four management lessons from Anna Wintour

R.J. Culter, director of The September Issue, observed Anna Wintour day-in and day-out as she single-handedly commanded the $300-billion global fashion industry.

During those eight months in 2007, I was given complete access to the process of creating Vogue. At the end of each day, Anna’s assistant would email me her schedule for the following day and my crew and I would plan which of her meetings to film. For me, just reading her daily schedule was startling — the parade of editors, stylists, designers, writers, models, art directors, photographers, retailers, filmmakers, actresses, socialites, moguls, politicians and even the occasional tennis player was head-spinning. As Vogue’s then-publisher Tom Florio says in the film while discussing her legendary inaccessibility, “She’s busy.” But regardless of how busy Anna was, what struck me most through the shoot was that she always kept her team moving forward and that every month, like clockwork, another issue of Vogue hit the newsstands.

Here are Four Lessons about Management that I learned from Anna Wintour while making The September Issue:

Lesson 1: Keep Meetings Short - meetings are long if they go more than seven minutes and everyone knows to show up on time, prepared and ready to dive in.

Lesson 2: Trust Your Instincts - It’s quintessential Anna Wintour: knowing what she wants, making clear decisions and moving on…here is someone who knows that her gut instincts have gotten her to where she is, so she listens to them, trusts them and isn’t afraid to put them on the line.

Lesson 3: Surround Yourself with Great Talent - you’re only as good as the people who work for you, bad leaders are threatened by strong team members, and that success comes from surrounding yourself with the most talented people you can find.

Lesson 4: Don’t Look Back - Always move forward. Don’t dwell on the past. Life is short and there’s lots to get done.