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Larry Olmstead, LEA president, leads National Association of Multicultural Media Executives fellows in a group exercise on developing new media products.

Change - with both the sense of foreboding and excitement about what it could bring - came gusting through the air at the UNITY Convention in Chicago, where more than 6,500 journalists gathered two weeks ago to update their skills and discuss the issues facing the media industry.

While many convention-goers lamented continuing mergers, budget cuts, layoffs, and buyouts at newspapers across the United States, others resolved to find their place in the ever-changing media landscape. Leading Edge Associates led workshops meant to help journalists adjust to the shifting media market.

“Clearly folks are affected and in tune to the fact that the economy is so depressed for the business,” said Toni Laws, executive director for the National Association of Multicultural Media Executives, which held an all-day leadership seminar during the conference. “But I also think there was a sense of determination and a sentiment to move forward and to be among those who create some solutions for the industry.”

Larry Olmstead, LEA president and executive consultant, led a two-hour workshop for NAMME titled “Innovation and the Customer,” to help media managers understand how they can play an active role in the future of the industry by focusing on the needs of readers and creating new markets through innovation.

Olmstead calls out for ideas during an exercise at a workshop on navigating newsroom politics.

“The issue of change and competencies for change management and innovation were essential components that needed to elements of the (NAMME training program),” Laws said. “And Larry, with his knowledge in the business and experience gives us some great insights. And he could certainly relate to the dilemmas and struggles that people are going through, which added value to the program.”

To help front-line workers and editors in the media industry understand how to more effectively communicate with their supervisors, as well as their charges, Olmstead led a workshop on navigating newsroom politics.

“It was a packed room, which as an indication of how we know so little about navigating the political landscape of our own newsrooms, because we’re more focused on just doing our jobs as reporters or photographers,” said Janet Cho, national vice president for print for the Asian American Journalists Association, which organized the workshop at UNITY. “But this is a set of skills that is just as important in understanding how to be a more valuable employee and a team player.”

The most valuable lesson that came from the two-hour workshop, Cho said, was, “When (Olmstead) talked about the importance of having the company’s goals in mind first and foremost, not just running into your manager’s office with a problem. And to talk about how this issue fulfills a reporting goal or better serves the readers.”

And for those seeking to reach the upper-most step on the newspaper ladder, Olmstead led a workshop for the Newspaper Association of America titled, “The Path to the Publisher’s Office.” There he moderated a discussion between Mike Kellogg, of Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.; Orage Quarles III, of The News & Observer (Raleigh); and Mi-Ai Parrish, of The Idaho Statesman; and the more than 100 journalists attending the workshop.

Jeanne Fox-Alston, vice president Newspaper Association of America, asks panelists at the “Path to the Publishers Office” seminar: How do you call attention to outside experiences and skills that can be utilized at the newspaper?

Despite the challenges facing the newspaper industry, many aspirants asked how they could communicate their goals through the chain of command and become effective leaders during the ongoing transformation of the newspaper industry.

The biggest challenge facing media managers today is leading in a time of great change, said Jeanne A. Fox-Alston, vice president of talent management and diversity for the Newspaper Association of America.

“Helping one’s staff stay focused and move ahead and remember the tasks at hand is difficult in this period,” Fox-Alston said. “And I would also say that managers of color, I think, are part of the solutions as we move forward in thinking about how to better serve our communities, which are increasingly becoming very diverse.”

Companies are engaged in the race to be faster to market, to find better methods to satisfy customers and to be more profitable. The search for a competitive edge is a daily undertaking in most companies.

Two business solutions that are getting a lot of play in the global business community as key factors in driving sustainable results are strategic diversity and strategic innovation. Let’s take a look at how closely related these two business solutions are.

Strategic diversity is the creation of an inclusive environment that values people and utilizes their wisdom and creativity to achieve results that are aligned with the business drivers and strategies.

Strategic innovation is a process to bring new ideas, new methods or new products to an organization. It is about creating new value and/or capturing value in a new way.

