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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Robert Iger
Read between
May 18 - July 8, 2023
for the competence and cool heads and humanity of the team around me.
I woke at 4:00 A.M. and worked out,
what people see on the outside so often doesn’t reflect what’s happening on the inside.
about building a culture of trust; about fueling a deep and abiding curiosity in oneself and inspiring that in the people around
One of the most important qualities of a good leader is optimism,
Simply put, people are not motivated or energized by pessimists.
true innovation occurs only when people have courage.
it’s imperative to communicate your priorities clearly and often.
Leaders must encourage a diversity of opinion balanced with the need to make and implement decisions.
Strong leadership embodies the fair and decent treatment of people.
People committing honest mistakes deserve second chances, and judging people too harshly generates fear and anxiety, which discourage communication and innovation.
you believe that something can be made better, put in the effort to do
Another way of saying this is: The way you do anything is the way you do everything.
He’d led a life that was unsatisfying to him and was a failure in his own eyes.
have time to think and read and exercise before the demands of the day take over.
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
Forty-five years later, I still get angry when I recall that scene.
absolutely unwilling to accept “good enough,” and completely comfortable pushing right up against an unmovable deadline (and exhausting a lot of people along the way) to make it great.
it irritated me to no end.
What did they have to overcome to get here?
Innovate or die, and there’s no innovation if you operate out of fear of the new or untested.
relentless perfectionist.
Perfection was the result of getting all the little things right.
It was often exhausting, often frustrating (largely because he would wait until very late in the production process to give notes or demand changes), but it was inspiring, too, and the inspiration far outweighed the frustration.
“Do what you need to do to make it better.”
“the relentless pursuit of perfection.”
It’s a mindset, really, more than a specific set of rules.
Instead, it’s about creating an environment in which you refuse to accept mediocrity. You instinctively push back against the urge to say There’s not enough time, or I don’t have the energy, or This requires a difficult conversation I don’t want to have, or any of the many other ways we can convince ourselves that “good enough” is good enough.
“the relentless pursuit of perfection.”
to have both the instinct toward perfection and the work ethic to follow through on that instinct.
some days I feel like it’s tough just keeping my head above water.”
you’ll be more respected and trusted by the people around you if you honestly own up to your mistakes.
It’s impossible not to make them; but it is possible to acknowledge them, learn from them, and set an example that it’s okay to get things wrong sometimes.
decent to people. Treat everyone with fairness and empathy.
means that you create an environment where people know you’ll hear them out, that you’re emotionally consistent and fair-minded, and that they’ll be given second chances for honest mistakes.
Excellence and fairness don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
aloof
shrewd
crucially, he knew what he didn’t know. This is a rare trait in a boss.
He regularly asked me to take the lead in conversations with higher-ups while he sat back, and he took every opportunity to extol my virtues to Tom and Dan.
how Dennis never put himself ahead of anyone else.
genuine decency and professional competitiveness weren’t 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 weapon.
how one person’s unwillingness to give a timely response can cause so much unnecessary strain and inefficiency.
to exude as much calmness as possible to the people around me.
how I’d handled myself under pressure.
My instinct throughout my career has always been to say yes to every opportunity.
was capable of doing things that I was unfamiliar with.
believed in putting people in roles that required more of them than they knew they had in them.
put talented people in positions where they could grow,
