When I'm wrong.

This past week has had some great leadership lessons for those of us who made decisions every day.

Bill Belichick gambled and lost last Sundays's game against the Colts.  Les Miles (LSU) couldn't get his field goal team on the grass quickly enough Saturday and blew a chance to win against Ole Miss.  Notre Dame's Charlie Weis is probably facing the end after his team lost AT HOME in double overtime to Connecticut (who? what?!).  Mark Mangino, a man who had the Kansas Jayhawks at the Orange Bowl a couple of years ago will be fired as soon as those in charge can figure out an exit stategy.

All of these men have been at the top of their game.  And they've made incredibly bad decisions.  How they handle their mistakes is up to them.

How I handle mine has changed since I first became a news manager.

I've always been pretty decisive.  But I'm not always right.  In fact...if TV news was baseball and I was a batter, I'd be in the Hall of Fame for making correct decisions five out of ten times.  Nobody bats .500 forever.

There are no flawless bosses. Even the great ones have their quirks. But the best bosses I've had have also been self-deprecating sometimes.  Admitting faults.  Admitting wrong decisions.

Local news is not baseball.  Running a newsroom is much harder than baseball. 

I am demanding.  I have high standards and I don't like my team to make avoidable mistakes.  But we do.  Every newsroom does.

So when I make a mistake, I try to be very overt about it.  I say I screwed up.



I wish I'd learned this lesson earlier in my career.