a presentation on leadership in the journalism industry

1. Leadership and Communication
Communication, Feedback, Planning
(Cultivating ‘Bounded Instability’)
Warren Watson
Arizona State University
2012

2. Make it Happen!
“In baseball, there are three types of
people:
---Those who make it happen.
---Those who watch it happen.
---Those who wonder what happened.”
--- Tommy Lasorda, baseball manager

3. What Makes An Organization Go
• Organizational effectiveness begins with a
vision, goals and objectives.
• With proper resources, those goals can be
driven through the organization.
• It is then pushed forward by the
competence of managers and the inspiration
of leaders, sometimes working in teams.

4. Leadership Thoughts
• Weak leadership will drive off people of talent
• Strong leadership will attract and retain talent
• Being a leader does not mean being liked
• Being a leader does not mean you’re perfect all
the time for all the people
• Being a leader means making tough decisions
that are sometimes unpopular and unfair
• Leaders see the future as a finished suit, not just
fabric and a needle and a possibility

5. On Leadership….
“The man who wants to lead the
orchestra must turn his back on the
crowd.”
James Crook

6. ‘Leadership Must Be Earned’
“Leadership can’t be claimed like luggage
at the airport. It can’t be inherited.
Leadership must be earned.”
--- David Cottrell

7. It’s All in the Details
“The best leaders are the ones who send
appreciative notes, learn peoples’ first
names show up at going-away parties, go
have a drink with the gang occasionally,
take time to call a sick staffer, do community
volunteer work with other staffers, meet
regularly with the rank-and-file, etc. It’s a
piece of the day, but one well spent.”
--- Howard Tyner, vice president, news, Tribune Co.

8. It Starts with Communication,
But Can You Walk the Walk?
“If you think I’m
going to send a $2
million missile
through a $10 tent to
hit a camel in the butt,
then you’ve got
another thing
coming.”
--- An unscripted
George W. Bush
after 9/11 attack

9. Can You Be a Leader and
Manager at the Same Time?
• In the course of a work day, many do both:
• You see problems and opportunities
• You value procedures but also people
• You value conformity and innovation
• You acquire knowledge and wisdom
• You maintain the mousetrap, but are always
seeking a better one

10. Conger’s Complexity Theory
• As organizations move forward, the tendency
is to seek a safe, middle path
• Although comfortable, the results are
generally ineffective -- predictable coverage,
few sales innovations, e.g.
• Dynamism results when leaders chart a
different kind of course, moving alternately
between “randomness” and “rigidity”
• This results in both creative, new ideas and
proper systems and protocols

11. Complexity Theory: Cultivating
Bounded Instability
• Leaders move toward randomness
• Managers move toward rigidity
There is room for both activities and every
good managers does both!

12. Cultivating Controlled Instability
• Learn to disturb, not direct
• Use tension as a positive element
• Nurture people who want to do more, who want
to reinvent the organization).
• Encourage continuing, relentless
discomfort with the status quo.
--- Conger, Spreitzer & Lawler from the book, “The Leader’s Change Handbook.”

13. COMMUNICATION

14. Who Else Needs to Know
Good leaders communicate daily, widely
and completely!!!!
“I always ask myself: ‘Who else needs to
know?’”
--- Bruce Gensmer, formerly of the Star Tribune and the
Portland (Maine) Newspapers

15. Effective Communication
Leading others involves a series of
transactions between individuals. The
success of the transactions depends on how
well those individuals understand each
other.

16. Focus On What You Do
• The best communication is not what we say
or what we write, but what we do.
• It is not what others are told, but what they
accept and believe.

