Last Updated: December 29, 2000
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Management
advice
Two lists to help new editors manage better
Young journalists often find themselves filled with
pride and panic when they take on the editor’s mantle, but it’s nothing
a little management training can’t fix
By Edward Miller
Whenever a young journalist becomes an editor, the first reaction is
pride: “They picked me.” The second is panic:
“My old friends won’t be friends any more if I’m an editor.”
“No one ever taught me how to do this management stuff.”
“I can’t win. I can lose, but I can’t win.”
Most of us had little training in management. We earned editor’s jobs
because we were good at something else. But ASNE members have an opportunity
to change that pattern by providing newly minted editors with the management
training that will make a difference.
Here are two lists that might help:
What every new editor needs to learn
1. People are different. The golden rule (treat everyone
as you would like to be treated) is wrong. You have to learn to treat
people the way they want to be treated. That means understanding
the complexities and opportunities of diversity.
2. Management skills need to be studied. Otherwise, colleagues
become victims of a young editor’s learning curve. What are these
essential skills? In my newsroom coaching I always begin with the
Big Three:
Communication: How can you manage effective meetings and handle difficult
conversations?
Motivation: What motivates people? How can you help them do better?
Evaluation: How can you assess performance? When that assessment
is negative, how can you affect change?
3. Things go wrong. There are no perfect systems or people.
Conflict is inevitable. Mastering conflict resolution is essential.
4. Managing yourself comes first. Time is limited; stress is
not. Effective leaders learn to manage both.
What every ASNE editor can to do
1. Build management competence. Take a hard look at your
leadership development programs and redouble the efforts. Even those
people with natural talents for leadership need to be coached through study
and practice.
2. Create a comprehensive “curriculum,” one that introduces the
essential skills to the newly minted editors and refreshes the veterans.
Leading people is complex work. Even the most competent leaders need coaching.
3. Learn to teach. Most editors don’t think of themselves
as teachers, but teaching may be your most important role in the newsroom.
Although you’d all love to do more journalism, your day is filled with
more management than journalism. Making that management effective
means understanding that it’s about teaching, not controlling.
Too often we take perfectly competent journalists and, with little or
no preparation, give them supervisory responsibilities. As a result,
new assigning editors go through a crisis of confidence. Some never
get over it. This sad script can be rewritten if editors take leadership
development more seriously.
“The American Editor” can help.
This column will focus on management issues with two objectives in mind:
helping you build your own skills and enabling you to teach others.
We’ll cover topics from “Motivating the burned-out 50-year-olds” to “Doing
more with a shrinking staff.” Each column will offer practical steps
you can take immediately. You don’t need sermons; you need thoughts
you can put into action.
What’s more, we’d like your participation. Send us your answers
to these questions to miller@newsroomleadership.com:
What are your most difficult management challenges? What do you wish
someone had taught you years ago? What would help you be a better teacher/leader?
We’ll respond to all your questions, in print when we can. Smart newsroom
management can help produce better journalism. We think this column can
help.
Miller is an associate of the Poynter Institute and a newsroom coach.
