Creating Disney Magic: Lessons In Leadership, Management, And Customer Service

Leading a remote team for the first time can be a challenge for many people.  If your leadership style is based on face to face interaction, it can leave you feeling disease about not being able to see your team.  Don't stress over it too much. Leading remotely, for the most part, is no different than leading in person. Be yourself. Pick up the phone. Get on Zoom. Communicate often.  Often, we magnify the problems that come with remote teams. Most people stress about not being in front of the team is because they want to feel important. Not being able to have direct and immediate interaction leaves some leaders feeling less important.  Here are some tips for leading a remote team: Treat remote communication as you would any other communication. Be yourself. Tell the truth. Check-in with people individually. Don't make every meeting a group meeting.  Don't only rely on email. Hearing voices and seeing people's faces help you and the whole time. Have fun. Let people feel comfortable.  If you act normal, other

What do you do if you have a negative coworker? For the most part, I recommend you stay away from negative coworkers. There really is no upside to you spending time with someone like that. But, if this person is a friend or someone you are willing to help out, then step in and let them know they are damaging their reputation and career. Keep in mind, any negative culture or environment you spend time in will eventually affect you. Usually, the problem doesn't have much to do with work. They have something going on in their life that makes them the way they are. Personally, I enjoy these conversations. It gives me a chance to help someone by having a candid conversation other people may not be willing to have with them.  If you do feel like you can help, sit down with the coworker and be candid. Explain how other people see their attitude and how it affects them. Offer to help. Oftentimes, people who are so negative don't know what is happening. They don't know people are avoiding them because of their attitud

On this episode of Creating Disney Magic, I answer a listener question that may seem unique, but it is more common than you may think.  A listener told me she is 28 and people think she is a teenager. It creates a challenge at work because people think she is young and therefore inexperienced.  Although you may not have this problem of looking like a teenager, you do have something in common with this listener.  You have a challenge that gets in the way. You hope people don't notice, but they probably will.  Maybe you try to get around it by not talking about it.  Hiding your challenge is not the right approach.  For this podcast listener, people treat her differently because they think she is young. It's not uncommon for people to discriminate against someone for being too young.  Or too old.  People shouldn't focus on age. Young or old. What matters is experience and knowledge.  But sometimes it is to your advantage to bring it up right from the start.  Call out your challenge from the beginning. Deal with

Documenting HR issues is important for you as a leader and your organization as a whole.  When I was at Marriott, I learned how to coach, counsel, and discipline employees. Documenting HR issues was part of the training that stuck with me the rest of my career.  If you have any issue with an employee, you need to build a record of the history of the behavior in case it becomes a problem. Documentating issue gives you and the employee clarity to what is going on. Without documentation, both parties may have a different understanding of what the problem is, or if there is even a problem at all. When you hire new employees, let them know upfront you have a system to document HR issues.  Document not only the issue but the consequences.  And when you document consequences, you have to follow through. 

There is one activity every leader should do every day, and it may not be what you think. In my book, The Customer Rules, Rule #15 is Be Like a Bee. There is a story behind this rule or customer service.  A girl asked Walt Disney if he was involved in making the movies. Walt explained he was like a bee. He buzzed around the company looking for and spreading new ideas. What Walt told the young girl is the most important activity for any leader. You need to get out among people and hear their ideas. And help spread those ideas.  If you want to be like a bee, ask more questions. Talk to customers and employees. Departments in your organization may have no idea what other ideas are up to. Here are some ideas of what questions to ask; "Why do you do it like this?" "Do you think there is a better way to do this?" "Have you ever thought about doing it this way instead?" "What do you like most about the way we do things?" "What don't you like?" "What do you hate to have to say to our customers?" "If you could change

When you have free time, what do you do with it? Too many people let it get away without getting any value from it. But you can use free time to gain an advantage.  There are three ways to consider how you use free time; organizationally, at-work, and personally.  With organizational free time, you can take care of some of the small items you always wish you had time for.  You can train employees or work on planning. Free time is a perfect time to work on maintenance items that are harder to do when you are busy; paint buildings inside and out, change lightbulbs and other smaller items you may have let slide. With your own free time at work, you can clean up your area for starters. But now is also the time to take control of your own career development. What happens next is up to you.  With your personal free time, think about what you can do in the short term to get a long term payoff. Learn a new skill like playing the guitar or speaking a foreign language. Learn something new. Find an online course. Listen

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. 

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 every

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. 

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

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. 

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

Layoffs are not easy for anyone, no matter which side you are on. When I worked at Marriott in Philadelphia, I had to lay off 10% of our staff. It was the first time I had to do this. Every person I had to lay off I knew personally. It was heartbreaking for me to have to impact them and their families. Employees who are left behind also feel the pain. They have seen it happen and it erodes trust and impacts the culture of the organization. When you have to lay off employees, help them however you can. Be available personally. Offer references. As an organization, offer help with the transition, such as resume services, counseling, severance packages.  If you get laid off, -develop your skills. Learn as much as you can. Make yourself a good prospect for another company. If you work long enough, you will have something like a layoff impact your career.

