读书笔记 - The Ride of a Lifetime (2)

Starting at the bottom

• Excellence and fairness don't have to be mutually exclusive. 
• Think about what I can do differently. 
• Strive for perfection, and care about both the product and the people.

Betting on talent

• His energy and optimism were infectious, and crucially, he knew what he didn't know. 
• They trusted in their own instincts, they treated people with respect.

Know that you don't know (And trust in what you do)

• You have to be humble.
• True authority and true leadership come from knowing who you are and not pretending to be anything else.
• Empathy is a prerequisite to the sound management of creativity, and respect is critical.

Enter Disney

• You have to be attentive.
• You have to learn and absorb.
• You have to hear out other people's problems and help find solutions.
• It is all part of being a great manager.

Second in line

• As a leader, you should want those around you to be eager to rise up and take on more responsibility, as long as dreaming about the job they want doesn't distract them from the job they have. 
• You can't let ambition get too far ahead of opportunity. 

Good things can happen

• The success or failure of something so often comes down to the details.
• What was invaluable in my own education is to see the big picture as well as the granular details at the same time, and consider how one affected the other.
• Optimism sets a different machine in motion. Especially in difficult moments, 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. No one wants to follow a pessimist.

It's about the future

• I can't do anything about the past. We can talk about lessons learned, and we can make sure we apply those lessons going forward.
• Priorities are the few things that you're going to spend a lot of time and a lot of capital on. You only get three.
• You have to convey your priorities clearly and repeatedly. 
• The decision marking has to be straighter and faster.
• We'll never get the admiration or the public unless we get it from our own people first. And the way to get the people working for us to admire the company and believe in its future is to make products they're proud of. It's that simple.
• I couldn't let the negativity being expressed by people who knew little about me affect the way I felt about myself.
• It's easy to be optimistic when everyone is telling you you're great. It is much harder, and much more necessary, when your sense of yourself is being challenged, and in such a public way.

The power of respect

• Don't let your ego get in the way of making the best possible decision.
• If you approach and engage people with respect and empathy, the seemingly impossible can become real.
• If they can't figure out what pricing should be, they shouldn't be in their jobs. But if we believe they should be in their jobs, then they should be in charge of pricing.

Disney-Pixar and a new path to the future

• As CFO, he had a responsibility to the board and our shareholders, which meant not always going along with whatever the CEO had in mind.
• A few solid pros are more powerful than dozens of cons.
• Steve was great at weighing all sides of an issue and not allowing negatives to drown out positives, particularly for things he wanted to accomplish. 

Marvel and massive risks that make perfect sense

• It doesn't make any sense for us to buy you for what you are and then turn you into something else.
• I felt comfortable we could manage the brands respectfully and separately, that they could exist side by side and neither would be negatively affected by the other.
• Surround yourself with people who are good in addition to being good at what they do.

Star wars

• The worst thing you can do when entering into a negotiation is to suggest or promise something because you know the other person wants to hear it, only to have to reverse course later.
• Projecting your anxiety onto your team is counterproductive.

If you don't innovate, you die

• It was the old lesson all over again about the need to constantly innovate.
• Speed was of the essence.
• I referred to a concept I called "management by press release" -- meaning that if I say something with great conviction to the outside world, it tends to resonate powerfully inside our company.
• Being present for your people -- and making sure they know that you're available to them -- is so important for the morale and effectiveness of a company.
  

No price on integrity

• Demanding quality and integrity from all of our people and of all of our products is paramount, and there is no room for second chances, or for tolerance when it comes to an overt transgression that discredits the company in any way.
  

Core values

• Are high quality branded products likely to become even more valuable in a changed marketplace?
• How do we deliver our products to consumers in more relevant, more inventive ways?
• What new habits of consumption are being formed, and how do we adapt to them?
• How do we deploy technology as a powerful new tool for growth?