I just got back from a trip to New York City and New Jersey to have meetings with all the various folks that work in front of and behind the scenes on our “content” (Notice, I do not say books!) I met with new potential authors, current authors, agents, consultants, sales, marketing, publicity and public relations. One thing I love about this job that has never changed since I got started in the mid 1990s is that I get to talk with really smart people about ideas that apply not only in business…but beyond it. How do we make things better? We approach this through a few lenses: leadership, management, innovation, and strategy are often the main ways. Often these categories overlap or are intertwined. As the literature and the readers evolve there is always a new twist, based on research or some new business experience or example or both.
When I first started as an editor I had to think twice about becoming a “business” editor. I was a liberal arts kind of person. I didn’t have an MBA and frankly I had been bit suspicious of “business.” I had worked mainly for nonprofits and I was not sure I believed that those working for a profit focused company really meshed with my values. As I debated about applying my skills in this topic area our editorial director then (now president) Debra Hunter said (and I paraphrase) “You work in a business, this place is a laboratory to apply these ideas and test them. What better environment?” And she was right. Businesses are where most people work – spending a third of their day or more. Business is where people lead, grow, and make the world a better (or worse place.) I knew that Jossey-Bass’ type of business publishing was not really focused only on the decision sciences – but really was about how do you work effectively with others? Over ten years ago I became a manager and led a team. I began to understand that for many of our books, I was the audience, I was the reader. I got to see if this stuff worked – could I apply it?
Professionally, nothing has been harder work than managing and leading. When I had kids five years ago I shed my management responsibilities for awhile and became an individual contributor. Now I am recently back to officially managing and hopefully leading. Like our readers I face the same issues of how to make things happen, how best to encourage collaboration, what to do when there is conflict, how to build a team…etc. The older I get the more I realize there is not one right answer or two sides to the issue at hand. There are often 20 right answers (and maybe 20 wrong…) and 20 sides to the story. This is why when people wonder why there are so many books (or content!), say, on leadership (not another leadership book?! What is left to say?!) I know I am in the right field. Plenty more can be said. As long as folks are struggling to figure out solutions we need more ideas and more conversations about what to do and how to do it.
