severe could go into a really deep on this and blah blah blah they don't have
Are you depressed
I went down the road yesterday I was born in Arizona
New York
oh yeah but
yeah
right
guy to the record
I always
like to do different things
Hi What's
up know a long time ago I was actually a pretty white
guy like to go on why I wouldn't want to go on hire
me like other than that no like
that. What's up
yeah
yeah Amen
there yeah
I just fired
up here night
right
Right yes
hey
no audience
right just gonna do a handheld okay but just a top
check one two p one, two
these are places we can leave it
proceed
many
ways
I should ask how long have you been a middle manager
bad
news is less than 20 Do you start your show one minute early. Exactly carry you don't wait we have to 1230 right
morning everyone, how are you? So welcome um how to win in the news room middle management. My name is Paul Chung. I've been a middle manager as far as I could remember it in my life in journalism, and so and our other speakers is Carrie Hernandez.
The screen can you hear me? Okay. All right. Good morning, everyone. I'm Carrie. I'm the news director at wsa nine in Washington DC. And I've been a middle manager as long as I can remember right there's always someone above us and someone to manage.
And I'm Kendall Harkness, I'm the head of culture and community at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. And yeah, for as long as I can remember to even as a photographer, if you're, if even if you're a content producer, you're still we're either working with interns or mentoring in some ways. So you are always in the middle.
Yeah, so the way we're going to do this session is that we're going to talk a little bit and then there's actually time for you to do some individual planning so we have some tools for you to think about. So before we get into some of the tools, what we want to actually review is there are 10 harsh reality that middle manager have to accept. Okay, if you can accept these reality you have to ask yourself whether you can be an effective middle manager. So the first one carry.
Alright, so number one, not knowing the complete picture. I think it's interesting that a lot of the times we get frustrated because we don't understand. You know, our managers might say something to us and you're like but why? And you don't know the whole thing, but you still have to communicate a message to the people who are reporting to you. But I can say now, knowing what I know now that sometimes you just have to be okay with it. And a lot of the times it's for your own protection. Like just recently, my assistant news director there was, you know, something's happening with our personnel. And I intentionally didn't tell him, and I know that he felt a certain kind of way because he knew something was brewing, but I intentionally didn't tell him because I wanted him to be able to keep the same message in the newsroom. I wanted him to keep treating the personnel and the people that we were dealing with in the same spirit because when you know something, it affects how you might treat that person or how you might be acting in the newsroom when you know that the that something might be structurally changing or fundamentally changing in your newsroom. So now I'm like, okay, I'm okay. With what I'm doing is protecting my managers from having to deal with other things that I just want them to stay focused on the product and focused on our audience and focus on the consumer and not the drama happening behind the scenes. So maybe take comfort in the fact not knowing the whole picture can actually help you function and, and stay on task and focused on the work at hand.
Which is hard for journalists because we always want the complete picture but recognize that having knowledge is not necessarily always power power. So so there is a difference, right? And can't be a burden. It can be a burden, not a good one. So you have to be okay with operating, knowing that you're not going to know everything. So that is the number one reality that you have to accept. Second one blurred line.
Yeah, with Bruce. So with Blurred Lines. Most of us start as a content producer and then move up to some type of editor and those relationships that we had with those folks now we have to lead them. And so having people be able to see you, and, you know, do the difficult thing of telling somebody like yeah, you can't do that. Right. That kind of work is hard. So how do you still maintain that relationship that you cultivated over? time with the people who are your peers and now that you have to lead them so it's, it's it's complicated. And now you're in this space of where your boss you're closer with them. So you have more information and more of a relationship with them. And so what do you share in that middle space? So it's kind of tough to navigate, but you're really just going to have to listen to your gut.
And also as a middle manager, right, like you are the boss whisperer. You are your staff, big brother and big sister, surrogate parent, you are basically like, you do everything whether you like it or not, right like so like, Joel lines, like your title is almost irrelevant. So you again, that's a really harsh reality. So the third thing you have to accept is lack of recognition. Right? If something is amazing, is either because your staff had done something amazing, or your bosses or your boss's boss's great vision, right? Like you have to be okay that like you're not gonna get that accolade. Maybe just like a nice pat in the back in the hallway or like a Slack message like, you know, a thumbs up emoji, right? Like, are you going to be included with like, oh, this person edited the best like Admiral award, you know, peace or like the polls and no, you're not going to your name is not going to appear anywhere. And so you have to be okay, that you're not going to necessarily get the accolades and recognitions that you think you deserve and entitled to. So that's number three. Number four,
right, the other harsh, harsh reality and this one I battled with everyday, right, the workload squeeze. As middle managers we've all agreed to. We know that we're still in the frontlines doing the work and at the same time, we have all the administrative tasks that go with it. That just doesn't end it only gets more complicated. So the sooner that you accept that and figure out how are you going to manage your day through it, then it's easier to deal with but those are always going to be the realities is that you know, I'll find myself sometimes saying to my HR manager, I'm like, Well, I gotta go to the editorial meetings. I gotta know what's going on in the news, but you want me to like process all the says and and document these things. And, and it's an it's the reality, so it's like, Okay, I accept it. I gotta know that. I gotta, I'm gonna lose two hours. of my days and editorial meetings because I I want to handle and know what's going on in the news. We can't make decisions if we're not involved. We just can't and you can easily get caught up and all the minutia of the documentation and and timesheets and all that and that good stuff. So it's a harsh reality. It's just, it's doable. I promise that it's doable, but you have to be honest with yourself and actually find ways to be efficient with your time and blocking out that time and not leaving yourself to be in the reactionary world, but actually be in the part where you are taking hold and control of what you can't control.
