Leadership: Ignite Change!

By Fred Deane

Fred Deane

The qualities of being a leader are as relevant for leaders as they are for subordinates in any organization.  A subordinate employee should set high standards for yourself and work along a continuum of overachievement goals to optimize your performance value inside a company.  It’s incumbent upon superiors to provide the culture, autonomy, and inspiration to motivate their employees toward these goals on an ongoing basis. It must be a collaborative effort.  

These relationship qualities are requisites up and down the chain of command to ensure a trustworthy partnership, especially from lower/middle management up the chain of command.

Every leader would appreciate employees who operate by the code these standards exhibit.  After all, if you have a workforce of self-starters and self-motivators, there’s not much prodding necessitated.  Given the proper stimulating environment, simply set the department/personnel goals for the week, sit back, and watch them race to the finish line.

While these scenarios are seemingly idealistic, reality lies somewhere along the spectrum of expectation, company culture, and employee satisfaction.  Certainly achievable in varying degrees for subordinates and superiors, but here’s where the art of management plays its most prominent role.  Effective leaders must possess the essential qualities of confidence, collaboration, and responsibility, while exercising the vision of not only outwardly displaying these qualities to subordinates, but also inspiring employees to operate with these qualities as well. 

I’ve taken and taught at undergrad and grad levels the art of leadership up and down the chain of command.  It’s fascinating when instructing young, eager minds how energized you get by their innocence and natural enthusiasm to achieve.  While not competitively in the professional work environment yet, college students are full of organic self-motivation, unbridled energy, and the gusto to achieve and succeed.

It’s not until they experience the working world for a few years that they become somewhat jaded by the realities of the workplace and the company culture, one way or another.  Is it a stimulating place to be?  Do I have room to achieve and grow?  Is there proper recognition for standards of excellence?  Are the vibes in the hallways positive?  Is it too political?  

All relevant and important questions, and it’s vital for superiors and the company to meet these employee standards to heighten employee self-worth and performance output.  The superior must place himself in the shoes of his employees and evaluate accordingly.  Would I be motivated by the environment we are providing our employees?  Would I feel fulfilled by my job?  Is there a future for me here? Is there a prescribed vision path?

It’s the interaction between employees and superiors that sway a subordinate’s perception of themselves, their attitudes toward their company, and thoughts of their own career longevity.  Why would any leader want to dampen any employee’s motivation to succeed at the highest levels?

So how did the radio industry get to our current state of exponential frustration?  

Don’t miss the message here. It’s not due to their lack of enthusiasm or pure joy they derive from their jobs, it’s the current radio environment they’ve been accorded in recent years.  They still love their jobs, but they feel they deserve a better ROI from their companies relative to the industrious work they constantly put into their roles. 

Whereas they used to work 24/7 in their minds, at concerts, backstage, at label dinners, at conventions, etc., they now literally work 24/7 at their forty-hour a week gig, as those perks have subsided to an uncomfortably slower pace.

I’m as practical as the next guy when it comes to assessing the realities associated with the economic margins and social forces working for or against certain industries, and as those forces continue to press radio harder quarter-year to quarter-year, the gig gets tougher and tougher as workforces have been severely reduced across the board. 

But as an industry of partnerships and camaraderie, we forge ahead together, with the will, purpose and fervor to win.  To win for ourselves, our superiors, our companies…but most of all our industry, an industry that’s fighting for its mere existence. 

Solutions abound!  We need to collectively apply the creativity, passion, ingenuity, and resourcefulness that got us into this business in the first place and realize that we are still large-and-in-charge as a medium, as long as leadership provides the tangible and intangible resources to march forward.  

Ignite Change!

Solutions and thoughts welcome:  fdeane@deanemediasolutions.com

Fred Deane is the Founder & CEO of Deane Media Solutions, a firm designed as a medium and pathway of productive and meaningful idea interactions among the multi-media and music industries. Deane has been serving our industry for over four decades, dedicating his career to challenging himself as well as associates, and being a devoted advocate for the radio medium. His academic background includes law, economics, and musicology. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor for several Philadelphia area universities, instructing at the undergraduate and graduate levels.