Tomorrow's Leadership
By Bill Boyd, The Poynter Institute

Bill Boyd is an associate in leadership and management. This article originally appeared in the May 1997 issue of Presstime and was based on a speech to the New England Newspaper Association.

People often identify leaders through visions they articulate, but rarely focus on the questions they ask. Starting with the premise of Harvard University government professor Ronald Heifetz in Leadership Without Easy Answers that you can lead with just a question, I want to raise three groups of leadership questions: one about the personal example you provide, one about your underlyiing contract with your employees, and one about the changing needs of your customers. We'll also offer suggestions for places to find answers.

First a warning about choosing questions. Cecil B. DeMille reportedly said he always asked employees for honest opinions, even if it cost them their jobs. "That's right, C.B" became a famous cliche.

Do you expect employees to be creative and share ideas? Or do you want to be told you're always right? How do you respond to unorthodox ideas--are they rewarded, ignored, or punished? Do you hear women, African Americans, or Hispanics differently than people who look like you? For enlightenment, read Deborah Tannen's You Just Don't Understand or Thomas Kochman's Black and White Styles in Conflict.

How do you demonstrate a commitment to lifelong learning? I'll elaborate on this via anecdotes about two Jacks. Which do you resemble: Jack Warner in 1927, as the silent film industry faced sound, asking, "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" Or Jack Fuller, 70 years later in News Values: Ideas for an Information Age, asking, "What would the Tribune Co. of the 21st century have to be doing for us to feel we had left it better than when we found it?" His answer: "We did not think that it was vital that the newspaper continue to be embodied in ink on paper"

Warner saw few possibilities; Fuller saw many. To explore this concept, try John Kao's Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Creativity.

A final question relating to your personal example involves showing employees you can do something they have to learn to do. Test yourself by asking "Can I hold contradictory ideas in my head at the same time?" For instance, can you deal with competitors as allies and vice versa? Call it "coopetition"--cooperation and competition, as described in Richard Farson's Management of the Absurd.

Now for the contract between you and employees. Employees have new options and expectations that require changes. It is intellectual capital rather than printing presses that will give competitive advantage in the 21st century. How to get it, keep it, and derive benefit will be a challenge.

The first question: What are you doing to help those terrified of being left behind by technology? A recent U.S. News & World Report documented that 44 percent of Americans harbor that fear. My experience suggests that it plagues a higher percentage of newsroom employees. If they are in panic, how can they help the public adapt?

Thus, the second question: Do you know how much your company invests in training employees? Top companies spend $2,400 to $3,000 annually.

The last question in this group: How do you remove unnecessary stress from your organization? Such stress comes from mindless tasks, meaningless paperwork, and poorly run meetings. Read Brain Power by Thomas Stewart to find out more.

Finally, how will you meet changing needs and expectations of customers? This is important when increasingly they do not look like you or see the world as you do. Are you providing the interactivity they expect via easily searched databases of ads, news, and information? Are you showing them that you value their business by listening to them, changing in response to them and remembering next time? Others use that approach to move from an era of churn to one of enduring and mutually profitable relationships. Read Don Peppers' Enterprise One to One.

One final question from the illustrious Peter Drucker, "What are you going to do on Monday that's different?"