As leaders, the ability to tell and sell the story of your organization to your team and to your clients is critical to success. Every week, we’ll take a glimpse at a great leadership story, and learn how to apply it to our own lives.
We’ll often remember a story more than we will a principle. My goal is to give you something you can take with you. Below is an amazing story from one of my all-time heroes: Walt Disney.
The following is taken from PBS’s documentary, “Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination.”
One winter night in 1934, Walt Disney gave a group of his staff 50 cents each and told them to get dinner across the street before returning to meet him at the Disney soundstage.
When they arrived, they found Disney standing alone in the spotlight on a dark stage. For the next several hours, they watched in awe as he acted out the story of "Snow White" — the Grimm brothers' fairy tale that they would, he announced, be turning into a full-length animated feature film. In an effort to show his team exactly what would transpire on the screen, he channeled the voice and emotions of each character, from the wicked queen to the seven dwarves.
Disney and his staff had spent the last few years working on "Silly Symphonies," a series of animated short films that earned him a reputation as the man who turned animation into a fine art. But as the documentary notes, Disney was itching for another adventure — and he managed to persuade his team that they were ready, too.
"We were just carried away," one animator recalled of Disney's solo performance. "I would have climbed a mountain full of wildcats to do everything I could to make 'Snow White.'"
...When Walt gave his personal performance of Snow White for his animators, he showed them his passion for the project. In those moments, Walt’s staff was able to see through his eyes, and only then did they learn to carry the same drive and initiative toward the project that it would entail.
No one in animation had attempted such a feat. It would take grit and determination beyond what the animators had ever done before. But they were convinced they had to do it that evening when Walt told the story.
The passion that you tell your story with your team will determine their buy-in. Give your team something to believe in...something to be a part of...something to belong to. It makes all the difference in the world.
God Bless,
-AB3