17. Communication: 6 Steps to
Handle Difficult Conversations
• Resolve to do it right
• Prepare to do it right
• Don’t work around the problem; confront it
• Listen to learn
• Evaluate progress
• Maintain your momentum
---Edward Miller: “Reflections on Leadership”

18. Tips for Good Listening
• Express interest in what someone is saying
• Ask questions
• Stay focused
• Don’t interrupt
• Let someone finish before you show your
feelings or respond
• Turn off your cell phone

19. Do It Face to Face
Trust-building communication happens
mostly when there is face-to-face, 2-way
communication and caring. E-mail, voice
mail and memos have a role, but can’t
accomplish this.

20. GIVING FEEDBACK

21. Why Do Good People Stay?
“Competence is a powerful incentive.
People on their way to mastering a task will
work harder to stay on top, a drive that
leads to higher performance and
satisfaction. High performers who believe
they are getting a chance to learn and grow
are less likely to leave.”
--Edward D. Miller (2001)

22. Recognizing Positive Results
• Describe the results you are recognizing as
specifically and as immediately as possible
• State why these results deserve your personal
appreciation
• Reaffirm your recognition and continued support

23. Giving Constructive Feedback
• State the constructive purpose of your feedback
• Describe specifically what you have observed
• Describe your reactions
• Give the other person a chance to respond
• Offer specific suggestions
• Summarize and express your support

24. When Feedback Does Not Work
• When it is rushed; take care with the details
• When it does not work toward mutually
agreed-upon goals, standards
• When a supervisor does not know all the
details and background of a situation

25. Taking Corrective Measures
• Point out the difference between performance
and agreed-upon expectations
• Describe the negative impact of the performance
• Get the employee’s view of the situation
• Ask for ideas on how the situation can be fixed
• Add your own ideas
• Explain steps you plan to take and why
• Agree on an action plan and a date for followup
• Express confidence the employee can succeed

26. Objective is Change, Learning
“Whether feedback is a spur-of-the-moment
observation or part of an annual
performance review, the objective is always
the same -- learning. Evaluation is about
change that is, helping someone move from
where they are in terms of competence to
where you want them to be. Feedback that
doesn’t teach won’t change anything.”
--- Edward Miller, author, manager

27. Gallup’s Theory on Personal Growth
• From massive, 20-year study of managers
• Documented in Buckingham books, “First,
Break All the Rules,” “Now, Discover Your
Strengths”

28. ‘Focus on Outcomes’
“Most organizations are built on 2 flawed
assumptions:
---Each person can learn to be competent in
almost anything …
---Each person’s greatest room for growth is
in areas of greatest weakness …”
--- Marcus Buckingham

29. ‘Focus on Outcomes’
“Focus performance on outcomes rather
than force them into a stylistic mode:
---Each person’s talents are enduring and
unique …
---Each person’s greatest room for growth is
in areas of greatest strengths …”
--- Marcus Buckingham

30. DELEGATION

31. How Much is Your Time Worth
• Time management and delegation of
authority are important issues when you
consider time as a commodity.
• Look at your time as money to invest.
• You are also “investing the time” of persons
who report to you.
• Consider the following table prepared for
an API seminar:

32. Managing Time: A Team Sport
• Time management is a team sport
• You cannot manage time alone
• What am I doing that could be done as well
or better by someone else?
• What do I do that wastes the time of others?
• How well do our schedules match priorities?

33. Tips on Managing Time
• Standing meetings: That’s right; don’t sit!
• Schedule smartly: Force necessary but non-
essential meetings into finite blocks of time.
For example: the 30 minutes before lunch.
• Meetings within meetings: Use the down or
waiting time in a meeting to talk with a
colleague about a key issue.

34. More Tips
• Develop a not-to-do list
• List, take care of the grunt work (little chores)
• 2-minute drill: Fill those empty 2 minutes
with simple, but important tasks:
--- Write a note to a colleague on a good story
--- Skim important trade-journal articles
--- Outline a memo you’ll write later
--- Update your to-do list

35. Tips on Delegating Authority
• Delegate early in the day -- before you and
your subordinates have mapped the day
• Understand the kinds of tasks that your
subordinates enjoy
• Celebrate the small successes
• Accept the fact that good delegation is a
process. You won’t get 100 percent the
first time out

36. PLANNING

37. Setting Goals: The Point of Planning
• Goals help you discover your own uniqueness
• Goals help you act rather than react
• Goals help you concentrate on positive,
achievement-oriented areas
• Goals help you make better decisions
If you do not set goals, someone else will set
them for you. If you don’t know where you’re
going, any road will get you there!

