From the outside, a newsroom manager can look powerful. But some managers, especially new managers, don’t feel powerful.
In fact, many feel strangely impotent and unfulfilled.
The move to management can be dramatic, even traumatic. Many managers experience a painful sense of displacement when they begin their careers as leaders. But unlike some personnel problems, this one can be anticipated and prevented. What’s needed is a simple shift in thinking. New leaders must shift their focus from themselves to their staff. They must make the change from doer to helper.
You can almost set your calendar by the disillusionment that follows many promotions from rank-and-file to management. A star staffer, whose craft skills are well respected, is courted. “We need somebody with your talent and good judgment,” he or she is told, to be the new photo editor, assistant city editor, or graphics chief. After a few of these flattering conversations, the staffer signs on and becomes a boss.
The novelty of making decisions and offering insights at news meetings may carry the new manager through the first weeks. But then, for many, reality sets in. The manager looks around and realizes he’s out of his comfort zone and a step away from the craft he loves. He’s working longer hours, getting no overtime pay, and being gossiped about by people who used to be peers and friends. He used to feel free to say what he thinks; now there is political fallout to worry about.
He begins to wonder if management is just self-sacrifice, if he’s traded journalism for thankless administration. He starts feeling a little resentful. Maybe he gets a little coercive; if he doesn’t get to do what he wants, at least he can make others do what he wants.
Many new managers have buyer’s remorse a few months into their jobs. They don’t yet recognize the power in their positions. They are not confident in their new roles. And they don’t see the rewards in helping others do their best work.
If you’re still thinking like a player, you can’t experience the joys of being a coach. And you can’t build your confidence and competence as a coach unless you let go of your glory days as a player.
What does it mean to be a coach? As described in part one of this series, successful coaches like basketball’s John Wooden excel at facilitating the learning of others. The reality of being a facilitator, for some, is sobering:
- It means focusing on staff and their growing expertise. It’s no longer about proving your expertise. The point is not to tell others how you would’ve written the story, approached the photo subject, or designed the page. The point is to help them see the next step in their own unique development.
- It means keeping quiet when the answer is on the tip of your tongue. It means being silent on the sidelines, like Wooden during Bruins games, so that players find their own solutions.
- It means being willing to say, “I don’t know; let’s find out” to staff, and being open about the fact that bosses have things to learn, too.
Many new managers feel pressure to know everything. This in turn creates insecurity, because nobody knows everything. And some new managers are secretly convinced they know no more than the folks they are supervising. Living with this anxiety may make them grudging, secretive, and authoritarian with staff.
Coaching is about teaching and letting go. Many leaders find they can’t let go – they can’t share power – because deep down they worry that their formal authority is all they have. They worry that they have nothing to teach, especially to the more able staff. “I’m no longer contributing,” they imagine, because their contributions are suddenly less tangible. And far from being grateful for their strongest staffers, they see them as reminders of what they could have been had they remained players.
John Wooden didn’t feel threatened by Kareem Abdul Jabbar. And without Wooden, Jabbar would not have reached the heights he did. Wooden’s job, as he saw it, was to be a mirror for Jabbar and help him make the most of his remarkable talent.
Everybody needs a coach. And every newsroom leader has expertise to share. It’s an unassailable fact: Only those with special capacity to meet the goals of the organization are given leadership jobs. Senior management wouldn’t have it any other way. How to carry out the vision of top management – this is what the coach knows and can teach, regardless of the skill of the people working for him.
Where are the rewards in this for the coach? Helping others know themselves, develop their talents, and do their best work is a powerful contribution. It is a way to foster the growth not only of oneself but of peers and staff, not to mention an entire organization. For many, it is profoundly rewarding.
Many coaches find that in nurturing others, they nurture themselves. If you give of yourself, you create a more generous world. That’s the power in coaching.
