Mike’s Points

The University of Minnesota’s Minnesota Daily had a great recap and many great points following a panel discussion about blogs and politics. (Found courtesy of Poynter’s Romenesko.)

Among those on the panel was New York Times reporter David Carr (the Times’ first blogger, and an alumnus of the U of Minnesota). One brief line in the article by Carr echoed something I think is easy to see in bloggers:

Carr said he was afraid that blogs may become “typed talk radio.”

That’s an observation I made a day short of a year ago:

We’re all just the online versions of talk radio hosts. Think about it. Talk show hosts:
> Give opinion.
> Give news (typically via interviews).
> Invite listener call in.
Isn’t that what blogs are all about?

Other interesting points from the story include:
1) “These are people (bloggers) who don’t just want to cover the outcome,” Carr said. “They want to help determine it.”

But Carr also said blogs are heavily polarized and don’t really provide much of a middle ground for political thought. [ME: That’s when bloggers having a thick skin and being open minded can be beneficial and really develop blogging into a conversation.]

2) (Star Tribune reporter Eric) Black said that his goal would be for the blogosphere to inject more journalistic values into its reporting. Blogs, he said, reinforce the beliefs of their readers, instead of challenging them. [ME: Amen. While opinion is valid and desired, a level of fairness, or least open-mindedness is healthy, too.]

3) Carr said the mainstream media can’t be everywhere at all times, but the blogosphere has an army of “Web crawlers” who can pick up the slack.

“The idea that it has to be in the Star Tribune to be valid is crazy,” Carr said. [ME: Yes, count blogs among the growing media tree to reach our audiences.]

– Mike

Technorati tags: blogging, politiics

As I noted in the inaugural “How’d you get there?” story, I’m curious about how successful people became successful — in otherwords, how they got there. Below is the story of Dr. Jeffrey Docking and how he became president of Adrian College, Adrian, Mich. (my alma mater) — about 13 years younger than the average age of new college presidents.

If you want to be considered for the series or know (of) someone who would make a great story, please contact me.

So, as I have learned some valuable lessons from talking with Christine Brennan and Dr. Docking, I hope you will, too.

Mentor, key lessons lead to success for college president
By Michael Driehorst

Sometimes, it seems it takes awhile to “find yourself” – that is, discovering what you want to do in life. Then one day it hits you: Rather than wandering, you realize that everything you’ve done to that point actually was leading you to just the place you intended to go all along.

Dr. Jeffrey Docking (left).
In spring 2005, Dr. Jeffrey Docking, at the still young age of 44, was named the 17th president of Adrian College, Adrian, Mich. That’s no small accomplishment, especially given the fact that the average age of new presidents is 54.7 years, according to a 2002 survey by the American Council on Education.

With achieving such a lofty position at a young age, you would think that Docking focused on that goal throughout his professional life. Read on and discover for yourself.

Pieces of the puzzle
A native of East Lansing, Mich., Docking graduated from Michigan State University in 1983. His first job was as a TV news reporter and part-time anchorman for WFSL-TV (now WSYM) in Lansing. (Actually, his first job was delivering newspapers at the age of 12, but more on that later.)

After one year with WFSL-TV, Docking felt a higher calling than the 6 p.m. news, and joined the seminary to become a minister. Docking earned a master of divinity degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in 1987. After deciding the ministry wasn’t his calling, Docking looked to be a teacher, and attended Boston University. He graduated from BU in 1996 with doctorate in Social Ethics but decided to forego teaching in favor of college administration.

“I’m the opposite of a person with a plan,” Docking said. “But, I realized that all these different pieces were part of the larger puzzle. So, at the age of 35, I finally realized both what I loved and what I was good at. I realized I wanted to be a college president.”

The mentor
Docking’s path to Adrian College president began in 1997 as dean of student affairs at Washington & Jefferson College, Washington, Pa. It was there, in his second year, that he met Brian C. Mitchell who was named the new school president. (Mitchell is now president of Bucknell University.)

“He took a liking to me. Brian asked that, if I would make a commitment to the school for three or four years, he would help me be a college president,” Docking said.

During his time at W&J, Docking was promoted from dean to vice president of student affairs to vice president and special assistant to the president. He traveled to Harvard twice to take classes on leadership. He also shadowed President Jared Cohen at Carnegie Mellon University as an American Council on Education Fellow.

“During my time at W&J, I received exposure to the decision-making process and was involved in all important decisions,” Docking said.

In addition to having a mentor like Mitchell, Docking attributes the following traits and experiences to his success:
Perseverance. Docking’s first lesson in perseverance started on his newspaper route when he was 12, awaking every morning at 6 a.m., 365 days a year. “I always tell my kids that perseverance is the most important word in the English language. Perseverance with an unrelenting tenacity can move mountains.

“Others are more capable, but they don’t have the stick-to-it-iveness; they don’t have the tenacity,” Docking said.

Being “on.” While a reporter with WFSL, Docking often served as the anchor for the news updates between programs. When the camera was on, Docking said he had to be “on – there were no days off.” That has helped him in public speaking and similar situations when he needs to be “on” – no matter what.
RIGHT: Dr. Docking had to be “on” during a September news conference when he announced that the school is breaking ground on the Arrington Ice Arena, a $5.5 million indoor facility.

A good listener. Being a reporter also taught Docking that “being a good listener is more important than speaking. Good presidents are good learners, and we can only learn by listening.”

Be very passionate. “In picking a career, I tell my kids don’t try to figure out what career you want, pick your passion. After I finished my Ph.D., I finally knew what I was passionate about. When I was younger, I couldn’t find my passion. But, once I did find my passion, I never ‘worked’ a day in my life.”

