The end of the year is in sight, and it should be a moment to review your successes, failures, and goals. I like to make a list of things to accomplish. I always come up a little bit short, but it is an important exercise. Remember my motto: “The worst lie that you can ever tell is the lie you tell yourself.” It is time to be honest. This will make 2024 much more satisfying. If you have finished your year and didn’t accomplish anything other than killing time, use next year to reach your dreams.
Let’s start with success! What worked well? Did you reach a professional milestone? Is it worth some self-satisfaction? Did you take credit for the win? Did you downplay it? Ok, let me explain.
No one is going to give you credit unless you toot your own horn. Did your radio station raise a boatload of money for charity? Did you run promos and news stories trumpeting your feat? Why? You wanted to let your audience know how they mattered and how your radio station helped the community. If you are a manager, do you make a win by your staff important? Did you congratulate them? Did you let your team know how much the win meant to you as well? Now, did you take credit?
I generally am the type that likes to get things done in the hopes that my superiors notice. Sadly, I have learned that sometimes wins are expected by the brass. You need to claim recognition. You need to let people know about your success. As a manager, I have always heaped praise on my team. I want the bosses to know that my crew is killing it and that their success is due to hard work and commitment. I always want to share the credit. Because it is not just about me. It is about the team. Don’t be scared to write a promo about your successes and the efforts that you have deployed to help the station and company win.
Let’s talk about a difficult subject for any manager to discuss: failures. You may have had an event, promotion, or programming initiative that just fell flat and didn’t work.
I worked for a company where events were essential to the company’s mission for each station. I worked in an office where the Promotions Director did an amazing job with these events except for the same shortcomings year after year. The presentation of the event was not organized or tight. The morning of the event she was putting on the finishing touches for the station luncheon. Every year, the presentation was sloppy and disjointed. She was very sensitive to this and not open for constructive criticism.
The fix was small. I worked at another location for that company and ran these like a top. I suggested that the presentation of the event should be the first thing written out. I always made sure that everyone knew their jobs weeks in advance. There would always be last-minute bumps with a big event. Food not ready at the proper time, special speaker arriving late, etc. Those are enough to worry about. She just could not see the reason for the continuing shortcomings in the event.
My current station did a promotion for two books in a row. It didn’t work well in the first book, but we thought that with a few tweaks perhaps it would be great. Well, I was wrong. It didn’t work. There was no way to make it work for the station. The execution was perfect, but the promotion was a female-appeal exercise on a male-appeal radio station. So, we went to cash, and we crushed it. The participants were 65% male and it worked much better. I relayed the data to my superiors and the page was turned.
When looking at goals for 2024, what do you want your station(s) to accomplish? What needs a fresh coat of paint on the station? Is there a show on the station that needs a reinvention? What about the news? Can the writing be improved?
What about you? What do you want to experience in 2024? Is there a vacation that you would like to book? What professionally would you like to improve upon in 2024? Did you want to learn a new skill? What about a new hobby?
I learned this task from a former Market Manager. Get a white piece of paper and write down things that wish to do and wish to change in your life. Perhaps, you want to cut down on your personal debt. Maybe you have had a goal to learn to cook, code, or golf. We are only given one life. Live. Do it. Make short-term and long-term goals.
You can win and make 2024 the best year ever. Nothing is perfect. You will have setbacks. You will also be pleasantly surprised by success. Sometimes our wins are seemingly not that big. I often ignore these personal professional successes. You may do the same thing. It is easier to build wins upon each other. It is also tempting to wallow in your shortcomings and failures. Life is too short to focus on mistakes. Learn from errors and recognize your weaknesses.
Celebrate reaching your goals. Keep track of these milestones. Each one that you hit creates another opportunity. The worst lie that you can tell is the lie that you tell yourself. What lie are you believing? If you believe the lies told to the person in the mirror, you can never grow. You can never be the person you truly wish to be.
Peter Thiele is a weekly news/talk radio columnist for Barrett Media, and an experienced news/talk radio programmer. He currently serves as News/Talk Format Captain for Zimmer Communications. Prior to joining Zimmer, Peter held programming positions in New York City, San Francisco, Des Moines, Little Rock, Greenville, Hunstville, and Joplin. Peter has also worked as a host, account executive and producer in Minneapolis, and San Antonio. He can be found on Twitter at @PeterThiele.
