On Leadership, Robert Iger

Robert Iger is executive chairman of Walt Disney and was formally CEO of the company. In his book: The Ride of his Lifetime, he talks about his leadership principles. 

 Robert’s shared his leadership principles in the book’s prologue. 

  • Optimism 
  • Courage
  • Focus
  • Decisiveness
  • Curiosity 
  • Fairness
  • Thoughtfulness
  • Authenticity 
  • Integrity
  • The relentless pursuit of perfection 

I let you all craft meaning for these terms related to your operating dynamics. I will add the subsequent post as I got through the book. Again it was Karthik‘s recommendation for this book. 🙂 

past

How much our past matters? I was going through photograph dumps, notes, scribbles. We change with time; Our priority, People, and the journey keep moving. I am barely in touch with my school and college friends. I am hardly in touch with folks from my first job.

At the same time, I have noticed our brain starts crafting patterns, likes, and aversions. It could be of a place, people, or what we eat, habits.

I have seen alcoholics, addicts turning sober in their latter half of life and reverse as well.

So how much does the past matter?
It depends on how we shape the journey of our life. Past learning has to guide for a positive future.

Our life is like a journey with a collection of experiences, relationships, and actions. We are humans; we cannot be perfect and logical as Spock. It is okay to move on.

Shoe Dog

It was 5-6 months back when Karthik had recommended the list of autobiographies. Shoe Dog was one of the recommendations besides a dozen others. Sometimes we need encouragement and autobiographies like these help. It resulted in me reading Shoe Dog.

I enjoyed every page of the book; It was like a script out of a founder’s life mixed with happiness, pain, fuckups, and shit. I will recommend everyone reading it. I will not spell the entire story. 🙂

Some learning’s:

  1. Every day is a Near-death experience in the early days. One of the other things will fuck up. Be it creditors, banks, or suppliers.
  2. Support of believers and mentors help in going a long way. They can be friends, customers, and people who have seen you grow in the journey.
  3. Running a company in the early days is grunt work for you and the team. If your or team’s family are non-cooperative, get ready for a shitstorm.
  4. Success and failure in the early days exclusively depend on the team. You have to work like a small family where David is up against Goliath.
  5. Cash is needed, and a founder has to be creative in generating the same to feed their and the team’s family.
  6. A culture of independence, transparency, and freedom is the only way to succeed in the long term.
  7. There is no checklist of success. One has to keep trying, failing, and learning from past mistakes. One has to reinvent from the crisis.
  8. The organization has to grow from the inside. You cannot bring a fat gorilla from outside to run a zoo. There has to be a clear path within the organization for team members and early believers who have been through the entire cycle. As the company grows, they should as well.
  9. One has to be in the right place at the right time. It’s essential with our sweat, hard work, and pain. Our luck has a role to play in our life.

Daughter

Patriarchy is part and parcel of Indian society. As a son, we have more authority, freedom. Although we are getting better, we are still far away.

The priority of dream, aspirations, independence of daughter still takes backfoot over son. The choice of finding a partner, job, city to live in, who to meet, and when to come home is still something a daughter has to answer or go through constant grilling. The concept of helicopter parents existed before social media, mobile phones, and the internet.

On one side, we treat our keens differently because they are men or women and on the other side, expect them to take all the responsibility of the family.

What about the personal aspirations, dreams, choice of your daughter? Why does she have to go through this duality: at one side, patriarchy restricts her from being independent and on another work like a donkey to fulfill parents and family’s dream. Be it constructing a house or helping financially throughout life?

Vipassana

In 2010 I went for Vipassana. I was between jobs. It was Karunakar, my mentor, who strongly suggested to me. I was in my early 20’s, hormones kicking, enjoying salaried life on alcohol and consumerism: the advice for meditation retreat made no sense.

I cannot say no to Karunakar: I registered for ten days of retreat in Leh. I think an Air India flight was running directly from Delhi to Leh.

Leh was a different world for me, not because of the hipster cafes or foreigners crowding the place but the locals. I found people lovable and their acceptance that I am one of them. The dry mountains, bone-chilling wind, and prayers from Gompas were mesmerizing. Walking on the market and waving strangers with a smile and Julley was heartwarming for someone coming from noisy, anger-filled Delhi.

The Vipassana center was on the outskirts of some school. The rules were told in advance to me by Karunakar and manuals they had sent. I was wondering how I will survive on two meals of veg food and ten days of silence. Some part of my brain was saying that I forced myself to jail in some touristy spot. The first three days of the retreat were hell. I died every minute because I was scared. I had no phone, people, beer, laptop around. Figuring out: Who am I, with my consciousness and breath was painful. I had nothing to lie, nothing to hide. I was naked with myself. I saw half a dozen folks crying and some leaving the retreat because they could not take it.

Waking up early, taking a cold bath, sitting in a lotus pose, and observing the breath for ten days, and listening to Dr. Goenka’s lectures were not easy. My mind was wandering in thoughts, and I was trying to observe it.

Once the retreat got over, it took me a few months to get back to speaking regularly. I continued doing the breathing and other techniques for a few months.

Was I a changed person? I think so; I was less scared of myself, accepting who am I, and started liking my solitude.

Will I recommend others for Vipassana?
I definitely will.
Will Vipassana help everyone?
I don’t know.

Leh market
What are they talking?
The touristy spot with few local folks who were at Vipassana retreat

Umeed

Ek umeed ka daaman thame hue hai, ek door se bana rakha hai umeed ko zindgi ke saath.

Kya Nahi ho Sakta umeed ke Saath? Umeed hogi, josh Hoga, Junoon Hoga, Kuch kargujarne ki chaahat aur badhege.

Kitne ja chuke hai kabr me na-umeede liye, mitti naseeb hue magar chahaat ke mohaz rahe.

Umeed akale he kaafi nahi, ye ek chingari hai. Umeed ke sang hausla, mehnat bhi zaroori hai. Umeed ka diya janlne de, mehnat karte hai aur age badhe.

say

A few people never say No. The reason might be love, respect, or don’t want others to get sad. Some do not want to close the connection or relationship.

It has more negatives than positives. The person is still expecting that something will come in his favor when the reality is a clear NO.

example

What you do will be learning for your kids. The way you act, behave and treat them and people around you.

Sayings like: monkey see monkey do or charity begins at home exists for these reasons.

As a parent, your virtues and vice will leave an impact on your kids, so be very aware of your actions. You are setting an example for the next generation.

The same even applies at corporate: if a manager is not delivering to potential and slacking off, employees will follow the same.

There is a chain reaction or snowball effect, whatever you like calling it. But be a good example for people around you: as a parent or a leader. It will make the world a better place.

sehar

Samete za rahe hai yadoo ko is sehar se hum. Khusio se bhari ye chand lamho ko, liye za rahe hai saath hum. Ban zainge ye yaddain hamare, simte rahenge ge dil ke sirhanome hamare.

Zindgi ki zadozahad me, paiso ki aise numyeesh hai lage ki riste bhi uske ird/gird se ho gaye hai.

Kya din the wo, bematlab, matmaule bachpean ke jab dosti numaiyeesh ki mohtaaz nahi the.