Bet on This January Reset
A new year is an appropriate time for a strategic reset of your show and the management of the talented people who are charged with connecting with and entertaining listeners who’ll decide your fate.
Here are five things to engage your creative talent on if you are a manager (and anchors of shows, you are managers of people). Conversation around these important items will help continue to build a positive team who will help get you to the mountain top:
- We are all charged with being leaders. That said, give your people your most valuable commodity, your time. Spend as much of it with them as possible, with your phone off. That tells them they’re important and helps you become a listener to their lives. They’ll leave that interaction feeling empowered. That’s a core attribute of leadership.
- Understand what’s going on in the personal lives of your team. Reciprocate by sharing yours with them. Vulnerability is the foundation to a relationship where you care about one another. Do that and you’ll move mountains. No one really leaves their personal life at the house when they head to work. It’s all connected.
- Remember that culture isn’t free Panera once a month. Culture is building an environment where creating trust is non-negotiable, and everyone contributes to developing it in every conversation they have and every move they make. A strategy without a great culture is less effective. Culture comes when it’s We Not Me.
- Know what’s noise – those small things that really don’t matter. Steer your team away from the noise and focus on the big stuff. Not everything is Defcon 1 (especially negative posts on social media).
- Practice gratitude. Openly telling members of your team how much they’re valued and appreciated gives you wide latitude to growing them as people first and team members second. Plus, it’s the right thing to do.
Three important reminders if you are talent:
- The head thinks and the heart feels. All the ratings gimmickry in the world can’t match a talent and radio station emotionally connected to its fans. Do you choose and share content that will define what your show is about, who you are, and make fans feel something about you? Make the audience care about you with the content you do (and how you do it). It’s an unbeatable combo to loyalty. Don’t believe me? Check out this widely watched Chevrolet commercial from the holidays. They ain’t selling cars. Or this Dutch ad for a pharmacy which isn’t selling drugs. They’re both selling emotion. Play to your fan’s hearts.
- To be great, be F.A.I.R. What images are you earning in every break? Be Fun, Authentic, Innovative, and Relevant (in any format). Remember the trajectory: content leads to images which leads to perceptions which leads to ratings which leads to revenue. Listeners come to you because of your brand image (your perceptions). That’s how you get there.
- Winning shows are about the moment. Listeners come for content. Make sure your content comes from whatever is going on now in pop (popular) culture, your town if you are a local show, and your life (in ways that make you relatable). Be about the moment because you can’t win by being an evergreen show where any content choice could be done on any day. Be about right now.
Have these conversations internally as you begin a new year. We are dinged that radio is no longer relevant. Go listen to a show that does these eight items and you’ll find big winners with ratings and revenue to match