After producing over a thousand hours of television I am often asked what managerial skills I believe are required to succeed as an Executive Producer/Showrunner. These are some thoughts about what has worked for us at John Wells Productions (JWP) over the last few decades (and if you are already a Writers Guild member the WGAw runs a wonderful program called the Showrunners’ Training Program that was developed by Jeff Melvoin and a group of dedicated WGAw members and you should definitely think about applying.)

The four areas I believe are essential for all EP/Showrunners to master are --

SCHEDULING & DEADLINES COMMUNICATION DELEGATION LEADERSHIP

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I’ve also included my approach to budgeting, which I believe is crucial to both the show’s success and the success of your career.

SHOWRUNNERS AND BUDGETS

I’m going to talk about each one of these areas and what’s worked for us at JWP, but let’s start with what I believe is the most important skill you need to develop to succeed – organization. And to get yourself organized you need to create schedules and set deadlines. Your biggest challenge as a Showrunner is time. You won’t have enough of it. The job is too big, there aren’t enough hours in the day. You must create schedules and deadlines and stick to them to succeed.

Appropriate, timely, respectful and thoughtful communication is central to leadership and essential if you are to succeed as a Showrunner. The communication you have with your collaborators will make (or break) your show. Who are your collaborators? Your writers, producers, directors, actors, department heads, crew members, your network and studio executives, your agents, your managers – everyone you interact with in selling and making your show. Every exchange you have is about creating trust in you as a leader and establishing you as a leader with integrity. You need to be someone who listens, who makes timely decisions and shows concern for everyone’s needs and safety.

Beyond the methods of communication we discussed in Schedules and Deadlines (Producers Meetings, Writers Meeting, etc.) there are specific communication needs for each group of collaborators.

I think of myself first and foremost as a writer and so I want to make sure I have time available for writing. This can only happen if I trust my producing and writing collaborators and actively delegate portions of the day-to-day workload of the show to them.

As I’ve said, Showrunning/Executive Producing is an impossible job. It can’t be done by a single person. Many first time Showrunners believe the job requires that they make all the decisions, but nothing could be farther from the truth. You must accept that the show you've written and care deeply about, is going to be dependent upon dozens of other people working in concert with you and making many decisions on your behalf every day. Your success depends upon the quality of the team you’ve assembled, how you lead them, the management structure you put in place (meetings, schedules, deadlines), and the safe working environment you create that allows them to do their best work.

Most first time Showrunner/Executive Producers have spent their professional lives in positions that haven’t needed them to provide leadership. Let’s face it, most of us spent years writing alone -- in our apartments, homes, and offices. Those of us who have had the good fortune to work on shows where we had producing titles weren’t usually expected to provide leadership beyond keeping the writers’ room going when the Showrunner was on set, in casting, editing, etc. But now you have your own show and you’re the Showrunner. That means you must provide leadership.

First, and most importantly, as the Showrunner you need access to your budget and the right to participate fully in the budgeting of your show. You can’t do your job without this access and right to participate. This means you must have the right to be involved in every aspect of the budgeting of your show and have input and participate in every financial decision for your production. You cannot maintain the creative control over production and creative choices without this right and without participating in these decisions.

Here are some notes and thoughts to help you navigate your budget’s account categories.