Some key components shared by both business solutions are:

People

Diversity is all about understanding and building relationships with diverse people (employees, customers, communities, networks). Innovation attempts to unleash the creativity of people in search of an idea that might add value and relevance to a company. In his book on innovation, “The Medici Effect,” Frans Johansson provides many examples that support his statement that “Diversity allows different viewpoints, approaches, and frames of mind to emerge.”

Results

Strategic diversity and innovation ultimately are about adding value and getting desired business outcomes. Diversity and innovation working together in an integrated way can get the right people working in the right ways to find new solutions that will drive business results.

Leadership

Innovation and diversity both need leadership that is committed to integrating these two into the everyday business routine. Without the visible leader, credibility of the effort and limits on the potential benefits occur. To champion the national goal of boosting innovation, China’s president pledged to increase overall spending on research and development to $115 billion a year by the year 2020. And with this pledge, companies, both foreign and domestic have responded by investing R&D in China.

Metrics

A challenge for diversity and innovation has been measuring their impact on a business. In the past three decades in diversity work, we have learned that we need an index or several key measurements, the closer the tie to strategic business goals the better. Also, a balance between quantitative and qualitative data presents a clearer picture.

Innovation work is experiencing the same questions and scrutiny. Some metrics in this area are revenue growth from new products, measuring the volume and quality of idea submissions, and patent submissions.

A classic example of measuring diversity and innovation at work is the S&P/BusinessWeek Global Innovation Index, which includes companies such as Apple and Google of the United States, Toyota and Sony of Japan, and Nokia and BMW of Europe. The index has consistently outperformed the S&P Global 100 since 2005 by 5 percent and last year did better by 7 percent. Diversification - of workforce, of leadership, and in this case of corporations - is key to optimizing performance. And innovation is a key defining factor for success.

A. Many of us feel uneasy when we have to negotiate for an organization. Typically that is because bargaining is seen as a win-lose situation in which someone - and you don’t want it to be you - is going to come out on the short end of a contentious confrontation.

It doesn’t have to be that way. We reach informal agreements every day without feeling like losers or winners and without anyone yelling. Friends decide where to eat lunch. A couple works out what color to paint a room. Co-workers shuffle conflicting meeting schedules.

Business negotiations are more formal, have higher stakes, and typically involve people who are relative strangers, at least in the beginning. But success in a business negotiation involves the same things we do instinctively in our personal lives. Taking the time to understand both sides, actively looking for cooperative solutions, and effectively communicating can pay huge dividends.

The basic approach:

1. Gather Information. Before sitting down to talk, you should know as much as you can about what the other side wants and why. How do they do business? What’s important to them? Information-gathering should continue during the negotiation as well. Ask questions. Lots of them.
2. Know Thyself. Develop a deep knowledge of what your organization wants, of how it operates, of its strengths and weaknesses. Having a clear idea of your organization’s value points and of why it works the way it does makes it easier to identify the minimum terms that will make a good deal.
3. Build Relationships. Formal positions alone do not usually create agreement. Understanding each other and establishing trust is essential in working out any deal.
4. Be Open to Wider Solutions. Money usually is everyone’s top concern but it is not the only factor that gets a good deal done.
5. Communicate Effectively. Your research has identified what will be best for your organization and why, and also why certain terms will be acceptable (or better, very positive) for the other side. Now you have to communicate that in a compelling way. Tell a good story, and make sure it is understood.
6. Be Honest. Believing what you say helps your communication and builds that essential element - trust.
7. Don’t Rush. Companies in a hurry seldom get the best terms. If you feel you have to get something signed by next Tuesday, you are giving up critical leverage. Time should be your friend in putting together a good deal.
8. Be Willing to Walk. This is not the same as demanding “my way or the highway” and it should seldom - if ever - be delivered as an ultimatum. Your basic assumption always is that an agreement is possible. But if you stay focused on your organization’s bottom-line needs, you should be prepared to say “no.” It sounds obvious that a deal should not be done if it does not make sense but in practice that simple truth can get lost in the heat of talks.

