Name: Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner Says Mentorship and Respect Key to Successful Leadership
Uploaded: 2018-04-09
Duration: 3 min 58 s
Description: Goldner thinks that encouragement to innovate has led to some of the company's most successful toys.

Brian, you've been the CEO for Hasbro now for ten years and I'm sure you've learned a lot about leadership over the years. But is there any one thing that you would single out as the most important leadership lesson that you've learned? My compass is all about authenticity and being completely authentic. I'm the same person in the office as I am outside the office. I want to give people really clear feedback and really clear direction. I wanna hear them and be as interested in hearing new ideas and making people understand my ideas. And of course in this business and I I think in almost any business, an innate curiosity, a willingness to learn new things every day, so for me authenticity and curiosity. I understand that you meet with employees all the time, whether they are big town halls or smaller groups. What are you saying to them to get them really fired up and motivated? I think everybody wants to feel important in the process. And so, I don't think it's a one way street. So I think for the fact that I can learn something from everyone. That I can take something on board. That people have amazing incredible insights, all around the world, and our company. And they are heard, and their ideas are listened to, in fact we act on their ideas. And it doesn't matter where the idea comes from, we can execute that idea. So, I think if people feel respected and honored in the fact that they have amazing and wonderful ideas and they understand it's a two way street, that I'm just not going to tell them, they're going to help me and enable our team to be more successful, I think that's a wonderful way to lead. What's your tolerance for failure? My God, we have to fail all the time, just fail fast. We're profitably experimenting all the time. We're trying new ideas all the time and I feel that that's one of the mantras of this company, some of those profitable experiments have turned into things like transformers. I understand you do a lot of mentoring at Hasbro and what's the key thing that you teach your mentees on things like how to get ahead and how to be a great leader. I think one of the keys For young people, and it differs by individual, is to recognize that networking is a actually very viable and very valuable sport. That you have to be networking with people. Some people say, that's just schmoozing, that's not really necessary. But in fact, I think it's really important. I think- Why is it important? Because people want to work with people they know. And if you've stuck out your hand and shaken the hand of someone and said hello to somebody in line at the Starbucks for coffee inside the building or you've sat down with somebody at lunch or you've gone by their office to meet them and hear their thoughts on a business plan or leadership or to pick their brain. Then when the time comes to start to staff a new idea or to create a new idea, they say, I know that person or that someone may suggest that person. And they say, I know that name, I know that person. I had met with them. And so, I think networking is a really Undervalued sport in business. What about for women who wanna get a C suite job eventually. What's the advice you give them? Probably a lot of the same thing you just told me, but anything specific for women? I think guys are willing to move forward to try to get a new assignment knowing 80 % of what they need. And women try to focus on knowing everything, and I don't think you can ever know everything. I think women are incredibly capable and they don't need to know everything in order to be deserving of the next promotion. And so Don't let perfect get in the way of progress. As you look back on your life, both on the professional side, but also on the personal side, what's the best leadership advice that you got along the way? And why did it stick with you over so many years? There's an expression that I'd heard Bill Gates say years ago that sorta resonates with me. And people overestimate what you can do in a year, and underestimate what you can do in ten And I think that's really the mantra here at Hasbro. That you have to take the long view and recognize that over a long period of time, you can accomplish more than anybody can imagine.

Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner Says Mentorship and Respect Key to Successful Leadership

Leadership

Goldner thinks that encouragement to innovate has led to some of the company's most successful toys. 