And then the fifth, navigating politics
we know that there's a lot of people with a lot of feelings in our newsrooms. We will have a lot of personalities because journalists, right. I mean, we are we are we are a quirky little bunch of people.
And very nice way of saying yeah, we are just a mess. Let's just say we any of us,
we are a mess. We are total a mess. And so you know that you're going to have to navigate the politics around the people that you're supporting. You're going to have to navigate, you're going to have to navigate the politics of your boss and depending on like, what their relationship is with other parts of the newsroom, because if they're having difficult relationships, the work still has to get done. And it means that has to get done through you and so how do you keep your boss happy, but also keep the trains running on time. So it's a is like a delicate dance that you have to do but knowing your people knowing who you can rely on all of those things are important to save you time and energy as you move through humans in these situations.
And the sixth one is like you are the freakin messenger. And you know what happened to the messenger what happened to the messengers? Exactly so you know, because You are the messenger from like, from above and below right you are basically the one who have to tell your boss that like we one freakin hate your decision. And you don't make sense, because you don't have the complete picture right? And then now you sound like oh, why is this person whining? Right? Or You are the messenger below is like this editor or EP one so and so. And then just average like, oh, you know, now we have to do more with less. I'm like, when does this ever end? Like why are you not advocating for? And then there's like, I hate you. I'm like, so You are the messenger like every day, right? And so again, like, you have to ask yourself like, do you accept being the messenger? And how do you be the best messenger possible? And so the seventh one, this one is this one is interesting.
Oh, yeah. Y'all got a lot of feelings about a lot of things. Right.
Being a journalist means that we deal with a lot of trauma, we deal a lot with what's happening with the world. And so it's so funny, you know, as a photo editor for a long time and a photographer and I was telling another photographer who was interested in this job I was, she's like, well you guys, you know, you look at pictures and you edit and do all this stuff. I'm like, no, no baby. We deal with people. Right? It is dealing with the emotions of how people are going through their day is most of the job, like keeping them on task and making sure that they're able to do the best their best work. And so you're you're taking a lot of emotion in so you have to protect yourself. You are also managing the emotions of your boss. If you're if your editor above you is pissy then he makes it works for everyone else. So sometimes it's like managing up in a way that helps them how how's your day going? Did you did you get your coffee? Do you need a snack like anything that will keep the you know the rain of shit from falling down on everyone else? Right? So managing managing people's emotions as your EQ should be as high as it can be.
And anyone who's telling you that Oh, you gotta be manager because you like as about your craft, is they are lying to you. They are lying to you. If they if you think you're being a manager because of your craft, like so much of management and especially middle management is managing emotions. And so all of you who are middle managers are practically licensed therapists. So give yourself like you know, a nice hug, self hug. And also middle managers, everyone judges you all day long. Every day. Wait, why are you not executing this fast enough? Where is that? You know, why are you not saving enough money? Right like what happened? You know, what, what is this new plan that I need you to implement? Right? So like everyone's from above, like constantly judge, Judge judge. And then again from the bottom they judge you all the time is is like wow, this person seemed really unhinged today. Right because you are doing their job they don't know that you're not sleeping. They don't know you have a whole family and just maybe a life that doesn't involve catering to their every need, right. So like, literally, like you're getting judged every day, all day.
And that's why self regulation comes into you know, a lot of what we're talking about. I think the more I work on myself and the more self awareness, awareness that the better manage or that I am the more self awareness that I have, the more that I work on myself. gives me the strength to vibrate on an energetic level that I can deal with people all day long and not let them take me down. So when we talk about self regulation, you have to figure out yourself first, you're not going to be a good manager, because you're just giving giving giving to everybody out you got to give to yourself first you got to take care of you first you got to keep yourself organized. You got to keep your emotions in check so that you can better serve your people, right so you have to have a real check in with yourself and be like okay, and my and my eating and my sleeping and my fueling myself and my doing self care. I mean it might sound like all the wishy washy things. But if you want to operate and show up for your team, the best way possible and trust me they know when we're not operating at our best. It shows up it shows up in our tone. It shows up in how we talk to them, they can tell so it's super important. For you to check in and be like okay, what am I doing to take care of me? What am I doing to check in with myself and my working on my What are you doing to grow yourself as a manager? Right? What are how are you feeding and food and feeding yourself because a lot of us became managers because we were just really good at what we did. No one necessarily sent us to management school, right? We're journalists. We came here to tell stories and then someone said oh, you're doing this really well. I'm gonna make you a manager. You're like, oh, no, I got to do with people. I I really just wanted to tell stories. And so that's why I encourage everyone because they don't do that for us. I mean, we're lucky that we have these conventions and trainings, but what's your outside network looking like so that you can strengthen yourself to go to the frontline every day? I highly, highly encourage you to do those things. The more and more that I've done it I've even gone as far as you know. And I know I went and found a coach, right? Because I was like how am I going to best show up for my team. But I had to come and strengthen myself. So sorry, that was
long winded. I'll just I'll just say one quick thing is that if if it's not on a calendar, it doesn't happen. So you have to schedule time for yourself. It has to be on a calendar.
