Leadership Resolve
Written by admin on June 24, 2010 – 2:05 am -Inside her company, she also could be tough. Right after Watergate she went toe-to-toe with the pressmen’s union, which was resisting modernization efforts. To her the Washington Post was family, and the strike was very painful for her. When rogue elements in the union vandalized the presses, she took it as a personal affront, and it stiffened her resolve. After more than 4 months, during some of which time she was personally vilified by members of the union, the strike was settled. She learned also that “when management . . . forfeits its right to manage, only trouble can result.” She resolved to improve “communications within the company.”[12 ]With the labor issues settled, the company prospered. In 1991, when she handed the reins of the company to her son, Donald, the company’s revenues had grown from $84 million to $1.4 billion.[13]
Leadership under Fire
She had the final say on editorial and publishing decisions. In 1971, when her paper, along with the New York Times, published the Pentagon Papers (government documents about the United States’ involvement in Vietnam that were leaked to the public by Daniel Ellsberg), it was her name that was on the injunction brought by the Nixon administration. It was a risky decision, not just because she was going against the administration, but because it coincided with the Washington Post Company’s going public. Publicity of this sort would not be helpful. Graham persevered.[14] She quotes Bradlee as saying that it marked a “graduation of the Post into the highest ranks” of news organizations.[15]
Graham’s will would be tested a short time later during the Watergate investigation. From the moment of the burglary at the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972, to President Richard Nixon’s resignation on August 9, 1973, it was the Washington Post that led on the story, keeping it alive after Nixon’s landslide election in November 1972, when few other papers had any interest. Bradlee, as executive editor, was front and center on the coverage, but Graham supported him. It was important to her. Watergate “was a conspiracy not of greed but of arrogance and fear by men who came to equate their own political well-being with the nation’s very survival and security.”[16] This is an apt statement about Watergate, and also about any other political scandal in Washington or any other capital.
And it points up the reasons why our nation needs a vigorous and free press as well as strong independent leadership at the helm of such media. Ultimately, as Graham wrote in her autobiography,
The credibility of the press stood the test of time against the credibility of those who spent so much time self-righteously denying their own wrongdoing and assaulting us by assailing our performance and our motives.[17]
Not a bad epitaph for a woman who grew in her role as a leader and used her communications to demonstrate leadership in good times and bad, and in the process served as a good example for others.
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Leadership Communications Lessons
- Learn from others. Never be afraid to learn from those you respect. Graham assumed the helm of the Washington Post knowing little of business but something about journalism. She surrounded herself with strong leaders and learned from their example.
- Make a stand. Abide by your principles. During the painful strike at the Washington Post, Graham stood down the powerful printers’ union and won. It was a painful victory, but it opened the door to a greater future.
- Be honest. Let people know how you feel about the issues. Graham’s autobiography is such a powerful story because she is candid about her shortcomings as she emerged into a leadership role.
- Believe in your people. Support the people you work with. Graham stood by her editor, Ben Bradlee, and her team of reporters through thick and thin.
- Live your message. After the death of her husband, Graham’s life was the Washington Post. She lived, breathed, and fought for the paper and the journalistic ideals it stood for.
Taken From : Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders
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