Leadership: Changing Accidental Growth to Intentional Growth

In a recent post, John Maxwell discussed some of the keys to personal growth.  In particular, he highlights how important it is to intentionally control and promote growth. 

One particular contrast: 
Accidental Growth:  Thinks Like a Victim 
Intentional Growth:  Thinks Like a Learner

Many great leaders and successful people have learned from their challenges whereas it would be easy to act as a victim.  Mohandas Gandhi went through numerous challenge, learned from them, used the knowledge to success in the future. Early in his career, Walt Disney had artistic staff members lured away from him and had his distributors thwart the release of some of his early film.  Neither Gandhi nor Disney played the victim.  They learned from the challenges and move on better prepared to succeed in the future.

Leaders have daily and weekly challenges.  After each challenge, ask "what can I learn from this?"  If you keep a journal, use this as a starting question each day.  

Walt Disney's Support of the Military in WWII

Walt Disney:  An American Original by Bob Thomas (Simon & Schuster, 1976) is a good business biography.  It covers Disney's life, often highlighting his passion to entertain people, the power of his vision, and his creativity.

It was particularly interesting in describing Disney's support of the military in World War II. Several events stood out.

• Early in the war, Disney started making training videos for the War Industry as well as for the military.  Some of his films included Four Methods of Flush Riveting for Lockheed Aircraft and Aircraft Carrier Landing Signals for the Navy.
• Disney was losing a lot of artist to the draft.  The Draft Board assume that the artist were just making Mickey Mouse.  Walt Disney decided to bring the Draft Board into the studio to see the war efforts. The Draft Board members had to be cleared by Army Intelligence, Naval Intelligence, and the FBI, and they were still areas of the studio which were off limit due to the top secret nature of the work.  The Draft Board changed its mind and re-assigned drafted employees back to Disney Studios.
• Walt Disney was a big fan of the book Victory Through Air Power by Alexander de Seversky.  Disney worked with de Seversky to make a film about the principles in the book.  Roosevelt and Churchill saw the film in the summer of 1943.  The film is credited with the increased role of air power in the D-Day invasion.