"Our Time..."

I bought it.  Hook, line, sinker.

My mouth should be sore from getting dragged from Twins Lake of Doom to the Royals Boat of Not-So-Much.

I've been a Twins fan all my life but this year, I considered trading my blue and red for light blue.  The Twins lost some of my favorite players (Kubel, Cuddyer).  The Twins stars (Mauer and Morneau) were big question marks after last year.  The Royals were going to be better.  The Twins, worse.  The Royals would not win the division but they would be contenders.  The Royals would win more games than they would lose.  And most importantly, the Royals would be juiced by the fact that the All-Star Game is in Kansas City this summer.

In the off-season, all the talk was of how this year's team would be better than the ones before.  Much. Better.  Yes, there were concerns about pitching.  Significant concerns.  But the big bats of Billy Butler, Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer and Melky Cabrerra...oops, he's gone.  Okay, Butler, Gordon, Hosmer and...uh...

Whatever.

I just finished watching the Royals lose their ELEVENTH STRAIGHT GAME.  At home.  In a row.

I am generally an optimistic person.  I look for the bright side.  I try to find the silver lining.

It's really, really hard to look forward to seeing the Royals go on the road against the Indians, Twins and Tigers followed by games here against the Yankees and Red Sox.

How did this happen?  What is wrong with this team?  I honestly have no idea.

I can, however, imagine how Ned Yost feels.  Sometimes being the coach of a professional team sucks.  Bad.

Being a news director involves lots of skills.  Some I am good at.  Some not.  One skill is coaching.  That's not something I'm especially good at.  I have to work at it and I fail more often than not.  I'm not very patient.

It is difficult to lose day after day after day.  The only way out of the abyss is to win.  And when you can't remember what that feels like or when it's been a long time since it happened, losing gets easier and easier.  Winning gets harder.  Harder.  And harder.

Continuous negative thinking equals insanity.  So the Royals have to battle the negativity/insanity and that's not easy.  Especially when the "Our Time" spots are still running rampant on sports radio.

One expert says it's a mind game.  Here's some of his advice:

When the team loses:
PRAISE individuals who have played well despite the team losing.
PRAISE particular occasions in games when a player has done something good.
PRAISE players who have tried to continue playing well despite being a lot of goals behind.
PRAISE the individuals who try and encourage the rest of the team to step up a gear even though they are losing.
The other thing to talk to your players about is that they have the ability to put everything right the next week. To think about how they played in this match and what they need to do to put it right in the next match.
Finally explain what went wrong in the game and how with hard work in training they can put it right.

Something to work on.  Go Royals!

Weekend in Cedar Rapids

This picture of John in front of the Czeck/Slovak Museum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (closed on Sundays) is appropriate for our weekend.  I was the "keynote" speaker at the Iowa Broadcaster News Association convention this past weekend.

They couldn't find anyone else.

Here's a taste of what I told them:
When I was in Syracuse (just one winter, 125 inches of snow is a serious wakeup call) I hired a young reporter right out of college. Until then I’d never had a Facebook page. Until then I’d never hired a reporter based solely on his web resume. Until then I hadn't met Ray Villeda.

Believe it or not, Syracuse, despite the university, is not a destination market. And although the Orange are great at basketball and host one of the best J-schools in the nation, most of those kids are looking to get away from the eight month winter by the time they’ve finished four or five years of college. Ray, however, was different. He went to Ithaca College…(Ithaca is in the banana belt of Central New York…they only get about 70 inches of snow). Ray had no commercial television reporting experience but I hired him anyway. Sure he made mistakes but he was my project so we worked on writing, editing, presentation and six months in, he was leading newscasts with his stories.

It nearly broke my heart when I had to tell Ray and eleven of his-coworkers that it was over. Last in, first out. That’s the union way. The choices I made were dictated by a collective bargaining agreement and at the time, I almost quit TV news for good because it made me sick. I had hired some of the people we laid off that day and most are no longer in the news business. Ray’s story has a happy ending though. He worked at another station in Syracuse for a year and is now at WFSB in Hartford.

Those of us who remain, whether we’re managers or not, have a responsibility to work together as news gatherers—news is a team sport. I subscribe to many online resources to help me navigate the pathway of management and one I love is written by Jill Geisler, who lives in Milwaukee but is a leadership mentor at the Poynter Institute. She was the country’s first female news director of a major market network affiliate, and built an award-winning newsroom culture at WITI in Milwaukee, her home town. Hers was a teaching newsroom, where coaching and collaboration were as important as ethics and enterprise.

Here’s what Jill says about working in newsgathering today:

Your organization has cut staff, salaries and benefits, and it has asked employees to take on more work. If I ask about morale, the answer's obvious: It's taken a hit. But let's talk about how morale is measured and managed.

Morale can be measured across multiple dimensions. Consider who on your team might say:

I get satisfaction from my job.

I feel valued in this company.

I'm compensated fairly for my work.

I have a chance to grow.

