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

When a new year begins, the only shift I make is getting out my January insert for my DayTimer.  A new year has no more importance than a new day.  Many people make the mistake of having a philosophical approach to a new year.  Have you thought to yourself, "well, it's a new year, now is the time to focus on ..." and here is where you might insert losing weight, spending time with family, or finding a new job.  If so, you are taking the wrong approach.  The better approach is to think about it each day. How can you make today better? Get out of the habit of setting resolutions or goals for a new year. Instead, make today better. Then make tomorrow better.  Wake up 15 minutes earlier, sit down with the Morning Magic Planner and plan out your day.  Every day is a good day to get better.   

Many companies focus on results and don't care how you feel. You get a paycheck and they don't owe you anything else, they reason.  You don't have to put up with it.  If you have a job where you are not respected or appreciated, it is time to move on. Perform as good as you can at your current position while you look for a new job, but begin now looking for a new job. Don't stay in a job where you are not satisfied with what you are doing.  People who don't feel they matter tend to make drastic changes. It is why people leave relationships. And it is the number one reason why people leave jobs.  There really isn't anything you personally can do if you have a boss who doesn't appreciate people.  The odds of you being able to do anything to change the person as slim. Do not fool with fools. Get out of the situation.  Basically, there are only two options. Stay and put up with it or leave. Leaving is uncomfortable. But life is short, don't put up with a bad situation too long. Your boss won't change.  In a few y

In your book, your phone number. What do you do with all the extra phone calls you get? Believe it or not, I don't get many phone calls. Sure, I get some spam calls. Even when I was the EVP of Disney World, I made myself available to any cast member. It wasn't often a cast member reached out. And today, not many people reach out. If someone calls me, I want to make sure they get in touch with me. That is how I am able to book presentations and other business.  If phone calls are taking away from your business, you still have to find a way to handle the calls. Most businesses make it hard to talk to a real person. Answering the phone is part of taking care of your customers.  If I have my own business but want to learn from someone in a different business, how can I ask them to be my mentor? Reach out and ask for advice. Find out more about the company, pick someone in the company, explain your situation and ask if you can spend a few minutes asking questions. Keep at it. Don't get discouraged.  Persistence is

Being a parent is the most important leadership job in the world.  If you can't have hard discussions and make tough choices, don't become a leader. And definitely don't have kids.  Parenting can be hard. Especially when you are the parent of a teenager.  As a leader in your home, you have to keep talking to your teenager constantly. Even when they don't want to talk to you. And you have to model the behavior at home you want to see from your teenager.  Kids are going to push back and test you.  But you have to stick with them and keep communicating.  Understand what kids are telling you may not include all of the truth. They will leave parts of the story out to keep out of trouble.  When I was a teenager, the biggest trouble we could get into was beer and cigarettes. By the time my son was a teenager, drugs had become a big problem. We talked about the potential of trouble and consequences often.  You have to pay attention to your teenager. Go into their room often to see what is happening. And keep talking.

In this episode of Creating Disney Magic, we answer listener questions about careers and promotions. How should I dress on my first day at a new job? Before your first day, you should already have an idea of the culture of the company and the way people dress for work. On your first day, dress slightly better than the usual work appearance. It is better to show up a little overdressed than underdressed.  People do judge you on how you look. Make sure you look professional.  What would you tell an employee who wants a raise beyond the usual annual raise? The simple answer is to tell them the truth. Often, people want a bigger raise because of the amount of time they have been in their job. But they are in a job that doesn't pay more than they are earning. Tell them the truth about what it would take to get a job that will pay them more.  During my entire career, I never asked for a raise. I just kept doing my best and kept getting promotions. With each promotion, I made more money. If you become the type of em

When you have a big announcement to make, you know what people are going to ask. Go ahead and address the big issues upfront before they even have to bring it up.  If you want to be sure you cover all potential questions, get a team together. Talk about what questions, concerns, and issues people are going to have with the announcement. Come up with 5 or 6 questions you know people are going to have and include the information in your announcement.  Anticipating the problems and addressing the issues upfront will soften any pushback you might get.  As an example, At Disney, when we moved from paying people weekly to every other week and moved from paper checks to direct deposit only we knew this may cause concerns for some cast members.  Since we knew people would have some issues, in advance, we put together a process to help people set up a bank account if needed. Or help them set up direct deposit into their bank account. Offering the help upfront made adopting the new system easier for the people it would

Is it possible to enforce rules and guidelines and still focus on delivering an excellent customer experience? At Disney, we are clear to cast members about the responsibility to enforce rules and be polite at the same time.  No matter what rule or policy you have, there will be someone who does not like it.  Always remain polite and courteous and explain why the policy is in place. And be consistent about enforcing the policy.  You probably already know the 5 or 6 policies you have in place a customer might complain about. Train employees on how to answer and handle those complaints. Don't wait for people to complain before you help employees. Be proactive.  You can also find ways to serve the customer while enforcing a policy. When you visit DisneyWorld, we provide lockers so a guest can put something away if they are not allowed to bring it into the park. 

