11-6-2013
The Old Coaching Model: Radio program directors and consultants primarily focused on negatives and, to a lesser degree, berate talent for their shortcomings. This outdated style of coaching is a recipe for not getting the most creativity and productivity out of talent. It causes resistance, resentment, and unnecessary conflict.
The New Coaching Model: Is a collaborative process that unlocks a person's and show's creative potential. As a program/brand director, you are a coach, facilitator, and master interviewer who helps bring out the strengths of talent. This method focuses on asking the right questions combined with an honest, matter-of-fact, and ego-preserving way of giving feedback so the talent has ownership of their growth.
The relationship between the coach and talent is ideally a partnership based on trust and honesty, of openness and safety, and of minimal pressure. Creative people thrive best in an environment where they are encouraged to try new ideas and not be yelled at if it doesn't work. Self-esteem is the lifeblood of creative personalities, and if that is suppressed or diminished, so is the person, the performance, and often results in stress and eventually burnout.
Our approach to coaching talent was inspired by my coaching mentor Timothy Gallwey (Inner Game of Tennis). John Wooden and Phil Jackson were the two most successful coaches in college and pro basketball history, respectively. They both took a collaborative and individualized approach to help players and teams reach peak performance rather than beating them up to get them to perform.
Help out: The most fundamental thing that any program director/brand director can do is ask the morning show, ?What do you need from me?" (Technical issues, promotional help, artist interviews, help me get a phone screener, etc.)
Morning Show Meeting: Both the show and Program/Brand Director divides their evaluation of the show into two categories:
Show Highlights (What worked best) and What Didn?t Work Well
-- Discuss what worked well and why. Then answer the question, ?How could it have worked even better?? Sometimes you?ll think of ways to make great content even better next time.
-- Then discuss what didn?t work well and why. Then answer the question, ?What would you do differently next time??
This method keeps the show focused on killer content and how to continually improve it.
Randy Lane is the president of the Randy Lane Company; phone 805.497.7177
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