Managing Your People with Penalties & Being Resourceful (with Former EVP of Disney Lee Cockerell)

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Audio Transcription

Are you having a hard time managing and inspiring your people? If so then check out this podcast where former Executive Vice President of Walt Disney Resorts Lee Cockerell sits down with Clay Clark to discuss being your own Shakespeare, resourcefulness and how to have your penalties clearly defined with your employees.

Penalties and People & Video 14 – It’s Not About Resources, It’s About Resourcefulness

  1. Dealing with people who are chronically late
  2. At Disney you get 12 points
    1. No call, no show = 3 points
    2. Late = ½ a point
    3. Refusing to do your job = You are fired
    4. Physical and verbal abuse= You are fired
    5. You are fired when you get to 12 points
  3. The goal is to wow customers
  4. Every Disney employee has the ability to wow the guest

It’s Not About Resources, It’s About Resourcefulness

  1. Recruit for:
    1. Skills
    2. Attitude
    3. Results
  2. Getting it Done
    1. Your either get it done or not
    2. Being results focused
    3. People that don’t make it believe their own excuses\
  3. RAVE
    1. Respect
    2. Appreciate
    3. Value
    4. Everyone

Be Your Own Shakespeare

  1. He references starting Thrive (remove it)
  2. Script out what happens when a customer arrives, all the way to the end
  3. Design what a perfect experience looks like
  4. Excellence is fun
  5. In 2004, Disney got hit by 3 hurricanes in one month
  6. Why government struggles to respond to emergencies

My name is clay clark former ussba entrepreneur of the year and during today’s exclusive interview with lee cockrell, the former executive vice president of walt disney world resorts, the man who wants man to the largest resort destination on the planet. I got a chance to ask him about dealing with people. How to manage people who know people on your team that mean that you’re, a team, but business coach people on other teams that are chronically late, people that constantly need to be written up and how to deal with people that are just not resourceful. How do you do it go to every manager out there has struggled with this and explains to the disney point system unit disney. They don’t have any drama about when you get fired because of you are no call, no show you get three points. If you’re late at all, you got a half a point and if you get 12 points in a year, you’re fired. So it’s super easy to understand. Yeah, but asians. It’s unbelievable! So have any further to our exclusive interview with lee cockrell, the former executive vice president of walt disney, world resorts and beautiful orlando florida. So let’s just say that I’m not showing up at work on time. So do everyone comes in on what was that? What’s the highway, everyone comes in on the way to dinner, state for interstate 4 and some people say traffic was and then some people say I’m in for 10 minutes, I’m good. What do you say? How do you deal with the person who shows up late? So let’s say they show up late to work at disney. How do you do well, first of all, when they’re hired, they expect clear them. What happened on the disney? We have a point system. If you’re late to work, you get a half point. If you don’t call and don’t show up at all, you get three points. When you get 12 or terminated play, do you what happened? One and you get there and I’ll show up glass a year they drop off and as I as your acura and I’m sorry, it’s can I get, can I earn bad, but most of it is with tenants related to disney, because this would hourly employees and being laid, and we don’t do that for management. But it’s yeah. It’s a clear, clear system. You know how you might put a point system in for your kids want to know. If you got them in november, they drop off next monday off. So if you got sick so far this year and shifter, it depends how they do if they use profanity and get any aggression physical, then they terminate.

