“Your Team Wants to Matter. Are You Bold Enough to Lead Them?”

 Human Nature in the Studio

Everybody wants to be heard. Everybody wants to feel important. As the host of the show, do you know how to make people feel important?

Or are you secretly jealous of the people on your own show?
Are you even the right one to lead the show?
Can you quarterback a room full of playmakers, or are their stars too bright for you?

The host wants to feel important because it’s his show.
But guess what?
You got other people sitting around you who want the same thing.
They want to be heard.

First, you must be a leader.
Not a bully.
Not an insecure dictator.
A real leader.

Your team must respect your boundaries. 
You must establish rules—not based on ego, but based on good radio formatics.
You will not always be right, and that’s fine.
If someone offers a stronger idea in the moment? Go with it.
That’s real leadership.

As the host, you must get better daily.
You must address your own shortcomings.
You must prepare more.
Show prep more.
Listen more.
Direct more.
And for the record—YOU must be the most prepared person on your show.
Not the producer.
YOU.
A producer is not there to cover your laziness. If that’s what you’re using them for… you don’t know what a producer is.

Human nature in the studio is simple:
I want to matter on this show.
I want to be seen.
I want to be heard.
That’s why people get in radio in the first place.

But if you don’t talk about these things in your meetings—
If you don’t bring up those “little” moments when people take liberties they shouldn’t—
You will NEVER have real chemistry.

It is your job as the host to stop co-hosts from competing for mic time.
Address it.
Let it be uncomfortable.
Do not relent.
If you want real chemistry this is how you cultivate it.
There is no other way.

Pull people aside.
Talk one-on-one.
Tell them what you see.
Tell them what they’re doing.
Bring the tension to the table instead of pretending it doesn’t exist.

We’re talking about Human Nature—the need to matter.
For some people, radio is the first time in their lives anyone has validated them.
And some of these folks want to be the sole desire of your audience…
at the expense of the team.
Don’t let them do that.

Bring everybody back down.
Have these conversations.
These are the REAL talks that create REAL on-air magic.

When you settle your differences quickly, you get closer as a show.
And when that happens, it shines through the speakers.
The chemistry becomes so thick you can feel it.

As the leader, you must study everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.
Praise people in front of each other.
Say, “That was a powerful statement.”
Say, “That’s the kind of insight listeners come here for.”

As the host be the cheerleader for you show, you have the power to raise the vibration in the studio.

Eliminate envy and jealousy in the studio, and your ratings will explode.
Listeners will feel the unity coming through their speakers.
Your show will become appointment listening—
a destination of stimulation for your listeners.
They will catch the vibe, and the ratings will back up everything I’m saying.

If you are ready to do the hard work—
the pruning, the correcting, the cultivating—
I would like to coach you.

Remember:
Before you can have a connection with your listeners,
you must first have a connection with your co-hosts.