Whoever first said change is the only constant couldn’t have imagined the way those words would resonate across the current media and television industries.
Declining viewership and revenues from competition, coupled with the onslaught of AI and seismic technology evolutions, are presenting challenges that necessitate entirely new business models. From implementing process enhancements that facilitate adaption of rapid technological advancement automation to employing analytics to deal with large data sets and timely decision support information, change is clearly here to stay.
While companies are facing countless specific scenarios, there’s one overarching ethos that will inspire and motivate the work force, from the C suite to the field, like no other. Transformational leadership is the path forward to achieve extraordinary outcomes in the way a company works, competes and thinks by transforming their attitudes, beliefs, and values.
“Transformational leadership allows an individual and firm to have agency and options to reinvent its future, to attract talent, to retain and attract customers and listeners and to continue to remain relevant,” says. Rishad Tobaccowala, Author, Rethinking Work globally recognized speaker and futurist.
The essential components of transformational leadership, he notes, are a growth mindset with a willingness to learn and experiment vs. blame; the ability to inspire and motivate through change while acknowledging that it is difficult and hard; and the capacity to combine roots and wings. “Roots being current assets, reputation and profits with wings of new approaches, reinventing and investment.”
This approach is no longer a nice to have but rather a business imperative. Leaders either adopt a transformational mindset that will help their teams not only weather but thrive amid change or risk their businesses becoming stagnant and potentially irrelevant.
As Christina Barlowe-Villano, Senior Vice President, Global Agile Transformation, at AMC Networks, puts it: “Awareness of the gravity of change, and change management on a higher level, is critical for the growth of a company. Without that people aren’t innovating, and without innovating you can’t move forward. Transformation focus gives room for thinking that way.”
Cultivating Emotional Intelligence
Transparent communication is a cornerstone of emotional intelligence and EQ, the ability to understand, manage, and effectively express emotions and understand others, is the cornerstone of transformational leadership. When leaders speak with empathy, they connect with individuals on a deeper level, ensuring team members are informed and truly understand the reasons behind the change.
This inclusive approach makes employees feel valued, leading to a collective commitment where challenges become shared responsibilities rather than imposed burdens. The biggest block she’s found stopping employees from being agile, says Barlowe-Villano, is lack of security. “People are afraid of their jobs looking and feeling different, and the common thread is people who have been here the longest are probably the most change resistant.”
Aligning personal and organizational growth can help, and consistent, collaborative, iterative two-way communication about those alignments that embraces the totality of the work force is key.
Al Lustgarten, a former four decade-plus Hearst executive who recently launched First Run Consulting, lays out an exhaustive list of current headwinds that are rattling individuals and companies, and one notable question.
“Look at the characteristics of world we’re living in. We’re dealing with geopolitcal turmoil, increased government intervention and regulatory scrutiny, supply chain disruption, rapid technology advancements, market volatility, a need for agility and a need to adopt sustainable processes. How do you lead a company through supporting the technology that drives this transformation?”
Lustgarten says leaders must engage on an elevated level with their employees. “They are your resources and they are the ones who are going to be there driving the innovation. You set the tone and you motivate your employees to think more creatively, empower them to work in an innovative manner, educate them about current and emerging technologies, and look at what they are dong every day and think about how they can do those things differently,” he says. “It has to be collaborative.”
“The only way to build momentum is to allow the creativity within the team to generate around some of those strategic imperatives,” says Dave Villano, chief technology officer at software company Partnerize. “You can take a top-down set of strategic imperatives and create a grass-roots movement if you communicate, educate and allow people to bring their thought leadership to the table.”
Frequent and evolving communication, he says, will keep people out of their silos and from falling off track. “Conditions are changing more rapidly than they ever have so it’s important to have check-ins and recalibration sessions.”
Developing emotional intelligence in the workplace requires intentional, structured efforts that nurture individual self-awareness and robust team dynamics.
“It’s a mindset,” says Barlowe-Villano. “The tactical shit? You can teach someone to do that. But this is hearts and minds, 100 percent. It’s making people feel empowered vs. afraid, so that’s where I’m focused every day. How do I talk to management to give them comfort that everything they are working on is going to be cared for, stewarded, delivered and transformed ultimately at the end of the day to something they hadn’t imagined, something better.”
