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Creating Disney Magic

Lee Cockerell, former Executive Vice President of Operations for Walt Disney World, shares his wisdom and experience from his time with Disney, Marriott, and Hilton. Lee joins show host Jody Maberry to discuss how you can apply lessons in leadership, management, and customer service to create magic in your organization.
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Creating Disney Magic
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Now displaying: October, 2019
Oct 29, 2019

Your job is not to motivate employees. Your job is to hire the right employees. When you hire the right people they will motivate themselves. 

Not everyone agrees with this idea. Some people feel the main responsibility of a leader is to motivate employees. 

During my career, I have had obstacles, bad bosses, bad work situations, bad pay, lots of stress, bad work environments, and in all of those circumstances, I motivated myself. 

You own your own motivation. You own your own development. And your attitude. No one else is responsible for your motivation. 

At Disney, we hired people with the right attitude and gave them a professional, respectful environment to work in. Our job was to train them and development. But cast members owned their own motivation and outcome. 

As a supervisor, if someone has a bad attitude, you will never motivate them. 

As an employee, you will eventually run into a boss who doesn't like you and doesn't work well with you. You will still have to do a good job. 

If you want to learn more about the ups and downs of my career, check out my book, Career Magic

"Only you are responsible for your happiness and your health." - Sunshine Payne

 

Oct 22, 2019

How you manage your time is how you manage your reputation. 

Nobody is born disorganized. It is a learned thing. 

With discipline, you can do the right things when you are supposed to do them. 

Time Management Magic is not just a book, it is a way of thinking. 

Most of my career success can be attributed to 3 things; organization, time management, and persistence. 

But you can't just focus on work, you need to keep your whole life under control. If you don't take the time to plan the life you want, you will spend a lot of time living the life you don't want. 

My book, Time Management Magic will help you understand the things in your life you should be working on. Your reputation is at stake. 

 

Oct 15, 2019

What if you are so busy you don't have room to fit in a new customer?

It happens. Sometimes we are so overwhelmed with our current workload it is difficult to fit in new customers. 

But you should never leave it to someone else to get back to you. Put in a system where you get back to a potential customer without putting the burden on them.  

If you leave it to a potential customer to get back to you, they will find someone else to do business with. Don't let a customer try a competitor before you even get the chance to serve them. 

Make it easy to do business with you, and more people will do business with you. 

If you put a system in place where you call back customers and keep communicating with them they will be willing to wait. 

Don't string along a customer, but keep the contact alive. 

Most people are so disorganized they will forget about you if you don't keep reminding them. 

Don't just think about how busy you are right now and let them walk away. Consider the lifetime value of a customer. 

Most customers, when they find someone great, will stay with you. Make sure people get the chance to experience how good you are. 

If you keep these ideas in mind, people will be glad to wait for you:

Make every customer feel special. 

Treat people respectfully. 

Be reliable and credible. 

People will wait for quality. 

Have the attitude that you are the giving one. Treat people special, even if they are not yet a customer. 

If you can't serve someone, recommend someone else who can help them. Even if you don't make the immediate sale. People will remember how you treat them. Be the giving one. 

Oct 8, 2019

Is it better to get an education or the experience that comes with a promotion?

Education pays off down the road. Take the opportunity to get an education over the chance for a promotion.

Sometimes you have to make decisions that will pay off later. Passing up the temporary rewards of promotion in favor of getting an education is one of those times.

A promotion pays off now, with more money and responsibility. But you can get that and more if you get an education.

Promoting too fast can even take away the opportunity to get experience, exposure, and education to help you later in your career.

Do the hard things now so you can have a better life down the road.

Whether you are working on your education or getting a promotion, it is good to take a break. Magical Vacation Planners can help plan the trip you need. You can reach them at 407-442-2694.

Resources

Have an excellent career by learning from Lee: Career Magic

Lee’s website: https://www.leecockerell.com/

Oct 1, 2019

Early in my career, when I worked at Marriott, I begin working away from my office. A Library was the first place I worked away from the office. 

At Disney, I used to leave my office and work at an unoccupied office or work from the California Grill when it wasn't open. 

Now, I still do work away from my office, which is in my house. 

There are too many distractions at home. My productivity has gone up while working from a local coffee shop.

When you are working outside your usual setting, you get more inspired. For me, I get more energy. 

Put yourself in the right environment to get the work done. 

There are jobs where you can't leave to work in a different environment. But you could still consider doing paperwork, catch up work, or your planning time away from where you work.  

Working in the right environment will help you move items from your ToDo list to your Done list. The more you get done, the better your life will become. 

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