Helen Trinca is a highly regarded veteran of Australian newsrooms, most recently as Managing Editor of The Australian, and editor of its business magazine, The Deal. She’s been at it for nearly half a century here and overseas, finding the kind of lasting satisfaction in her working life that few achieve.
Helen has also authored of a number of non-fiction books, including Waterfront: The Battle That Changed Australia (with Anne Davies) and Better Than Sex: How A Whole Generation Got Hooked On Work (with Catherine Fox). Her latest book, Madeleine: A Life of Madeleine St John, won the 2014 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for non fiction.
In this edited extract from Gillian Fox’s Women of Influence, she opens up about the traits she believes can build a successful career and why she’s glad she no longer has to apologise for really loving work.
Helen, could you please give us a snapshot of your career journey to date?
I’ve been a journalist all my working life. I did a degree at UWA and went into The West Australian newspaper as a cadet in 1971. I’ve been in newspapers for nearly 45 years.
I’ve been back at News this time for about 9 years. Currently I’m Managing Editor and I am also editing The Deal. Over the years I’ve edited various sections, been Editor of the Weekend Australian Magazine and I was a European correspondent for The Australian. I also spent some years at Fairfax, most of it setting up and editing BOSS magazine.
I’ve done a lot of writing of various sorts, but in recent years, particularly editing, and I’ve been Managing Editor for the past 4 years.
Emerging female leaders are all hard, hard workers – they have to be. Reflecting on your working life, what advice would you give them?
I’ve had a great life through being fairly work-oriented. It’s given me a lot of energy. It’s given me a lot of satisfaction. I get a lot of identity from it.
When I was going through the ranks 20 years ago, it was terribly unpopular to be addicted to work. Today society understands that for a lot of people, work can be a massively satisfying experience. I don’t have to be apologetic about really liking my work.
The only advice I’d give people about whether or not they’re working too much is that it’s good to have some balance. If I look back on my own life, I’d like to have been a bit broader at times.
I could have engaged more with the community, for example.
Having said that, I would say don’t underestimate what a toll work takes on you. We’ve grown used to it. We’ve almost forgotten how stressful it is, what an adjustment it is going from school and university to the workforce.
How do you think that transition to professional working life has changed for young women?
It’s also harder now than it was for us. It was stressful for us, but the stakes weren’t as high 40 years ago. The rest of society didn’t so overtly judge you on your work. They judged you against different measures – whether you were going to get married and have kids, or how you operated as a member of a larger group or family, or your membership of a church.
Do you think the measures of success have changed as well?
Some young people – and particularly women – are very, very hungry for success. The expectation around success is so high now.
People are told that you can run your own TV show or run your own consultancy: everybody can do these things. Except not everyone can, temperamentally or intellectually.
The newsroom enjoys a mythical reputation as a site of frenetic action. Where do your reserves of strength and focus come from?
My job now is less about deadline pressure and more about managing staff, but I’m lucky in having a natural level of interest in it. I’ve always loved work, so it’s entirely natural to want to keep working.
Temperamentally, even though I can be anxious. I’m optimistic. I’m not depressed. I’ve only recently realised how lucky you are through your life if you don’t have a tendency to be dark. I can be worried, but I’m basically optimistic. You can make yourself optimistic; you can choose to think optimistically. Energy comes from the possibility.
In your experience, Helen, do you think success begets optimism or optimism begets success?
The people I can see being successful are people who by and large have a good, open attitude. They’re curious and open and that makes them optimistic about their future. They believe in the future and they believe in themselves.
I do think it’s hard for people who aren’t naturally upbeat to be successful. You can be cranky, but crankiness doesn’t stop you being optimistic; you can be bad-tempered and still optimistic.
Have you ever had any career knockbacks and if so, what can young women learn from the way you handled professional disappointment?
I’ve had knockbacks. I’ve sometimes been hurt by career knockbacks, but I’ve tried to stay professional outwardly. Once the initial hurt of rejection is over, I’ve tried to work out what went wrong. I’ve tried not to be too defensive about it and eventually I’ve thought, ‘I get that. I can see why that happened, why I’ve been demoted or whatever, because that’s not a good job for me,’ or, ‘I’m not good at that job.’ At a certain point, you have to say, “Well, it’s the luck of the game too.”
Some level of reflection doesn’t hurt as long as it doesn’t destroy your confidence. You need to reflect on what has happened and realise it’s not always because everyone’s against you; sometimes you’ve contributed to it. You need to know that you will make a lot of mistakes and but it’s what you do after that mistake that’s really important, in the sense of working it out and moving on. But I’ve always tried to hang on to my overall confidence – without your confidence you’re nowhere, really.
Are there personal attributes that you think really help a young woman building a newspaper career?
I think my energy has helped me a lot.
I’ve stayed in one career for a long time. I changed jobs many times, so I’ve moved around a fair bit, but always to another job in journalism. I think the thing that sustained me has been my enthusiasm and energy, and the second thing has been that longevity.
Any final tips, Helen, that you can offer women poised for leadership on managing their career trajectory?
Energy is an important thing. If you can summon the energy to keep on going, I think it’s really important. I don’t think there
are any shortcuts, just work and energy. You do need to have a real commitment to what you’re doing.
You have to work hard … don’t expect that you’re going to get there without working hard. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to put in huge hours all the time, but you have to be able to really focus. Also – resilience. Keep
going. If that’s what you want, if you want to be successful at work, you have to hang in and keep
Women’s Agenda readers can download an exclusive preview of Woman of Influence ahead of the official launch of the book on May 17, 2016. To download your exclusive preview, simply visit here.