A Short Course on the Essence of Leadership

A SHORT COURSE ON THE ESSENCE OF LEADERSHIP FROM THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY’S CEO, BOB IGER, AND A SHOP STEWARD AT THE YALE UNIVERSITY GOLF COURSE

Disney’s CEO Bob Iger’s superb new book, The Ride of a Lifetime, provides the reader with a mine of leadership lessons all embedded in experiences and stories that are engaging and meaningful.  

One of these lessons took me back to a lesson taught to me by a shop steward at the Yale University golf course more than a decade ago.

The lesson from Bob Iger I refer to is the importance of “being present” for your people.  Present physically.  Present viscerally.  Present in laying out where we want to go and how we’re going to get there.  Present in listening to people’s ideas and acting on them where they’re appropriate. 

I saw Bob Iger do that again and again as I served on the Walt Disney Company board.  I’ve heard cast members at Disney World talk about how Bob had visited them, communicating, listening, just as if he were another cast member which, of course, he is.

It took me back to a visit with the shop steward at the Yale University golf course.  I was the senior leader in charge of facilities, including the golf course.  I had come to Yale after retiring from P&G out of love for the place and with a particular objective in mind:  overcoming the rift that had developed between management and union workers.  It was a rare student who hadn’t experienced at least one strike during their four years at Yale.

Shortly after arriving on campus, I was presented with a proposal to outsource the upkeep of the golf course from the union to an outside contractor.  My reaction:  “That doesn’t seem like the best way to start healing this relationship!”

I received a lot of pushback.  I was told the golf course, once rated #1 in the country among college courses, had dropped to #75.  Despite repeated efforts, I was told, the union workers simply aren’t up to the task.  

I wasn’t ready to give up.  “We’re going to give it one more try,” I said.  And we did.  

To cut a long story short, several years later, with the golf course now being led by a new supervisor committed to engaging the union workers, the golf course had jumped to #2 in the nation.  Its goal was to become #1, which it subsequently did.  

I decided to go out to the golf course to try to learn what had accounted for this turnaround.  I met with the shop steward, a burly, no-nonsense man.  I knew he’d give me straight talk.  

I asked him how he was liking his job.  “We’re loving it, Mr. Pepper.”

There was deep enthusiasm in his voice.  I asked him what accounted for it. 

I’ll never forget his answer.

Referring to his new boss, he said:  “He knows how to cut grass; and he listens to us.”  That was it. 

Here was a leader who was “present.”  Present in knowing how to help his team do the job better, actually contributing to the result.  And being present in listening to his team, getting their ideas, and being ready to implement them.  

And I knew we had implemented them.  Thanks to their ideas, we had saved hundreds of thousands of dollars as union members repaired equipment which before we had simply gone out and replaced with a new purchase.

Yes, being present.  Being involved.  Intimately.  Caring about the result.  Caring about the people who make it happen.  The essence of strong leadership.