RTDNA Leadership Lab: Austin

Join RTDNA for a one-day event - held in conjunction with RTDNA's Skills Summit - focused on the leadership skills you need to create a high-performing team within your newsroom, to show up as a more productive and authentic leader from wherever you are, and to lead in a culture that benefits employees and the communities you serve.

As an added bonus, mingle with other journalists to celebrate (and commiserate) with a new group of peers. Our Leadership Lab is designed to give you learning, inspiration and networking packed into one day.

Schedule

8 - 8:30 a.m. // Arrival & Coffee

8:30 - 11:45 a.m. // Defining Your Leadership Style

• Tara Puckey, MBA, CAE, CMP

12:00 - 1:30 p.m. // Lunch (Included) & Burning Up the Burnout

• Dr. Kortni Alston Lemon, MBA, Ph.D

1:45 - 3:45 p.m. // Creating an Innovative Newsroom Culture

• Kevin Benz

4:00 - 4:30 p.m. // Networking Break

4:30 - 5:30 p.m. // Trust in Elections Coverage

• Ellen Crooke, TEGNA
• Sherri Jackson, CBS 42, Birmingham, Alabama

Defining Your Leadership Style

Trainer: Tara Puckey, MBA, CAE, CMP

Every leader leads with a different style that is personal to who they are authentically and there's a place in every team for each type of leader. Dive in with an in-depth assessment to learn more about your own leadership style, exploring how others can best work with you and how you can find the support you need to be most successful. Learn more about the styles of others and how you can help them accomplish their goals and avoid conflict. You'll leave with the tools to enhance your own leadership skills and help other leaders succeed alongside you to build a cohesive team that allows newsrooms to thrive. 

Creating an Innovative Newsroom Culture

Trainer: Kevin Benz

The newsroom has never enjoyed the reputation of being “a GREAT place to work!” Broadcast news is hard, demands long hours, tight deadlines, and the audience is unforgiving. Who wouldn’t want to be part of that? While there’s a lot of talk about “newsroom culture,” there is very little deep knowledge about what it is let alone how to change it. We can help by first analyzing what “positive culture” is and then taking specific, pragmatic steps to make it happen. First, you must know where your newsroom is, then you must decide where you want the newsroom to be, and finally, execute. We’ll give you specific ways to measure, define and change your culture. Building a newsroom that is positive, trusted and loyal. A place everyone wants to work and no one wants to leave.

Burning Up the Burnout

Trainer: Dr. Kortni Alston Lemon, MBA, Ph.D

We know you're tired and burnout is real. Hear from Dr. Kortni Alston Lemon, a Happiness Scholar, TEDx speaker, and Transformational Trainer.  Her area of research is interdisciplinary combining the areas of positive psychology, business administration and media management.  Her research concentrations value happier workplaces, well-being, and meaningful work. Learn more about the signs and symptoms, practical ways to address burnout within yourself and your staff and keys to better mental wellbeing across the board. 

Trust in Elections Coverage

Trainers: Ellen Crooke, TEGNA;
Sherri Jackson, CBS 42, Birmingham, Alabama

One year after releasing a groundbreaking research study on trust and local journalism, RTDNA has again partnered with Magid on a new study that asked local news audiences how a newsroom could provide trustworthy coverage of elections in 2024. We'll discuss the results of that study, and attendees can head back to their newsrooms with tools to better plan for 2024 (and beyond).