9
Working with Your General Manager
Your Boss, the General Manager
It would be nice for program directors if they could function autonomously, doing what they believe to be the right things to create and direct the best on-air product. Alas, they seldom can. In real life, the program director (PD) is responsible to at least one superior—the general manager (GM) or the station owner (sometimes the same person). This chapter is devoted to the PD’s relationship with the general manager/owner.
You were probably hired as a program director by the general manager. If you were hired by the owner but work under the general manager, you probably have something to prove to the GM. Regardless of who hired you, you will be evaluated on your capabilities in your current position.
One of the common problems that PDs face is finding a way to gain the manager’s confidence that they do keep the “bottom line” in mind. As a rule, GMs are promoted from the sales arena, and as a result, they frequently have a different way of looking at things than the most effective program directors do.
Because every station and every job situation is slightly different, the only way I can effectively counsel you about maximizing the relationship with your GM is to go into the psychology of the people involved and provide you with a way of better understanding yourself as well as the people with whom you work. The characteristics I’ll give you will even help you identify and handle the exceptions. So, if you’ll pardon me for it, I’m going to get a little heavy here for a minute.
The Psychology of the Individual
General managers are frequently outgoing and gregarious. They enjoy being a part of groups and in the center of the action and are often sports oriented. They tend to believe that others are like them and that others feel as they do about everything. (This is the origin of the so-called country club effect: the belief of some managers that because they, their families, or their friends don’t like a given song or element of the programming, nobody does, and it should be eliminated.)
The sort of extroverted people I’m describing here frequently define themselves by their possessions, especially a very nice car, and they give as gifts what they want the recipient to have, rather than what the recipient might really want. They may not understand why anyone would need some time by themselves. They often wear their heart on their sleeve and are uncomfortable when it’s necessary to keep a secret. (If this type of general manager is preparing to do something you won’t like, he or she will become distant and will stop showing camaraderie with you.)
Turning to programming, the most effective PDs have to be able to get into the listener’s head and perceive the station the way listeners do. This mandates the ability to see and understand the points of view of others. This ability is often associated with a somewhat introverted personality, sometimes with a less than compelling interest in spectator or social sports. These people often do not care a great deal about how others perceive them and may prefer to drive an unostentatious but practical car. They will give a gift that the recipient will want, rather than something that they would like the recipient to have. They feel the need now and then for periods of solitude, can keep a secret well, and tend to keep their emotions to themselves, perhaps even appearing cold or unfeeling as a result. (This can lead to a tendency for PDs to fail to balance routine critiques with enough positive feedback to the staff.)
It may have occurred to you that these two personality types also tend to represent the two personality types found in most successful marriages. In truth, opposites do attract in marriages, but they don’t often attract in relationships between people of the same gender, as in a business relationship. Being such opposites, even though this is the most common situation, can lead to problems between a PD and a GM as they attempt to work together.
One additional characteristic of the most astute program directors is that they find psychological discussions like this one very helpful and illuminating. (Such discussions can help you gain insight into your listeners, too.) On the other hand, I’ve noticed that those who get impatient with this type of psychological discussion—considering its insights “obvious” or unnecessary—tend to be extroverted and less introspective people who have a hard time perceiving the station from various perspectives. (They often see it terms of industry clichés.)
A common difficulty in station management springs from a situation in which one or both executives involved are at the extreme end of the personality scale, as defined here. This is usually the result of a hidden feeling of inferiority. An extremely extroverted general manager tends to drive a very exotic, costly, or flashy car and often tries to dominate and intimidate subordinates. An extremely introverted PD tends to drive a very low status car and is unable to articulate the reasons for his or her programming strategies, working them out through intuition and what feels right. These may be the right things to do, but the PD cannot defend them with logic, which serves as evidence to the general manager that they haven’t been thought through and are probably wrong.
Another characteristic of the extremely introverted program director is that he or she doesn’t expect to be given respect and obedience by the staff and may act dictatorial, arbitrary, and unfeeling toward subordinates in an effort to establish and maintain authority. Needless to say, tyranny is counterproductive. Although this type of person may not believe it, all airstaffs (indeed, all teams of any sort) seek a leader and will automatically grant respect to their new PD right from the beginning—until he or she forfeits their respect through such conduct.
The moral is to never command through fear but rather to lead by example. If you have doubts about your course of action, don’t reveal them to your airstaff; all teams want an assured leader. If you make a mistake, admit it; no team expects infallibility, and all respect honesty and openness in a leader. Just continue to lead with decisiveness after making any necessary course correction.
For this quick psychological overview of these types of personalities, I’m indebted to John G. Kappas at the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in Van Nuys, California (818-344-4464), to whom I direct you for more discussion on this subject. His book, Your Sexual Personality, is the most accurate and valuable work on human psychology that I’ve ever seen. It’s applicable to everyone, not just those seeking success in romance. If you are interested in going into much greater depth on this psychological study, I suggest you obtain and read this book.
