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Below is a lesson from Forbes on leadership lessons from Bob Iger, as well as our key learning.

The Blue Courage team is dedicated to continual learning and growth.  We have adopted a concept from Simon Sinek’s Start With Why team called “Learn, Share, Grow”.  We are constantly finding great articles, videos, and readings that have so much learning.  As we learn new and great things, this new knowledge should be shared for everyone to then grow from.

TEN LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM DISNEY’S BOB IGER

Stephanie Dennin

I recently took a hiatus from reading business books, finding they all too frequently said the same thing, paying homage to the same platitudes. Disney CEO Bob Iger’s new book, The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company, however, lured me to return.In his book, Iger outlines 10 core principles that are foundational to his leadership style. Some of the principles, like focus and curiosity, are certainly standard run-of-the-mill. Others, like optimism, were a bit more refreshing. But what was especially compelling about the book was how his leadership style was so meaningful to the successful execution of Disney’s strategy. 

When Iger became CEO, almost 15 years ago, the company was in need of a turnaround. The board, its shareholders, and most critically its customers had become disenchanted with its recent creative output and the performance numbers showed. When Iger set a strategy to ignite a turnaround, his leadership style was arguably the key that unlocked the potential behind his strategy.

Continue reading here.

Key Learnings:

• 10 Core Leadership Principles:
  1. Optimism: “Optimism in a leader, especially in challenging times, is so vital. The people you lead need to feel confident in your ability to focus on what matters, and not to operate from a place of defensiveness and self-preservation…The tone you set as a leader has an enormous effect on the people around you.”
  2. Courage: “Create possibilities for greatness. Be comfortable with failure.”
  3. Focus: Don’t limit what you focus on — remove blinders to the bigger picture.
  4. Decisiveness: “Long shots aren’t usually as long as it seems.”
  5. Curiosity: The path to innovation begins with curiosity — innovate or die.
  6. Fairness: “Strong leadership embodies the fair and decent treatment of people.”
  7. Thoughtfulness: “Take the time to develop informed opinions.”
  8. Authenticity: “Truth and authenticity breed respect and trust.”
  9. The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection: “Refusal to accept mediocrity or make excuses for something being ‘good enough.’”
  10. Integrity: “True integrity―a sense of knowing who you are and being guided by your own clear sense of right and wrong. Trust your own instincts and treat people with respect, the company will come to represent the values you live by.”
• A strategy sets a direction. This leadership style acts as a conduit for the successful implementation of the strategy.
• Execution of the strategy is just as important, if not more, than setting a clear strategy at the start — strategy is useless without effective execution.
• People are a big asset — don’t crush your biggest asset…people.
• Embrace change and try to optimistically find opportunity amid the disarray.
• Operate out courage rather than fear — don’t stubbornly try to protect old models that couldn’t possibly survive the change.