50 lessons I learned from the past Disney CEO, Bob Iger
Proverbs every business leader should meditate on
Published in
6 min readAug 25, 2022
I recently read Bob Iger’s “The Ride of a Lifetime” (this is an affiliate link; for every click, I get a certain percentage) and discovered key lessons that I learned that completely transformed the way I saw myself as a leader. I could have chosen to keep these notes with me but I decided to break them down and share them with anyone who is a leader, an aspiring leader, or a leader who hasn’t fully embraced the leadership title.
“Look at catastrophe as a puzzle that you need to solve.”
Mindset
- Just go out there and trust your gut.
- Look at catastrophe as a puzzle that you need to solve.
- Life’s an adventure. If you don’t choose the adventurous path then you’re not truly living.
- Do your homework when making major decisions but also follow your instincts. If something doesn’t feel right to you, then it’s probably not right for you.
- Approach your life and work with a sense of genuine humility. Some successes are a mere result of the efforts, support, and examples of so many people and the twists of fate beyond our control.
“As a leader, you’re the embodiment of that company. What people think of you is what they’ll think of your company.”
Self-image and self-awareness
- Be true to your word.
- Lead from a place of courage.
- Someone is always watching. How you handle yourself under pressure shows people the kind of leader you are.
- Be optimistic. Optimism emerges from faith in yourself and in the people who work for you. It’s not about saying things are good when they’re not, and it’s not about conveying some blind faith that “things will work out.” It’s about believing in your and others’ abilities.
- Take responsibility when you screw up.
- Ask the questions you need to ask, admit without apology what you don’t understand, and do the work to learn what you need to learn as quickly as possible.
- Don’t let ambition get in the way of opportunity. Give your job the best and make yourself one of the people, through attitude, energy, and focus, whom your bosses feel they have to turn to when an opportunity arises.
- As a leader, if you don’t do the work, the people around you lose their respect fast. Be attentive. Listen to people’s problems and offer solutions.
- Good leadership is about helping others be prepared to step into your shoes. It’s about giving them access to your decision-making, identifying the skills they need to develop and helping them improve, and being honest with them about why they’re not ready for the next step up.
- As a leader, you’re the embodiment of that company. What people think of you is what they’ll think of your company.
- It’s not good to have power for too long. You don’t realize when your voice seems to boom louder than every other voice in the room. This can happen even to the most well-intentioned leaders.
- The moment you look yourself in the mirror and see a title emblazoned on your forehead, you’ve lost your way.
- Hold on to the awareness of self.
“A company’s reputation is the sum total of its people’s actions and the quality of its products.”
Company culture and values
- Reject mediocrity and embrace the relentless pursuit of perfection.
- Never sacrifice quality for affordability.
- People first. Strive for perfection but always be aware of the pitfalls of caring only about the product and not the people.
- A company’s integrity depends on the integrity of its people.
- If you trust your own instincts and treat people with respect, the company will come to represent the values you live by.
- A company’s reputation is the sum total of its people’s actions and the quality of its products.
- If you’re in the business of making something, be in the business of making something great.
- “Great” is often a collection of very small things.
- When people at the top have a dysfunctional relationship, there’s no way the rest of the company can be functional. It’s like having two parents that fight all the time. The kids reflect the animosity unto the parents and unto each other.
“Value ability more than experience. Put people in roles that require more of them than they know they have in them.”
Productivity
- Weigh all sides of an issue and don’t allow negatives drown out positives, particularly for things you want to accomplish.
- Projecting your anxiety unto your team is counterproductive.
- It’s subtle, but there’s a difference between communicating that you share your team’s stress — that you’re in it with them — and communicating that you need them to deliver in order to alleviate your stress.
- With enough thoughtfulness and commitment, the boldest ideas can be executed.
- Convey your priorities clearly and repeatedly.
- “This is where we want to be and this is how we get there.” Take the guesswork out of the day-to-day activities.
- Value ability more than experience. Put people in roles that require more of them than they know they have in them.
- “Avoid getting into the business of manufacturing trombone oil. You may become the greatest trombone oil manufacturer in the world, but in the end, the world only consumes a few quarts of trombone oil a year.” Don’t invest in small projects that sap the company’s resources and don’t give much back — Dan Burke
“To tell great stories, you need great talent.”
People-centric
- Treat everyone with fairness and empathy.
- If you’re going to acquire a company you’ll need to know a lot more about how they work. Meet the key people, learn about their projects and get a sense of the company’s culture. In a creative business, that’s where the value lies.
- A lot of companies acquire others without much sensitivity toward what they’re really buying. They think they’re getting physical assets or manufacturing assets or intellectual property but usually what they’re really acquiring is people. Treating others with respect is an undervalued currency when it comes to negotiating. A little respect goes a long way and the absence of it can become very costly.
- If you respect a person, then you owe them a clear explanation for the decision you’re making. There’s no way for the conversation not to be painful but at least it can be honest.
- When hiring, try to surround yourself with people who are good in addition to being good at what they do.
- To tell great stories, you need great talent.
- In any negotiation, be clear about where you stand from the beginning.
- Most deals are personal. This is even more true when you’re negotiating with someone over something they’ve built. You have to know what you want out of the deal but you also have to know what’s at stake for the other person.
Innovate or die.
Forward Thinking
- Innovate or die.
- If you want innovation, you need to grant permission to fail.
- Don’t be in the business of playing it safe. Be in the business of creating possibilities for greatness.
- It should be about the future and not the past. Embrace technology.
- Always analyze the level of disruption in industry and the impact it would have on the health of your business.
- To disrupt a business model is no small fear, it requires courage. Deal with this kind of uncertainty by going back to the basics: Have clear strategic priorities, remain optimistic and be accessible and fair-minded to people whose work lives are being thrown into disarray.
For more context and insights into the full story of Bob Iger, grab a copy on Amazon. Follow me on Medium for more insightful posts. I hope this helps someone out there who is just embracing the thought of becoming a leader.
References
- “The Ride of a Lifetime” by Robert Iger
