Power Talk Friday: Lee Cockerell- Customer Service the Disney Way

Episode 222 of A Well-Designed Business®

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222: Power Talk Friday: Lee Cockerell- Customer Service the Disney Way

On today’s episode of Power Talk Friday, LuAnn has an absolutely ridiculous treat for you!

She has Lee Cockerell with her, whose name may or may not be familiar to you… He has spent his career leading operations all over the world, for Hilton Hotels, Mariott Hotels, and Walt Disney Company.

He spent more than twenty years with the Walt Disney Company, where he ultimately became Executive Vice President of Walt Disney World Operations. Since then, he has gone on to form his own company, where he shares what he has learned and he makes available his breakthrough methods for becoming a better manager and a great leader. LuAnn is really busting at the seams because this is truly her kind of topic! Lee is also has a podcast called Creating Disney Magic, where he shares his Disney experiences in an effort to help people like you become better leaders and managers.

(Episode no.1 of that podcast is a really interesting one, where Lee literally goes through his entire career.) At Disney, they created an environment where every employee matters and they know they matter. In addition to that, he has written four books, called Creating Magic- Ten Common Sense Leadership Strategies From A Life At Disney, The Customer Rules-Thirty Nine Essential Rules For Delivering Sensational Customer Service, Time Management Magic- How To Get More Done Every Day And More From Surviving To Thriving and his latest book, Creating Career Magic- How To Stay On Track And Create A Stellar Career. There are three things that Lee and his team do better than everybody else, which really makes all the difference, they hire better, they train better and they treat them (their employees) better. That is the key that either creates success for most organizations or not, according to Lee. Listen in now, as LuAnn (who is literally beyond herself right now) talks to Lee about his thoughts and processes, on the show today.

There are three things that Lee and his team do better than everybody else, which really makes all the difference, they hire better, they train better and they treat them (their employees) better. That is the key that either creates success for most organizations or not, according to Lee. Listen in now, as LuAnn (who is literally beyond herself right now) talks to Lee about his thoughts and processes, on the show today.

Show highlights:

Lee talks about his philosophy around ways to really set your organization apart, in the eyes of your customers and your employees. It’s really important to be very clear about your level of expectations.
According to Lee, there are three things that you have to have, to be successful– You have to have a skill, you have to have the right positive attitude and you have to have passion.
Hire slow and fire fast.
Disney has a hundred and thirty questions that potential employees have to answer, before even being granted an interview. Lee relates some of these to a Designer, or a small firm, considering making their first hire. (His book, The Customer Rules, has a chapter on how to hire the right people.) In Lee’s opinion, most people don’t know how to conduct a proper interview.
Lee recommends reading Don’t Hire Anyone Without Me, by Carol Quinn, to help you to hire the right people.
Obstacles are the name of the game. The way people have handled obstacles in the past will be a good indicator of how they deal with them in the future.
Lee talks about training people the Disney way. Everything matters! A bad employee will kill your business.
The key to great training is remembering that the customer is more important than anything else! Everyone needs to understand where they fit in and how they matter.
All Disney contractors go through the same training as their employees.
Lee explains his concept of firing fast. Be careful who you hire!
When you’re clear with people, you get better performance.
People only change for two reasons- education, or crisis.
It’s important for your employees to understand that when you pull them up about something, you’re only coming to them to help them to be better.
Role modeling is very important for employees (and children!)
Lee’s advice for great time management. Discipline and a good system for planning are really most important here. Fix yesterday, every day, before it gets out of control because regrets are really tough to handle. (This is reflection.)
Excellence is a state of mind.
Provide Free Fuel for your employees every day: Appreciation, Recognition, and Encouragement. You can hand these three out all day, to increase your employee’s levels of commitment.
Fix one thing you’ve been putting off for years-next week!
Do things on purpose. Life will get a whole lot better, real quick!
People really notice a good attitude and discipline.