Mike Williams is a former journalist with more than 10 years experience leading channel management teams and negotiating agreements that generated more than $150 million in revenue for software technology companies. He currently is a consultant in contract negotiation.

Latino Talent: Effective Strategies to Recruit, Retain, and Develop Hispanic Professionals
By Robert Rodriguez
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2008

For hiring and development professionals seeking to learn more about recruiting talented Latinos and their culture, this book is a great place to start. Of course, with all works that attempt to broadly explain any culture, one can challenge definitions and descriptions. Still, Latinos may find themselves agreeing more often than disagreeing when reading Rodriguez’s definitions of Latino culture and the various subgroups comprised in that larger umbrella. It is a good primer.

From a practical standpoint, the book offers useful tips for recruiters. For example, Rodriguez suggests working with organizations that have strong ties to the Latino community, such as the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement or the National Society of Hispanic MBAs, rather than professional event organizers, who hold recruitment fairs for-profit and have minimal ties to Latino communities. He also provides case studies for corporate best practices, such as the 3M Company and DePaul University partnership.

What skills are needed to lead during times of disruptive change? Does your personality and management style match up with those skills?

These questions have become increasingly relevant across industry sectors as organizations confront the digital era.

“The same talents and skills that got you over as a leader 10 years ago, those have totally changed. There are new things that you need to be bringing to the table,” said Larry Olmstead, president and executive consultant for Leading Edge Associates. “If you’re not aware of who you are and what you’re bringing, you’re going to all of a sudden find yourself saying, ‘Hey I was succeeding five years ago and now I’m failing.’”

This is particularly true of the media industry. Last year, Leading Edge released a competency model for transformational leadership in media, developed in collaboration with ASSESS Systems - a psychological assessment company operated by Bigby, Havis & Associates - and the Newspaper Association of America.

The model outlines the skills needed to succeed in the new fast-paced environment. The top four:

1. Vision - identifying strategic goals and championing innovation;
2. Customer focus - identifying customers’ needs and anticipating new markets;
3. Championing change - promoting and implementing change initiatives;
4. Driving results - pushing the organization and self to excel and achieve.

The model was based on a review of research, online surveys and several dozen interviews with leaders in news media and other industries that have experienced organizational transformation.

JoAnn McMillan, chief operating officer of Dallas-based ASSESS Systems, said a competency model is important because “it conveys expectations about what is important in that job.” The model can be used to develop hiring and selection criteria and to help determine an employee’s developmental needs.

While a person’s experiences, education and concrete accomplishments might be easily measured, a person’s innate traits are more difficult to identify. Leading Edge uses ASSESS Systems’s psychological assessment tools to help guide leaders toward a better understanding of how their personality traits and management style match up with the skills needed to lead in the industry today.

One of those tools is the ASSESS Personality Survey, a 350-question, 45-minute assessment that individuals take online. Another is the ASSESS 360 feedback tool, a survey of co-workers, supervisors and subordinates that asks questions about that individual, geared toward the targeted leadership model for the company.

“These tools have been very well received,” Olmstead said. “And the reason they have been is that they give participants some very specific objective feedback and insights, which help them have a good conversation about themselves and others. For most people, that’s a fascinating discussion.”

Olmstead advises managers and individuals to keep in mind that a person’s personality profile is just one facet of a person’s background.

“What we tell people is never to make a decision solely on a personality test,” he said. “It’s just another piece of data.”

The data can be used to help managers determine whether they are good fits for the positions they hold; whether there are other roles they can better play in the company, or whether they need to find ways to compensate for weaker areas.

“If you’re a manager or a leader, those are tough roles,” Olmstead said. “Anything you can get to give you insight on how you can do your job better is good stuff.”

Being shy is often seen as a hindrance to career advancement, but if you’re managing a shy employee, there are ways to get the most out of the person’s performance, while helping more gregarious people to see shyness in a new light.