Building Mutual Trust
Now that you have a better sense of where your general manager may be coming from and perhaps have some new insights into yourself, let’s turn to building the best working relationship possible between you and your general manager.
If your relationship with your GM follows the pattern described in the preceding section, you may fear that your manager does not grasp the need for consistency in programming and thus is willing to compromise elements of the on-air product for the sake of short-term revenue. Your stated objections to this may have already led your manager, in turn, to worry that you do not appreciate the financial responsibility of his or her position that in your naïveté you may act in ways that will unnecessarily cost the station money.
It’s a bad start for the two of you to suspect the other’s motives and agendas. You need each other’s confidence. As the PD, you will have to go more than halfway to bring about mutual confidence. The GM may not really understand you, or the way you think, or what you are seeking to accomplish on the air. General managers of this type have difficulty understanding and trusting someone whose motivation seems different from their own. You, being more introspective, will have a much easier time understanding your GM than he or she will have understanding you.
In my experience, it is the general manager (GM) who sets the tone and style for the station, defines its ethical standard, its mission, and its objectives, as recognized and accepted by the rest of the staff.
Nonetheless, any lack of confidence between the GM and the PD can destroy any sense of “team” and can help create cliques on the staff. This is severely counterproductive to what the PD seeks to accomplish, making it essential that he or she make whatever effort is necessary to gain the confidence of the GM.
The single most important thing in gaining the confidence of your general manager is to display a businesslike attitude and mindfulness about the profit picture of the station. In my experience, program directors are often never told exactly how the station is doing financially and what its needs and goals are. From the time you take the job, you should ask. How can you help meet the station’s objectives if you don’t know what they are—or how far away from them you are now?
Second, as a program director, you may be expected to maintain an established programming direction—or perhaps you’ve been hired to make big changes. The usual attitude for PDs is, “Stand back and let me at it.” Bad idea! If you’re suited for the position, you probably have a much better idea than the GM right from the beginning as to exactly what should be done. However, you still need market information and the station background, which the GM knows well, and you also need the GM’s confidence and backing in whatever you elect to do.
Thus your first step should be to sit down with the GM and discuss what he or she believes is right with the station and what needs improvement. What is the target demographic group? What is the target “psychographic” group? (Psychographics generally refer to lifestyle and attitude.) Why is the station doing what it is now doing?
If there seems no need to go so far as to change the format, what shortcomings should be addressed? If you were hired to make a format change, make sure that there is good cause for one, and then make a clear and detailed written plan for the proposed change. Get the GM’s approval, present it to the sales department, and present it to your airstaff. Orchestrate its implementation, and make sure that everybody in the station is well prepared for it. The first impressions that your listeners get will be the lasting ones, and they’d better be good.
Also, learn about the station’s heritage in the market. Every station is different, and how it was perceived in the past influences people’s perceptions about what it is in the present. (Remember that listener expectations are based on past experiences with the station.) Talk to people in the community about the station. What do people know or remember best about it? What do they listen for? You may learn that something as seemingly incompatible as a news block within an intensive music format may be the station’s “secret weapon” in the community and that eliminating it might do more harm than good.
Something else that you should ask the GM at the beginning of your term as program director concerns the budgeting. Will you have a role in this process? It is really no fun to go through the grind of preparing the next year’s budget every autumn, but you’re better off participating in the budgeting for your department if you can because nothing better puts you and your GM on the same wavelength concerning the financial goals of the station. Your participation in the budget process also makes a statement about your willingness to program the station in a businesslike way.
When I start a new position as program director of a station, I usually ask if I can be the one to sign the airstaff paychecks. If the GM doesn’t object, this accomplishes the twin goals of showing your airstaff that they work for you and demonstrating that you have the confidence of your GM. Furthermore, if you are on the bank signature card for station checks, you can act as the backup signature for the accounting department when the GM is out of town, which is usually helpful. However, if your GM is not comfortable with this suggestion, just leave the thought on the table for a future time and accept the status quo. You want the GM’s confidence, not his or her suspicion about imagined ulterior motives.
Make sure you keep your GM informed about what you are doing—on a regular, ongoing basis—and obtain his or her approval before you make changes in the on-air product. That makes it hard for anyone opposing your point of view to go around you to the GM with objections. An informed GM should back you up because he or she participated in the decision.
As noted earlier in this chapter, general managers are customarily drawn from sales because the station owners have to rely on the GM to maintain the station as a viable business. This means making sure that the station’s income will meet or exceed all of its costs and expenditures each year. Naturally, then, most owners feel that someone with experience in sales should oversee the overall operation of the station. It is not unheard of today for a program director to be named general manager, but even such GMs have to supervise the sales department and make sure that the station is profitable. Naturally, it’s hard to supervise a department that you don’t understand.
Thus it is not simply for the purpose of maintaining staff harmony and having the confidence of the salespeople who sell ads in your programming that you will want to work well with the sales department. Your increased understanding of its operation and functions will be very helpful if you aspire to become a general manager. Working well with the sales department is the subject of the next chapter.