Most Important Skills For A Vice President Original Content And Business Affairs At ESPN And Disney
Heather, a Vice President at ESPN and The Walt Disney Company, emphasizes that strong communication skills are paramount, stating "communication is key," for navigating internal consensus-building and external negotiations, requiring compromise to deliver "the best product to the fan." This involves understanding diverse team needs and expectations to ultimately create a unified approach.
Communication, Negotiation, Consensus-Building, Collaboration, Project Management
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Heather Anderson
Vice President, Original Content and Business Affairs
ESPN and The Walt Disney Company
UC Berkeley
UCLA School of Law - JD
Ethnic & Related Studies, Political Science, American Studies
Arts, Entertainment & Media, Law
Business Strategy
Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School
Video Highlights
1. Effective communication is crucial for negotiation, building consensus, and collaboration.
2. Internal consensus-building is vital before engaging with external partners; understanding the needs and concerns of all teams is essential.
3. Compromise and open-mindedness are important to consider everyone's needs and deliver the best product for the consumer/fan.
Transcript
What skills are most important for a job like yours?
Communication is key. When you're negotiating or even trying to build consensus internally, being transparent, actively listening, and having clarity in your conversations are all essential.
Those are all key elements of communication that create collaboration and consensus. That was a lot of "Cs," but they're all very important. No matter what my actual responsibility is, that underlying foundation is necessary in everything we do.
A lot of what occurs behind the scenes before we engage with external parties is internal consensus. We need to capture the needs, aspirations, concerns, and restrictions of every team that touches a project.
Ensuring we have all of that information is crucial. Then, we can form a unified position before talking with external parties. This first key piece is about building trust.
It involves communicating with different people who wear different hats within the company. Then, you approach an external partner with their own expectations and obligations.
The goal is to figure out how to be creative together, considering everyone's needs. Sometimes that means a lot of compromise, but being open-minded to that is important to get to what is best for the ultimate consumer.
At the end of the day, are we all doing what is best to bring the best product to our fans? You have to keep that front of mind, and communication is key to that.
Advizer Personal Links
none