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 Laugh-O-Grams. Eventually, this led Walt and his brother Roy to pool together their finances to start their own cartoon company in Hollywood. And, as they say in Hollywood, the rest is history!
The success of The Walt Disney Company is in large part indebted to the leadership style of Walt. He built strong relationships, challenged teams for innovation, led by example, and encouraged risk. He was a hands-on leader who catapulted his organization to the top in Hollywood and beyond. His legacy continues in the company and in the theme parks he developed. Walt Disney is the sort of leader one can emulate and strive to be like – legendary. Walt Disney had strong feelings about how his company would be managed. His leadership philosophy was simple, build relationships, show respect, ask for innovation and creation, and reward your people. Disney said, “Courage is the main quality in leadership, in my opinion it usually implies some risk.” (http://disneyinstitute.com/about_us/our_story.aspx) This quote speaks volumes; he believed in working, not talking about working. Walt Disney was an innovator in the field of animation and without encouraging his team to take a risk, to be courageous; he would not have been the leader in the