CONSIDER YOUR WORKPLACE CULTURE IN LIGHT OF ESPN’S "INAPPROPRIATE REMARKS" BLOW-UP
The public blow-up of ESPN play-by-play announcer Ron Franklin’s image – again – should have radio station managers very much on the alert for similar inappropriate behavior in their operations. Franklin
Over many years as a TV and radio play-by-play announcer (including events for ESPN) I have partnered with a number of female reporters, sideline contributors, production personnel and on-air partners. I value the woman who was my season-long on-air partner on Fox and enjoyed working with a number of other female co-conspirators on other broadcasts. All were professional, most were nice and even if they hadn’t been, I’m not wired to take sexist potshots at them. I firmly believe most other play-by-play guys are the same.
Naturally, there are a few who didn’t get the memo. Franklin now swims in the same stew as Navy Captain Owen Honors, the former Top Gun pilot who is now also the former captain of the nuclear carrier Enterprise following disclosure of several videos made abord ship that, at minimum, call his judgement concerning gender issues into question.
From a radio station manager’s perspective, the Franklin/ESPN mess serves as a big fat flashing WARNING light: This is 2011. The girls are just as smart – if not smarter – than the boys. And they won’t play nice if you’re going to be a sexist clod. OR allow those who work for you to slip that kind of misbehavior under your radar screen.
Which means that this applies to female managers, too. I’ve seen as much sexist behavior at radio stations run by women as by men. It isn’t rampant by any means but it exists, probably for the same reasons it happens at male-run operations: the boss is simply too busy and trusts his or her employees to act like grownups around each other.
It would be nice if that would reliably happen.
The Challenge: Your Employees Are Who They Are – Period
But here’s the thing: you can’t control how people were raised. Most child psychologists will tell you that an individual is pretty much imprinted for the long run by the time he or she is seven. Even younger. Which means that by the time you get ‘em, your employees are fully-formed class acts or confirmed morons.
What makes it more of a challenge for a radio station manager is that we often hire people for certain on-air roles. Could be the “giggle girl” on the morning show, the sex kitten who heats it up at night, even the overtly gay character who’s part of a morning or afternoon drive zoo. Those are essentially actors playing roles. In real life, they must be treated as professionals and not subjected to bias in any way.
I don’t believe you as a manager will reform confirmed gender-idiots any more than you can re-mold a racist. Or that you should waste your time trying. However revolting those attitudes may be, people are people. It’s rare to find one who will readily shed the scales of prejudice.
What Managers Can and MUST Say To Those Who Don’t Get It
But you can and must lead. You are the boss. When employees are drawing pay from your company, you have not only the right but the obligation to impose and ruthlessly enforce these three policies:
- Employees will engage in ZERO behavior that in any way insults or denigrates anyone on the basis of gender, appearance, race or anything else
- As the manager of this radio station I will not permit you to endanger my business or my federal license by such behavior
- Leading by example, I will immediately bounce out the door anyone who won’t play like a mature grownup
Prohibiting snarky comments about other people isn’t simply good business policy. It is morally high ground you must take. Because not only is it the right way to manage a radio station – it’s also the law.
It will be interesting to see how the ESPN/Ron Franklin situation plays itself out. Hopefully the network will realize that this isn’t a case of being Politically Correct but of being a responsible broadcaster. That would be a strong example to set.