At Disney, it doesn't matter what your job is. We all have the same purpose.  Take care of the guest. It doesn't matter if what you are doing for the guest is in your job description.  A culture of customer service doesn't happen by accident. It has to be part of your culture. It has to be repeated. People have to hear it over and over.  No matter what your job is, your purpose is to take care of the guests.  At Disney, our purpose was to make sure guests have the most fabulous time of their lives, no matter what your job title is.  When all 80,000 cast members at Disney World focuses on this purpose, a guest will have an unbelievable experience when they least expect it.  Imagine someone working in security being able to tell you what the specials are at the restaurant. Something like doesn't happen. Except it does at Disney. Taking care of the guest is baked into our culture.  Hire the right people. Train them. Explain expectations. Give them examples. And then let them take care of the customers. Hold them

Every organization has team members resign. Some of the people who leave are popular. Some of them fill an important role in the organization.  How you handle the resignation will have an impact on other employees.  Begin by telling the right people in the right order about the resignation. Doing so will eliminate the wrong story getting into the rumor mill. Within a couple of hours, everyone who needs to know should know. Then you can let other team members know.  Communicate quickly and keep it positive.  At Disney, I had senior executives leave the company for better opportunities. I didn't want them to leave, but people are going to do what is best for them and their careers.  Don't burn bridges. Always keep it positive whether you are the one leaving or someone left behind.  When I left Marriott, I told Bill Marriott first. Then I talked to my direct boss. I even helped them work on transitioning a new person into my role.  Marriott treated me well over the years. When I left, I wanted to treat them well

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

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.   

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 cus

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. 

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. 

Is it better to have experience with a Brand Name company or a bigger role with a small company? This is something to consider, especially early in your career.  When you have a brand name like Disney on your resume, people notice. If you have worked at Disney or Marriott, other organizations will know you have received a high level of training and know how to serve customers.  On the other hand, you may be able to get a better spot at a smaller company to gain experience. Leadership experience with any organization can be valuable.  Smaller companies can be risky, though. Are you willing to take on more risk? Or, do you want a more comfortable and stable job? Hilton, Marriott, and Disney provided brand name experience for me. But I was also willing to move for the right opportunity. So I had the best of both worlds; brand name experience with the chance to take new roles for the experience.  Don't worry too much about the first 5 to 10 years of your career. Get as much experience and exposure as you can.  No

People are looking for experts to help them.  The more you know about your products, the more people will trust you.  Knowing everything you possibly can about the products you offer will lead to better customer service.  Product knowledge doesn't happen by accident. You have to be deliberate. Schedule time to get out in your operation and see what is really happening. Use your product in the way customers will use your product.  If you are going to make it happen, you have to schedule it. Do it on purpose. When you are done, schedule when you will do it again. Never let up on the pressure and pursuit to know more about your product and how a customer does business with you.  Knowledge will help you control the business. You will know what is going on and people will want to help you.  If you work with vendors and third parties, it is your responsibility to make your expectations clear and hold them to a standard.  Don't recommend a product, service, or person unless you have first-hand knowledge.  Click Here

 The customer is not always right, but they are always the customer.  Sure, people are going to take advantage of you. But overall, you still shouldn't make your policies too strict because a few people will take advantage of you.  Treat the customer like they matter to you.  Mr. Marriott told me, "Always give the customer the benefit of the doubt." Go in favor of the customer.  If you find a trend or something, in particular, getting abused and it becomes a problem, then you can make a policy dealing with it.  If a request is unreasonable, it may be time for the manager to get involved. But you will be better off given front line staff the ability to deal with customer requests.  Customers are more likely to continue to do business with you if you treat them with respect and make it easy to do business with you.  You will have to continue to find ways to get better faster. And find ways to serve customers in new ways. 

Your people are your brand. The way staff look represents your company to every customer who walks through the door.  At Disney, we have appearance guidelines because we are putting on a show. If you want to tell a story people will believe, everyone has to look like the part they are playing in the show.  Every business should have appearance guidelines. Staff should be dressed to fit the theme of your business. What do customers expect employees to look like when they visit your business?  Now put guidelines in place to govern clothes, hair, tattoos and other aspects of appearance your customers will see.  Don't make the mistake of thinking appearance only matters to companies like Disney. Every business is putting on a show. Appearance matters.  Giving attention to appearance guidelines is one way you can begin to build your reputation.  When it comes to implementing appearance guidelines, consider what message you want to send to your customers. Appearance guidelines will also give clarity to people upfro

One of the most difficult things you will have to do as a leader is to handle uncomfortable situations with employees.  Talking to an employee about their behavior is hard. Terminating people is probably the hardest thing you will have to do.  All of the hardest things you have to do at work, and in life, involve people. Decisions about products are easy.  Unfortunately, too many people don't deal with the hard things. By letting it go, you are making your life harder. And you are not doing any favors to the other person either. By not dealing with the situation, you are holding them back from improving their life.  When difficult situations happen, a tough conversation or even termination, it won't feel good but you shouldn't feel guilty about it.  Remember, if you don't deal with the situation it will only get worse. These things don't get better on their own. 

For many people, your reputation will reach them before you have the chance to meet them in person.  Don't underestimate the impact your phone conversations have on people.  Your demeanor on the phone will help people know you are respectful, professional, helpful and will show people they can ask you hard questions. Phone conversations will help you build trust with people.  Don't do phone calls on a whim. Prepare for a call so you know what you want to accomplish while you are on the phone. Look something up about the other person before you talk to them. Don't let a phone call be a blind conversation.  When you handle phone calls the right way, people will feel like they already know you before they even get to meet you in person.  When you answer your phone, say your name. Cut out the confusion. "Hello, this is Lee." Right away, people will know who they are talking to.  Don't be afraid to ask questions and have a short personal conversation when you are on the phone. People want to feel like they matter.