Have a genuine respect for human beings. “No matter the gender or the wealth of a person, assume that all people deserve respect,” Docking said. “That’s been a key ingredient to my success.

“People don’t need to earn respect,” he explained. “You give it to them immediately and then they can only lose it. When you give people respect, they want to work hard for you.”

Another key trait Docking said he has found to be helpful is impatience.

“Patience is the antithesis of getting things done. I want my staff to be impatient. They shouldn’t take no for an answer,” Docking said. “It’s a competitive world, and it’s easy to procrastinate if you are not impatient.”

More goals
While Docking has found and accomplished his professional passion, there are still other goals:
“My professional goals are tied to the institution,” Docking explained. “I’ve been around the students at Adrian College and have taken classes at Harvard, and the people are pretty much the same.

“I want to create a culture of excellence at Adrian College. I want Adrian to be the best small college in Michigan,” Docking said.

Personally, Docking and his wife, Elizabeth, have been married 20 years, and have four children, ages 11-18.
“For better or worse, I’m a worker,” he said. “I’m just as happy every Monday at 9 a.m. as I am at 5 p.m. Friday. I don’t have any specific personal goals except to remain active and involved with my children’s lives and with my wife.”
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Technorati tags: How’d you get there?, Dr. Jeffrey Docking, Adrian College, Mike’s Points

Ketchum Senior Partner and CEO Raymond L. Kotcher had a nice piece in today’s Barks & Bites of the Bulldog Reporter (”Old and New Media Will Coexist, but Traditional Reporters Must Begin to Consider Bloggers as Trade Journalist Sources“).

He opens with:

Let’s get real. New media—blogs and other Internet sites, podcasts, RSS and the like—won’t replace traditional media. Mass media won’t vanish. The old and the new simply will continue to coexist and even coincide.

But, then he goes on to give bloggers a bit too much credit:

Most (bloggers) are experts, self described or otherwise, in the field they focus on and many, like trade journalists, are first to break important news scoops or identify fresh trends.

Traditional journalists are beginning to find they must compete against bloggers for scoops.

No. Traditional journalists don’t really have a lot to fear from bloggers about being scooped. Yes, bloggers will break news every once in awhile. But, most bloggers are not journalistic-oriented. They are focused on an industry or subject. And, because of that, with newsrooms being more and more understaffed, bloggers will scoop their journalistic brethren. But, rarely.

He, rightly, goes on to talk about the need for journalists — and those in PR — to build relations with bloggers. The key word? Relationships. It’s through mutually respected relationships that you truly build success.

One word of caution for journalists: If you use bloggers as story sources, please, please, PLEASE as you do with other sources, verify when you can. It’s too easy to blog. So, it’s awfully easy to set up a blog with a certain political or other objectives. So, don’t take a blogger’s word as the gospel.

Journalists don’t just need to be first with a scoop. But, journalists do need to be accurate.
– Mike

Technorati tags: journalism, bloggers, Ketchum, public relations, PR

Awhile ago, I published a post about this time being the dawning of the age of transparency — or actually, honesty.

A great post by John Wagner/OnMessage Thursday reminded me of that, and helped to continue that line of thinking:

While good public relations is not about deception, it is about being more behind the curtain than about being out front. But, in the age of transparency, full disclosure is expected of PR pros — good PR pros.

It’s our job to stay in the background while we help clients or our employer to be out in front. Get the media exposure. Spread good will. Develop and implement programs that improve their respective reputations. Educate their audiences.

But, when our counsel, strategy and tactics takes our clients or employer into the world of social media, the ground rules are a bit different.

It’s almost as if we’re right along side, with clients in sharing blog time, acting on their behalf — and stating the relationship — monitoring boards, blogs and other sites.

We’re right there in front of the curtain; not directing things from behind it.

That’s a different mind set for most of us. And, as we’ve seen with Edelman, Pierce Mattie and others, switching from behind to in front of the curtain, there will be some stumbling along the way. But, as long as we learn from mistakes — ours and others since the blogosphere can be pretty unforgiving at times — we’ll get there.

– Mike

Technorati tags: social media, public relations, PR, transparency

This OGP post is short, but still worth your time (I hope). So, for your browsing, pleasure, I offer the following:

A visual thought on Walmart, Edelman and blogging, Colin McKay/CanuckFlack. Colin seems to have a unique perspective, or at least a unique way of saying what’s on his mind. This is by far, one of the best, if not most succinct blog posts on the Edelman-Wal-Mart-flog episode.

TFP: Charalambous, Lidle, and The Escape, Matt Sussman/The Futon Report. This is a brief intro. to Matt’s weekly column in the “Toledo (OH) Free Press.” It’s a great reminder about how important — yet unimportant — sports is in our lives.

Reuters opens virtual news bureau in Second Life. The point here is not so much Reuter’s SL bureau, but as a continuing example of SL being referred to as “game” site. From my relatively little time “there,” SL is not a game. It’s set up to be exactly what it says: a second life.

Dooce/Heather Armstrong. Okay, I’ve never been much of a Dooce reader, until the past week. The post about Heather and her husband having a story in the Salt Lake Tribune and recent posts caught my eye. But, then it hit me: You can’t leave comments on dooce. Guess, if a blogger gets popular enough, he/she becomes a media entity, and the communication goes one-way. Though I would think the blog should allow comments, but if my blog started attracting 800,000+ readers a month, guess I’d look to turn off comments, too. I can only hope.