Bob Iger spent 45 years at Disney and went from being head of ABC Broadcasting to CEO of Disney. His tales of working with Steve Jobs and George Lucas are very interesting. I have collected 30 of his lessons from his book recounting this journey.
A pretty good list. My favorite is #25 below.
The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company Iger, Robert
Teddy Roosevelt: It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.
1. A company’s reputation is the sum total of the actions of its people and the quality of its products. You have to demand integrity from your people and your products at all times.
2. A company’s culture is shaped by a lot of things, but this is one of the most important—you have to convey your priorities clearly and repeatedly.
3. The decision to disrupt businesses that are fundamentally working but whose future is in question—intentionally taking on short-term losses in the hope of generating long-term growth—requires no small amount of courage.
4. Technological advancements will eventually make older business models obsolete.
5. The decision to disrupt a business model that is working for you requires no small amount of courage.
6. It’s a lot to manage, from a personnel perspective, and the need to be present for your people—which is a vital leadership quality under any circumstances—is heightened even more.
7. Do you want to fall prey to the ‘innovator’s dilemma’ or do you want to fight it?
8. I believed that quality would matter most. I believed we needed to embrace technology and disruption rather than fear it. I believed that expanding into new markets
9. The way you do anything is the way you do everything.
10. Innovate or die, and there’s no innovation if you operate out of fear of the new or untested.
11. The endless pursuit of perfection for some greater good.
12. Things were dire, for sure, but I needed to look at the situation not as a catastrophe but as a puzzle we needed to solve,
13. Excellence and fairness don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
14. Genuine decency and professional competitiveness weren’t mutually exclusive.
15. A little respect goes a long way, and the absence of it is often very costly.
16. If you approach and engage people with respect and empathy, the seemingly impossible can become real.
17. It’s a delicate thing, finding the balance between demanding that your people perform and not instilling a fear of failure in them.
18. In your work, in your life, you’ll be more respected and trusted by the people around you if you honestly own up to your mistakes.
19. True authority and true leadership come from knowing who you are and not pretending to be anything else.
20. Empathy is a prerequisite to the sound management of creativity, and respect is critical.
21. Managing your own time and respecting others’ time is one of the most vital things to do as a manager, and he was horrendous at it.
22. Treating others with respect is an undervalued currency when it comes to negotiating.
23. It’s just that one is more direct and nonnegotiable. It really comes down to what you believe is right for the moment—when a more democratic approach is useful both in getting to the best outcome and in building morale, and when you have enough certainty in your opinion that you’re willing to be an autocrat even in the face of disagreement.
24. Do what you need to do to make it better.
25. it’s vital to create space in each day to let your thoughts wander beyond your immediate job responsibilities, to turn things over in your mind in a less pressured, more creative way than is possible once the daily triage kicks in. (My favorite)
26. It’s easy to be optimistic when everyone is telling you you’re great. It’s much harder, and much more necessary, when your sense of yourself is on the line.
27. If something doesn’t feel right to you, it won’t be right for you.
28. You can’t let ambition get too far ahead of opportunity.
29. Hold on to your awareness of yourself, even as the world tells you how important and powerful you are. The moment you start to believe it all too much, the moment you look at yourself in the mirror and see a title emblazoned on your forehead, you’ve lost your way.
30. That may be the hardest but also the most necessary lesson to keep in mind, that wherever you are along the path, you’re the same person you’ve always been.
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