Lindsey Dunn never introduced me as anything but her coworker, even when she was editor in chief and I was a lowly reporter. "We work together," Lindsey would tell everyone, from other magazine editors to health system CEOs. Such a statement could easily come off as a Kumbaya best practice ripped from the pages of Harvard Business Review, but not in this case. She made sure it was absolutely true.
When I began working at Becker's Healthcare, our editorial team — and consequently, our office — was significantly smaller, with five people. Lindsey's desk was immediately next to mine, about four feet to my right. This let me see the precise shape of her workday, between interviews, meetings, writing and editing stories. The visibility of her workload made me realize the value of even 10 minutes of her time.
People like to say there's no such thing as a stupid question, but come on. There is. Our seating arrangement would have made it easy for me to lean back in my chair and ask what an ACO is, what a letter of intent means or what a certificate of need does, but Lindsey made it known she was not a walking encyclopedia. I had to do a fair amount of research before asking any question about healthcare policy. In turn, Lindsey's answers were never rushed when I did come to her, and I started gaining confidence that I could figure out more on my own than I initially thought. She helped me earn the things I learned.
Working four feet away from Lindsey taught me how crucial face time is to building trust. When I made a mistake, Lindsey and I talked about it in person. When I did something well, we talked about that in person, too. She printed out my stories, edited them in the evening and left them for me on the seat of my chair, where I found them each morning when I got to the office. "Let me know when you're settled and we can talk about my feedback," she'd say. Lindsey treated easy and difficult conversations equally — with face-to-face talks — and that consistency made me feel assured about her support of my work, which I valued.
I've yet to see Lindsey lose her cool. This set an example for our entire team. If something did go awry, Lindsey built a three-step strategy into the discussion: This is the mistake, this is the effect and this is how we're not going to let it happen again. I often hear stories about mercurial bosses who let emotion get the best of them, which makes me all the more grateful to have worked under a professional who expected all of us to stay calm and find solutions.
To work alongside Lindsey at Becker's — in the most literal sense of the phrase — helped me in many ways, big and small. I have big shoes to fill as editor-in-chief of Becker's Hospital Review, but somehow the role already feels oddly familiar. For that, I thank Lindsey, for insisting we worked together since day one.