Learning to be the leader

I am not in any way the "boss" at The Jewish Advocate. We all answer to the publisher and when I called him the boss he denied it. He pointed his finger skyward and said, "He's the boss."

I am the editor which means my staff writer and my team of freelancers have to work to my specifications, but for the most part that means it has to be interesting, timely, and have a Jewish angle. The hardest part is wading through the emails and publicist pitches, most of which I can't use. (Indeed, many of which are just cluttering up my inbox. Does anyone really think The Jewish Advocate is going to be covering a production of "A Christmas Carol?")

However in our group office -- which covers editorial, production, and sales -- I find that I am looked at as the leader in the sense of setting the tone for the office. We have to work together every day and when I make it easy for the placement of an ad it means that when I can't they know I'm not being difficult, I really can't. When we trade leads -- I'm interested in potential stories; they're interested in potential clients -- it makes cooperation the order of the day. When I prove flexible in terms of layout I also learn something important from our production person.

This is a new role for me and I try to stay conscious of it so I can maintain the office as a place where people get along and work together. It helps that I'm surrounded by movie buffs.

Today I brought in latkes to share for Chanukah and as not everyone here is Jewish, it was a new treat for them. I'm not trying to win any popularity contests, although everyone is pretty happy today. I'm trying to treat everyone as I'd like to be treated, which follows along with the variation of the "Golden Rule" espoused by Rabbi Hillel many centuries ago.

How appropriate for The Jewish Advocate.