Sometimes, life sends a news
director a simple but powerful
message: Time out.
In the past year, three news
directors were sidelined by serious
health issues. It led them
to rethink their approach to
newsroom leadership, delegation
of duties and work–life
balance. If you wonder whether
your priorities are in order,
pay attention to the lessons
they share.
WABC-TV's Kenny Plotnik
is a feisty New York guy; so
passionate about news that
you might call him
driven. But a heart
attack and subsequent
heart surgery
late last year now
drive him in a different
direction.
After nine weeks away from
the newsroom, he admits, "I
can't go back and be the same
person." Not after a second
chance at life at age 52.
Plotnik now spends more
time on big-picture issues: the
future direction of the newsroom --
from talent to technology.
He's delegating more to
his managers, who performed
so well in his absence.
Most of all, he says, he
is managing stress. When
frustrated, he tries to replace
red-in-the-face venting with a
deep breath and a mental step
backward. "I really love my job
and want to be around for a
long time."
Plotnik won't lose his edge,
though. He'll always thrive on
adrenaline, which, he says, "is
what gives you the energy, the
love, the passion. Stress management
is dealing with it in a
way that doesn't kill you."
Polly Van Doren-Orr's stress
came from a long-standing
struggle with depression. The
news director at KOLR-TV and
KSFX-TV in Springfield, Mo., says,
"People have this impression of
me as pretty laid back and un-flappable in the face of adversity."
But last year, medication
for her depression produced
terrible side effects. The insomnia,
panic and profound sadness
she suffered "kicked me
into journalist mode," she says.
She researched her symptoms
and concluded she needed inpatient
psychiatric care.
Van Doren-Orr had complete
support from her [general manager]. She
was candid with her staff, writing
to them from the hospital.
During her nine-day hospitalization,
she was diagnosed
as diabetic. A doctor
told her that if she
didn't slow down, she'd
be dead in 10 years. She
took a month off work,
making her health a priority:
losing weight, lowering
her blood sugar and exercising.
She kept in touch with the
newsroom, not to be a decision-maker, but to stay in the
loop. She stopped in, "just to
let them see me. To say, 'I'm going
to be OK. I love you guys.' "
She has reason to love them.
Their success in running the
newsroom was her tonic. "Had
I not had the support system
and the brilliant people with
whom I work each
day, it would have
exacerbated my feelings
of sadness."
Van Doren-Orr
knows that people
are sometimes reluctant to
reveal mental health issues,
fearing they'll be stigmatized.
Her greater fear is that people
won't get the help they need.
She's available to anyone who
wants to talk about depression.
Last year, Christine Riser
Kopidlansky, news director
of WJHL-TV in Johnson City,
Tenn., was often tired, suffered
strange pains and questioned
why her weight was stable
but her pants wouldn't fit at
the waist. The answer: two
benign but troubling growths
in her abdomen -- a softball-sized
ovarian cyst and uterine
fibroid tumor.
Months of treatment included
injections
and surgery, followed
by a slow
recovery. Christine
prepared her managers,
telling them,
"I'm going to teach
you all the things I try not to
bother you with." Things like
payroll, reports, supplies, budget
preparation, yearly calendar
and sweeps planning.
|
Christine Riser Kopidlansky |
Delegating frightened her.
She wondered, "Is this going to
prove that someone else can
do everything that I do -- and
better?" During her seven-week
absence, her managers
did it all, including a big hurricane-relief telethon.
On her return, she
thanked them, adding,
"Here's your reward. You
get to keep doing a lot
of those things." She
gave up the control she
once coveted. "How frustrating
it must have been to be a
manager I didn't turn things
over to," she says. She's now
using her new-found time for
longer-range planning, staff
coaching and multimedia/convergence projects.
There's more. The doctors
told the 35-year-old news director
that despite her ordeal,
she should be able to have
children, something she once
wasn't sure she could balance
with her job. But now, she says,
"I'm no longer looking at it
anymore as you have to quit
if you get pregnant." Her new
approach to leadership includes
balance in her life.
Like Plotnik and Van Doren-Orr, she now advises fellow
news directors: Tend to your
health, reassess your work
habits and "let other people
shine."
This article was originally published in the April 2006 issue of Communicator, the monthly magazine of the Radio-Television News Directors Association. It has been reprinted with permission.
