Nine AI hacks for newsroom leaders to promote employee wellbeing

People leave bad bosses, not companies, or so the saying goes.

In the news industry, newsroom leaders often intend to be better than their past managers. The issue is they get so stressed out and overwhelmed - while not being adequately trained as managers or as mental health supporters - that the cycle of bad leaders continues.

That is according to Anita Zielina, a top strategic media management consultant, CEO and founder of Better Leaders Lab, speaking at the Mental Health in Journalism Summit last week (11 October 2024). "Retention is the next big frontier in the media industry," she said.

But can the cycle be broken? An unlikely form of support is AI. Zielina is finding herself using AI tools up to 20 minutes a day to remove a layer of stress, refine her managerial communication and smooth out her workflows.

"One of the most underrated skills of a manager is being efficient, effective and organised," she explains. "The stress it puts on employees if you are not [efficient, effective and organised] is tremendous because it creates an unease over what you’re doing."

She recommended some AI hacks for newsroom leaders to up their game to foster renewed employee wellbeing.

Empathy hack

Train a personal ChatGPT on your ideal managerial language style (for example, modelled on equitable or precise language) and use this as a soundboard for future communication.

Next time you send out a strategic announcement, run your script through the ChatGPT for any final improvements you may have overlooked.

Notetaking hack

Use JournalGPT to record thoughts, tasks, memos and wider challenges. The tool will organise these notes into a "stream of consciousness" with suggestions on priority order and task management.

Email hacks

Use ChatGPT to create a template email (for example on a coaching offer), as a basic efficiency gain to work from.

Recruiting hack

Use Perplexity to improve job descriptions for advertised positions. This can be a helpful soundboard to see whether adverts are equitable and appealing

Internal communication hack

Upload anonymous forms and notes to NotebookLM to craft a communication strategy. This can be tweaked afterwards, and Zielina estimates this has halved the time she now spends on strategy papers.

Meeting hacks

Use FirefliesAI to take minutes at your editorial meetings. This tool summarises and tracks tasks, creating more accountability within the organisation.

Stress hack

Use Zapier to automate tasks that are "screaming out to be automated or no human should be doing". This is a pure productivity gain.

Emotion hack

Use a custom ChatGPT to send out 'pulse check-ins', confidential employee surveys that can quickly scan the stress levels staff are working at. "Saying it personally to a boss is often hard," says Zielina.

Project hack

Use NotionAI for optimising project management and task prioritisation.

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