“All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.”
~John Kenneth Galbraith
Businesses whose leadership consistently perform understand the brand, the product, and know-how to weather both good and bad economic cycles. Take a moment to reflect on the basics that emanate in each of Walt Disney’s quotations. . .
“When we consider a new project, we really study it – not just the surface idea, but everything about it. And when we go into that new project, we believe in it all the way. We have confidence in our ability to do it right. And we work hard to do the best possible job.”
The Basics: Planning, Commitment, Confidence to perform, Hard work.
“There’s really no secret about our approach. We keep moving forward-opening up new doors and doing new things – because we’re curious. And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. We’re always exploring and experimenting. We call it Imagineering – the blending of creative imagination with technical know-how.”
The Basics: Momentum, Inquisitive creativity, No fear, Technical competence.
“Well, by this time my staff, my young executives, and everything else, are convinced that Walt is right. That quality will out. And so I think they’re going to stay with that policy because its proved that it’s a good business policy. Give the people everything you can give them. Keep the place as clean as you can keep it. Keep it friendly, you know. Make it a real fun place to be. I think they’re convinced and I think they’ll hang on after…as you say…well…after Disney.”
The Basics: Quality, Quality, Quality! Stay with what works in policy and action, Leave nothing on the table, Future leaders learn by example and success.
“The whole thing here is the organization. Whatever we accomplish belongs to our entire group, a tribute to our combined effort. Look at Disneyland. That was started because we had the talents to start it, the talents of the organization. And our World’s Fair shows-what we did was possible only because we already had the staff that had worked together for years, blending creative ideas with technical know-how.”
The Basics: The right people in the right jobs, Teamwork, Selfless sharing of credit, Leveraging strengths to accomplish goals.
“No matter what the provocation, I never fire a man who is honestly trying to deliver a job. Few workers who become established at Disney Studio ever leave voluntarily or otherwise, and many have been on the payroll all their working lives.”
The Basics: Loyalty, Fairness, Integrity and Understanding that highly effective teams are made up of unique individuals with specialized and/or unique talents necessary for the team’s overall success…not “yes-men” or auto-matrons.
“You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”
The Basics: Failure happens, it hurts, learn from it, embrace it, get up and start over. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
“People often ask me if I know the secret of success and if I could tell others how to make their dreams come true. My answer is, you do it by working.”
“I suppose my formula might be: dream, diversify-and never miss an angle.”
“The Quotable Walt Disney” Compiled by Dave Smith, Disney Editions, Disney Enterprises, Inc. Copyright 2001