I just returned from a two-week road trip in Europe—Lyon, France, to Bern, Switzerland for Thanksgiving, and back to Paris for several days of exploring, art and Christmas Markets. It was awe-inspiring for Todd and me, and I finally saw the Alps, which was top of my bucket list for decades, and I learned vital history like detailed stories of the French Resistance to the Nazis and their own horrific appeasing Vichy government (ahem) at a Lyon museum in the old Gestapo headquarters. It was very us.
Every bit of the trip was awe-inspiring. But not least was my ability to fully disappear from my work at the Mississippi Free Press, set an auto-responder redirecting all communications for the first time and do absolutely no work. So, this is what a vacation is supposed to be like, I quipped to Todd while kicking back on a red chaise in our Lyon AirBNB in a 16th-century building in the old town there, listening to music and planning our sightseeing agenda. Last year’s England/Wales vacation was nearly this blissful with very little work communications, but this one was the real deal.
There is one single reason for this: a newsroom filled with amazing people who care about each other and how we work together, and that includes our leaders. Every member of this growing team grew up in Mississippi, except for reporter Shaunicy Muhammad of Mobile, Ala., and that’s so close that we claim her. These days, I don’t leave town wondering what might go awry; I believe nothing will due to their spirit and leadership. No one is here to game the system or figure out how not to work, or shoot arrows at each other.
Every team member embraces our systems—mainly GroupMe, Basecamp, Bloomerang and Google Suite—to communicate well and to support their colleagues and the mission. And I have to smile when I say that not a single reporter complains about our use of HighRise to log our source communications as we go and maintain a shared address book, and not a single one would ever declare that they are too good to check in on GroupMe to let the team know where they are and what they’re doing. They plan who is covering for them when they’re out. They plan, assign and solve problems without my input or direction. They show continual respect for others and our readers.
And let’s be honest: Those “too good” (someone actually used that phrase to me once) to use the systems typically are hiding something, or a lot of somethings, so there’s that reality. I learned this the hard way.
Learn From Every Mistake
All MFPers know that we embrace systems in order to make all our lives easier, and they get why we discourage procrastination, as in puttering all day and working into the night. We pay overtime including to our reporters, but they can’t display those habits. I’ve watched far too many people over the decades get mad at and blame everyone around them for their own inability to sit down and finish their work on time, thus disrupting team members’ plans and schedules without caring. Some of these meltdowns over issues they needed to address themselves lasted long after they moved on, resulting in dishonest attempts to blame leaders and the organization rather than simply reading a book on reversing procrastination like most of the rest of us have.
Publisher Kimberly Griffin and I like to say that we started the Mississippi Free Press in 2020 using all the lessons we’d learned from years of running the Jackson Free Press, both about our own leadership practices and style and about how to recruit, hire and, yes, fire when needed to maintain a good, mutually respectful team with no one who just ignores someone saying “good morning” or asking them a question. (We all know this rudeness can be a thing and that some folks are constitutionally unable to apologize over rudeness.) It took members of my own staff who still work with me to tell me years ago that sometimes someone needs to go because they’re making everyone miserable.
Heard. Let go. Help them leave if needed. Wish them well. Don’t block the door.
The people, of course, who have worked with us a long time (several in the double digits of years) now model how to work as part of a high-level team: the attitudes, spirit, respect, embrace of good systems, and devotion to recognizing and fixing our own stuff. This applies to leadership: I worked with an executive coach several years back when my management style needed boosting, and it probably kept me in journalism leadership. Although sometimes I wonder how many books I would’ve written by now had I left. But I’m glad I didn’t. Yet.
Let’s be honest: None of us are perfect and shouldn’t be judged by the belief that we should be, especially by anyone who believes perfection means stroking others’ egos and withholding feedback. Two of my own lessons I like to share with our team is, first, learn from every mistake and every bit of criticism, whether it’s true or fair. Divorce yourself from any negative intent and ask what is useful in it, even if only to never do that to anyone else yourself. But if most of us are honest, we’ll admit that there is usually at least a grain of truth in every critique. And if it’s from a jerk, you never have to talk to them again—but still can absorb the damn lesson.
The second lesson that we insist on from our staff is closely related if a bit cliché: Develop and maintain a growth/learning mindset throughout life. None of us know everything; most if any of us haven’t been taught everything we need.
As a child of uneducated parents, I had to seek out knowledge and advice to get to every next step in life, and I love, love, love learning including ways to be a better person and leader, as well as chasing historic and other knowledge daily. It is absolutely OK, I’d say imperative, to look for growth devotion in the people you surround yourself with: interview and listen for curiosity and recent lessons an applicant has learned. If none comes to mind, well, look for someone else. I can give a laundry list of answers on a minute’s notice to the lessons question, and I’m pretty sure our whole team can as well.
The Joy of Asking and Learning
On that note, I have to call out our new business manager, Cynthia Howard, a native Jacksonian who attended Kimberly’s high school, Callaway. A long-time accountant but new to nonprofit media, Cynthia came in the door asking questions. She’s almost gleeful as she picks up the phone to call QuickBooks or one of our myriad advisers about the best way to do something. She just radiates the joy of asking and learning—and her uplifting, focused spirit permeates the office.
Cynthia started right before my vacation, and when I returned I found her in her transformed, organized office, and she barely had any questions for me. Why? Because someone else had answered them. Leaders know how significant this is.
We have grown rapidly since our March 2020 launch precisely because of our people, most of whom followed us from the Jackson Free Press. Right now, we have notices out for four new positions (state reporter, development director, executive assistant and now an environment reporter through Report for America). As I watch newsroom after newsroom lay off people—I’ve managed to never lay off a person even through harder times at the JFP—I’m very grateful for what we’ve built here brick by brick on top of lessons we’ve learned over the years.
I tell funders that our secret sauce is our people because they care so damn much about our state, our mission, our organization and each other. No one is here just for a gig or just to win awards (although that happens plenty).
We’re here to build a very special, innovative, inclusive news organization that supports our democracy and is focused on broken human systems and solutions through our reporting—and with any luck, modeling to other newsrooms how we’re continuing to experience healthy, careful growth and a team with very little turnover.
There is really only one answer that matters: It’s about hiring, supporting and retaining amazing people. Thank you, MFP team. You are, quite literally, the best.
Please help the Mississippi Free Press keep growing our newsroom and supporting our people with steady raises and opportunities at mfp.ms/donate. Right now, your donations are tripled during our NewsMatch campaign.
