Friday, February 3, 2012

Leadership Lessons From Bobsled Field Producing

Today I was able to switch it up a bit and instead of just producing the morning news, go field produce a piece.  The story was just a fun one on the bobsled rides at the Olympic Park in Park City.  We had our anchor team: Dan Plante, Ann Sterling and Glenn Willey.

I Can Predict The Future

I printed off directions and gave everyone my cell phone in case they got lost.  I knew Dan was going to get lost.  Not because he can't read directions but because he would try and figure it out on his own.  So I told everyone to be there by 4:30 and to get there early.  They didn't need to be there until 5:00pm.  Good thing too, Dan didn't arrive until about 4:50pm. 

I'm Bossy

I told everyone what to do.  I had a vision for how this final product would look and so I made sure we had everything we needed.  I told the anchors what questions they should ask the silver medalist bobsledder.  I told the photographer the exact shots we wanted.  I told the anchors exactly what kind of promos we needed and would use.  I wasn't micro-managing, I would just tell them what I wanted and why I wanted it and let them do their thing.  I'd watch to make sure it worked out and it alway did.  It was fun.  I won't see the final product for another week. 

Bobsledding Is A Good Team Building Experience

On the drive up to the top of the bobsled run, the camera was rolling and everyone was partially chatting.  So I started asking questions and joking around with them.  I realized I needed to manage the moment, the emotions and bring them together.  I think they became more relaxed and natural because of it.  I don't think they even realized that collectively they had tensed up. 

There Is An End In Sight

Once we had what we needed I went through my mental checklist at least twice.  Wrote the story in my head from the video that we had gathered and realized we were okay.  I then called it a day.  It worked out wonderfully.  The final product should air on Good Morning Utah on Feb 10th.