Yeah, because as the middle manager, you are the one who is actually keeping the ship going. Right. I know that days. You just want to like rip people's throat out. Like view that a lot of times maybe right, but you are the one who keep the ship going. So you actually cannot rip anyone's throat because you rip their throat then you have to do the work because there's no one to delegate right? So bad for you. So, so you have to think about that self regulation. And the number 10 is you are the bee catcher. Right like you just basically have have the biggest umbrella so that you could keep that storm from like descending down. But you also don't want the tidal wave of stuff like flooding up either right? Because literally is not going to do anyone any good. Right? So all day long, you just have to be like serving it with a smile like this smell nice. So this so we don't want to sugarcoat it. So these are sort of like the 10 harsh reality of management. So you have to ask yourself, like how many of them could you actually accept most of the time? If you could accept like, eight and above, then you have a really good threshold to winning. You're almost there. If you could only accept five of these. You have to ask yourself, like, where are you in your journey? And is this what you really really want? Like right now because if you haven't figured that out, you either gonna hate this job forever and maybe like, quit journalism and maybe do like accounting or something, which will be terrible for journalism. Right? All this is your moment and really ask what else could you be doing in journalism, that does that bring you a lot more joy and satisfaction and money as well? If you could only accept like to have these, like 20% of these again, you really have to like confront yourself and really ask, Why am I doing this? Like if you just generally don't like dealing with people, you actually should not be a manager managing anybody because you're controlling like 80% of the awaken time. Right? So you know, so this is like a thing that you really have to confront. So now we're going to go into here's some exercise that we're going to ask you to do. You can have a discussion in the table, but we do want you to actually take some time, and I'm going to time it to do it. So the first thing is what I call the alignment pitch that so when I was the AP, I was the interactive editor. And so I basically run my team and then I report up to the executive editor. But I also have a bunch of VPS. But because I wasn't a VP, right that I have to like serve like they weren't my boss, but like they have a lot of influence. And so when you have too many masters to serve, what do you do? So what I did is I actually start an alignment pitch deck. I look at my department and say if we were our own organization, what is my mission in one sentence of my department? Right? So how do you so this alignment pitch that you work with your manager and you work? With your staff to come up six slides at most? Because what you want to do is make sure that there is agreement from above what is the mission of the department, the unit, the team that you're running? So that is clarity? And then from 23423456 You go back to the team and you work with them to come up with answers. How do you do it? Right How do you do it? Like so for this like so I've just put in like a mission when I was at the AP right like one of the mission when I was the digital interactive editor is to implement strategy and best practice for the AP to develop original, impactful engaging viral and shareable content across all digital platform. Right. So that is my mission. And I basically say, is there an agreement to that? And then the second thing is, how do I do it? Right. So I have to then work with my team is how do we, what is it that we're going to do to support this first statement? And why does this matter? For the AP? Like, why does this matter for the organization? Whether you're in for profit, nonprofit, public media, you have to tie into why it matters to the organization to some form of sustainability. Right? It doesn't have to be like direct line meaning, you know, like for the AP, like a lot of what we do is is to offer new product offering to customers. Right? That is a very good reason. Right? You are increasing top of the funnel. Right so that we could convert to subscribers, you are engaging like a particular demographic of audience. So why does it matter to the organization? And then why does it matter to the audience? Who are your customers? Right? So you have to be really succinct in understanding who you serve and why it matters to the organization. Why does it matter? Like to the public that you're serving? What does success look like? And when you ask this question, it can't be like success is when like we change policy. You're not going to change policy every day. Right just success is actually less to do with external but more about internal, right success could be like, you know, what, you know, once a month, three of my stories gonna rise in the top 10 view, right, like so like, it has to be very quantifiable. Right. You have to envision what is a reasonable success, right and success. It's not like we're going to crank out like 1000 stories, right? Like that is not going to be helpful for anybody, but maybe success is like a month, everything that you have to do. You're going to land one one enterprise story a month, right like so, it could be like very small, but the half that how do you measure success and evidence of success is important, right? This is a fundamental weakness in a lot of organization and middle managers. Do you know what success looked like? And could you measure it? Right and measure it is not like, Oh, let me get pawsley and dashboard, right? Like, success, measuring success, meaning it just really discreet it did. Whatever. That your promise that is satisfied this mission. How do you know is satisfied mission this mission way? So you have to come up with a particular framework, like for your unit and for your team? And then what I did with this is literally I present this to not just my executive editor, but I actually present it to every single VP so that they know this is what we do. This is our priorities. Right? So there's clarity about like what your unit do so that you don't become like so that we don't become a dumping ground of things. Right. Because like, sometimes we have these jobs that no one really know like, oh, they could do it. Paul can help you do a PowerPoint. I'm like, I didn't know I was like the PowerPoint King. Right. Like for everybody, right? Like I thought I was here to do journalism. Right. And so you want to make sure that like you could articulate what is the mission of your team and unit? Why it matters. How do you measure success, and this could evolve over time, but this is basically the alignment between the top and the bottom because now you can actually go back to the people you manage and say, This is what we about. Right? This is the most important thing, so it's helped you prioritizing and also like have them understand that I'm not expecting you to write the Pulitzer Prize winning story every single day. Like that is not happening. Like, you know, you're not going to get a Pulitzer Prize winning story by reporting like, you know, Apple's earnings. But someone got to do that job. Right. So, so that also sort of articulate in terms of like for your staff is yes, there gonna be a bunch of stuff that you're going to do that might not be the most important to you as a journalist, but it's important to the community, but, but there could be once a month, you know, like once every, like a quarter that you could define. So, I would encourage you I'm gonna give you guys sort of first anyone have questions about this? Oh, yes.
