What does it mean to be a leader? Poynter recently hosted a Leadership Academy for professional journalists. Here’s advice from one session, Words from Wise Leaders, that will help you be a more effective leader on your staff.
Don’t think you know everything. “I
think it’s very limiting to assume you think you don’t need to know
anything else when you think you know a lot,” said Michele McLellan, Director of Tomorrow’s Workforce at the Medill
School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
“There’s a lot of value in rediscovering,” McLellan said. She suggests that you constantly rediscover what you already know while asking yourself questions like “What can we do well?” and “What
are our possibilities?”
Don’t think you always have to make the decisions. “The most effective leader helps the people they are working with figure things out,” McLellan said.
“Don’t
be fooled by the stereotype of a leader,” she said. People tend to see
the leader as always decisive. “That’s not leadership,” McLellan said, adding that a
leader should ask questions and listen, too.
