In a previous edition of The Topline, we advocated for more training opportunities for those aspiring to be the leaders of local television newsrooms. Being a News Director (or any other title that might encompass that traditional role) has always been a challenging job, but perhaps never so much as it is in 2025. Getting help taking on or keeping the job is always a good thing, and we pointed out a couple of resources in the Carole Kneeland Project and the Poynter Institute that we are fans of.

Another resource we’d like to highlight today is the work of a true pioneer in the industry–and someone who actively continues to help leaders become “Great Bosses.” In fact, she wrote the book on it. (We’ve always wanted to be able to write that line and mean it!)

Jill Geisler is the Bill Plante Chair in Leadership and Media Integrity at Loyola University Chicago. She also has her own consultancy practice and was previously a faculty member of the aforementioned Poynter Institute. Before her career path led her to teach other news leaders, she was one herself as the VP of News for Milwaukee’s WITI-TV for 25 years. Suffice it to say that Jill knows her subject matter very well.

We would argue that one of the hardest “soft skills” to master is giving honest, meaningful coaching to those a leader is charged with leading. While this is an essential part of the coaching role that every leader aspires to, the sweet spot of analyzing a colleague’s work and then giving them feedback they can receive and then act upon is truly a skill that requires its own unique development.

Jill discusses much of this in her book, published a decade ago. It is still a must-read for anyone wanting to be a better boss, let alone a great one.

In her recent years with Loyola, she has developed her “Master Class for Media Managers." It is a week-long series of two-hour sessions held online. In the class, Jill leads a group of new and experienced leaders from media platforms through five sessions on these key topics:

1. “Leading with Emotional Intelligence”
2. “Feedback with Lasting Impact”
3. “Tough Conversations Made Easier”
4. “Coaching, Not Fixing”
5. “Inclusive Leadership”

From our years in the job, we know that every news director tackles these topics daily. While we didn’t have the opportunity to attend this particular masterclass with Jill, we have heard rave reviews from those who have. And we can tell you that we still use techniques and ideas we learned from her in our first meeting years ago. (And yes, that’s more years than we’d like to count up now.)

So, if you weren’t familiar with Jill and her work on helping grow news leaders, now you are. We recommend you get her book from Amazon (click here for the page to do so) and read it as soon as you can. Also, do consider signing up for her masterclass. We can assure you that it will be more than worth your time and expense to do so.

(This is an unsolicited and unpaid endorsement for Jill’s Loyola program and her book. But we want to disclose that the link above to Amazon is an affiliate link, so if you choose to order the book using it–we may receive a small commission that will just about cover the cost of one daily dose of caffeine necessary to keep writing these articles. Thanks for your support if you do.)