Thank you for this. Very, very helpful
okay. Hello, hi. This is very, very helpful. So thank you. I do have a question for you because I'm sure I'm not the only one in the room that's experienced this, but what do you do sort of when you have maybe come up with a mission with your managers, but their vision sort of, kind of constantly changes for your team in particular? What is like, you know, is it to do this every quarter to delay, like reevaluate or, you know, kind of come back to them and say, there is some confusion amongst my team, because we want to make sure we're doing this mission executing this mission?
Yes, that's a great question. Oh, manager who changed their mind never happen. Right. So I think part of this is actually the start of your agreement with your manager. Right. So what you want to do is when you have an agreement that is written and you put it in a deck is suddenly feel a lot real. And then anytime they ask you to do something that doesn't fit in here, then you could then go back and ask is like, Where does this lie? Are we changing our mission? We do prioritizing or this is a one off. Right? So this is sort of like a way for you to figure out where does every other thing fit in this alignment. So when I did this, you know, the mission, sort of like I was managing, like different teams. So like each team sort of have his own mini mission. So I think this is basically what you want to do. Is this doc could evolve, but it's something that you need to maintain. Right so that you could keep that clarity and focus. And so that actually worked out really well for me because he was like really sprawling, like literally everyone. Think like I have a different job. That is not really the job. I have and so like this deck in terms of going through with manager was very clear. And from there, like you know, in terms of how you do and what you do, then you can actually lists out like, bigger things, right? So if someone asks you to do something, then you say does this thing actually fit into the mission is this an expansion of the mission? Is this a change of the mission? Right? So that's a good way to sort of like start negotiating
something. But the other part I heard in what your question I was trying to read between the lines is, you don't want to say those things to your boss, right? You don't want to call them out. Am I reading that right?
Like all the with all the rules that we
talked about are the reality is gonna fall on your face when you're talking about your role,
and there's you will,
absolutely, I encourage you to, we don't want to do this, but part of us being leaders is having to have the tough conversations. And the tough conversations involve having to challenge our bosses, even though we don't want to, right, but that also defines you as a leader because if you can't have the tough, tough conversations on some of the basic things, how are you going to have the tougher conversations down the road or as you seek to elevate yourself, so it's actually a test and an exercise for you? And if they can't recognize that, then you also have to think about who am I working for? Or who am I working with? If I'm not if I can't have those conversations in those spaces? I regret my one of my biggest regret was one of the organizations I was in. I didn't have the courage to call and attention to something that was wrong with the organization. And then instead I left right but I should have called it out and I regret that to this day. So I promised myself that since then, like other organizations that I've worked for, I have not been afraid and I will say that I have gotten more promotion since then, because I decided to speak up and say what I had to say because then even though it might have been uncomfortable in the moment, they're like, Wow, she had the guts to say it. Let's elevate her. So it has paid off even though it's super scary. It paid off for me more to speak up than it did it and that's always going to be a regret. I mean, I regret I guess I learned and I grew from it. But I'll always think back to the time I didn't say it and it ended up costing because then I'm not sticking up for the people. That are working for us, right. I'm not elevating. I'm not working for the people who are my direct reports. And at the end of the day, you're not working for your consumers. We're not making us better if we're not doing it.
