Managing Oneself

This article touched on a number of valid points that are essential in discovering how you work as an individual, with others and overall how you can use that knowledge to be a more successful/productive YOU. The first element in determining how to manage yourself is to determine your strengths. You must know your strengths to know where you belong. When you discover your strengths, put yourself where your strengths will produce results. Continue to improve these strengths and acquire new skills when needed. Another element of managing yourself is to determine how you preform. Are you a reader or listener? How do you learn? And so on. How one learns is something that I found very interesting. My 8th grade teacher once explained the seven levels of learning to us... I cannot remember all of them but I do remember realizing that I function well at some levels of learning but not at others. For example, I function extremely well at the lowest level of learning: memorization. When studying for tests I find it easy to memorize terms, concepts, responses,etc. However, I do not function well at the highest level of learning which is being able to take an object/concept and completely break it down and then put it back together and explain step-by-step how you came back to the original object/concept. Knowing how you learn will not only be of benefit to yourself but will enable you to better understand how others learn and work more productively with them.
Your personal values must be compatible with the organization's values, they do not have to be identical but they must be close enough to work. I think this is a very important concept that many people either do not understand or do not acknowledge. Far too many people are in it for the money. In the end these people usually are not happy with their work and sometimes they are unhappy with their life in general as a result. I understand that money is a necessary thing in life, but it is not the only thing. People sell themselves short of happiness and success when they work for organizations whose vision that they do not believe in. The idea of the 'second half of your life' is a scary thought to most, but for those people who have worked for a company that they cannot relate to or do not believe in, the second half of their life can be just as depressing as the 25+ years they spent at the organization. Starting on a new venture later in life is terrifying no doubt, but it could be the beginning of a more successful and happy life that everyone is entitled to.

Pixar's Collective Creativity

I really enjoyed this article about the success of Pixar. Success in a creative company requires a slightly different approach in management style than traditional companies. The way in which they achieved this success is very relevant to radio. The first point made in the article that I found useful was the fact that the success of a project is dependent on a production team of 200-250 people, not just the producer and director; no matter how small an individual's contribution is, in the end it plays a major role in the overall success or failure of a project. When dealing with talented and creative individuals, however, the next challenge is how to get them to work together effectively. Pixar deals with this in multiple ways, the first is to take a chance on new ideas and fresh talent. In any industry it is so easy to stick with what works, its safe. Being safe however, does not ensure consistent success. The second facet of managing a creative team effectively is to realize that it is ok to hire people that are smarter than you... expertise in areas that you are not extremely knowledgeable in yourself will produce new ideas and ultimately create a better end product. Another important concept that I took from this article was that of 'creative leeway'; giving people the freedom to do what they want and supporting that fosters a productive work environment. Even though not every idea or concept people come up with will be successful there is also a way to manage and improve an employees work without undermining their authority, and I believe that is key in keeping up their confidence and ensuring their continued productivity in the future.
Pixar's operating principles were another element of the article that I found useful and innovative. I really liked the first point they made about allowing everyone to have the freedom to communicate with anyone; not having to check in with other people in your department before talking to higher-ups in another department. Again, the notion of complete freedom enable people to work without limitations or fear of punishment/termination. It is clear after reading the story of Pixar's success that trust and freedom are essential to an organizations success. Giving people the freedom to complete their work in their own way and trusting that they will not only do so, but produce positive/successful results when given the opportunity is the key element of a successful organization.

strengthening others

This week i read chapter ten in skyhooks for leadership which dealt with ways to strengthen your employees through the power that is warranted to you as a manager. There were several sections throughout the chapter that I found helpful.... The first section of this chapter that i found really relevant was about assigning critical tasks to others. Managers possess a certain amount of power simply because of their title, spreading this power among the ranks by assigning employees tasks that are crucial to a projects completion makes employees feel that their work and time are valuable, it gives a sense of purpose as opposed to doing small mindless tasks all the time. Although delegating important tasks is an effective way to give power to others, leaders must keep up with the changing environment of their industry and not just simply sit back and oversee daily operations. Many studies of various management styles have shown that managers who refuse to delegate tasks to employees or reach out to others in any way are unsuccessful. An added benefit to sharing power was noted by Doug Schumer who was managing a small research group at Ohaus Scale Corporation; the group was to design and create a new product outside his area of expertise (applied physics). By delegating and allowing other members of the group to who were experts in various fields to obtain their own results and then report back to him what needed to be done to make it work was key in the new product's completion and success.
Most importantly what I got out of this chapter was that in order to strengthen others you not only need to share power, but you need to share information, while at the same time allowing people the freedom to complete tasks/objectives in their own way and when they do, be sure to acknowledge their accomplishments; make their success 'visible' to everyone in the organization.

