Leadership Character Begins Inside – Build Your Integrity Power
December 21, 2011Leadership Character Begins Inside – Build Your Integrity Power
Walt Disney’s father abused him as a child forcibly pushing him in to work from an early age and taking from him every penny he earned.
The integrity of Walt’s true character never wavered.
When his first successful character, Oswald, was stolen by Charles Mintz he didn’t skip a beat, but got on a train to California and listening deeper to the clickety clack of the track, conceived a new character his wife named Mickey Mouse. Who among us doesn’t know what Mickey and Mini have done?
When leadership was called for Walt was always driven deeply by the nature and character and integrity of his passion. Master animator Glen Keane put it this way, “I don’t do my animation for corporate reasons, or for money, or even for entertainment purposes. I do it for the same reason Walt did – for the pure enjoyment of bringing joy to others. I can’t help feeling that Walt’s heart is still beating deep down within me.”
Leadership character is tempered from the beginning not by what happens to us, by how we are treated, but by how we respond, what we do about that.
When his team faced a challenge such as getting President Abraham Lincoln to move in a believable way through Audio-Animatronics in the “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln,” exhibit Disney Artist Frank Armitage described Walt’s leadership: “The Imagineering team had an incredibly difficult time getting Lincoln to move in a believable way. Walt kept saying, ‘Keep going, you can do this,’ He gave them the money they needed to get it right, and he kept urging them toward perfection.”
Henry Ford used almost the exact same words repeatedly to inspire his engineers to invent the V-8 engine block they persistently thought was impossible. They did it.
Want to know the secret to great leadership character? Walt described it in one sentence when asked how he was able to achieve so much in his lifetime: “I dream, I test my dreams against my beliefs, I dare to take risks, and I execute my vision to make those dreams come true.” Walt was a Dreamer-Doer™.
PRINCIPLE: Be true to self. Thoughts and actions aligned with your dreams and prayers yield results manifest in the world.
APPLICATION: To astound your competition be your self. Honor true character.
1. Dream – Be a dreamer, follow your heart with your head as guardian
2. Test your dreams against your beliefs
3. Dare to take risks
4. Do – Be a Doer; execute your vision to make your dreams come true.
Tomorrow: Weigh Anchor From Past Failures to Better Your Best
