Lauding our Leaders

As I sifted through the numerous nominations for our “Best Bosses” cover story, I thought back to the men and women I have worked under to consider how many of them would make good candidates for such a distinction. I conjured up the names and accompanying mental images, meeting with mixed emotions. A few made me shudder to recall their tyranny, narcissism, stupidity and lack of human decency. Many others were OK, but didn’t stand out as best-boss material. Then there were people like Joel, my editor at the first newspaper I worked at after graduating from college.

When Joel made a story assignment, he would seemingly drone on about the approach I should take and all of the background information he thought I needed. When I turned in copy, he would often rewrite it or ask numerous questions that I felt were unnecessary. And then, after he showed me the final version, he would offer suggestions to improve my reporting and writing in the future. His approach truly bothered me because, after all, I had been an accomplished reporter and editor at my university publication, and I surely didn’t need his overblown advice or the heavy handed manipulation of my magnificent prose.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but Joel was about the best boss I ever had.

Joel took a cocky, inexperienced kid (that would be me), and spent a lot of time teaching me the craft of journalism. He could be relentless in his lessons. But he was patient, even-tempered and never belittled me, even when my work was substandard and I probably deserved to have my wings clipped. His goal was to publish the best newspaper he could, week after week, but to do so had to make sure that I and my colleagues did our best. He also recognized that if he taught us properly, we might pass along our knowledge to future reporters the same way he did.