The most pervasive trend affecting their effectiveness
is unquestionably the downsizing of their management support staffs.
In addition to administrative, personnel and financial duties,
news directors today must balance the leadership needs in the
newsroom with the content needs of the day.
Working with their general managers, The Coaching
Company coaches news directors to achieve four principal goals:
Master
time management. News managers are chronic victims of someone
else’s priorities – more than occasionally, the
general manager’s!
Manage
your managers. In most newsrooms, it’s no longer possible
for news directors to make every major decision. Effective news
directors educate their key players, delegate authority and
then hold them accountable for their actions.
Provide constant feedback. The most persistent complaint we
hear from on-air and off-air staffers, regardless of their newsroom’s
size, is that they receive little or no input from their managers.
Successful news directors, no matter how strapped, find the
time to assess the work of their teams and offer them guidance.
Build
a performance-driven culture. On-air talent are the most visible
bearers of a station’s brand, yet all too frequently they
receive the least amount of coaching and appraisal from news
directors. Engaging talent need constant engagement.
