More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Robert Iger
Read between
October 22 - October 29, 2020
Sometimes, even though you’re “in charge,” you need to be aware that in the moment you might have nothing to add, and so you don’t wade in. You trust your people to do their jobs and focus your energies on some other pressing issue.
Optimism. One of the most important qualities of a good leader is optimism, a pragmatic enthusiasm for what can be achieved. Even in the face of difficult choices and less than ideal outcomes, an optimistic leader does not yield to pessimism. Simply put, people are not motivated or energized by pessimists.
Courage. The foundation of risk-taking is courage, and in ever-changing, disrupted businesses, risk-taking is essential, innovation is vital, and true innovation occurs only when people have courage.
Focus. Allocating time, energy, and resources to the strategies, problems, and projects that are of highest importance and value is extremely important, and it’s imperative to communicate your priorities clearly and often.
Decisiveness. All decisions, no matter how difficult, can and should be made in a timely way.
Curiosity. A deep and abiding curiosity enables the discovery of new people, places, and ideas, as well as an awareness and an understanding of the marketplace and its changing dynamics.
Fairness. Strong leadership embodies the fair and decent treatment of people. Empathy is essential, as is accessibility.
Thoughtfulness. Thoughtfulness is one of the most underrated elements of good leadership. It is the process of gaining knowledge, so an opinion rendered or decision made is more credible and more likely to be correct. It’s simply about taking the time to develop informed opinions.
Authenticity. Be genuine. Be honest. Don’t fake anything. Truth and authenticity breed respect and trust.
The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection. This doesn’t mean perfectionism at all costs, but it does mean a refusal to accept mediocrity or make excuses for something being “good enough.”
be in the business of making things great.
Integrity. Nothing is more important than the quality and integrity of an organization’s people and its product.
The way you do anything is the way you do everything.
however you find the time, 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.
Innovate or die, and there’s no innovation if you operate out of fear of the new or untested.
It’s a delicate thing, finding the balance between demanding that your people perform and not instilling a fear of failure in them.
True authority and true leadership come from knowing who you are and not pretending to be anything else.
Empathy is a prerequisite to the sound management of creativity, and respect is critical.
When the two people at the top of a company have a dysfunctional relationship, there’s no way that the rest of the company beneath them can be functional.
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.
As a leader, you should want those around you to be eager to rise up and take on more responsibility, as long as dreaming about the job they want doesn’t distract them from the job they have.
You can’t let ambition get too far ahead of opportunity.
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. In my experience, it’s what separates great managers from the rest.
A CEO must provide the company and its senior team with a road map. A lot of work is complex and requires intense amounts of focus and energy, but this kind of messaging is fairly simple: This is where we want to be. This is how we’re going to get there. Once those things are laid out simply, so many decisions become easier to make, and the overall anxiety of an entire organization is lowered.
I couldn’t let the negativity being expressed by people who knew little about me affect the way I felt about myself.
I can’t overstate how important it is to keep blows to the ego, real as they often are, from occupying too big a place in your mind and sapping too much of your energy.
PEOPLE SOMETIMES SHY AWAY from taking big swings because they assess the odds and build a case against trying something before they even take the first step.
long shots aren’t usually as long as they seem.
Steve said he loved whiteboard exercises, where an entire vision—all the thoughts and designs and calculations—could be drawn out, at the whim of whoever held the felt pen.
“DISTRACTION WILL KILL PIXAR’S CREATIVITY.”
“A few solid pros are more powerful than dozens of cons,”
Steve was great at weighing all sides of an issue and not allowing negatives to drown out positives, particularly for things he wanted to accomplish.
Surround yourself with people who are good in addition to being good at what they do.
when the stakes of a project are very high, there’s not much to be gained from putting additional pressure on the people working on it.
there’s a difference between communicating that you share their stress—that you’re in it with them—and communicating that you need them to deliver in order to alleviate your stress.
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.
the need to be present for your people—which is a vital leadership quality under any circumstances—is heightened even more.
being present for your people—and making sure they know that you’re available to them—is so important for the morale and effectiveness of a company.
We’re moving in a new direction, but creativity is at the heart of what we do.
It was all about the future, and our future depended on three things: making high-quality branded content, investing in technology, and growing globally. I couldn’t have anticipated back then how everything we would do would emerge from that template, and I could have never predicted a day like this one, in which those three pillars would be so overtly on display as we demonstrated the company’s plans for the future.
Are high-quality branded products likely to become even more valuable in a changed marketplace? How do we deliver our products to consumers in more relevant, more inventive ways? What new habits of consumption are being formed, and how do we adapt to them? How do we deploy technology as a powerful new tool for growth instead of falling victim to its disruption and destruction?
it’s not always good for one person to have too much power for too long. Even when a CEO is working productively and effectively, it’s important for a company to have change at the top.
To tell great stories, you need great talent.
innovate or die. There can be no innovation if you operate out of fear of the new.
“the relentless pursuit of perfection.”
It’s not about perfectionism at all costs. It’s about creating an environment in which people refuse to accept mediocrity.
Take responsibility when you screw up.
Be decent to people.
Excellence and fairness don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
True integrity—a sense of knowing who you are and being guided by your own clear sense of right and wrong—is a kind of secret leadership weapon.
