The 2024 Summer Olympics kick off this week, and NBC is the home for U.S. coverage of all 32 Olympic sports and 329 medal events in Paris. Live daily coverage on TV, streaming and digital is followed by “Primetime in Paris,” an in-depth NBC special hosted by Mike Tirico at 8 p.m. ET. The NBC Olympics team making this all happen is led by a 13-time Emmy Award-winner, executive producer and president Molly Solomon. Watch the above “Leadership Lessons” video to learn Solomon’s tips on leadership or read the following excerpts from her interview.
What are your best qualities as a leader?
I think of myself as a coach of a team. I make sure we’ve got a plan and go about it. But it’s ultimately all the people on the team who determine our success, in front of the camera as well as behind the scenes.
Inevitably, we all get in the weeds, work out of our inbox. But that’s not what a leader does. A leader helps the team with strategy, the mission. What is success? How will we be judged? How will we feel good about what we do?
I think leadership is different for every person. When I became the executive producer at the Golf Channel, I went into my first staff meeting and barked orders. That didn’t feel good. I thought, “They wouldn’t have put me in this position unless they wanted me to be me.” I decided to be comfortable being me: sunny, optimistic. Because when I’m firm, people listen, but if we’re not having fun at what we’re doing, I’m not on board. I also have high goals for the team, and I think they appreciate that. We like to swing. We swing hard.
What advice do you have for people starting out in their career?
Be more fearless. Raise your hand sometimes when you’re not 100% sure. Too many times I was protective of myself, and I needed to be a little braver. I was going to work on the first day of the Beijing [2022 Winter] Olympics, and that was the middle of Covid and there were a lot of geopolitical issues. It was hard for our team on the ground in Beijing, and most of us were in Stamford, [Connecticut]. So, I played Sara Bareilles’ song “Brave” on the way to work, because I knew these were tough times but I needed to steel myself. I needed to take a deep breath and say, “You know what? It’s going to be OK. And we’re going to be brave.”
Take any job. Find any way in. If you do it really well and you show curiosity, optimism and work ethic, you will be noticed. Get in there, make a difference and then find your way.
What does it feel like to lead Summer Olympics coverage?
I cry during every opening ceremony, and this will be my 13th Olympics. I cry, too, when the [Olympic flame is] extinguished. The Olympics is the original bingeable miniseries: 17 days of daylong, nightlong competition. This is the original reality show, and there’s so much more at stake than any other reality show. The world comes together. That’s so incredibly moving — and we’re a part of that.
