Career lessons from Steve Buttry, five years after leaving the Cedar Rapids Gazette

Here’s a long blog post by Steve Buttry, often referenced in this space, about the lessons he learned from his time as the editor of the Cedar Rapids Gazette, which ended five years ago.

There are lessons about disaster response—there was a major flood in the city just as Buttry took the job—newsroom leadership and managing innovation and upheaval, but it’s the first section that I found most interesting, and I think you will too. That section is headlined “Career Lessons.”

The lessons, which all come with explanatory text, are:

• Take the risk.
• Be as transparent as you can.
• Move on.
• Don’t give in to bitterness.
• Breaks sometimes even out.

Take risks, move on from disappointments and don’t give in to bitterness. Those are some good lessons.

Note: The original headline on this post incorrectly said “the flood” was five years ago.