Michelle Myers: Being human and being a leader are not mutually exclusive

Reflections from the Lenfest Constellation News Leadership Initiative

By Michelle Myers

December 18, 2024

The Lenfest Constellation News Leadership Initiative launched in 2020 as a professional development fellowship supporting mid-career media professionals of color in Philadelphia. We reached out to program alumni to reflect on how their careers have evolved since participating in the program. Michelle Myers is a member of the Constellation class of 2023-2024.

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a journalist. I wanted to help people who didn’t have a voice tell their stories, and there was nothing you could put in my way that was going to stop me from getting there. But that passion led me to accept questionable managerial behavior and blame myself for not being able to understand that it was not normal. 

Isn’t it wild how human survival depends on having guidance to teach us something as simple as eating or walking, yet most of us are thrown into the professional world as if it should be second nature?

Many of us are thrown into corporate jobs before our brains are even fully developed. If you are lucky, you can rely on a loved one who understands the system and can walk you through what kind of workplace treatment is acceptable. But if you are like me — born and raised in a different country and trying to navigate the dynamics of a corporate system so removed from your own culture — good luck!

My life became a Braden Bale song: “If I’m honest, I think I’m beginning to question how much I want this. Overloaded serial stresser, I’m sitting nauseous. Panic on a loop in my head, I’m chronically cautious.”

I wasn’t alone in that feeling. More than half of journalists in the United States considered quitting their jobs due to stress or burnout this year, according to a report from MuckRack. 

It got better for me. I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by wonderful colleagues and was able to switch desks. But I still didn’t realize that it wasn’t all my fault for not understanding the system.

That’s how I arrived at the Lenfest Constellation News Leadership Initiative.

On day one, we learned about the difference between a manager and a leader. I spent an hour in awe, blown away at the reality that being human and being a leader are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they feed off each other — it seems so obvious, but it had not been my experience in many cases.

Then the mentoring sessions started. Turns out, small comments about my culture and race are not simple things that I’m overthinking about. They are called microaggressions — and I now know how to address them.

A couple of months into the program, we talked about burnout and the table of stress responses. In the process of navigating the news cycle, the fellowship, and my own existence, I hadn’t realized how close I was to burning out before switching desks. Developing that awareness prompted me to send a message to my marvelous editors thanking them for taking me from red to green in four months. It’s wonderful what a bit of support can do to a person.

In the blink of an eye, the fellowship was over. I still don’t know if one day I would like to be in a leadership role, but those seven months gave me so much more than I could have ever expected.

Having the opportunity to learn about funding and corporate structures was important, but I will forever keep with me the importance of having leaders that lead by example; leaders that are people. In the great words of Taylor Swift, leaders that don’t forget to “never be so clever, you forget to be kind.”