You may be too young to recall his name, or you may not read history books or see Tom Hanks movies, so you might not know Gene Kranz. His is not a household name, but if you are a child of the 60s or a fan of watching men walk on the moon, you may remember that Gene Kranz?s was the heroic NASA Lead Flight Director who stood for stability and success during the ill-fated Apollo 13 moon mission of 1970.
Even if you know Gene?s name, you are unlikely to associate it with radio general management, but his story serves as a valuable case study for today?s radio General Manager. Apollo 13 flirted with disaster from the onset of the mission. The superstitious nature of the flight number, the last minute replacement of the Command Module pilot, the early engine shutdown moments after launch, the catastrophic explosion of Oxygen Tank 2 in the Service Module on the way to the moon, some 200,000 miles away from earth, and the ensuing difficulties of returning the astronauts safely to Earth, all nearly combined to deliver a death sentence to Jim Lovell and his crew. Historians might have memorialized the events of those days as the most serious failures of the nation to that date, had it not been for Gene Kranz and his ability to lead and motivate.
Hundreds, maybe thousands, of people evaluated Apollo 13?s problems, generated ideas, and created solutions, including the game-saver. The Lunar Module, Aquarius, could serve as a lifeboat to bring home Odyssey and the crew. The planning would be intense. The research into each phase would take on its own life. There would be detractors. Every piece of the execution would have to be perfect. Sound familiar? Thousands of minds and bodies around the world would have to work as one, but only one man could be in charge to orchestrate the rescue. That man was Gene Kranz, an uncompromising, steely-eyed rocket man.
Gene Kranz had been chosen as the elite of the elite, not by chance or happenstance. The most trusted agency of the United States government chose Gene because he refused to accept defeat. Kranz did not know how to lose. That is why every unit responsible for bringing home Lovell, Swiggert and Haise reported to this talented manager.
As the drama unfolded, Gene?s words and actions set an important bar for today?s GM. Kranz led by marshaling all available resources, describing the tasks at hand in detail, and then letting his team members do their jobs. He chose simply to ?work the problem,? and for those four days of terror in the vacuum of space, Gene Kranz directed, cajoled, intimidated, and willed his team to achieve. That is what leaders do, whether in deep space travel or terrestrial radio. Accomplished leaders set an expectation of success. They inspire others to do the same. They beat the horses and they feed them oats. They insist on winning at almost any cost. They live by the unwritten code of risk and reward. They thrive on it.
Each day as a General manager, you are presented with key challenges, projects, and choices that can either make or break your business. For the lesser gifted manager, task saturation, too many things happening at once, may set in and paralyze him. For the more seasoned pro, the vision of an end result illuminates all of the steps between the situation at this moment and the required result. Kranz made the result clear to his group of engineers, mathematicians, and technicians in a single five-word sentence: ?Failure is not an option.?
Do your words and actions instill that same level of commitment to work until you win? Would your team members, both up and down the chain of command, follow you into the freezing vacuum of space, risking life and limb, knowing without reservation that they will each emerge unscathed and victorious on the other side? Ask yourself these questions objectively, introspectively, and with extreme caution because the truth can be disturbing.
When the Apollo 13 mission began to unravel, Kranz gathered the sharpest minds at his disposal to frame the overwhelming challenges of the revised mission. He clearly and calmly explained every detail of every job to every person supporting the rescue efforts. He cooly and steadily insisted that every task was the most important step in that moment, in that day. And his people believed. They accepted that success was, indeed, their only option. They would do whatever the job required, lay on their backs for long hours in uncomfortable dark and cold spaces, risk their own reputations and those of the contractors and subcontractors they represented, and place the needs of the crew ahead of their own, because this emergency?and Kranz?demanded it.
Were Kranz?s team members afraid? Of course they were, but thanks to Kranz?s skilled and steady approach, they believed the most important thing that any workgroup can ever believe; Success is within their grasp. The belief that one will triumph over one?s adversary is a far stronger motivator than failure, even in the face of constantly changing events, waning resources, and declining results. Kranz understood the value of unqualified belief in success, perhaps better than anyone at NASA that week in April.
After the safe return of Apollo 13, Kranz summed up NASA?s character and provided today?s Radio GM with a bold lesson when he asserted in Mission Control, ?You cannot operate in this room unless you believe that you are Superman, and whatever happens, you're capable of solving the problem.?
It is time to stop some bullets, leap tall buildings at a single bound, and fly. Yes, fly. The lesson for today?s Radio GM, struggling at the entrance to a maze of unending change, exciting new opportunities, silly governmental restrictions and, more often than not, reduced resources, and embarrassing sales declines, is a Rule of Kranz that you break at your own peril: If you?re going to do a job, give it your best.
?To recognize that the greatest error is not to have tried and failed, but that in trying, we did not give it our best effort,? was the Kranz credo that NASA still invokes in 2011.
Radio needs General Managers who are visionary leaders. Are you willing to make mistakes? You better be. They happen and they can alter human lives in a moment?s span. Do you have a plan to overcome negativity and all-too-often pervasive pessimism in your organization? These common emotions are bent on snatching defeat from the grasp of your success. Don?t let that happen. Put on your mission vest and channel your inner Gene Kranz to obliterate chaos and negative energy, and to insure that your leadership creates something positive and useful to achieve your goals.
Relish your role as your station?s leader, and be ready and willing to reject any notion of failure, to unequivocally pronounce, ?Not on my watch!?
With your unfaltering dedication, all systems are ?Go? for Radio to enjoy its finest hour.
Bill Pasha is President of MultiBrand Media International, LLC and MBMI Cover America. The companies provide hands-on business solutions to a wide scope of international and domestic media concerns and creates value for media client-partners on four continents. Contact: bpasha@multibrandmedia.com
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