What am I learning?

A great question posed…

Here’s some great words I’ve heard from people I admire and thoughts I’ve had over the last few months.

Managing a team of diverse people, with different styles of shooting and with different backgrounds isn’t easy. As a visual leader in the newsroom it’s about finding what works for the team in its entirety while working to unify the team players. A leader should find the strengths of individuals on the team, challenging them with new assignments, opportunities, and ways to think about their work. When the paper writes the “its hot, we’re short on lifeguards” story every summer for 35 years, how do you keep your senior staff member engaged? The visual editors role is unique in it has to find a balance with every other team in the newsroom and also find a balance within its staff of photographers. It’s an incredibly challenging role and not everyone is cut out to do it. The successful leaders know how to balance both.
Don’t be the peace keeper, be the peace maker. People talk, they’re always going to talk and you can perpetuate the talk or you can nip it at the source. Know when to hold your tongue, know when to speak up about an issue. When you’ve got two sides of the same team talking to you about a dividing issue, empathize and challenge the thought process. Don’t cheer for one half of the team, but for the whole team.
Keep your head down and your feet moving. Inevitably you and your team will have a lot to do- that is the nature of the industry. Get your head out of the clouds of what’s the next chapter and focus on what you’re doing right now. What areas do you want to grow in right now? What things can you change right now to be better? Make the most of the present so that you can achieve those long term dreams you’ve got, you’ve still got to do the work now to get there.
Stop caring about what others think, show up authentically as yourself. Your creative and visual voice is unique and should shine through in your work. People know a lot and will give you unsolicited advice about what to do or direction of how they want you to shoot the photo. That doesn’t mean it’s always good advice or direction. Absorb what is applicable and keep moving. Listen to your gut on big decisions.