01/05/2023
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A Lesson I Learned From Barbara Walters
As we start this new year, I wanted to share something that I learned from the late media icon Barbara Walters.
In 2014, when Barbara retired from ABC News, the company hosted a dinner in her honor at the Four Seasons in New York City.
Barbara gave remarks about her illustrious career as a journalist and spoke about life once she became a true force at ABC News.
Back then, interns were called pages and they would come past the anchors and correspondents' dressing rooms to drop of their daily scripts. The protocol was to knock and if the media talent didn't reply, you could open their door and leave the scripts on their chair for them.
One day, Barbara was in her dressing room on the phone and didn't hear the knock at her door. So, the page entered her room thinking the “20/20” anchor was gone, but she was actually just engaged in her phone call.
The page was shocked to see Barbara was sitting there and swore he was in big trouble. Instead, Barbara stopped her call, asked the page to introduce himself—initially he only shared his first name, she told him "you're more than just one name young man, what is your whole name?" He went on to share his whole name and they had a quick chat.
Barbara shared that she was so glad she was nice to that page that day because that young man would go on to become the CEO of Disney, which owns ABC News. His name is Robert Iger and he was the man who would ultimately become Barbara’s boss.
Robert also was the person who actually hosted the retirement dinner for Barbara that evening.
Moral of this story: Be careful how you treat people – all people – because you never know what will become of them.
As you move throughout the world in 2023, be intentional about leading with kindness with everyone. You never know the impact your kindness may have on a person!
