When Michael Bolden got a call from a headhunting firm a little over two years ago asking if he was interested in the executive director position at the American Press Institute, his first reaction was no. At the time, he was working at the San Francisco Chronicle as the Director of Culture and Operations. But he said API was persistent – and he started to see an opportunity there.
Two years after saying “yes” to API, Bolden spoke to Widening the Pipeline Fellows and reflected on the journalism landscape, how he arrived at this career juncture and how crucial it is to have a group of people who can help you make important pivots.
“How can I ensure that I have a range of well-informed people providing me with information that will enable me to make good decisions?” Bolden asked.
Your advisory committee – which Bolden said should be five to six people – should be able to help you make the best choices and think about things in a different way. His advisory board is diverse, both in terms of age and in terms of positions they hold. For example, he said his 28-year-old great niece is on his advisory committee.
“Because the insight that she provides me about how she uses media as a mother of four kids who’s also a working nurse and how she uses media and how it plays into her life is totally different from people I know who are 10 years older and 20 years older and 30 years older.”
It’s also important that your advisory committee is able to change with you, he said. As you get older, as your jobs change and as the industry changes, you’ll discover that the conversations you have also need to change.
“It doesn’t mean that you always have turnover in this advisory group, but you don’t need people telling you the same thing throughout your life because the same thing doesn’t apply,” he said.
To build your advisory committee, you really have to vet people, he said.
“Don’t give your trust lightly …. Don’t tell everybody your business at the get-go, this takes a while to develop people that you’re going to trust and who are going to trust you… Be good journalists in doing this, because essentially as you put together an advisory board, you’re reporting. You’re reporting out the efficacy of all these people and their opinions and how they apply to your lives, and that’s going to change constantly.”
Read the full transcript here.
The Widening the Pipeline Fellowship is sponsored by the Evelyn Y. Davis Foundation and Lenovo. NPF is solely responsible for the content.
