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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: March, 2020
Mar 31, 2020

Jeff Noel joins us as a special guest on this episode of Creating Disney Magic. 

Jeff is a 30 year Disney veteran. For the last 15 years of his Disney Career, Jeff taught at the Disney Institute. 

Now, Jeff is a keynote speaker and helps businesses operate with a little more magic. 

Jeff has his own podcast If Disney Ran Your Life. On his podcast, Jeff explains how if Disney ran your life, you would have higher standards and not settle. 

Both Jeff and I give examples of what it will be like if you apply Disney principles to your own life. 

If you want a great life, you can't ignore anything. At Disney, everything matters. That is how we create magic. It is an attitude. 

There is no finish line. You are never done taking care of yourself and improving your life. 

Make sure you check out Jeff's podcast and visit Jeff at his website. 

Mar 24, 2020

Meeting a new team as a leader is your first chance to let people know what it is going to be like to work with you. 

When I became the General Manager of a Marriott Hotel, I used the first 30 days to find out what questions people have. 

Every day, I walked the hotel and met with every employee. First, at 6 am, I would walk every area of the hotel. Then again at 11 am. Finally, before I left at 5 pm I would walk the hotel one more time. Every day, I saw every employee. And I asked questions about what they needed. When they told me they needed something, I took care of it. 

When I became EVP of Walt Disney World, I applied what I learned at Marriott, but with 44,000 cast members and an operation the sie of San Francisco, I could not meet every cast member and see the entire operation every day. But, I did meet some people every day. And I saw some portion of the operation every day. 

And I made myself available to answer questions and meet with people. 

Don't get overwhelmed by the idea of meeting with everyone. Focus on one person at a time. 

Meet with an employee. Find out about their career and their family life. Get to know the person before you get to know their work. 

Ask people, "what can I do for you to make your job easier?"

Your new team is not looking for giant changes or big leaps of progress. They want a little bit of help. They want you to remove barriers so they can do their job. Now, you have to find out what those barriers are so you can remove them.

Mar 17, 2020

Whether you use a paper planner or a digital planner, you are going to have notes and other items you will need to keep that don't go into your planner. 

It can be a challenge to keep all of your notes in order and organized so you have them when you need them. 

In this episode of Creating Disney Magic, I offer some suggestions and ideas on how you can keep your notes and other vital information managed and organized so you have them where you need them when you need them. 

As with any system, you have to work it until it works for you. 

You can also find additional tools like Dropbox, Google Calendar, Slack, Trello, Evernote or others to help find the right processes for your system. 

Mar 16, 2020

On this special episode of Creating Disney Magic, Dan Cockerell, my son and former VP of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World joins me to talk about how to handle a crisis.

Here are four steps to keep in mind while dealing with a crisis:

Safety First. Before anything else, the safety of employees, customers, and yourself comes before anything else.

Deal with the Facts. During a crisis people get emotional. People speculate and gossip. You should deal only with the facts when you communicate with people.

Be Empathetic. Everybody is dealing with a crisis in different ways for different reasons. Understand people are worried.

Use the situation to get better. You and your organization can learn plenty from a crisis. Use it as a training opportunity.

During my time as EVP of Walt Disney World, we had to shut down the parks due to hurricanes and 9/11. 

During a crisis, your culture is on show for everyone to see. Your actions should match your words. What you say doesn’t build a culture. Culture is built through actions.

Mar 10, 2020

You don't have to be a supervisor to influence positive change in your organization. 

At Disney, there are hourly employees who have influence over decisions from management. 

If you want to influence positive change you need to begin by having a spirit of serving. 

If people trust you then you will gain some influence. When people want to work with you, you can have more influence on what happens. 

Positive changes begin with our attitude. Have a positive attitude so people want to work with you. Then you can introduce ideas on how to make things better. 

Don't wait for people to be nice before you are nice to them. 

One question you can ask today to help you influence positive change is, "what more can I do for you?" Be sincere and help and you will begin to see the organization change around you. 

Mar 3, 2020

Every business gets an unexpected rush of customers. 

You have seen this either as a customer or in your own organization. 

How often in these situations are you left wondering what is going on? Most of the time, this is what happens. 

Too many customers leave staff unable to deal with the rush. The line builds up and customers get frustrated.

Don't act like nothing is happening. The best thing you can do is acknowledge what is happening. As a customer comes in, greet them and set the expectation on when you will be able to serve them. 

Keep people informed, let them know you are busy and you will be with them as soon as possible. 

Be polite, profesional and cureous. 

Never let a customer wonder what is going on. Tell them upfront about what is happening.

And when they get their turn, provide service so good they will feel it was worth the wait. 

You can also take steps to prepare ahead so you are not impacted as bad by an unexpected customer rush. Make sure you have supplies stocked and ready to go to lessen the impact on staff. Tell the staff what shortcuts, if any, are acceptable during customer rushes. Seconds matter to customers so you may be willing to take some shortcuts. And you can never go wrong by making sure you have a great product and great service. 

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