People look out for each other here.

I respect and trust my boss.

I believe in what we do.

I think the leadership of this organization is moving us in the right direction.
When a substantial number of your co-workers find it hard to agree with a substantial number of those statements, morale is suffering.
What can you do about it?
First, take note that only one of those morale metrics deals directly with money. Make no mistake, money matters, and I never had a co-worker who demanded a decrease. Cuts hurt. But they're not necessarily fatal to morale.
That may come as a surprise to managers and employees who think money changes everything and assume that lowered wages and benefits dramatically impair engagement.
Bottom line? If you believe low morale is tied to dollars alone, you'll miss important opportunities to boost job satisfaction in ways that don't take a dime out of an anemic budget.

Spinning Plates

My friend Jill Geisler writes a column for Poynter that I never miss.  It always begins with "What Great Bosses Know..." and her latest advice included two hi-and-larious videos to illustrate how today's news managers often feel.  If you fancy yourself a manager and you aren't geting Jill's columns, sign up today!

I'm a Boomer and I've experienced that plate-spinning feeling many times but ever since the economy went south and NBC slipped to last place I feel more like a mole-wacker.  Thanks, Jay Leno.

It's not that I've crossed generations.  It just seems like managing a newsroom today is so much more reactive.  The plate-spinners had a little bit of a plan.  They knew which plates might need a little attention.  The moles are completely unpredictable and you never know when or where one will pop up.

In the past few weeks, I've accepted three resignations.  Only one resignation was not a surprise.  A weekend meteorologist, a morning anchor and a weekend morning anchor/MMJ.  The ones departed/departing are taking challenging jobs that will be better for their respective families and maybe improve the financial situation.  Money does talk.  In each case, I understand completely and support the decision made by my former co-workers.

I'm still relatively new to this job...going on my eighth month here in Kansas City.  I talked to a comrade last night who made some negative references to my frequent address/job changes over the past four years.  Fair enough.

Tomorrow I'll be back in the office, ready to whack or spin whatever comes my way.

Help Wanted...but Jeez, be Smart About Applying!

After more than three decades in the news business I am still AMAZED how how sloppy some wannabes are about job seeking.

Eric Maze is the Deuce at KSHB.  For the past few weeks, we've spent some hilarious moments watching resume reels (DVDs) and reading clever (and some, not so much) cover letters. 

History moment.  My first resume tape was on three-quarter...(sigh)

Right now, we've got five positions open:  Weekend Meteorologist, Weekend Anchor, Morning Anchor, Multi-media Journalist, Photographer.  Interested?  Apply online (click on "careers").

But before you do, a few words of advice.  All of our jobs require the ability to shoot, write and edit.  If you can't do those things, don't bother.  You have to understand and be competent with the difference between broadcast writing and online writing.  If you send a resume and cover letter, spell my damn name right.  (It's not Rick Ilar.  The former ND's last name is spelled Iler.  Seriously I opened one addressed that way today.  And it came from an agent!)

Here are some other tips that I penned for another blog, some time ago:

Cover letters: Note to cover-letter-senders. Write this down. Have somebody look over your letter before you send it so you don't make hideous mistakes like using "of" instead of "have." As in..."I was happy to of seen the posting for a postion at your station." Spellcheck won't catch that but a friend might. Also, don't start your letter with "I'm the next (fill in the blank) at (fill in the blank). If you want to get my attention and that's VERY HARD TO DO, tell me something about yourself that you know will mean something to me. You have to do some research to find out what that is...Be curious, not pushy and you can get the info you need.
Experience: If the posting says two years experience required and you HAVE NONE, go ahead and send me a tape. I look at every one (eventually) but first I read the cover letter and resume and if you don't have ANY experience, that does affect my attitude about you. If you have between one and two years, definitely send a tape. I'll look closer at it than those who don't have any time other than internships in a newsroom. If you have more than ten years under your belt, I'll look at your tape FIRST and wonder how I got so lucky. And...If you have more than ten years experience in two-year increments in triple digit markets....maybe you're in the wrong business.
Phone calls: Call me once if you want, I answer my own phone and maybe you'll get lucky. Be ready for me to be busy because many meetings take place in my office. If you catch me, I might talk to you. I'll tell you about the hours and what I'm looking for as far as live shot experience, etc. Most of the time, I counsel the recently-graduated to look at the smaller markets around Kansas City--Springfield, Columbia, St. Joseph, Topeka. If you don't catch me, leave a message. I check voice mail regularly and if I have something to say, I'll call you back. Most of the time I won't, because I don't have anything to say. You can call more than once but know that there's a thin line between tenacity and stalking. Be careful not to push, especially if you don't have the goods.

It's all about the reseach.  Look at our website, view some of the videos.  Do you like what you see?  Are we doing the kind of news you aspire to do?  How is our writing?  Are we creative?  If you're not impressed, we might not be the shop for you.  Life's too short folks.  Find the right gig and you'll be happy a long time!  Good luck on your search.