Michael Eisner was the worst Disney CEO. That’s what some people wrote in an online discussion group. The comments were interesting but missed a key point. No leader is an island until him/herself. We all require others to counter balance our weaknesses.

This was especially true of Walt Disney. Walt was a creative. He dreamed big. He spent money big too. Lots of it. Without that money, none of those dreams would have come true.

The guy who managed the money so that Walt could actualize his dreams was his older brother Roy, on the right in this snap. Although they were often at odds, and sometimes not even on speaking terms, the two brothers balanced each other. Roy’s tight purse strings grounded Walt’s dreams sufficiently that they could be actualized.

The same was true of the early years of Michel Eisner’s tenure. Frank Wells was his number two. Eisner and Wells replicated the Walt/Roy dynamic with Eisner being the creative and Wells being the realist. The robust Disney Decade of the 1990s was the result. But when Wells died in an unfortunate helicopter crash, Eisner lost his counter balance. What some of the chat writers viewed as bad decisions resulted in cancelling WestCOT, and underbuilding Disney California Adventure for example.

We all have weaknesses. The smart ones amongst us find partners who complete them. If you’re a Walt, do you have a Roy? If you’re a Roy, do you have a Walt? Do your team members all think like you? That could be a problem. It might be wiser to partner with someone who has an opposing viewpoint or an opposite skill set to your own. That person might keep you from making mistakes. Everyone needs a Roy.