Productivity through People

This chapter in Skyhooks dealt a lot about general respect for employees as a means of creating a more productive work environment. Acknowledging that employees are essential and important assets to any organization is key in making them feel like the work they do everyday is valuable and necessary. When people feel that what they do or don't do everyday truly makes a difference in the overall productivity of their organization is what makes them continue either pattern of behavior (getting their work done or not). Another very key factor that was discussed in this chapter was about trust. I really liked the story about Dana and HP and how they did away with time clocks. These two companies put faith in their employees that they would honestly report in/out times, it also required middle management to take more responsibility for their employees. For example, as a manager if you see that someone is consistently late you can discuss that issue face-to-face with them, which is not only more effective in producing positive results, but it also does not require any sort of time clock to notice and correct an employees tardiness.
The structure and general chain of command in most organizations was touched on as well... the less structure and layering there is within an organization the more freedom employees have, this freedom gives them a sense of purpose, seeing that they can delegate their daily objectives without always 'checking in' first makes people feel that they have a say in their own work. As long as the job is getting done on time and correctly this way of managing would produce the most positive and productive results in my mind.

Shared Visions

When I first began reading 'Skyhooks for Leadership' by John Shtogren I found myself moving much more slowly through the pages, there was just soooo much information; but after reading a few pages sometimes more than once I realized that it was a lot of good information. The first chapter I read dealt with 'Shared Visions'. There were a few concepts that really stood out to me, the first was that a company's vision can originate from any level, it does not always need to come from the top down. I feel that Bearcast can really relate to this in that we are a group made up of college student. Students that have so many ideas and visions that if take into consideration and put into action have the potential to connect with current listeners and engage new listeners. Officers in the organization need to take a look at some of the ideas, etc that people have and give them a try, they need to move away from what is comfortable, which is a hard thing to do and also seems quite risky but in the end could turn out to be very profitable.

Authenticity and Locality

Upon finishing reading the 'Making Waves' book by Ramsey I was happy to find that he concluded with and 11-point plan for radio's future. Bottom line: a station should connect with its listeners, it should be concerned with local issues and events. It should foster the kind of relationship with its listeners that has substance, a relationship that is real. It should be the place where they turn to every morning on their commute and every afternoon on their return home to get the information that they want, to hear the music that they can relate to. I love this idea of 'leveraging your loudspeaker'. Radio does not have the visual element that TV or the Internet do, but we do have a huge megawatt speaker that is heard by 90% of adults at least once a week, and if used in the right way can put us way ahead of the competing media outlets.
So we know that we need to truly connect with listeners, and once we do that we need to keep doing it. Flexibility and change are key, introducing new formats and programming and new talent is essential to the continued growth of a station. Everything that I have stated is not any easy task to achieve and a lot of the concepts seem conflicting... be authentic but don't cater to such a small market that you have no listeners... connect with listeners on a more intimate level, and then once they are comfortable change it up, yeah it sounds ridiculous to me just writing it. But there needs to be some sort of balance. To achieve that balance and overall success Radio first needs to start in the communities and ask themselves: what is it that consumers/listeners want that they are not already getting or getting enough of? Once you find that then move on to how you will go about providing them with what they want in an 'authentic' way. Authenticity can then be achieved through new ideas and new talent, which incorporates the element of flexibility. Radio has to remember how it started, for example, low power stations started out of a need for niche programming and music, so when they nationally syndicate almost every one of their programs they lose that 'local' touch, essentially they have lost the personal connection with listeners.
From what I gather thus far, Bearcast has not lost its 'local touch', it is just in need of a broader reach, more publicity, and essentially more listeners, so in this case it seems we have the opposite problem of terrestrial radio.

Trends in Radio

The readings for the week of April 16th were focused a lot on upcoming trends in radio or lack there of. I really related to the interview with Richard Laermer about 'trend spotting'. I liked how he commented about a lot of the industry being one-sided. It is important for people to know a little bit about a lot of things. Although each station has their 'stereotypical' listener, in order to gain more listeners stations should experiment with diversifying. I think Bearcast can really take something from this. Most music played is focused between a few genres, this is so because the DJ of each show is playing what they are interested in and for the most part many members of Bearcast share the same taste in music. A possible solution... scout new talent. Find incoming freshman or even students entering their senior year that have different tastes and likes and encourage them not only to get involved with Bearcast but to put a considerable amount to time into producing a show that is uniquely their own. He also states that radio does not take advantage of reaching out and becoming involved in the local community. At Bearcast I feel that efforts are becoming more focused on getting out into the community; everyone has their head in the right place, it will just take not only time but continued effort through the members to maintain and expand our reach into the community. In order to create a name/ a brand if you will for our station, we have to know what consumers want, what they are into and what they like to do. This will take time but it will also take a good amount of in-depth research, not just paper questionnaires but real discussion. I think it would be a great idea for every management member to bring in two to three or maybe even more friends that are completely different, everyone would pick a few friends that are polar opposites and we could conduct a focus group with them. Although the responses and input would be extremely varied it would serve as a starting point and give some initial answers to the question of what is is that UC students really want to hear, know about an ultimately what do they really care about?