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Tim Moore
Managing Partner
Audience Development Group |
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Please consider this a personal invitation to join us for our NAB session (9 AM Friday, 25 September), as we engage three of the best and brightest programmers to serve up actionable techniques to take home and engage in your company. Of course unless the NAB sanctions a continuance of the session for say, 13 weeks or so, time-allotted will only kick-start the process.
As a preview, it will undoubtedly surface that "motivation" is like mercury: you can see it but you really can't direct it. Strong people have strong weaknesses. Most businesses or organizations seem sorely lacking in strong people. Recently while reciting this bromide, a regional vice president for a high profile company shot back, "I'd love to trade a few 'strong weaknesses' for a few more strong people." How we answer the bell in these inevitable collisions of will has everything to do with the end result and future.
John Wooden was a master at being nonplussed under fire; knowing when to push, when to say just the right thing in reversing a troubled situation. One day legendary center Bill Walton reported for the Bruins fall camp, wearing a beard. Wooden quietly pulled Walton aside and reminded him that facial hair was not standard for his team. The next day, Walton showed up for the team's initial practice still sporting his beard. Wooden quietly asked, "Bill, have you done any more thinking about our talk yesterday?" The Bruins' behemoth center responded, "I have coach, and I think the policy is unfair. To me it's an expression of my personality." Without hesitation Wooden calmly rejoined, "Well Bill, I admire someone who has strong beliefs...I really do. I admire yours in this case, and the team will miss you very much." 24 hours later, a clean-shaven Walton laced up his Converse All Stars and took the floor.
Sometimes the line between motivation, mentoring and leadership, is so obscured the three become braided into one which in turn, becomes a process. The ancient Japanese saying captures it: "If he works for you, you work for him." It's a clever and acceptable premise on paper; not as simplistic in practice. Established or emerging managers will do well to keep this maxim in mind since without developing your staff, there is no leadership. The more pressurized our environment, the more managers tend to recite orders in a menacing tone, believing that it somehow increases performance. Measured as an organizational benefit this behavior is the equivalent of grabbing a shark's fin to save yourself from drowning; only the shark goes home happy. The truth is leadership can be a solitary day-by-day journey without a map, without an exit ramp in sight, and most often without applause.
Ninety minutes at an NAB session won't save many souls. Nor will two full days of insightful and valuable input from all things-radio. But it's a start. On behalf of our colleagues at the NAB, Audience Development Group urges you to attend if you're not already booked.
The essential question for each of us asks, "Is this radio's dawn or dusk?" If it matters, I'm strongly convicted we're on the brink of an entrepreneurial dawning. There will be the sound of heavy thuds as more shoes drop in the days ahead. At the same time, former owners with operating acuity are poised to return to our ranks, joining those who have ridden out the storm. Ad dollars are beginning to return, and Apple's latest product has just handed radio a shimmering endorsement. Motivate, mentor and lead, because when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.
Tim Moore will anchor a major NAB session on Mentors, Motivation and Leadership at the NAB: 22-25 September in Philadelphia. Make plans to attend the NAB. |
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Sincerely,
Tim Moore
Managing Partner
Audience Development Group |
When you're in a ratings war it's best to aim high. When you're in a budget war it's best to aim low. Do both with one nationally proven, multiple format consulting partner: one firm, one culture, one travel expense, one consolidated fee. Call us today...before your competition does.
Audience Development Group:
239 513 9234 Naples / 616 940 8309 Grand Rapids | |
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