The good thing about when bosses changes their mind especially when they add more to the plate. The positive unless they take it off your plate, which I don't see like that happening. It's often a good way to actually sit down like oh, is my row expanding? I'm like ching ching ching, thank you for the opportunity is my role expanding? Is this is this temporary? I mean, so like you want to track that and so during the performance that you asked is like look I do this as not core to my job. Like I now like now you go into negotiations like am I getting a bonus? Are you going to support me to come to Oh, and a next year where the company should pay for it because I'm I do these extra right? There's always a give and take. So when things change, like that's why having a agree upon so like document is always good because when things change and shift is a signal for you in terms of how they value you right so so and it's also an opportunity for you am I expanding my my my purview? And if you are, you know, what is it that you could ask for it? Not necessarily body count, but maybe you could ask well, I really actually need some training on this. Is the company be able to support me, right? I would love to have a mentor who could mentor me on that, you know, could you help set that up for me? So this is your opportunity to make an ask because they are asking you something, right? I mean, you don't do that with like every little things, but like, you want to track it and make sure there's sort of like enough evidence that you could go back say, hey, you know, over the past quarter, you have asked me to do these extra things. And I did it and I realized that I really you know, whether you enjoy it or you don't, then is a good way to sort of circle back to half the conversation. So this is sort of like going back to the alignment issues. So this second set of tools that we're going to help you and you're going to actually have time to do it is when Kerry talks about the work squeeze right and and being the working leader
right. So when we talked when I talked about the workload squeeze, right, we have to do our journal. I call it our drill. I'm going to call it for the sake of this conversation. It's your journalism. And then it's what I call the administrative work, right? That's what we as middle managers get stuck doing a lot of the times. So here's a we call it the Eisenhower matrix. So we often confuse the urgent with the important the important with the urgent, right. So this is a decision making matrix to help you prioritize what you should actually be focusing on.
So this is something that you should do every day, in the beginning of the day, or at the end of the day. So this is actually like your daily habit. Because in the beginning of the day, then what you want to prioritize is the urgent and important then what is that to do and has to get done then Are you the manager or are you the worker bee the urgent important to do is like your like your work, like there's things that you just have to do. Right? That's really like your work at the moment. So that in the beginning of the day, you know like these are the things that you have to get done. Right like you need to assign five story or you need to sub in and write this brief or you need to like go edit something right even though that might not be your job. So this is your like to do list of the day.
Like what's that has like a time time deadline on it probably that will probably fall into that into that box that you have to get it done by XYZ time. That urgent important, not urgent, but it's important, right? And those are the things that you put in there like I have to plan that you have to plan for.
So what is your mindset at that point? Are you the worker Are you believe in?
Yeah, so as leader you want to give your time to plan, not play more work for yourself right but like plan like strategy like plan like you know what is the like the the longer outcome, right? So every single day you want to think what is the thing that
you want to plan? You want to plan your messaging, right? That could be something that good how you're going to mess up something that might be coming up or that you guys are gonna play out or look ahead to and you want to think about what you want that rollout to look like. Then we talked about urgent but not important so if it falls into this box of urgent not important. You have to ask yourself, is it something that I can delegate right
what about when you're managing are already super busy?
Yeah. So what about when all the people you're managing are super busy? And so it might not be important, but if you don't do it, it's not gonna get done.
It's a battle that I have every day. And ask
yourself, and we have essays a second to could help you answer that question.
Right? I mean, there are there gonna be people like who and this is about knowing your folks like there are some people who are always so busy but there are they really, are they really right? And then they're the people who are like working and working and working and and and you know that they need a break. So just knowing your people knowing how much it is what their skill level is. So that you're you're able to sort of navigate I'm like, or you know, maybe you split up if you can split the task and have one like hey, why don't you two guys work together and do that so having them partner might help alleviate some of that.
And also think about I always feel guilty to like, like, I don't want to give them any more work. So I just might as well do it and I'll stay up till midnight instead. I get it. But also, are you actually when we think about delegating is not necessarily giving them more work, but are you giving me an opportunity, an opportunity to challenge themselves because a lot of times people will be like well I'm not feeling challenged or you know, it's funny because I think that sometimes about some folks on my team but and I'll just crack a joke with the other day the person said they were talking about our weekends, and they're like I went to see the Barbie movie twice. Like who has time to go see the Barbie you have that much time clearly. Like that was a wake up call to me. I'm like I'm here thinking you're super busy, but you've had time to go see the movie twice. So maybe I need to reevaluate whether I really you know, we're maybe we're thinking of it and we're setting up ourselves in that mindset, but they actually do have the space and they want the opportunity to delegate so maybe try to not overthink it and think that present when they are returned in the day care, then you can as a team reevaluate whether or not it's really the right thing for them to be doing yes or no here.
I find myself in those situations. Yeah. I thought that
was really
important more so I will say in this scenario is really tricky, right because your boss might say these two things are urgent, but you know, what is important and what's not important? So the question you ask yourself when it's not important, but urgent is to delegate but what expectation you setting is good enough, just good enough. Right? Because I do think we have that mindset of perfection in the journey in journalism, right? Like again, I'm I'm not like dogging earnings story. They are important for a lot of people. But you really don't need to spend like five hours reporting like the third quarter earning for Apple like, you know, like, they either make money they don't write like, there's a few reasons, but you know, there are people like you might just think like, I'm going to pour my heart out and write the most beautiful quarterly earnings story possible. But you know what like this like is, is that what you should be doing like it's urgent, but is it the most important thing? And if it's not important, you know it? Right. And the question for the night important is not important to who? Right? Is it not important to the audience not important to the organization? So I think that's when you want to adjust is like when good enough is good enough? Because literally when I was working in the Miami Herald when I was the the visual editor, I was driving everyone crazy with things. Okay, okay, you're piko who is not aligned this is not perfect. It turned out that no one else but me notice the stuff and if no one else notice it then why am I driving everyone crazy? Like that's literally not urgent or not important? Right? So literally, I just eliminate it. Like, I'm just like, you know, what, if I'm the only one who see it, like it's not the end of the world and I come up with the question, which is like a does it? Would it cause a correction for the Miami Herald? Would it embarrass us? If the answer is NO and NO, then I've just feel like then that's good enough. Like really, that's the two questions you have to ask is like, do you have to do a retraction? Would it be like embarrassing?