38. Types of Planning Procedures
Planning is an ongoing process:
• Long-term -- Vision and mission
• Mid-term -- Quarterly and monthly
meetings
• Short-term -- Daily and weekly budgets and
routines

39. Going Beyond Strategic Planning:
Scenario Planning
• Used in 2000 at the Arizona Republic to
enhance “the strategic conversation” and
create a more agile operating plan.
• Looked out five to seven years to anticipate
changes that might take place as technology
and Internet evolved.
• Examined classified, retail, media miex,
future of the community, privacy

40. Scenario Planning (more)
• Steady time refers to a world where there is
a lag between a customer’s need and a
market solution.
• Real time refers to a world in which the
market creates solutions at the same time
customers have a need.
• Zero time, the most radical solution, refers
to a world in which the market creates
solutions before the customer has a need.

41. The Conclusions
• Act fast!
• Live in all 3 scenarios
• Invest in the long term
• Provide excellent journalism
• Commit to print as long as it makes sense
• Grow the online business
• Reward innovation and risk-taking
• Determine what newspaper should stop
doing

42. On Excellence….
Excellence is the result of:
….caring more than others think is wise;
….risking more than others think is safe;
….dreaming more than others think is
practical;
….and expecting more than others think
is possible.

44. Middle Management
“It is widely regarded as the worst job in
journalism. The demands are relentless, the
sacrifices many and the rewards few. It is
the netherworld called middle management.
Moored between the buffeting of their
subordinates and the constantly shifting
winds of top management on the other,
middle managers are rocked and battered
with ferocious regularity.”
---Sharon Peters, Consultant

45. How Much is Your Time Worth
YEARLY VALUE VALUE
SALARY PER HOUR PER MINUTE
$10,000 $7.00 11 cents
$15,000 $10.00 17 cents
$25,000 $17.00 28 cents
$35,000 $24.00 39 cents
$50,000 $34.00 56 cents
$60,000 $40.00 67 cents
$80,000 $54.00 90 cents
$100,000 $67.00 $1.12

46. Motivating, Challenging Staff
• Insist on quality, set high expectations
• Communicate often, directly, and precisely
• “Who else needs to know???”
• Work to set a vision
• Provide the tools to do the job
• Be consistent
• Don’t be afraid to manage by instinct

47. Handling Interruptions
• Work together to enforce some rules
• Everyone erodes everyone else’s time:
• Consider this:
* One editor I knew had a tin cup on the edge
of his desk. To interrupt with a non-urgent
matter cost you a quarter. For that quarter,
you got 30 seconds to give a headline on the
issue … MORE

48. Interruptions (more)
If your interruption was truly urgent, you
would get more time right away.
Otherwise, you had to schedule time later.
The money, by the way, went into a
newsroom fund.

49. What is Leadership?
Leadership Is….
….the delicate art of merging vision, teamwork,
resources, standards and resolve in the effort to
move an organization forward.
And, it is also….
…. the art of achieving organizational goals
through the efforts of other people

50. People Who Lead
• Are honest
• Confident
• Enthusiastic
• Fair
• Decisive
• Communicative
• Confront problems
• Insist on high standards

51. Where are the Best Leaders?
“I see leaders everywhere. Big and small.
Youth sports coaches, teachers, church
choir leaders, teenagers, politicians,
military, industry…They’re all around us.
It’s what those in charge choose to do with
that talent that counts.”
--- Michael Kane, Michigan publisher