I was recently interviewed by Abra Annes, the incomparable charity auctioneer, for her excellent YouTube channel. As we were chatting before she began recording, Abra asked me what my next book would be. I explained that I have no plans to write another book, since all of the usable material I wrote in 2013-2018 ended up in my recent books Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind and When In Doubt, Ask For More.
Then I hesitated. The latter book summarized the top 214 life and career lessons I had learned through the end of last year. However, I will continue to learn new lessons – often through embarrassing and costly mistakes – as I go through life. If there is enough interest in those 214 ideas and tips, there might be a market for the top, say, 100 things I learn over the next couple of years. If such a project does come to fruition, I know what one of those lessons will be: when you write, pay attention to what the headline of your article or blog post is.
A bit of background. Some weeks ago I was thinking about friends and acquaintances I know who are running nonprofit organizations right now. Their experiences span the gamut, from having their workload doubled (and revenue halved) to having their work on hold, and everything in between. For the most part, I was glad that I wasn’t charged with such an awesome responsibility right now (though a small part of me was drawn to sitting in the hot seat again).
I also thought about what I had learned navigating Grameen Foundation through the aftermath of 9/11 and the global financial crisis, and figured it might be useful if I tried to distill my top lessons. I could try to make some applicable to those whose workload was increased and also to those whose programs were largely in stasis.
My first thought was to publish something on this blog. But I asked my contact at the Chronicle of Philanthropy whether she would be interested in running such an article, and she was. So in record time it was written, edited and published. Happily, I received quite a bit of feedback from people who got value from at least some of the eight ideas I put forward. But some readers were offended, and they are well represented by critical and in some cases vitriolic comments posted during the first 24 hours after it was published. (In a previous version of this post, at this point I provided a link to one scathing comment; unfotunately, when the Chronicle upgraded their website recently, the comments to this and other articles were lost.)
I was astonished, and when I discussed this with my editor, we both surmised that a major factor in the negative reaction was the original headline, which implied that all of these ideas should (rather than could) be implemented by all nonprofit leaders, regardless of their workload or circumstances. (The article itself clearly didn’t say this, but that didn’t seem to matter to some readers.) So my conscientious editor tracked down the editor in chief of the Chronicle on a Saturday afternoon and got her agreement to change the headline. Within hours, positive comments (like this one by AJ Wagner) started rolling in, and they continue to even now, ten days after it was originally published.
I paid no attention to the original headline, and normally don’t when an established publication or blog runs something I have written. I figure they know which headlines appeal to their readers more than I do. That was a mistake. While I might not be able to convince someone publishing my work to change their favored headline, I should at least think critically about it and weigh in if I have concerns. If I had done that in this case, it probably would have saved me a lot of grief.
Since I have been reflecting on this experience, I’ve thought of a few other cases where a headline that ran with an article I wrote didn’t quite fit and likely put off or confused some readers (though never like this). Now, I am not saying that with the revised headline everyone thought my article was valuable or even appropriate, or that everyone was put off by the version with the original headline. But it is clear to me that the two headlines were a big part of how it was received. (Another insight from this episode is how stressed so many nonprofit leaders are right now.)
So, the moral of the story is this: pay attention to and speak up about headlines others give to your articles and blog posts. It can make all the difference in the world.