Recently one of our Navigator's heard George Bodenheimer, ESPN's CEO, speak and share their top eight leadership lessons. Here are the first four:
1) Define your mission...and drive it home. ESPN's mission is to serve sports fans everywhere. It began in 1979 with the radical vision of providing a sports channel for 24 hours a day- a mind stretch for the typical television sports enthusiasts.
2) Understand your strengths. One of ESPN's values is covering sports with authority and personality. When asked about the threat of the NFL network, the CEO replied that the NFL poses no threat at all. The reason? Simply stated the NFL can't compete with ESPN's strength of authority as an independent source.
3) Have passion for what you do. One way the employees of ESPN stay passionate is how they nurture an underdog spirit- another company value. The irony is that they remain the clear category leader, despite the fact that they think and act with the ethos and passion of the underdog.
4) Develop a winning culture that breeds and feeds on success. Overtime, ESPN has grown to be the worldwide leader of sports and one of the world's premier brands with more than 40 business entities and counting - including seven domestic (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Today and ESPN Now) and 25 international television networks, ESPN HD, a simulcast service of ESPN in high-definition, ESPN Regional Television, ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPN The Magazine and books, SportsTicker, the ESPN Zones (sports-themed restaurants), and other growing new businesses including ESPN Broadband, ESPN Wireless, ESPN Video-on-Demand, ESPN Interactive and ESPN Pay-Per-View. The beauty of the accomplishment is the blend of attention to corporate culture, focus on the mission and extension of the mission through creativity and innovation.