We tell people if you’re just a pain in there, but you know I’m, like you just give me a hard time here, the time when you come in, but you do a good job for the customer. That’s part of the game, you just that’s what I got you’re just so he’s insubordinate refuses to make a hamburger the right way on you become becoming it. Because. It’s really does matter for a lot of small business owners. So if you, if you show up late, I’m 10 minutes late, need you just write me up right there you go ahead and have me sign the document. We talked to go home for you bring home, but I talked to a guy at the hardware store this year and he said:you’re not had this lady for 23 years. She comes to work late every day, 10 15, 20 minutes I said, and she says my wife says:i need to fire her she’s right. I said you know why she’s like to work every day she got her to you, you let her in his wife, his wife, what she setting a terrible example for the rest of your employees:you’re not enforcing your own policy, just too stacks of discipline and management in tank. If you start thinking about performance, you’ll make you’ll deal with it. If you think that’s that’s not good performance, so they’re, one person short on the floor for half an hour in the mornings when the customers are coming in final final question:i had your for you as it relates to customer service, is I know, it disney, it seems like the goal was always too wow customer still as to how it seems like the go. A lot of businesses is just to satisfy. Can you maybe walk me through some of the details that made that wow business coach experience? Cuz of my kids to disneyland I mean what are some of the details that you put on that checklist? That trait that well I think we do a good job of preparing the employees the cast members to how important trip this is for families. How big is this is one of the trips of a lifetime. They save their money for three years to come here, they’re bringing their children here, and they came here when they were children and disney’s. A magical experience and we promote magic in the magic is really comes from. The employees comes from the cashier, the ones who produced it, and so what happens to a guest who comes here that is really drilled into everybody, no matter what we take care of, we go out of our way. We see you across the across the parking lot. Looking at a map, we don’t run away. We go to you if we get over there if you’re carrying your bags and one of the engineers he’s just come from fixing a toilet will help you carry your bags in this blows, people away, because you lost your pacifier and there’s two things going to happen.

Some places, you’ll, go they’ll, say the stores close other places like this need to go, get the keys. You know, there’s two ways to do things:every employee of every cast member disney has the authority to take care of you financially, so you’re good daughter got her dress, wet or wet grass or something they have the authority to give you a new dress, so I don’t have to check with the manager. We have a document call no, strings, attached, just fill it out, sign it telling what it was. Give it to the cashier and give you an address or your son drops-is mickey mouse in the mud, $30 item I can give you another one, but I don’t have to check with him, but there’s a limit on the map. But even then you got to get the manager, but I would say we found out that about 90% of the problems we’re not financially more than 30 $40, okay, but then one year we decided that when there’s a loss like you lose a business coach camera, it’s missing from your room. When you come back and it’s $1,000 or $800 camera, we used to turn them over to claims. You know how that works. I turn you over to claims. You know how to clean straight you. So we made a change and we said every front desk person hasn’t authority to settle a claim for $1,000 up to a thousand year, because it’s makes it more simple. I mean right now:it’s done, you get into claims, get lawyers involved, it gets higher and higher and higher, and then the people want more money. I had a interview. Meeting yesterday was david robinson, the basketball player, and it was the craziest thing I wake up at 4:45 to prepare for the presentation and when you know what the laptop doesn’t work at 5 a.M. I have to drive from san antonio to walmart to buy a computer. They say that the computers aren’t available to purchase until 7 cuz. The guy has the keys to the cage door. Locked long story short the jeep. If there’s fog, the gps won’t work, I can’t pull up. My phone is as crazy situation, but it’s not about resources. It’s about resourcefulness, it’s about being able to figure it out and i. Think you’re you’re, absolutely right. There, obviously you’re right. But how do you tell if someone has resourcefulness when you interview I’ve, been working with the lady for a few years now and what we would do if we really decided that we were looking for three things, passion can do attitude, so we develop questions for me.

