First, the good news. The majority of editors of business-to-business, or B2B, publications think their editor-in-chief demonstrates effective leadership behavior.

But what they see isn’t exactly the most effective behavior. Close, but no cigar.

This was what Heather Onorati, Chief Editor of Advanstar’s Healthcare Centralized Content Group, concluded in her survey of 211 B2B editors, which she discussed at the recent editorial conference of the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE). ASBPE co-sponsored the study.

What do editors want in their editors-in-chief? Take a deep breath. They want everyone to regard the editor-in-chief as powerful, confident, and the personification of inspirational ideals. They want a role model, someone with whom they can identify.

Not surprisingly, few editors-in-chief get that gold star. But a lot come pretty close. The behaviors reported most frequently were:

• Fosters understanding and agreement
• Encourages creativity in approaching problems

Do all that, and you probably don’t need to walk on water. What not to do is to get wrapped up in the formalities of the job description and the technologies. As far as staff members are concerned, the editor-in-chief who only points out mistakes and aims to maintain the status quo is not much of a leader.

How does an editor-in-chief ascend to the heights? Vern Henry, executive editorial director for Advanstar Communications, told Onorati:

“When you’re talking about leadership, you’re talking about an editor-in-chief or a managing editor having to be kind of the quarterback of all the information and being able to call the plays as to what’s the best packaging and the best game plan for a particular story.”

So it comes down to winning. To learn more about how to make yours a winning team, check out the ASBPE newsletter article (PDF).

Posted in Management of a publications enterprise, Writing and Editing