Mark Shimada, a motivational speaker and performer in Seattle, Wash., says just as race, gender and age are forms of diversity, a shy personality can also be a difference that can offer contributions to the workplace.

“We’d all like to have more observers and good listeners at the table,” Shimada says. “Shy people have often mastered the art of subtleties, and can make connections between things that aren’t readily visible. Managers who are sensitive can invite those people to participate in a way that’s safe.”

Some examples:

• In meetings, go around the table to ask everyone’s opinion. “The echo of viewpoints can reinforce that it’s safe and important to speak up,” Shimada says. “Express appreciation for their thoughts, even if the shy person’s idea is not adopted in the group mindset.”

• Take time to get to know shy employees, and build a level of trust that will allow you to talk about how a person’s shyness is perceived at work.

  “Let them know that they can be seen as not being a team player, or not caring about an issue,” Shimada says. “Shyness can prevent a person from being considered for a leadership position, because no one knows what your point of view is.”

• In social gatherings, introduce the shy person to others, but don’t act as a crutch. Suggest that the employee make it a personal goal to talk to at least one person at the gathering.

• Place shy people strategically in roles where their shyness is a strength, and not a debilitating behavior. Have them be the experts that others need to interact with.

• Create situations where shy people can take a risk, where there is no potential failure.

“I consider myself a quiet person, and I once had a business partner who dragged me out of the office and made me go go-cart racing with him and some others,” Shimada says. “Our working relationship became very different because we shared in that playful experience. I’ve been the person who stands frozen in a party. I can tell people that if you don’t ever take a risk, you’ll never know how much you’re respected and valued.”

A. An 18-year recruiter, I love online networks. I use them all the time. They are fast, effective and pretty much free. But most importantly, that is where to meet the people that digital media need.

My favorite networks are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, a club I created just for Detroit Free Press alumni and staffers, and four traditional blogs where I post about 10 times a week.

Each has its merits.

Facebook keeps up with what people are doing and shows me their networks. I can see when they change jobs or locations, when they have birthdays. And I play Scrabulous with them. It takes just seconds to post, “I am looking for people to fill digital media jobs in Washington, D.C.” That lone sentence immediately attracted several responses, one from somebody, who wanted to connect me to others who might be interested. Many people respond more rapidly to Facebook messages than they do to e-mails. I also created a Facebook group around a print-on-demand book I was publishing, “The Best of Ask the Recruiter.” It brought people on board early, linked them to blogs and an earlier book and helped surface their suggestions.

LinkedIn is the newer but grown-up cousin to Facebook. It is strictly for business. People look for jobs, talent or expertise there. I joined LinkedIn to grow the technology part of my network. My favorite trick on LinkedIn is to find specialists who have not cloaked their own networks. This leads me to others. In one case, a manager let me see everyone on his staff. My network is hidden, of course.

Twitter is crazy. You can post from your keyboard or phone, but you can write only 140 characters. A lot of posts are silly: “Walking the dog.” I follow people who Tweet about innovative technology. As “newsrecruiter” (also the name of my hub, newsrecruiter.com) I post about people getting new jobs in media. It counterbalances all the doomsayers. I’d like to have more time to Tweet new hires.

Believing that former employees can be the best hires or a source of leads, I had always wanted a Free Press alumni newsletter. The work and cost of production and delivery discouraged me. With Ning.com, I created a community for past and present Free Press newsroom employees. Club Freep is almost 50 percent larger than our staff. It was the perfect solution. Freepers e-mail each other, update their profiles, invite people I had lost track of and post pictures and videos. All I do is feed it news about what is going on at home base.

On my blogs, I like the reader comments best. Without questions, my “Ask the Recruiter” column in the Poynter.org Career Center would not even exist. I am really hoping for more comments on a blog I am using to write another book “Listen and Lead.” Suggestions from others would help it immensely. In fact, if you know of a case where listening has led to great leadership, let me know!