Leadership is leadership no matter where you find it.  A podcast listener wrote in with a question about how leadership looks different in a school versus leadership in a business.  Good question with a simple answer. Leadership is leadership no matter where you find it. The words you use may be different, but leadership is the same in a school setting.  A Principal sets the standards and teachers carry out the standards and expectations.  Appreciation, recognition, and encouragement.  Hire the right people. Train them. And treat them right.  Management techniques may change over time, but leadership will always stay the same.  Leadership is about influence, attitude, making people feel respected and special.  A good leader in education would be a good leader in business. Leadership is leadership.  Whether you work in a school, a drug store, a movie theater, or a factory making widgets, it is never about the product. It is always about the people. 

"The biggest obstacle to thriving is arriving" - Dan Miller Once you accomplish something big, do you keep pushing to get better? Or do you settle in? You can do more than you are currently doing in your life. If you want to.  Don't try to be the best. Just try to be better every day.  The ability to push through obstacles and resistance is how you get ahead in life.  If you let something derail you, it will haunt you for the rest of your life.  Get better every day by learning something you did not know yesterday. Help someone you did not help yesterday.  If you know more, you can help other people now more.  If you are nicer, you can help someone have a better day.  Every day, I try to be better and do more than I did the day before. Can I serve someone better? Can I reach out to more people? Can my next podcast be better? Can I be a better role model? Most of your satisfaction will come from people appreciating you, not how much money you make. 

We often fall in love with our own ideas.  When we have time and money invested in an idea, it becomes hard to walk away.  But if you have been doing it for a while and it is not working, it is probably not going to work.  Rethink how you are doing things. What do you have going on that is not working right now? I admit, guys tend to be stubborn about hanging onto ideas, even if they are no longer working.  One of the best ways to examine your ideas is to get experts around you. Sit in a room with a mastermind group, talk to employees and customers, work with someone who knows more than you do. Make sure you are not sticking to an idea that no longer works. 

Strategic Planning does not mean creating a big complex plan.  The purpose of a strategic plan is simply to make business better. An effective strategic plan only has 3 elements: Customer, Employee, and the Bottom Line.  There are three questions you want to answer in your strategic plan; How can we make it better for guests?  How can we make it better for employees? How can we make more money? Sit down with employees and ask them about the business. What are they hearing from customers? What do they need to do their job better? What outstanding maintenance issues are you missing? Now Make a list of questions and ideas by department Here are a couple of examples: Food and beverage:  -How can we increase the average amount of a bill? -How can we get guests to buy a desert? Retail: -What shops should we consider opening? -What products should we carry to increase spending per guest? -Do we have any maintenance issues? Now go through your financial statements. Where can you do better? What can you eliminate alto

If employees are disorganized it can cause problems for you and other employees.  As a leader, you need to deal with it. Other people are watching and wondering why you are letting this problem continue.  Sit down with the disorganized and explain what you see and why what they are doing is disruptive. And figure out why it is happening.  Maybe they need more from you. Maybe you haven't said anything about it so they assume what they are doing is ok.  Good leaders are constantly repeating what they want to happen. You have to set expectations and constantly remind people.  By the way, if you have good employees leave them alone. Don't adopt a blanket policy that impacts everyone. Deal with the disorganized employees and let the organized employees keep getting work done. 

One of the quickest ways to get ahead in your career is to take on more work and do a great job. When the opportunity arises, you should volunteer to take on more responsibility.  The people who get ahead in life are the ones who raise their hands when the boss needs someone to take on a project.  And, usually, it is the busiest person in the room who raises their hand.  This is because they have a system and know what they can get done. They know how to delegate, follow up, track a project If you want to get noticed by your boss, volunteer to take on a project. By taking on more work and doing a great job, you are going to get noticed. You are going to get exposed to other high performers. You are going to get experience doing bigger work.  Most people will pass on the opportunity to take on more work. But you can't afford to miss the experience and exposure.  Even if you don't know what you're doing, take on the project anyway. You will figure it out. And the big secret in life is nobody else knows what the

There are times when people of higher positions in an organization feel like they are above other positions.  Let me be blunt. Some people feel they are hot stuff and don't appreciate the employees who are really making the business operate.  During my career, I was treated as if I wasn't as good as others because I didn't have a college degree. But I know I am not unique. Women have dealt with treatment like this for a long time. So have older employees. And young employees.  It becomes a cultural thing. And once it is part of the culture, the only way it can change is through top leadership.  A nice suit doesn't make you special. An MBA doesn't make you special. Every employee should be respected. The message, behavior, and culture of appreciation and respect have to come from the top.  Making the change won't happen right away. It took time to get the culture you have and it is going to take time to turn it around.  If you don't get culture right, you are going to miss more opportunities than you realize.