In radio, performance is everything, and burnout is always a risk. So, how can leaders balance the drive for greatness with empathy and compassion? As part of Radio Ink’s Mental Health Awareness Month series, we sat down with Beasley Media Group HR and Culture Consultant Deb Barrett, whose executive coaching career as President of DH Barrett Solutions has spanned major sectors from consumer goods to defense.
Drawing on her background at Procter & Gamble and more than a decade as a leadership development expert, Barrett shares how station leaders can foster healthier, more successful teams.
Radio Ink: In your work with Beasley and with the radio industry, what’s a mental health trend you see that you wish was more commonly addressed?
Deb Barrett: Well, I think right now we’re at a critical juncture in the US where I feel like there is more anxiety and depression. Frankly, ever since COVID, I think that’s really been happening for everybody. If you parallel that with the reduction in care providers and therapists, you also see an increase in substance abuse. Even where employers pay for your benefits, if you’re fortunate, they don’t encourage you enough to focus on the wellness aspects of your health.
The US workplace has always been full of stress. People have talked about work-life balance for decades, right? But I feel we pay lip service sometimes, and not really addressing things like anxiety, substance abuse, and even suicide. That’s not solely a trend in any one industry – I think it’s a broader US issue across all companies.
Radio Ink: Radio is fast-paced and, often, high-stakes. What are the keys to building emotionally healthy teams for leaders in an environment like that?
Deb Barrett: Working with Beasley is really my first time working with radio, but there is one framework that I often use for all the corporations I work with. I’ve worked with a ton of verticals: I spent most of my career at Procter & Gamble, a consumer products company, but I also do a lot of work with pharmaceuticals and healthcare systems, as well as defense contractors, oil, and gas companies. So I’ve developed a framework that I think effectively helps build emotionally strong teams. This is the same approach I’ve been using with Beasley, and I believe it would be highly beneficial for the rest of the industry as well. It’s called the 5 Cs framework.
Radio Ink: I haven’t heard of that. What are the 5 Cs?
Deb Barrett: The first is connection. So really feel like you’re part of something bigger than yourself, something that really matters to you and those around you.
Number two is coping, which involves ensuring we provide ways to manage stress and deal with the emotions and challenges we face at work. At Beasley, we’ve conducted several different trainings on psychological safety, stress management, and time management to help people address these challenges.
The third is compassion. And while that might sound a little cheesy in today’s day and age, it’s this idea of practicing empathetic leadership. So we’re really listening to our people, to understand the challenges they face, not just at work but also at home.
The fourth is community. Supportive and inclusive managers build environments where people feel connected and part of a community.
And then fifth is care, which involves helping people prioritize their well-being and self-care. It’s about encouraging individuals to seek help, ensuring they get enough sleep, and offering support without judgment. It’s not about prescribing specific actions that work for everyone, but providing tips and thoughts so people can care for themselves.
If people come to work and they feel like their manager and their company care for them and care that they’re doing all right, they feel more dedicated. That’s a nice silver lining for employers when they practice compassionate, empathetic leadership.
Radio Ink: To institute a lot of those aspects of the 5 Cs, leaders will need to facilitate conversations, but there’s still a stigma around mental health issues. Sometimes, staff are nervous to bring that up to their coworkers, let alone their boss. How can station leadership facilitate that side of the culture?
Deb Barrett: Yeah, I think you’re onto something with that, because with the stress, burnout, and emotional fatigue we face in many industries, particularly in radio, people are always “on”. I started my career in sales, so I really get that dynamic.
It’s important that leadership normalizes mental health discussions rather than sweeping them under the rug. In my mind, it starts with leaders walking the talk, letting themselves be vulnerable, and sharing their stories. Like, “Hey, I’ve dealt with stress, and here are some things I did to manage my own stress and burnout.”
And it’s okay to take a step back, it’s okay to take a mental health day. Normalizing that helps a lot.