My wish for you? That you take 10 minutes to dip your toe into a new online network. You’ll be hooked.

Joe Grimm recruits for the Detroit Free Press and Gannett. He has run the JobsPage career site since 1997, he writes the “Ask the Recruiter” feature for Poynter Online and his sixth book, “The Best of Ask the Recruiter, came out this summer. Contact him at joe.grimm@gmail.com

Retiring the Generation Gap: How Employees Young & Old Can Find Common Ground
By Jennifer Deal
Jossey-Bass, 2007

“The generation gap wasn’t invented in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s - it has existed as long as there have been people.” Those types of common-sense insights form the bedrock of this book, written by Center for Creative Leadership researcher Jennifer Deal and based on a seven-year study. Deal’s conclusions - among them, that the different generations largely share the same values, and that conflict among generations in the workplace often revolves around issues of “clout” - are supported by expert use of the data collected from more than 3,000 respondents. Supervisors and human resources staff will especially appreciate the way the book is organized. For each of her 10 principles, Deal offers data, anecdotes, and suggestions on how to apply the learnings in the workplace. Deal thus has created a rarity - a book about a hot management topic that is based on real data and is useful to boot.

Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism; Seven New Trends That Will Transform How You Work, Live, and Invest
By Patricia Aburdene
Hampton Roads Publishing Company, 2005

With co-author John Naisbitt, Aburdene predicted the shift from an industrial to an information economy in their defining books, Megatrends and Megatrends 2000. With this book, Aburdene makes the compelling argument that the U.S. economy is in the process of shifting from one that emphasized hierarchical leadership models and profit at any cost to a more conscious, spiritually guided paradigm. This emerging paradigm has consumers driven toward more conscientious consumption and investors more greatly rewarding flatter leadership models that focus on “values-driven” and “socially responsible” production. She produces convincing evidence to support her thesis - CEOs who build meditation into the workday, the current trend of “leading from the middle,” the rise of socially responsible index funds, and the move toward “buying green.” But she does so in a somewhat disjointed and repetitive manner.

A. While lightweight cotton suits are standard business fare for summer weather, you don’t have to limit yourself to traditional suits. Suit or no suit, you can beat the heat and still dress professionally. Here’s how:

Layering

The key to any hot-weather outfit is to wear layers. Sure, it may be 100 degrees outside, but when you head into the office, it can get pretty chilly. (Especially if you sit under the AC vent. If you do, sweaters are your friend.) The cropped box jacket gives you an extra layer, and it helps you regulate your temperature as you go from the chilly office to the sunny outdoors and back again.

For men, your best bet is to keep it simple with lightweight long pants, an undershirt, and a button-down shirt. As the temperature rises, you can roll up your sleeves for a cooler and more casual look.

Color Coordination

This outfit is built around the striped tank top, which features shades of yellow and brown on neutrals. The bright yellow skirt picks up on the yellow from the tank top, while the shoes and handbag echo the brown tones of the shirt. The white box jacket grounds the outfit with a neutral color. This kind of color coordination helps to make you look put-together, even when you’re wearing a tank top and short sleeves to the office. If you work in a business formal type of environment, try a long sleeved jacket in a similarly breathable fabric.

Men, take note of color coordination as well as you choose your shirt and tie. The better color coordinated you are, the more put together you look, even if your sleeves are rolled up.

Breathable Fabrics

Last but not least, we’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about fabric choices. For both men and women, natural fabrics (with a loose weave) are going to be your best bets for temperature control. I like looking for garments that are 100% cotton - or even linen for a more casual look. The beauty of these natural fabrics is that they allow air to pass through them. That way, you won’t trap hot air in between you and your clothes.

Trisha Okubo is founder of Omiru.com, an award-winning fashion Web site featured in the Wall Street Journal and Lucky magazine. Trisha, a graduate of Stanford University and the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, is the online marketing adviser for Leading Edge Associates. She is also a senior product manager in eBay’s Disruptive Innovation group.