Ask most editors what qualified them for their first leadership position and they’ll often answer: “I was a good reporter, and someone thought I’d make a good editor.”
From there, the conversation typically lapses into criticism of the news business for not training its leaders.
True enough. But I wonder if many of us reporters-turned-leaders don’t under-appreciate some of the skills we developed before we became editors — specifically, the skills we need to tell good stories.
Lead a staff? Tell good stories? What do those two missions have in common?
Actually, a lot. Remember the elements of great narrative storytelling?
Character. Emotion. Scene. Action. Tension. Plot. Dialogue. Meaning.
Sounds like a day in an editor’s chair to me.
In fact, some of the connections are pretty obvious:
- To bring a character alive, a reporter needs to be able to discover that character’s essence: What makes her tick? Ask a good leader what it takes to motivate someone effectively, and you’ll hear about searching for what makes the staffer tick.
- Then there’s dialogue. Good reporters capture conversations, not just quotes. Good leaders engage in real conversations, not just monologues.
- And what about meaning? The best stories help me understand something. They leave me knowing why I read them. The best leaders help me discover why my work matters –- its meaning and what difference it makes.
Others have observed that effective leadership and great storytelling have a lot in common. Howard Gardner, in his book “Leading Minds,” writes that successful leaders create a story to inspire their followers. But I haven’t heard many editors describe their efforts in storyteller’s terms. More often, I’ve heard them struggle with the language of management professionals, often sounding about as comfortable with the jargon as I am with the U.S. tax code.
So how about this: What if we seek some insights about leadership from the discipline in which we started? What can we learn about leading from the craft of storytelling?
First, let’s recall a crucial distinction between narrative writing and news writing. News writing produces a report. It’s all about information. As my colleague Jacqui Banaszynski says, news writing “points the reader there.” Narrative, on the other hand, “puts the reader there.”
Narrative is all about experience, one that the audience can share because the writer goes beyond telling, to showing.
Effective leaders do that, too. They go beyond telling me where we’re going and find ways for me to see, to feel, to experience their vision –- and then to embrace it with them.
How do they do it? In a way, they do it by writing a good story.
Over the next few days, I’ll share a subjective list of concepts that every narrative writer knows –- and that every reporter-turned-editor might find helpful when thinking about how to become a good leader. Feel free to add to the list. The goal here is to use what we know to gain insight into something we’re trying to improve at.
Concept 1: Organize for “story.” Remember the first stories you ever heard? For many of us, they were fairy tales. Remember how they began: “Once upon a time …” And how they ended (most of the time): “They lived happily ever after.”
And everything in the middle swept us along from the beginning to the end.
Successful leaders do the same thing. They take us (willingly!) from a clear starting point toward a conclusion we can envision and feel good about.
Think of the work you’re doing with your staff as a story in progress. Do you and your staff share a common understanding of your story’s “beginning?”
Ask yourself:
- What mandate has your boss given you? Is the mandate clear to you?
- Have you, in turn, clearly explained to your staff your expectations of them?
- Do they share your understanding of the competition?
- Do they know and understand your real business conditions?
- Are they clear about your current and anticipated level of resources?
- Do they know what you think of their current level of performance? Do you know what they think of yours?
Addressing these questions allows you and your staff to begin your journey in the same place. Inaccurate assumptions are minimized; time wasted on confusion is avoided.
Now, how about your vision for how the story will end? That can be difficult in these times of fast and often unpredictable change. But even if the details are fuzzy, your “happily ever after” vision still can be powerful. For example:
“We will be the most credible and relied-upon source for understanding the events in our community.”
Using words like “credible,” “understanding” and “our community” can help your vision come alive. These are words that can help you flesh out a strategy and then measure your success.
Now you and your staff know where you are and where you’re going. Your challenge is to lead them from “Once upon a time” to “happily ever after.”
Together, we can write our “story.”
Tomorrow: The details matter. How do I choose?
