By Butch Ward
Not every great reporter or photographer is equipped to lead a staff. But every great reporter and photographer learned a number of lessons for telling excellent stories that might help them be effective leaders.
Here are a couple more worth remembering. (See sidebar for previous days' stories.)
Concept 4:
Keep peeling the onion. For the best reporters, one question leads to another. One insight leads to a new question, which leads to a new and deeper insight. It's this peeling that helps us in the audience learn –- and understand – why a story's characters feel the way they feel, think the way they think, act the way they act.
How about our staffs -- do we peel the onion?
When we learn that a photographer is really good at a particular assignment, do we light a candle of thanks for someone who can do those assignments whenever necessary? Or do we look deeper and ask that photographer what she dreams of doing? What she would love to learn to do better? What other, perhaps hidden skills the photographer has?
Does your newsroom emphasize day-to-day performance to the detriment of long-term growth? Or will there come a day in your newsroom when you will realize you're doing things you didn't know you were capable of doing?
Are you challenging your staff to keep trying new things?
Do you peel the onion when you debrief a reporter who has just returned from a story? Do you ask questions that help the reporter prioritize and organize his notes and thoughts? Probe for holes? Help the reporter discover unanswered questions that could make the story even better?
And what about your approach to solving problems? Do you settle for fixes, or do you routinely seek to understand the issues that underlie the problem?
How much peeling do you do?
Remembering that your employees take their lead from how you do your job, how much peeling would you like them to incorporate into their journalism?
When you were a reporter, you knew the value of peeling. What about now?
Concept 5:
Check in with your sources -- often. Good reporters know their sources are lifelines. They call them frequently, often just to check in, knowing that every now and then the call will produce fruit.
Now that you're a leader, do you check in with your sources, the staffs without whom your papers and newscasts and Web sites could never be produced? Do you check in with your lifelines?
Ask newsroom staffers about the qualities of their best boss, and they'll almost always say, "good listener."
Do you listen to your staff? Are you learning what you need to know in order to motivate them, support them and gain their collaboration for your vision of the future?
Check yourself today:
- How many conversations do you have with staff members, and what do you learn from them?
- How many conversations update your knowledge of a situation?
- How many conversations help you better understand something or someone?
Now that you're a leader, is your notebook still filled with great interviews, or are there lots of blank pages?
Coming Friday: Choosing the right moments.
