I wrote back. "You answered your own question a lot more expertly than I would have. I hope this shows you what a resource you are for yourself and others."

We're always better at giving others advice that we'd find difficult to follow. That doesn't mean the advice is worthless. But it does point to an avenue for help that we rarely turn to.

Next time a problem comes up, try the power of self-coaching. Ask yourself how you would respond if someone else asked for your advice. Before you know it, it might be time to update your business card to read "Journalistic Guru."

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