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Welcome to our May Navigator Q&A chat and our first-ever podcast episode! 🎉
This week I’m very excited to share my conversation with Samantha Ragland, the American Press Institute’s Vice President of Journalism Programs. We are joined by veteran digital leader Clay Clifton, who hired Ragland at the Palm Beach Post. As longtime subscribers know, tributaries, or people who contribute to our work in some way, are an essential component of our professional journey. That’s why I was so glad to have both Ragland and Clifton in conversation about what they learned from their work together.
Their connection really shines through as we discuss their partnership at the Palm Beach Post, how to be an ally in the workplace and the importance of community for addressing trauma and burnout.
Here are the 5 career questions we tackle in today’s episode:
3:54: Can you talk with us about the importance of partnership, co-conspirators, and collaborators in the newsroom? Tell us a little more about how this partnership came to be, and how might others begin to find partners like this for themselves?
“I learned under Clay and a couple of other leaders at the Palm Beach Post that there is no monopoly on good ideas. And I also learned what that looks like in daily practice.”
9:25: I’d love to hear about a moment in your career where you were unclear on what to do next. What are some of the questions you had at the time, and then how did you go about answering them?
“I know I’m going to tell him that there is going to be a time, it's not today, but there will be a time when I leave the Palm Beach Post because leadership is not diverse enough. I don't see myself in this organization. How can I be who I am if I'm not reflected?”
16:52: How do you have hard conversations with a senior leader who you see not only as your boss, but your partner?
“I remember coming back and telling Clay, ‘For as much as I love you, I'm so grateful you're my boss, you're the best boss I ever had. You're just not a Black woman in America. And I need a Black mentor.’”
24:00: What topline takeaways would you want to share about burnout, trauma and resiliency in the workplace?
Burnout “is really about your relationship with work. It’s not just about the stress, right? It’s specifically about chronic stress that goes unmanaged.”
30:15: After that burnout recovery that you described, what strategies helped you stay grounded and avoid falling back into burnout in a new role?
“When I was burned out, I just remember disengaging. And I think that that is the default for most people. They get burned out and they think ‘If I could just rest, if I could just rest I would feel better.’ But that’s not true because burnout hits us all differently. And so I needed to know that my burnout existed across a few different parameters, that it wasn’t just exhaustion. And that meant that I needed to prioritize the things that got me closer to who I was and refilled me on a regular basis.”
Thank you to our guests for this episode and thanks to all of you for listening, reading, and submitting your Q&A questions!
Career River Chat update: 83% to goal
As of today, I’ve talked with 83 professionals about their Career River questions! If you’d like to enter or share the chat giveaway, you can do so here!
Happy navigating,
Bridget
👐 Resources:
What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey
Imagine what better mental health in news looks like by Samantha Ragland
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