I was a general assignemet photog for about 5 years in a top 50 market, and I left for a mid-90's to do special projects. After a short while the chief gig opened up, and I accepted. There weren't too many options since it was a green market.
I was responsible for budget, maitence of gear and vehicles, training, and hiring. It was a lot more work, but I enjoyed it. I was there for almost 3 years. I tried to show the shooters a few things in my bag-of-tricks, and some of them stuck. Sadly, the station I was at had poor morale and many shooters just went through the motions to hit slot.
I would sit in while the shooters edited and make friendly recommendations, but never overbearing. I would always try to show ways to shoot and edit more efficiently and creatively.
One problem was being the bridge to management. You hear a lot of complaints that have no merit, but they expect an answer. Sometimes they need to gripe and move on...and that's okay.
My main focus was to improve the gear, and I worked hard to get a budget of about 6k per camera to improve things like mics, wireless, booms, lights, camera bags etc... so that went a long way in regards to the shooters.
If you have any specific questions, feel free to IM me. I'd be happy to help.
