The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons in Creative Leadership from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company

by Robert Iger

but I think it’s worth putting this on the table.

The worst thing you can do when entering into a negotiation is to suggest or promise something because you know the other person wants to hear it,

You have to be clear about where you stand from the beginning.

There’s no rule book for how to manage this kind of challenge,

there’s not much to be gained from putting additional pressure on the people working on it. Projecting your anxiety onto your team is counterproductive.

between communicating that you share their stress—that you’re in it with them

we didn’t get that right on our first Star Wars film, we’d suffer a breach of trust with our audience that would be very hard to recover from.

There was nothing to be gained from engaging in any public discourse or waging a defense.

could empathize with George, but I couldn’t give him what he wanted.

depended on building trust with a single controlling entity.

the personal component of each of these deals was going to make or break them, and

authenticity was crucial.

“If something doesn’t feel right to you, then it’s probably not right for you.”

(This is something I exhort my team to do, too—it’s okay to come to me with problems, but also offer possible solutions.)

the need to be present for your people

But being present for your people—and making sure they know that you’re available to them—is so important for the morale

why companies fail to innovate,” I said to them at one point. “It’s tradition. Tradition generates so much friction, every step of the way.”

presumptuous.

“You can run for any office you want, but not with this wife.”

so if you feel you have to do it, I’ll stand by you, but with tremendous reluctance.”)

They had a big business in India, for instance,

They also had a great television studio and had invested heavily in creative talent,

High-quality content. Technology. Global reach.”

prevail,

company’s integrity depends on the integrity of its people, and while I had great personal affection and concern for him, he’d made choices that violated Disney policy.

I were to erase history and build something totally new today, with all of these assets, how would it be structured?

The idea was simply to let the content people focus on creativity and let the tech people focus on how to distribute things

“We have to do what’s right. Not what’s politically correct, and not what’s commercially correct.

Just what’s right.

I don’t mean to stand on a high horse, but as a company, we have always tried to do what we felt was right, no matter what the politics or the commerce.

Everything depends on upholding that principle.

something unpredictable will always happen;

it’s not always good for one person to have too much power for too long.

“If you notice me being too dismissive or impatient, you need to tell me.”

believed that quality would matter most. I believed we needed to embrace technology and disruption rather than fear it.

believed that expanding into new markets would be vital. I had no real idea, though, especially then, where this journey would take me.

Beyond that, I trusted my instincts, and I encouraged the people around me to trust theirs.

There are so many moments along the way where things could have gone differently, though, and if not for a lucky break, or the right mentor, or some instinct that said to do this rather than that, I would not be telling this story.

The moment you start to believe it all too much, the moment you look yourself in the mirror and see a title emblazoned on

your forehead, you’ve lost your way.

wherever you are along the path, you’re the same person y...

Here is the thing that I didn’t understand then but do now, that could only come with experience.

It’s about creating an environment in which people refuse to accept mediocrity.

It’s about pushing back against the urge to say that “good enough” is good enough.

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.

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 you can.

By fixating on a future job or project, you become impatient with where you are.

do the job you have well; be patient; look for opportunities to pitch in and expand and grow;

through attitude and energy and focus, whom your bosses feel they have to turn to when an opportunity arises.

At its essence, good leadership isn’t about being indispensable; it’s about helping others be prepared to step into your shoes—giving them access to your own decision-making, identifying the skills they need to develop and helping them improve, and sometimes being honest with them about why they’re not ready for the next step up.