Also, setting a positive tone around the station and ensuring we’re speaking to everyone, not just the usual suspects, keeps the conversation going. Beasley does this through regular newsletters and initiatives where employees work on off-site projects together, bond, and give back to the community. That feels good, and it’s a win for the company as well.
There’s a lot we can do to set the tone of where we want the culture to be, and if we’re normalizing some of these discussions, I think it goes a long way.
Radio Ink: When it comes to sharing stories and life experiences as a leader, is it best to wait until you see the signs of stress, or is it more proactive in that regard?
Deb Barrett: In the last four years since I’ve been with Beasley, we’ve done a number of different manager trainings to talk about how we address things. Those have been virtual. In turn, those managers hold lunch-and-learns around the time of the training and facilitate a sense of belonging and community. Sometimes, like I said, we’ve done things on how to avoid stress and burnout to build awareness. I think they help you to start some of those dialogues, either one-on-one or out there in the office.
Radio Ink: Do you have any tips for leaders to make it feel less like they’re checking a box when they do something like that, and lead to more authentic conversations?
Deb Barrett: In my mind, to really demonstrate empathetic leadership or create a culture of caring, you’ve got to know people one-on-one – and not just what they bring to the office, but what’s important to them at home. You have to really listen. So often it’s easy for us to talk about this stuff, but if it feels like lip service, people are going to see right through that. I think it’s knowing what makes that individual tick. So, for instance, if you see somebody in your office who is really stressed, maybe encourage them to take the day off.
I think being in the moment, a day off might be right for somebody, but for someone else, it might be another thing we want to encourage. Maybe they want some time off in the middle of the day to run appointments and have some of that flexibility. Knowing what’s right for that individual, we can treat people equally, but differently.
For example, at Beasley, [CEO] Caroline [Beasley] gave everybody an extra day off during the holidays to thank them for everything they were doing.
Radio Ink: Radio is a very performance-based profession. On-air people are looking for ratings, salespeople are looking for clients, and they’ve got their own budgets to meet. So, how can managers balance pushing team members to succeed with a need for personal boundaries?
Deb Barrett: I will tell you, I was a sales leader for 13 years of my career, and you can definitely kind of push in an all-or-nothing way – chasing the number, trying to make quota – and it can be a be-all, end-all. I think as a leader, you’ve got to take a step back and help people understand that they need to take time off on the weekend to rejuvenate. They really need to step away to make sure they’ve got time for family, friends, whatever – help them come back rejuvenated on a Monday morning.Executive coach Deb Barrett discusses burnout, boundaries, and how radio managers can foster well-being and connection with her 5 Cs leadership model.
You’ve got to role model things. Like, it’s eight o’clock at night, I want to send John a message – but I refrain. That’s the point – refraining from sending that text or that email to John at eight o’clock at night, and abiding by the boundaries people have established.
I’m at the point now where I’ll open an email, type it out, and get it ready to go, but I won’t send it until 8a. I don’t send emails after 7p. during the workweek, and I try really hard not to work on weekends. I think that sets the tone that you respect people’s boundaries.
And I think there’s a bigger thing we have to do: we have to define “urgent.” Too many people use urgency as an excuse to reach out over the weekend. Well, is it really urgent?
When I think about sales teams and how we get the best out of our people, we’re looking for long-term results, not just this quarter. If we only think short term and keep chasing this quarter, we will eventually get burned out. When you think about the morale of the individuals in the office, we’ve got to stop and do things like celebrate things we’ve done well—some of the wins with certain clients, etc. I think that’s part of what helps encourage people to be their best at work and deliver outstanding results, while also recognizing that we’re all human, we need our downtime, and we’ve got to respect the boundaries.
This is the first part of our Mental Health Awareness Month conversation with Deb Barrett. Find the second in the May 12 edition of Radio Ink‘s daily headlines. We appreciate the assistance of Heidi Raphael in organizing this interview.
Find more from the series in our two-part interview with workplace mental health expert Cal Beyer. The first part is available here, with the second here.
Find Mental Health Awareness Month coverage in the May issue of Radio Ink Magazine – out now.
