"Crowded classrooms and half-day sessions are a tragic waste of our greatest national resource - the minds of our children" ~ Walt Disney
Walt Disney had a profound effect on the people he worked with. He would often say that his greatest leadership characteristic was in convincing people they could do things far above what they thought they could do. Disney demonstrated a strong moral purpose throughout his life and worked hard to make a difference in the lives of everyone who had interactions with his companies. Walt Disney was a dreamer who never stopped trying out new things, creating new cartoons, and always inspired people to achieve far more than they thought they were able to. As a leader, Disney never stopped innovating and dreaming about new possibilities and he explored those possibilities with a relentless imagination. Disney's first priority was to his family and he would readily admit that his greatest struggle was to balance his work and family, but he never allowed his work to interfere with the important moments in his wife or daughters lives.
Walt Disney understood and embraced the process of change. He knew that in order to continue to progress and find success, he needed to be one step ahead of change. This was evident through his willingness to take chances on innovative technologies as they developed in his field. When others expressed concern over risks, Disney was always optimistic and had faith in his convictions. Disney was always willing to discuss the many setbacks he suffered in his career and quickly dispelled the rumor that he just thought of creating Mickey Mouse one day and became an overnight success. Disney would refer to his willingness and courage to take risks and never settle for status-quo as his main ingredient for building the Disney Empire.
Walt Disney took pride in his employees and worked hard to maintain a high level of respect for each and everyone of them. Disney was optimistic and always perservered and knew how to spread his enthusiasm of his work to his employees which allowed them to flourish in their positions within his company. With all of his immense leadership qualities, coherence stands out as his supreme strength. With his name being synonymous with quality family entertainment, Disney was a pioneer in animated short films, was the first producer to add sound to a short animation, was the first to produce animation in color, and the first to produce a full length animation film. He progressed to live action movies, nature films, and pioneered children's programming on television. Nearly fifty years after his death, the ripple effects of Disney's leadershop still remains immeasurable.
References
Schickel, R. (1997). The disney version: The life, times, art, and commerce of walt disney.
Chicago: Simon & Schuster.