Thank you This is great. I use this as well in sort of my productivity thing. And one of the things I try to be really specific about Is it urgent or important that I make progress or that I finish it, because sometimes, it's just needs to make some progress today, versus it actually has to get done today. And I don't know maybe it's just a me thing. But I often feel like I have to finish the entire thing because it is important and urgent. But sometimes that's not necessary.
Like homework as managers right now. We only call them homework. Right? Like and you know what homework is? Important and what homeworks it's just like, you just need to clock it in, because no one else is going to be ready. And if you just turn in a draft and you're already ahead of the game, right? So like you just have to be able to evaluate, like all of that and then the eliminate is like, and that's really a question right? Like if it's not important or urgent like why actually Why are you doing it? It's so in here you want to seek clarity of why we're doing something that is not important and not urgent. It might be something really wonky. Like that like is a legacy thing that like some customer is paying some money. For and you just don't know it. And so that you just have to like either accept or you have to ask us like, are we like, Oh, you have to do the costs. Cost work analysis, right? Like, if you spending a whole you know, like 10 hours doing this and the 10 hours would cost you like, hypothetically, let's say like $2,500 right in terms of resources, and you're only making 1000 Back then you have to have a conversation with your managers like is this the best use right or, or should this be like freelance somewhere or like something else and to have a better like, profit margin for them, right? So that's a good conversation, the urge, you know, when you I always say, like, do this before you try to escalate up to your manager, like to make them decide because often, like your manager have like a bunch of things on their plate and they probably don't want to deal with this. Right? And so, you know, in some ways, like you want to pre make the judgment, but you can flag them like, Hey, this is a decision I'm making. Let me know if you feel otherwise.
I always prefer to hear someone coming in the room. Instead of dropping out on my plate but actually saying, I think this this is what we should do rather than like, making me make the decision because it just tells me you don't want to do which then asked me that. Why are you leading a team there was a hand of this table
just to kind of, well, I'm not sure that just because it's important doesn't mean that you can't delegate it if it's both urgent and important. Because especially you know, if you have a team with a bunch of different skill sets, there may be somebody on your team who can get that done faster and better than you. And so that's just something to keep in mind with something like this, that just because it is urgent and important, doesn't mean that you can't delegate it or it might be something that just with your schedule, like you won't be able to get to it until the afternoon but if you touch in with a teammate, who has time that morning, maybe they can get that cranked out and you can take a quick look at it before it's presented or whatnot.
No, that's true. That's true. So it's a great idea of again, and also I when you look at the plan box, because if you're planning ahead, then that gives you more opportunity to delegate right so everything is not a fire drill. Because then if you're planning it, then you can pick from that list and be like okay, if I am planning it, it's not urgent than I can give them and I don't have to feel guilty about giving them something because then I can put a deadline on that. Of next Friday, rather than right now.
yourself as a manager, you should always take that walk, right, but you have to develop. So this is sort of like the how we managed to do everything and you don't have to think that you're doing the most important version of it and not really have the best use of your time.
I just wanted to share that. I think shared terminology of expectations is sometimes really helpful in this kind of like mental math that we have to do like Paul, you were saying sometimes it's just good enough and that's what it is. And that's where I think product thinking has really influenced me. Like I've taught my whole team even though I'm on the newsroom side. I've taught my whole team won an MVP is a minimal viable product. So we can say, hey, we're going for an MVP here. We're not going for the moon. Like this is what this is how good it needs to be. It just needs to be publishable or it just needs to run it doesn't need to have all the bells and whistles right away.
Yeah, and it's also good to like, I know that we have some really tough news cycles. I mean, in DC the other day, it was just like, we had the Trump environment indictment and that was a crazy day for us. And then like three days later, we had severe weather. And I could just tell on my team's face that they were like, do not throw one more thing at me. And I literally I didn't totally come out and say it but I did you know at the top of our meeting be like, it's okay if we just get through today. You know, like I let everyone know and my way of like, we just need to get on air right everything needs to be clean. And you know, because I could just see on their faces they had had enough so we need to be able to call like, we're gonna we're just gonna get up there
with me for that day.
