Do you ever get the feeling that some people get into management positions because they were picked on when they were younger? That maybe they got beat up or made fun of in high school? Now they are going to make someone pay?
I don't find that was the case in my career, both in and out of broadcasting. What I found were people who totally devoid of conscience when it came to how their decisions would effect not only the person in their sights but the ripple effect that would have on the entire operation. Not to sound elitist or like an old fart but younger managers are the worst because they have no historical frame of reference for what they are doing. You see a lot of this with online companies, they believe history began on the day they were born. Because of this tunnel vision, management is limited in its ability to see the big picture. They only focus on their department, and don't care to interact with other areas for the common good.
In my career at Citadel, I had a GSM who later became the GM, who then later began the GSM again (that was in about 8 months) who loved broadcasting, had a historical reference of the job and was extremely intelligent. But the trust needed was in the wrong people. Instead of cultivating and picking the brains of the vets, alliances were formed with secretaries and clerks. Nothing wrong with those jobs but if your a GM, those are not your confidants, your braintrust. This person never trusted the right people, the people who despite differences in personalities would go through a wall for the GSM and the company. The great tragedy was this misplaced trust and loyalty cost the person not only the job, but the career.
Management is how you handle people. It's how you are percieved. Are you fair? Or do you have favorites? Are you big enough to work with someone you personally can't stand or because you have the power, you decide to squash them like a bug? A good manager transcends the childhood slights, the revenge factor, all of that stuff. A bad manager doesn't.
Broadcasting, especially now because of its money factor doesn't allow for even tempered management, all they want are bigger numbers than the day before. And in a business like this, that's impossible because it runs in cycles. I had another GSM who predicted Magic 93 would decline in numbers in mid decade because of the age of the listeners. The last book they were #4 and trending down. After years of dominance, who do you blame? Was the management to blame? The staff? What made them worse today than they were in say the 2002 book? Just like sales reps, you make a goal one quarter, then not the next. All of a sudden do you suck? I don't think so. I don't think there is anyone in their job as an on air person, an IT person, a waitress, a factory worker, anyone, who wakes up every morning, looks in the mirror and says, "Okay, how am I gonna stink out the joint today and try to get myself fired?" They don't. Good managers realize that but as you can tell, it's all a delicate balance.
Yonkstur
