Monday 4 May 2009

Robert Iger C.E.O. of Disney Interview Leadership Lessons

Interview by Adam Bryant. "Corner Office" of  "The New York Times"

The guts of it...

Most important leadership lesson

RI  "optimism is a very, very important part of leadership. However, you need a dose of realism with it" ...'be patient ...be focused and don't overreact to things that are said'

Best and worst bosses

RI  'Roone Arledge - drove everybody to levels of perfection or to come as close as possible to it'

'Tom Murphy and Dan Burke - the importance of trust and managing people' 

'Michael Eisner - creativity' 

'My first boss at ABC told me I wasn’t promotable, so I’d have to put him in the category of “bad boss.” I rose above it very quickly, and there was a lesson in that. I think it toughened me up a little bit more.' 

An insight that put your career on a different trajectory

RI  'The first lesson, if you’re not good at one thing, try something else. Don’t stick with something unless you think you could turn yourself into someone who [is] good at that.'

Career advice to others

RI  'patience is extremely important because people set goals for themselves that often are unrealistic and... everything changes' [opportunities arise]

To managers about leadership
RI  '...the need to be direct with your people [and] ...the need to be accessible — [both] very important [attributes] for a leader.' 

How to stay in touch employees/colleagues

RI  '...face to face, you’ve got to project an accessibility — the elevator ...the employee cafeteria ...stroll a floor ...I make it part of my schedule to do that.'

Hiring. How do you do it?

RI  'Carefully. I try to get to know someone ...references [are] an important guide. [Quotes]: Warren Buffett... “When you hire someone, you look for brains, energy and integrity and if they don’t have the third, integrity, you better watch out, because the first two will kill you.”
I also look for qualities in people beyond that...' 

Then he talks about "I love curiosity" and other issues... the full article is here

Good advice for all of us! leadership orglearn

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