Yeah, I had a question and it plays in the last slide, but I think I'm looking at this one as well. So we're in this probably sounds familiar. A lot of times with urgency. We'll have the some of our like for middle managers, for example, and we'll be on the team's channel and our boss will just drop a note in there and tag us for and say, This has to get done. This is urgent and then just drop it and like so we're all like kind of like, okay, well who's doing it or how are we going to decide like you four figure it out. I'm done. I've dropped it in here. And a lot of times, five hours later, nobody did anything. And then we're all getting yelled at or whatever, or the same person keeps doing it because they realize they don't want that situation five hours later. I don't know if you have any advice for that. I mean, what I want to say is, you know quit doing it that way but like how you were talking about you know, being afraid sometimes to stand up and so it's just a whole toxic situation. Question in the last two, yeah. Okay.
So this one, we encourage you to do this monthly. So the two that we have the Ivan how a matrix president is and how I use this right. So that's why it happened. So this is the idea how you should do it daily beginning of the day, or at the end of the day to plan for the next day. This is what I encourage managers or managers to use. Right so this is again, like going back to the mission talk to make this a full book negotiating with key management, how do you actually apply for it? But you have to quickly find what the impact that currently provides whatever resources impact would be, whether it is what is the ROI that you and your companies have agreed on. So this is something that you do find something that is low effort and low impact. Like you want to avoid that as much as possible by so that could be an opportunity for someone new. But that is not you to sort of take up that challenge or that something that you should just eliminate altogether. Right. So what are those, right? And then the high impact, low effort variable.
Things that like are really important, but it's, you know, it's not hard to do just, you don't want to spend too much brain cells on the right you don't want to put too much what I like to call you don't want to put you don't want to put too much energy into it. But that's you have to take a true assessment. You know, what your work level is like what you're faced with, but you really just need to sit with it and think about okay, this is high impact, but it doesn't take a lot of
effort, that you want to find a way to economize it and make it the most efficient as possible. So let's say you work on business publication is important for you to cover their quarterly earnings, right, like so it's high impact for your community, but you're not going to put your most beautiful writing on this. You might just want to think about how to get this done in the quickest possible way. Or even should I be talking to my AI and have them do it right. So you want to think about high impact low effort. This is something that you should check you to figure out what is the least friction path. Least Marygrove are basically
all right, things that don't have a lot of impact, right. And this is where we have to get honest right? As in our organizations we have plus sometimes we feel like we don't have enough resources, but we're spending a lot of time on right. You know, and it also is okay to kind of talk through this with your team as you try to come up with this on a monthly basis because it'll also help you figure out, you know, what are people really spending their time on and does that really have an impact on our consumers? Like we were having a conversation in our organization recently like about our LinkedIn page? And, you know, someone in sales was saying, you know, we would be best if our LinkedIn page was more robust, and we had all these things and we're like, who's working on it? And someone brought up and they're like, but how does that help us recruit consumers? Does that directly affect our ratings? It doesn't. But you know, the sales department had a different take on that. They're like, well, if our potential clients see that our business is thriving, so they have more of a have a stake in it that we did, right? So I'm just kind of like, oh, it's somebody else can do it. And it's just being honest. I'm like, Why should we spend time on this one? It's, so we were having honest conversations. So I get high effort, low impact. Think about what department or unit really it really affects
me is raining they did have an urgent needs to light back into your mission. Right because you're impacting effort. It's different than a different departments separated pathway. So very much newsroom, right. Like her effort is that it's about engaging the audience telling the story, which is very different than advertising, right. And their, their effort is about bringing in businesses so you can see like open up to seeing that you have to be really clear, have a really good definition of what means like basically what is the meaning what is the criteria for effort, impact, and urgency and importance.
And this model also gives you an opportunity to you know, speak up for your team and where they're spending their time as well right when you're able to assess it and have it right in front of you. And then again, something that's a high impact we know and high effort, you know, that should be the number one thing on our list that we are putting our best people on that we're spending the time on that we're messaging, that this is important, right because that's all part of this. Going back to what is our mission. When we identify that we have a clear message it's a clear vision, and everybody is moving in the direction that we want them to.
But if you could only do one because let's be realistic, you don't have you don't have obviously, unless anyone worked for like a big place like New York Times or like NBC Nashville, you're not gonna have an army of people to do 10 impact, I have heard things right. So this is actually a fundamental choice. And you can make a major, major manager by recognizing that they could be competing high demand high effort heard of the organization saying Wait, what you want to do is actually help make a decision like that easier. Right? So you know, I was like 10 that usap for the three that we identified, but which one is actually the most important? Because each one of them is going to cause efforts in different ways, like money resources. And so as that has been sort of like the middle, you have to help your manager, your boss to get the most informed decision possible. I can tell you that most of the managers I don't know any, I don't really I don't know anything about anything, right, like your manager. This is because the further away from them to the frontline work, sort of like the more this has been happening in the process. So it's your job to actually help them come make an informed decision was that you shouldn't assume that like what this person did my job like, you know, five years ago, five years is a long time. Like technology change like you know that tag manager like lived in a golden era of journalism where like money is being spent like, like there's no limit, right? But then you have to like grounded in reality and help them make an informed decision that you have to be the one you have. Any questions about this? So this is a tool that you should and you should sit with your manager and to do that. So that you know, like, there's only one thing that you should prioritize all your energy and effort is that there's no confusion of what that is. And this is also like a weekend associate like what is it that when manager always like to cut back on some leadership training but okay, we're gonna do like, let's let's start something let's stop something. Let's continue something and then you realize that by way of what the stop list is like two items for the continue list seem to be like the same. But then now you add it like 15 things on the stock list.
