Tampa meteorologists share key business lessons on performing under pressure

During hurricane season, all eyes are on the approaching storm — or storms, in the case of late September and early to mid October. 

To make sense of what’s coming and best prepare, millions have tuned in across decades to a host of meteorologists. Two who stand out locally, among a big list on TV and social media, are chief meteorologists Paul Dellegatto of Fox 13 (WTVT) and Denis Phillips of ABC Action News (WFTS).

Between Facebook and TV, that's a lot of eyes focused on the longtime weathermen. As such, the duo take their jobs — no surprise — seriously. More of a surprise? How they carry themselves and their listeners through the hardest part of the job, it turns out, can provide insight into how other business leaders and entrepreneurs can best navigate their own storms. 

Some key lessons include: 

Have a clear message.

“The most important thing to me is to make sure that I message things the right way," says Dellegatto. "And that's the thing I think about all the time. That is the stress because I want to have the right tone, I want to have the correct information and I worry about that,” .

The core of all weather presentation is interpreting data, the duo says. Articulating the data with clear and concise messaging is going to give viewers the right tools for decision making. Similarly, employees look to leadership for a vision to carry the organization forward.

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“It isn't just about giving an accurate forecast,” Phillips notes. ”I think what makes me different at times, is I feel as though my job is not just to tell people what's going to happen, but to get them through it, to take them by the hand and walk them through it and say, ‘Look, this is what we're going to do.’” 

Establish trust.

Both forecasters recognize the importance of the trust and rapport the viewership and followers have built over the years. Dellegato came to WTVT from Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1990 and became the chief meteorologist when Roy Leep retired after four decades of reporting in 1997. Phillips arrived at WFTS from Los Angeles in 1994. 

“After a period of time, you grow up with somebody," Phillips says. "You've seen them for a long time. You just have that trust factor, and you want to see that person when everything's happening. And I think that's really, really important." (Phillips has something of rockstar presence in the region; a crowd cheered wildly for him, for example, when he was the guest during a live Q&A session in 2023 put on by the Poynter Institute, a journalism training center in St. Petersburg. In addition to his career, he talked about his two calling cards: his love for suspenders and Diet Dr Pepper.)

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Referring to his own influences, Dellegatto cites a good meteorologist as someone, “who really has their career that spans decades, and you become the person that someone always turns to when the weather is going to get violent or bad. And you do it consistently year after year after year.”

Stay the course. (Rule No. 7)

In the days of an increasing amount of Armageddon-style weather reporting (one central Florida meteorologist waited six paragraphs to explain in a social media post, ‘I don't say that to scare you but to inform you’), a calm demeanor is a welcome reprieve for viewers. 

Phillips has seven ‘hurricane rules’ developed during Hurricane Isaac in 2012. Of the seven, three direct those in the path of the storm not to ‘freak out’, with the final rule stating, “Stop freaking out … until I tell you to. We're fine.”

That level of care is often needed to shepherd an entire community of people safely through life threatening weather events. Likewise, a good business needs to have employees — and leaders — who remain calm under difficult circumstances. 

Says Dellegatto: “I don't believe in causing any undue stress. I think I made it perfectly clear as Milton was approaching and I said, ‘This is a big deal. You need to take this thing seriously. This is no joke.’ And I don't think I have to wave my hands and wave my arms and yell and scream.”

You’re going to make it after all.

After the long hours, pointed objective messaging and an untold amount of Diet Dr. Pepper for Phillips, the payoff for both meteorologists and their enduring audience is survival.

“I think everyone understood [evacuating] was the right thing to do, and I think that made me feel good that people really took the storm seriously. And that's important.” says Dellegatto.

The coverage following the storm usually entails aftermath. 

“From my standpoint, it's no longer a weather story, it's a human interest story, it's a reporter story, it's a survivor story,” Phillips says.

After driving from Dunedin to Clearwater recently, he observed, “But man, it's going to be a long time before we get through this. Based on what I saw today, it's going to be a long time.”

No storm is forever. Each has a beginning, middle and end. When it’s over, it’s important to pick up the pieces, sort through what’s left and rebuild. 

This can’t be done alone, of course. It takes the team: employees, mentors, supporters, customers, maybe disaster assistance. The only way out is through, and then it’s back to regularly scheduled programming.