For a 73-year-old Fortune 500 leader, that means starting early and taking care of your physical and mental health ensure that there is stamina to get through the day.
Iger, a multiple Disney executive, said one of the the most important requirements for his role is energy—exercise and a healthy diet are one way to ensure this.
“You have to bring – mostly – energy to your work every moment of the day, every waking hour, because it’s motivating,” Iger told In good company podcast recently.
About where he gets his energy from, Iger added: “Some of it depends on how you are connected, it’s genes, and some of it depends on how you prepared.
“Staying fit and having stamina is key for me – that means eating well and exercising. Just taking care of your body and mind is really important, I couldn’t do this job if I wasn’t in some form of physical and mental health.”
The man who returned to Disney in the 2022 with a contract worth $27 million per year he exercises between 45 minutes and an hour most mornings, regardless of whether he is at home or in a foreign hotel.
“I like to say it’s for reason and vanity,” he told host Nicholai Tangen. CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management.
“It allows me to clear my head … and prepare my mind and body for the work ahead, but there’s also a vanity side to it.”
Although Iger prioritizes his health, so far he has not done so followed in the footsteps of other high-profile leaders complete cessation of alcohol.
“I love a glass of good wine,” he added. “These years I drink less – maybe it has something to do with my age – but a good glass of wine relaxes me. I’m moderate about most things.”
Waking up at 4 am
Iger, a father of four, said that it could be argued that he doesn’t sleep enough. After all, he wakes up only after 4 am and goes to sleep between 10 and 11 pm.
“That morning actually rejuvenates me,” he explained. “First of all, it’s meditative, it’s quiet, it softens the stimulation that exists in my life while it’s still dark outside and nobody else is awake.
“I have the opportunity to be alone with my thoughts and this gives me the opportunity to put things in order, which means to determine the order and set of priorities. It gives me the opportunity to think creatively – I’m not saying I’m a creator – but just in terms of the speeches I’m going to make, the discussions I’m going to have with my people.
“I start the day with more purpose. Instead of waking up and suddenly being bombarded by all the comers, I can attack the world and the day with a little more organization.”
Iger’s view of balancing mental and physical health is a far cry from how others of his generation behaved at the start of their careers.
Bill Gates, for example, notoriously famous he compared himself to his peers based on how little sleep they got.
“In my thirties and forties, when you talked about sleep, it would be like, ‘Oh, I’m only getting six hours of sleep,'” Gates said in the 2023 episode. Get me confused with Bill Gates. “And the other guy says, ‘Oh, I only sleep five,’ then ‘Well, sometimes I don’t sleep at all.'”
As a result, Gates would try to cut back on rest, saying he felt he needed to “work harder because sleep is lazy and unnecessary.”
Coping with fatigue
Of course, with hundreds of thousands of employees under his watch and business interests around the world, even Iger gets tired.
When that happens, Disney’s CEO makes sure to let the people around him know.
“I’m a human being, so I’m really tired of global travel and long hours, and who knows what, I’m not afraid to show it to my people,” he said. “I think it’s a way we can be connected.
“And they feel it, it’s human nature to feel overwhelmed and tired sometimes.”
