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Have you ever had a boss that you absolutely despised? Someone unorganized, impatient, and short-sighted?
A quality leader can make or break any business or project. As the boss, you are the face of the team. What your team does reflects on you, and vice-versa. If you’re unorganized, or don’t know your crew, or have no goals, how can you expect to lead anyone anywhere? A leader needs to have many positive qualities in order to be successful.
You don’t need to remember your technician’s great-aunt’s birthday to know them. Learn their strengths, weaknesses, what they enjoy about work and what they don’t, who they work well with, etc. It also doesn’t hurt to get to know them outside of work-themed bullet points. Are they married? Do they have kids? What do they like to do outside of work? Get to know them as human beings, instead of just employees or teammates.
An important part of any job is growth opportunity. Without growth we are stagnant and begin to lose interest in learning. When an employee stops learning, they get bored and their enthusiasm dies, which causes their performance to suffer. Even if you aren’t 100% comfortable letting them do something, let them do it. Watch over them, supervise, make sure they don’t destroy something or kill someone, but let them dive in. Sometimes, being thrown to the wolves is how some of the most valuable learning happens.
This is especially important for young women because they so often tell themselves they aren’t good enough or aren’t ready for something when they are. Each person deserves to learn and grow as a human and as a fellow worker in the industry. With that being said, it’s a fine line between pushing them to succeed and pushing them right off the cliff. Place your team members in situations they can succeed in, not places they’re bound to fail in.
Like all relationships, communication is key. If you don’t efficiently communicate with your team, your leadership means nothing. Part of communicating well has to do with knowing your team, as we discussed before. Some people respond well to straightforward directions (i.e. “go there,” “do this,” “do NOT do that”). Other people need a little bit of an explanation (i.e., “go there because”, “do this while”, “this causes that”). Some people work in an entirely different way. You should know how each of your team members understands tasks best.
Another part of communicating well is listening. Communication is a two-way street, you know! Make sure that you hear your crew, and that they know you are hearing them. Ensure that everyone is comfortable coming to you for a question or advice.
If a crew member needs to know something, or they’ve got a problem with a co-worker, or an outside client is acting disrespectfully, you want to know. You can’t fix or address what you don’t know.
Give your employees the space and the confidence to come forward.
A good leader knows the ultimate goal, the steps needed to attain it, and the timeline in which to accomplish it. If you aren’t organized, things can get out of hand quickly and all of a sudden, there are four different fires you need to put out.
Be comfortable delegating responsibilities for certain tasks to team members or groups, and check their work without micromanaging.
If you know plans have just changed, inform your group and adjust things accordingly. Even if something goes completely haywire, try to remain calm. If the leader starts wigging out, the team is going to lose confidence, as well as wig out. Tackle problems one at a time, take deep breaths and relax as much as possible.
Plans and events change all the time. Be prepared for anything.
Radiate confidence, even if you’re faking it. Seeming confident gives your team confidence. There may be occasions where you get overwhelmed, it happens to the best of us. Simply relax and exude. Tackle problems, go in prepared. Help raise the confidence of your team. Your team is your lifeline, so don’t leave them scared and helpless. You don’t gain confidence overnight. You earn confidence over the course of a career, or life, or job.
Arguably, the most important part of leadership is showing your appreciation for your team’s hard work. If they know you care and are aware that their hard work doesn’t go unnoticed, they are much more likely to go that extra mile. Smile and thank them after the show. Tell them they did an excellent job and that you’re proud of the finished product. Do something special for them every once in a while: buy them pizza, get them a ‘Thank You’ card, get them something special during the holidays, buy them a cupcake on their birthday. Even little things like an email showing your gratitude can go a long way. Gratitude is something you don’t realize you need until you aren’t getting it anymore.
If the client is treating them poorly, or your boss is taking something out on you, don’t pass that along to your team. Be the one that rises above and helps make your team better.
It’s easy to take credit when things go well. It’s when things go wrong that bosses can struggle to take ownership of the errors. Your mistakes are your mistakes, and your team’s mistakes also belong to you. When something goes wrong, don’t let it rain down onto your team. You can let them know what went wrong and how to fix it without destroying confidence. It is your responsibility to lead the team to success and to correct it when it is a failure.
All in all, take these tips and be the boss and leader you wished for when you were part of the crew. Good luck!
Article by Sound Girl: Samantha Potter
Another great article by SoundGirls: A Brief Guide To Working In The Middle East
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The mission of SoundGirls.org is to inspire and empower the next generation of women in audio. Our mission is to create a supportive community for women in audio and music production, providing the tools, knowledge, and support to further their careers. SoundGirls.Org was formed in 2013 by veteran live sound engineers Karrie Keyes and Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato and operates under the Fiscal Sponsorship of The California Women’s Music Festival, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. In 2012, Karrie and Michelle participated in the “Women of Professional Concert Sound” panel at the AES Conference in San Francisco. The panel was hosted by the Women’s Audio Mission (WAM) and moderated by WAM founder Terri Winston. Terri brought together five women working in live and broadcast audio. The groundbreaking panel (which also included Jeri Palumbo, Claudia Engelhart and Deanne Franklin), provided young women and men a glimpse into life on the road, tips and advice, and a Q & A with the panelists. More importantly though, was how incredibly powerful the experience was for the panelists. We had all been in the business for 20 years or more, yet most of us had never met before that day and within minutes we bonded like long-lost sisters. We were struck by how similar our experiences, work ethics, and passions were and wondered why our paths had never crossed and how our careers would have been different had we been there to support each other through the years. Each of us are strong on our own, but together we were even stronger and a powerful force. We were empowered. Each of us had been asked hundreds of times in our careers: Are there other women doing sound? How did you get into sound? How would a young woman go about getting into sound? Through creating SoundGirls.Org, we hope to establish a place for women working in professional audio to come for support and advice, to share our success and failures, our joys and frustrations, and for empowerment and inspiration.
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