The Benefit of Coaching

(By Mike McVay) Whether you tuned in to watch the game or Taylor Swift, the NFL returned this past Thursday night with the Chiefs defeating the Ravens. The weekend had a full schedule of games. It was a huge “Couch Potato Moment” for me and many fans around the world.

College football on Saturday and the NFL on Thursday, Sunday, and Monday. Heck, we even had a Friday night game leading into this past weekend. 

Sports has always been a great inspiration to me in how to direct a radio station’s programming, coach their talent, or guide podcasters. My focus is often on the coach.  It was some years ago that I first noticed the attention paid to each individual player by the coaches in the booth above the playing field. Not all coaches are on the field. They have a better view from a sky box. Often the Offensive Coordinator is “up there.” Being able to see the entire field for your team and the competition.

As recent as 20 years ago, photographers in the skyboxes took pictures of each play, faxed them to the position coaches in the boxes, and they sometimes faxed them to the sideline. Players picked up a sideline phone and spoke to the coach. It was very much 90s technology. That technology upgraded quickly with WiFi and today coaches see digital pictures on Smart Tablets, speak to the players through that same device, and text directions amongst themselves. All while they look at the same images at the same time. That is real-time coaching. 

In most businesses, you’re either coaching or being coached. It’s no different in media. Management, Sales, and Content Creation are all interfacing with real people whose performance is dependent on guidance from others. Knowing how to coach is critical. It shouldn’t be to point out the negatives or indicate where the coached has failed, but rather to show them how to improve while offering them encouragement to do better. Catching your team doing something right gives the talent gratification. This is because they’ve perfected that part of their craft. It also tells them what to do more of to continue to improve their performance. 

Research conducted among air talent from multiple sources shows that many on-air personalities want to be coached – and in many cases – are not being coached. Program Directors who fail to coach their talent regularly may simply be too busy due to the need to multitask. They could be dealing with assignments from above. Maybe they fear confrontation. It’s possible that they think talent don’t need such input. I remember one major market PD that I consulted told me that “by the time an air talent gets to this level, they don’t need coaching.” That’s misguided thinking.

Who doesn’t want to continually improve? Even at the highest point of his career, Tiger Woods had a coach. Athletes at the highest level have coaches. Guess what? On-air performers also need coaches.

My career has included working with talent who are highly successful personalities as well as guiding and teaching those who are early in their careers. Among the many traits they share is the desire to dominate, being the best they can be, by having a total commitment to always improving. 

Let’s start with the word “Coaching.” Decades ago many of us used the word “Critique” when it came to coaching sessions. I came to realize quickly that critiquing is all about finding fault, being critical, and not being positive. No one wants to be critiqued. We all want to be encouraged and that’s what coaching can do for a talent. Coaching puts the talent in the mindset of acknowledging that you want them to be successful because that’s how you become successful.

There are three methods of coaching that I encourage program directors to employ in a rotating fashion. I’d like to suggest that you use these coaching techniques to help guide your on-air team of performers:

FRAME-BY-FRAME:  

This method of coaching reviews every frame of a show where the personality talks.  Identification of the station brand and talent, basics, service elements, and most importantly … show content. They are all analyzed.  Does the content presented by the personality create a level of interest from the target audience?  Information talked about should be of interest to the target audience, one major thought per/break, but that’s not because of the talent. It’s because of the loud noise level in almost every market.  Does the personality sound natural as content is delivered?

These frame-by-frame critiques should be discussed in person as well as delivered in written form, along with a link to the audio, so that the talent can review each frame and hear the observations of the Program Director.  The PD should answer questions and explain EXACTLY what is meant by comments from the session. Don’t be nebulous. Be specific.

THE OVERVIEW:  

This coaching tactic is presented in written paragraph form and discussed with the personality.  The content, flow of the music (or topics for spoken word) and basics are all analyzed.  This form of coaching is not as finite as a frame-by-frame review but gives more of an impression of what a listener may hear and feel. You’re considering the overall feeling of the show. Requires the same level of specificity as the Frame-by-Frame method, but is generally focused on one thing that the talent should be aware of and working on for improvement.

SELF-COACHING:  

The personality operates the audio and hits pause after each frame telling the PD (or whoever is coaching them) how they feel about that break.  This form of review is very interesting in that you will find most personalities are harder on themselves than you, as the coach, would ever be on them.  Most talent, not all, will tell you what they feel they need to do to improve their show.  You need only guide them as they determine if there is anything that they can improve upon. You want to be encouraging as you guide the talent in this self-help method.

OVERALL:

Apply the Golden Rule to how you coach. Remember also that if you have a fun/funny show, that humor is subjective. Just because you don’t think something isn’t funny, doesn’t mean that it isn’t funny.  Allow your talent to do their job and guide them with coaching. Don’t critique them. Don’t stifle them. Let them be who they are and give them plenty of encouragement.

If you define the parameters for a program with negatives, you discourage the talent from trying anything. The talent starts to think that It is better to do nothing than risk getting into trouble by doing something.

Mike McVay is President of McVay Media and can be reached at [email protected]. Read Mike’s Radio Ink archives here.