The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company
Robert Igeramazon.com
The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company
The way you do anything is the way you do everything.
The way they conveyed their faith in me at every step made all the difference in my success.
Empathy is essential, as is accessibility. People committing honest mistakes deserve second chances, and judging people too harshly generates fear and anxiety, which discourage communication and innovation.
If you approach and engage people with respect and empathy, the seemingly impossible can become real.
This is all a way of stating what might seem obvious but is often ignored: that a delicate balance is required between management being responsible for the financial performance of any creative work and, in exercising that responsibility, being careful not to encroach on the creative processes in harmful and counterproductive ways. Empathy is a pre
... See morebut I was determined not to live a life of disappointment. Whatever shape my life took, I told myself, there wasn’t a chance in the world that I was going to toil in frustration and lack fulfillment.
And I tend to approach bad news as a problem that can be worked through and solved, something I have control over rather than something happening to me.
Managing creative processes starts with the understanding that it’s not a science—everything is subjective; there is often no right or wrong. The passion it takes to create something is powerful, and most creators are understandably sensitive when their vision or execution is questioned.
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.