Audience Development Group 

Midweek Motivator

How Did We Get From There to Here?                  February 10, 2010
Tim Moore
Tim Moore 
Managing Partner
Audience Development Group
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Sometimes the truth lies not in what was, but in what might have been. If there is consensus on anything in our profession, it's that we've largely squandered an opportunity to exploit the gift of talent development. Included under this big umbrella are on-air performers, sales leaders, and their sellers. We're an unfinished painting with a grade of "incomplete."
 
George Johns and I were discussing this condition, past and present, while reflecting on the year Doc Rivers went from worst-to-first with the Boston Celtics. Shortly after the Celts won the NBA Championship (after being dead-last the previous season), reporters asked Rivers, "What did you say to the team this year that was different from what you told them last year?"
 
Rivers replied, "I didn't say anything different this year; I just said it to better players."
 
We may assume Rivers meant some new and better players, coalesced with carryover players who were coached-up into championship form. Doc Rivers' assessment of the Celts worst-to-first saga is only helpful if we accept our position as someone who influences a cluster of people who will either improve or drift into sub-par execution. There is no "neutral" in a performance-based setting.
 
Your Reality versus Professional Sports
 
You can't trade them. You don't want to fire them. You can't sell them or option them for a future draft choice and an undisclosed amount of cash. With the exception of a select handful of companies and markets, what we have is what we live with. So, it stands to reason if we double our emphasis on "player development," we'll see results proportionate to what we offer them.
 
*Treat everyone on your staff as talent.

*Treat them all as "first-round draft picks."

*We are drowning in a sea of sameness. Many companies are just pouring in more water.

*Time is more valuable than money; spend more of it on development.

*The best way to improve anyone is to give them examples from those who win year after year.

*People respect what their leaders inspect, not simply what they expect. Coaching is work.
 
We witness a lot of dialog that goes something like this. Staffer: "Tell me what I should be doing." Manager: "Okay, here is an outline" (or facsimile). There is a huge difference between "telling someone what they should do," versus providing coaching examples of how to accomplish something. Never fall into the abyss of telling everyone what they should do. It's leadership quicksand. Instead, challenge them articulate what is to be done, the help navigate them toward the agreed outcome.
 
When there is a development model in place for air talent and sellers, real performers find the formula for success soon enough. Those who don't may be in the wrong business. Herein lies the great chasm between "what might have been" and what can still be
 
Transcending media to include all corners of commerce, too little is being accomplished in the field of talent development. As for radio, the real number one station is always the top biller; it arrived there by collecting and developing better people. 
Sincerely,
 
Tim Moore     
Tim Moore
Managing Partner
Audience Development Group
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