9 Leadership Tips From Disney’s Bob Iger

Bob Iger, Executive Chairman and former CEO of The Walt Disney Company, may just be Earth’s mightiest media mogul: ranked the most powerful person in entertainment by The Hollywood Reporter multiple years in a row, Iger knows a thing or two about inspiring the masses. Iger’s take on great leadership is simple: As a leader, the success of your employees and ultimately your company is dependent on your commitment to yourself, your team, and your brand: At the end of the day, effective leadership means you get out what you put in. Here are 9 of his tips on how to sharpen your leadership skills.

1. 1. Strive for balance. Work. Sleep. Leisure. Pick two. That basically sums up the experience of being a business leader. But there’s also a fourth component of a balanced life that cannot be neglected: stillness. Placing undue emphasis on busyness can rob you of the time you need to step back and process before creative problem-solving. Incorporate this kind of quiet time into your routine, no matter the level of stress or hard work you know you’ll be facing later in the day. Deliberate stillness—combined with dedicated time for exercise, media consumption, family, and creativity—makes for an efficient day, even if it doesn’t feel like every minute is being “used” productively.
2. 2. Develop sharp communication skills. This is essential: The better you can communicate your strategies verbally and in plainspeak (which is to say, not via email using corporate lingo), the more efficiently and effectively they’ll be implemented. That goes for non-verbal communication, too: body language plays a big role in establishing confidence among your team.
3. 3. Foster curiosity. Instinct doesn’t flourish in a vacuum. Whether you’re a leader in the realm of technology, design, retail, or elsewhere, you’ll need to invest in learning about your industry. The most important kind of research for a leader is the broadening and deepening of your own experience of the world. The value of this kind of experience holds true in all spheres of business—without it, you’re going to miss out on the ways your consumers are interacting with your product. A team respects and learns from a leader who engages intimately with their market, and continues to improve their own expertise. By showing the many ways you’re passionate about the company’s big picture, the more of a compelling role model you become.
4. 4. Apply emotional intelligence. The best leaders wield an emotional intelligence alongside their business savvy. Be present to the people who work for you, and show them that you have a vested interest in them: Find out who they are, and bring an attitude of empathy with you when you engage in criticism. When someone who works for you makes a mistake, learn to see when it can be turned into an opportunity for growth. Provide second chances when appropriate.
5. 5. Be clear. You should be clear in your expectations and evaluations of others, but then you should also expect them to be candid with you. Bold business leadership isn’t about self-aggrandizement and power: It’s about removing any conflation of your own identity with the company you run so you can assess situations as objectively as possible.
6. 6. Seek feedback. A critical element of any good leadership strategy is open communication and feedback. As much as you’re the captain of your own ship, a major part of your job is allowing those around you to own the vision. Requesting feedback both emboldens the people who work for you and also brings invaluable insight—you need that boots-on-the-ground perspective to keep your vision calibrated. Sit down with your team members and direct reports over lunch to seek feedback and advice. Not only does this build trust, but it increases your own self-awareness in considering another person’s point of view in pursuit of common goals.
7. 7. Be decisive. First, a disclaimer: As a bold leader, you must make every decision carefully and non-impulsively. However, you want to avoid dragging your team into the weeds of said decision making. Do work behind the scenes to become the kind of person who can make decisions efficiently and definitively, and once you make a decision, stick to it. Even if the decision you’ve made is turning out to be the wrong one, don’t agonize over what could have been. Accept the consequences, embrace failure as an opportunity for growth, and move on.
8. 8. Project optimism. “People don’t want to follow pessimists. Pessimism does not create energy, [or] inspire other people to do their best work. Optimism can inspire people. A leader can be a realist, but it’s incredibly important to infuse some level of optimism into just about everything.” Optimism in this sense is less about unrealistic cheerleading, and more about thoughtfully—and consistently—framing tough situations in a positive light. If your company is in hot water, own up to it. Then, when projecting your expectations for the future, learn to frame the tough situation as a learning experience and chart a course forward that guarantees growth. A positive attitude not only boosts employee engagement and makes any business environment generally more pleasant—it lets your team trust you have to have a realistic strategy for bouncing back. Remember to keep your optimism rooted in the achievable.
9. 9. Embrace failure. When you fail, use that moment as an opportunity to establish a culture of resilience and optimism. This means taking responsibility for your actions. As tough as it is, making mistakes and subsequently owning up to them can in turn make you a stronger and more respected leader.

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