RADIO AND TELEVISION NEWS DIRECTORS FOUNDATION news leadership at the head of the class the journalist’s guide to teaching leadership and management skills and values second edition Author Jill Geisler, Leadership & Management Group Leader, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies Radio and Television News Directors Foundation Barbara Cochran, President • Kathleen Graham, Vice President Foundation Programs Erica D. Thode, Project Coordinator, News Leadership & Journalism Ethics Supported by the McCormick Tribune Foundation Copyright© 2006 by the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF). All Rights Reserved. Table of Contents News Leadership: Important to Learn, Important to Teach.............1 About the Author .............................................................................5 Leadership Coaching: Getting Started............................................7 Welcome to Teaching Leadership!...........................................................7 Who is a Manager? Who is a Leader? .....................................................8 Leadership is Personal .............................................................................9 You, the Teacher .....................................................................................10 Teaching Adult Learners.........................................................................15 Reaching and Respecting Learners.......................................................17 The Learning Environment......................................................................21 Teaching Methods ..................................................................................23 Teaching Tools ........................................................................................40 Aim High: Standards Matter ...................................................................49 Leadership and Management: Teaching Topics and Resources........51 Leadership Theory .............................................................................................51 Management Practices...........................................................................54 Leadership Styles ...................................................................................57 Emotional Intelligence.............................................................................59 Ethics, Diversity and Values ...................................................................61 Motivation................................................................................................65 Coaching.................................................................................................69 Conflict Resolution ..................................................................................72 Leading and Managing Change ............................................................76 Your Next Steps ......................................................................................78 Appendix of Leadership Teaching Handouts ................................81 I’m Your Leader—What Have I Done for Your Lately?............................82 Manage Yourself, Lead Others...............................................................86 The Power Grid of Leadership................................................................89 Your Management Style: How do You See It? How do They See It? ........90 Building and Busting Newsroom Trust: A Top Ten List .........................93 Got Influence?.........................................................................................95 The Manager as Coach: Tools for Teaching...........................................97 The Writing Coach in the Broadcast Newsroom ....................................99 Ten Keys to Morale and Motivation ......................................................101 Strategies of Top Performers ................................................................103 Leaders and “The Ethics Walk” ............................................................105 Work Satisfaction Survey ......................................................................107 Work-Life Harmony Quiz.......................................................................109 What Does Diversity Look Like? ...........................................................111 What Kind of Conflict Manager Are You? .............................................113 The Difficult Conversation.....................................................................116 Tips for the Difficult Conversation.........................................................118 Introducing the Ten Lousy Listeners.....................................................119 Goleman’s Leadership Styles ...............................................................120 Twenty Questions About Your Boss......................................................122 news leadership important to learn, important to teach Today, more than ever, journalism needs leaders at every level. In times of change, people look to leaders to inspire and guide them. Leaders help people move out of their comfort zones into new learning, new achievements. Evolving technology and the changing habits of news consumers demand creative and collaborative responses from newsrooms. Leaders turn change into challenge, challenge into opportunity. Are you a leader? • Are you the kind of person whose vision and wisdom inspires others? • Do you help people do their best work in changing times? • Do you help people grow their skills in a way that makes them eager to reach even higher? • Are you gifted at solving problems and resolving conflicts? • Is the work more rewarding when you’re on the job? • Are you always ready to learn more? If you can say “yes” to all—or even some—of those questions, chances are you are indeed a leader. Congratulations! And one more thing: rtndf news leadership at the head of the class 1 Are you ready to help teach others about leadership and management? Yes? Then read on. The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF) has long provided training for newsroom managers through workshops and publications. This book takes that training to another level. It helps leaders become teachers. News Leadership at the Head of the Class is designed to help those who want to coach and teach others to become better at leading and managing. You might do this at a convention, a workshop, or right in your own organization. You may be someone designated as a “trainer” in your organization, someone who regularly teaches others. But we’re assuming you’re more likely to be a newsroom manager who wants to build your teaching skills. RTNDF understands the need for training leaders and managers. Training? What Training? Before you became a newsroom manager, you probably had a reputation for superior newsroom skills. You produced top-notch newscasts, kept the trains running on time on the assignment desk, or knew how to report or photograph a remarkable story. People who are good at doing journalism often are asked to lead it. But when you step into the role, you discover you need an entirely new set of skills: • You now supervise what you used to “just do.” • You evaluate people who may have been your co-workers. • You change formats or schedules you may have developed in your past duties. • You solve problems and settle conflicts. • You are responsible for managing a budget, though math is not your strong suit. • You collaborate—or should—with other departments. • You must know all forms of law—from contract to labor to libel. • You connect with viewers, who often question your judgment. • You model the ethics and values you want your team to stand for. • You build and nurture the culture of your organization. • You are expected to have a vision for the future of your team and a plan to get them there. And every day you deal with those who produce the daily miracle 2 rtndf news leadership at the head of the class that is your news. You motivate, inspire, coach, correct, challenge and comfort your people. Sometimes you anger or disappoint them. Through it all, you hope they choose to give their best effort to journalism every day. Who taught you the massive set of skills needed to accomplish all this? Chances are you didn’t receive much, if any, formal training. A 2002 study sponsored by the Knight Foundation1 determined that news organizations spend about half as much as other industries on training. It further noted a lack of training is journalists’ number one source of job dissatisfaction. Chances are you learned by trial and error. Your trials may have been very trying. Your errors were painful to you and to others. Isn’t there a better way to move into management? RTNDF thinks there is. That’s why, with a grant from the McCormick Tribune Foundation, RTNDF set out to help newsroom managers receive the training they lack. RTNDF didn’t simply make assumptions about what news directors want—it conducted research among news directors and general managers. Here’s an excerpt from an RTNDA Communicator article about the effort: We asked them what topics they’d like RTNDF to offer in its broadcast leadership and management training. The group’s top five choices: • Communicating effectively to staff • Coaching employees for high performance • Developing and adapting a leadership style • Developing systems • Knowing legal issues in human resources. Close behind were time management, recruitment, managing difficult people, evaluations and reviews, writing and storytelling coaching, creativity, conducting meetings,