“When you have transformational leadership and encouragement at that level there’s permission to fail, which means you can experiment. People need to feel empowered that if they learn to use [new] tools it will make things better. That’s really where the power is.” Conversely, she says, “if you relinquish that power by saying ‘I’m being replaced’ automatically, you will be replaced,” she adds.
Concrete Action Steps
No matter where executives are on their transformational leadership path, they should feel empowered to know they have numerous supporting channels at their fingertips.
Tobaccowala suggests they use these three pillars as north stars. “Imagining and inspiring—showing and sharing examples of transformation that one can learn from. Incentivization—providing incentives for new behavior, providing time and investment for new incentives. And integrity—believing, saying and doing the same thing as a leader. Being honest and open in communication,” he says.
Beyond fostering a general culture of open communication, implementing tactics such as town hall meetings, peer discussion groups, training programs that emphasize team-building, and interactive workshops that tackle a variety of topics and include scenario-based learning all allow team members to practice empathy, adaptive communication, and effective conflict resolution.
Introducing means for regular self-assessment, such as surveys and other tools, is another effective way to support teams through the process. Feedback loops are another way to stay connected. After completing projects or during transitional periods, collect feedback on what emotional strategies worked and what could be improved. And the power of recognition, celebrating moments when employees demonstrate exceptional EQ or other milestones, cannot be overstated.
“I think as a leader you need to make yourself very visible emotionally, mentally. I think you need to be intellectually flawed to show you have a growth mindset,” she says. “It’s important they will see me in the same vulnerable state, and that I am willing to identify my own blind spots and change,” Barlowe-Villano says.
Among tactics, she facilitates a virtual book club, for which the current selection is Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos, by Darrell Rigby, Sarah Elk and Steve Berez. And she finds opportunities to connect outside of the office. “For people to really lean into trusting the process, that takes time. You have to go and have the coffee, sit down and listen to somebody. ‘What ails you? Why are you worried about this? Tell me more.’”
Of course most companies don’t have all the tools in-house to arm executives with all they need to effectively immerse in transformational leadership. Where budget allows, many are looking outward toward resources such as emotional intelligence coaching and other programs that imbue actionable guidance by drawing on real-life examples and helping individuals map out their growth.
Lustgarten asserts that organizations ought to develop executive leadership programs encompassing a diverse array of curricula, thereby broadening executives' expertise into areas beyond their current knowledge base.
"Education is paramount," he emphasizes. “As the rate of change accelerates, the necessity for innovation to keep abreast of these transformations becomes increasingly critical. It is imperative to cultivate creative thinking among company leaders, encouraging them to transcend reliance on past experiences. They must scrutinize the market, identify emerging trends, and respond decisively.”
Embracing the Art of the Possible
By embracing transformational leadership, media and television executives can improve preparation for technological changes, enhance creativity and innovation, foster a culture of collaboration and inclusion and drive audience engagement and loyalty.
Leaders who understand the power of collaboration, emotional intelligence, supported experimentation and the promise of new technology advances should be looking across all levels of their organization as they build their momentum. It’s about finding the “Jedis,” Villano says those who demonstrate qualities that resonate with transformational leadership and pulling them up and giving them an opportunity to drive and thrive with change.
Likening today’s foray into AI and related tech to the broad adoption of the Internet, he says, “We’re on the precipice of another one of those really big moments in humanity, and we need people who can serve as educators because when we embrace something like this we need to educate people on what the art of the possible is, and find the way to share the value proposition of what we’re about to embark upon.”
Learn more about the Media Ad Sales Council here and the Media Ad Sales Summit Candid Conversation Event Series here.
Author: Media Ad Sales Council (MASC) founded by Mark Gorman, CEO, Matrix Solutions and Brenda Hetrick, President, Matrix Solutions and consisting of members: Becky Meyer, SVP, National Sales, Gray Television, Peter Jones, Head of Local Sales, Premion, Joe Lampert, Practice Lead, OmniMedia Solutions Group, Al Lustgarten, Media Industry Consultant and former SVP, Technology, Hearst Television, Michael Spiesman, VP Sales & Marketing, Allen Media Broadcasting, Debbie Presser, VP, National Sales, Nexstar Media Group, Christina Barlowe-Villano, SVP Business and Technology Transformation, and Jennifer Donohue, Director of Local Ads, Amazon Ads.
Bonus Play: Watch the Candid Conversation on Transformational Leadership HERE.