That doesn't make sense, right? So you want to again, you want to help them make an informed decision.
And finally to answer the question is as middle management again, you're the one keep the ship running right after you cannot assume the manager will actually be helpful in terms of helping you move the ship because they might be in a different space doing different things. Again, you don't have the complete picture, right? So you can assume like what do you do with as a tie, like maybe in the back end, to try to figure out how did they get that like raise how they could, you know, illuminate something that knowing how they could secure a vendor who helps you can like assume what they doing, you know, you know by so likely that like, I don't know if this person's gonna be eating all day long. Right, like so you can assume like, yeah, a lot of meetings but not you to outcome but it's a bunch of relationship that gets to Sunday. So this is basically the last year that you need to again, visualize.
Back Yeah, so um, so we all work through humans, right? And so our relationships matter. And so when you're thinking about the relationships not only with the people who are working directly underneath you, and cultivating that, but the your peers that are doing similar jobs to you, and then the people above you have to have an idea of who is going to be your ally in the work that you need to do who is going to be more than an ally, but who is going to be your accomplice in that work, right? So you know who's going to be willing to help? So you're going to have people who you have identified as folks who will be supportive right, like who are always asking questions, and but some folks are not going to be able to help on some points are so like when you have tasks that you have, that you need done on your big list of to do, right you you think about if somebody's willing to help enable, then you let them do it. Don't feel guilty. Just say thank you, and move on. Right? Now you're gonna have folks who are willing to help but unable to and unable to could mean, again, sort of the person's like, Oh no. I don't think I can do it right. Or you're gonna have folks who are just completely or not able to as in not not having the technical savvy to do it, or are just unable because they're just overworked. So you have to evaluate what that means. And then make choices. So like, we were talking about, like, you know, unable maybe they there's a section of something that they can do, so you might want to try that.
But also just try and figure out and learn from that stuff.
Posting to keep like, I would think a real challenge because you might not be able to help me with this. But sometime in the future, you will be able to help me something else. So
this grid is actually
a dynamic, right? And so you'll have people who are going to be unwilling to help but actually able to, and so those are those hard conversations. And so I think at that point, you're sort of taking apart what they actually have on their plate, having them tell you and go over things with you. So maybe eliminating some superfluous stuff that they might be like bogged down in and then being able to add on to their plate even though they they thought they didn't have time but they actually
do. So for
German your question. Here, when your manager slightly I need something that is for people. So sometimes I will use a framework
is willing
and able to help extend a consensus, and maybe it's a trade because let's say you don't want to do this thing that you don't like, you might be doing a better job. Then you can make a swap. It's like hey, you know what, if you're willing and able to do this, I am willing and able to do that. Right? So that is a win win situation.
Yeah,
I agree. But should he confront his boss and be like, Well, yeah, it's pretty
shitty for him not to say anything. But um, but so but the thing is, is that somebody has to initiate that conversation. Somebody has to be willing to in that slack to say, okay, so who's going to do this? Like I have this amount of time this is what I have on my plate. So you if you were transparent, like Twala saying in that moment, then other people you've given permission for other people to be transparent. So like having that conversation I think is started I've had I've been on the ball with both of my bosses on a slack call. And the editor was just like, oh, and talking about this thing that we should do. And I'm just like, who's we? Like, is it you? Is it me? Or is it you know, the other boss on the call, like, Who are you thinking about doing this? And he's like, Oh, well, I could do it. I'm like, that's not what I'm asking you. I'm asking you. Who has time to do it like and let's figure it out together. What's the thing one minute? Oh, one minute, okay. I can be done with that. Because yeah, I mean, ever like, I mean, it's, it's a, but just, it's knowing your people and knowing what they're capable of, like all of them and doing some really active listening. And I think that's important, so that you're able to fill out these grids and make the decisions that give you clarity.
So to review, this is about relationship who can help you get all your
stuff done.
This is basically a monthly plan that you have to work with your boss who has read and alignment. This is a daily thing that you should be doing so that you don't feel like you're drowning in my work, right. This is more strategic right is your like, like MOU with the manager on what is sort of like your job, right? Why that is? Important because
of the 10 items.
All right. Thank you for coming.
Yeah, appreciate good questions. We'll see that Nicole Hannah Jones. Yeah, of course. She always like she's
okay. I think I'm gonna go running yet
No, not yet. Thank
you you worked
at a level
you I don't want my card on me.
year or six months they like okay
all right. And you
all right. Nice meeting you. Take care of
it's so so like the conversation you guys needed and so what's your take it out of like
the price, so stay with me. I taught you to be alignment. Only people you have to find out. Why do you care to get out? And yeah
you guys are like the hub that's what everybody else
so that's actually a really good that's actually really
exciting because that means that the good thing about my manager you don't know
what they were they do know what they don't want to invest. So you even have so you can actually put all your money.
If you just want a few them out you don't put all your effort
