Leader-Walt Disney
Walt Disney is the prolific creator and leader of The Walt Disney Company. Disney is most recognized for his gallant efforts which created the Disney empire, yet his leadership style is one that has melded into a company culture and a prescribed way of organizational leadership. Disney is a man of many words and accomplishments which has led the Disney organization to extensive success. Throughout his 43 year career in film and television, Disney was the personification of a great leader.
His career began at 19 with the creation of Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists, which was short lived. However, from this disappointment, he gained notoriety for his cartooning in Kansas City where Disney worked with Newman
Roy was the only person who could tell Walt ‘no’. Not taking ‘no’ for an answer can be both a strength and weakness. Being a good leader is also about being able to give others credit where credit is due and at some times Disney did not do this. In fact, many of his works were not his works at all. He simply had others do the work for him. Now, that may seem vague but Walt was not an artist, although he always strived to be one. He attached his name to many works that were not his. (http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2006-12-03/walts-not-so-wonderful-world) He also had a tough childhood with a despondent father and struggled to build relations with his family. This repeated itself within his own family - his wife Lillian was known to have struggled with Walt’s introverted nature. A well balanced leader will have matched work and home lives. The strengths of Walt Disney far outweigh the weaknesses. Disney was a dreamer. He, as mentioned above, did not take ‘no’ for an answer. If felt if you could dream it, it could be. So, he took great risks – without them we would not have color, animated, full length films. He used his vision and motivation to encourage his employees to be great. Disney said, “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walt_Disney) Walt created an unmatched culture