Emotionally Intelligent Leadership: Bob Iger & Steve Jobs

In his book, Ride of a Lifetime, Bob Iger tells of the time he first met Steve Jobs.

Disney had bene going through a rough patch, with a series of flops on its hands. Iger had been monitoring the progress – and creativity – of Pixel, which was engineering a series of major critical and box office successes under the leadership of Jobs.

Iger was convinced that Disney needed to join hands with Pixels to rekindle its creative and commercial success.

There was a slight obstacle. Disney had created bad blood with Pixar. Originally partners in the 1990s, with Disney co-producing, marketing and distributing five of Pixar’s movies, which grossed well over $1 billion, the relationship started to turn sour. As Pixar-created movies delivered success after success, Disney’s animated movies bombed. Jobs wanted to address this imbalance in the contractual agreement, and Michael Eisner, the then CEO of Disney, did not. Both leaders felt aggrieved – and became increasingly bristly around each other. It seemed clear to observers that rather than moving towards collaboration, these leaders were becoming more confrontational. The bad blood boiled over when Jobs announced in 2004 that Pixar would never partner or work with Disney again.

Iger was COO at the time and wasn’t involved in the Disney-Pixar deal.

When Iger was appointed CEO of Disney the first calls he made were to his parents and a few of his former colleagues and mentors. His first ‘business’ call was to Steve Jobs. He recognized that it was important to call Jobs for there to be any chance of salvaging the relationship.

Iger detailed his top two priorities on becoming CEO – the first was building a stronger relationship with the Disney family and disgruntled Board members, and the second was building a stronger relationship with Jobs and Pixar.

Iger was able to set up a meeting with Jobs at his Pixar office. In preparation, Iger had gone over all the reasons why Disney was a strong partner for Pixar. Logically, in any negotiation, he would lead with those reasons and battle for Disney’s interests.

However, in that moment, when he sat down with Jobs, he decided to be totally transparent. He was effusive about the achievements Jobs had made at Pixar and at Apple. He shared his admiration for their use of technology in the service of story creation and animated movies.

In my reading of the book, that is the moment when Jobs thawed towards Iger and Disney. Iger was always totally honest with Jobs – realizing Jobs was clear on Pixar’s worth and what he valued in a partner. That was the moment of great emotional intelligence. Iger stood in Jobs’ shoes and asked himself what Jobs needed in that moment. Iger let go of any ego or positioning, bearing in mind his greater purpose of building a long term relationships (and value for customers) and acted in line with his purpose.

In the video below, Bob Iger shares some insight into his relationship with Steve Jobs.

In Iger’s own words:

If you approach ?and engage people with respect and empathy, the seemingly impossible can become real.

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In another incident, Iger rang Jobs to ask what Jobs though about Disney buying Pixar. Iger expected to hear laughter at the other end of the phone. Instead, Jobs said it wasn’t the craziest idea in the world. Iger was honest, took a risk and was prepared for the consequences. What Iger didn’t know at the time, was that Jobs knew he was ill and was making plans for the future of Pixar.

Iger’s behaviour demonstrated he was trustworthy, honest, upfront and shared Jobs’s value of creativity.

What did Jobs say of Iger? I love this guy.

EQ beats IQ every time.

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Andrea Stone is a leadership coach and consultant, working with leaders and teams to be emotionally intelligent leaders, creating value and success for all organizational stakeholders. She is a seasoned coach and a preferred partner of Six Seconds , global leaders in Emotional Intelligence.

? Andrea Stone, Stone Leadership Coachign and Consulting Pvt. Ltd.