Why Good Girls Don't Get Ahead_. But Gutsy Girls Do - Kate White [32]
PUSHING THE RIGHT BUTTONS
A sound bite captures people's imagination. But in order for your employees to feel motivated to fulfill the mission, they have to have some kind of personal investment in it.
Nancy Brinker believes you need to appeal to the right brain, not the left brain. “Make people feel your mission personally. Often it helps to tell a story. I told the story of my sister over and over.”
Certainly it will help if people feel there's something in it for them. That doesn't necessarily mean bonuses and perks, however. It may just be the thrill or prestige of being involved in working on a terrific project. In magazines, editors love to work on projects and articles that have stature, that have the potential for impact, because ultimately that stature rubs off on them.
BEWARE OF THE NAYSAYERS
Practically the moment you get your vision out of your mouth, there will be a naysayer waiting eagerly to bully it and possibly knock it to the ground. Don't take it personally. Naysayers and doomsayers exist and thrive everywhere. Some of their favorite expressions are:
• “We tried that and it didn't work.”
• “It will never fly.”
• “Management hates that sort of stuff.”
A good girl has a hard time handling naysayers. Her natural instinct is to foster cooperation and consensus and so she is likely to be bothered by their comments and let them influence her thinking and her actions. Of course, when you're developing your mission, it's critical to listen to people's concerns and reservations, but once you're sure of where you have to go, you can't let the sourpusses hamper you.
Your first goal with a naysayer is to try to convert her, to get her personally invested.
If you can't convert, then you must dilute the strength of the naysayer's grousing—otherwise it will plant doubts in the minds of your other employees. A terrific editor-in-chief once told me that she noticed at her magazine that over time a few of the people in each department developed a cynical attitude about what was possible in their areas. To combat this she often invited editors from other areas to certain departmental meetings, to give a breath of fresh air and offer up ideas that people in the department had long ago convinced themselves would “never work.”
If a naysayer won't give up, you will have to get rid of her. It's not that she simply puts a damper on your meetings—or even on your day. She may, without your realizing it, be undermining all your efforts.
Not long after I got to McCall's, I hired an entertainment editor whose primary experience had been working at artsy publications, but she had lots of contacts in the entertainment business and seemed game to make a go of it at a more commercial publication like McCall's. Over time it became clear that she favored the more “intellectual” celebrities and looked down her nose at those best-selling crowd pleasers like Diana, Princess of Wales. She also began to develop the point of view that most celebrities didn't want to pose for McCall's. I'd say, “Why don't we see if we can get so-and-so,” and she'd reply, “I'm sure she'd never do it.” I'd just laugh and say, “Well, let's try, shall we?” Eventually, it seemed that more and more celebrities were turning us down. The excuse this editor usually gave was that celebrities thought our covers were too busy or “junky,” because of the large cover lines and the photo insets we occasionally relied on. It was clear by the way she spoke that she wasn't so wild about the covers herself.
After she left, she was replaced by two editors working in tandem, and you know what? Gradually more and more celebrities seemed to want to be on the cover and no one complained about the look of our covers. Maybe it was pure coincidence, but I couldn't help but wonder if this editor's dislike of our covers and belief that no one would want to appear on them had come through in her conversations with agents.