If you got a job open, you’re going to be 5 people for it. We develop 670 questions and we tell him we’re going to same questions in the same order. Every question has an obstacle in it, so what you do I would say to you retail, so tell me about a specific time you had to deal with an irate customer was just totally unreasonable. Let me listen to the answer:what you’re listening ports? What did they do? What was the outcome and I guarantee you when you hear 5 people tell you the one that really goes all the way. It’ll come out like cream ride. Tell me about a specific time that you had a very big problem with one of the leader, one of your bosses and they were being unreasonable and not treating you properly. Listen for what they did and what was the outcome, and when you ask six, seven eight questions with an obstacle in them, because the end of the day, people who can figure out how to overcome obstacles there they are the winners. You want to know what that looks like I was in toronto i, had a speech to remax, let back in february last year, at 2:30 I had a flight to orlando, because I had to get to orlando pick up at 80 books to fly to south africa out of atlanta at 6:30 the next night. All the flights were cancelled, snow storm. What are you doing? I went to work. I talked my way onto a westjet flight. Literally I am so confused. They put me on the plane, took me to laguardia new york got there no cost nothing, nothing to be in atlanta i, rented the car and drove 1000 miles overnight to atlanta got on my plane. What’s up now, you think everybody would do that. Most people do snow. Storm priscilla was so mad at me for driving all night I took me 18 hours to drive to atlanta in a rental car return it in get on the plane. If you want, even now in the winter, I have to go to indianapolis. Next week, I’ve already looked up how long it takes to drive there, just in case the airport in green bay, green bay to some obscure place in wisconsin because same sort of deal where I got there and for some reason, the reserve, the rental car using my credit card and the credit card that I was i, didn’t bring that bring with me. They would know you’re in the car, so I had a cab all the way up there and I or talk to you. I just requires that some people get there and some people call upset can’t make it I mean there’s a big difference of people who don’t make it. They actually believe that excuse is that they believe their own business coach excuses. The people come to work on disney on i-4, the ones that come late and want to come on time, both on the same interstate. So not believe your excuses is huge. He got to do what you said. You’re going to do and I said, I was going to be in south africa rave. Can you walk us through raven in what it’s all about and how it works? Respect appreciate in value everyone, if you really can come to believe that you’re going to be successful people under you’re going to know that you respect preciate, it i, don’t care what religion they are.

You don’t care what sexual orientation are you don’t care what what bread and respect nothing else except performance, whether they’re black asian, hispanic, american, baptist, catholic, jewish, just let it go and focus on your own life and respect appreciate in value everyone cuz. We all want it. I can’t find one person the world doesn’t want to be respected. Alright, eric, trump business coach I want to get your take on this because it makes it sound so simple to hold your team accountable. What is the biggest challenge that you see small business owners having as relates to hole in your team accountable? One of the big things I see is that as they’re growing and scaling their business, their stretched in multiple directions in their time becomes more and more precious, and so therefore they can fall into the abdication mindset. Instead of the delegation mindset where they just kind of passed something off and then they never follow up with it because they know they would get it done. But your team members don’t have that same drive as you. Typically, they would have their own business, so you actually have to follow up follow-up follow-up. You know, I am so excited about this next segment because they’re in his interview, ali talks about how to design the ultimate customer service workflow. How does a hyundai ultimate the ultimate customer service workflow? And for me this is my bike barn on my favorite aspect of running a company. It’s when you make a system that wows people every single time you do not want to miss out i. Can we come back from the break lee cockrell breaks down how to design a customer service workflow that wows a million guests a week at walt, disney, world resort in your small business, 321 broadcasting live from the center of the universe, presenting the world’s only business coach school without the bs with optometrist can talk to her to her dr. Robert, zoellner and ussba entrepreneur of the year clay clark get ready to enter the thrive time show on talk, radio 1170 play broadcast from the box in the 80s mushoku. Alright, tribe, nation, there’s been so many things written about customer service, so many books, so many studies, so many attacks have been given about the importance of delivering a great customer service experience best customer service brands in the world I mean starbucks. We have a disney world, we have a chick-fil-a, we have southwest airlines, there’s companies other than just get it and somebody’s not cover many companies out there that don’t and the key to building a great customer service experience is not individual skills of people.

It’s not. If you run around giving motivational talks to your people all day, that’s not! What’s going to get it done, you have to build a linear, workflow, aa, step by step process, aa a plan for when the customer walks in this happens when the customer goes to the left. This happens. This is how six going to play. This is how it’s going to smell. Is it’s going to look how it’s going to feel the address for the ambiance and the man who designed the experience that many people, millions of people have experienced over the years? Hundreds of millions of people out where the guy’s been a huge huge impact on that was lee cockrell. He used to be the executive vice president of walt disney world resorts in orlando florida, which means that he actually manager 40,000 employees and helps to provide great customer service for a million customers a week. How does he design a workflow like that, has a design a system like that? How does he do it? Any further ado lee cockrell breaks down the importance of being your own customer service, shakespeare I’m, going to ride my road astoria disney. What the perfect experience from a customer look likes, call the perfect trip to disney and it starts out with the robinson family roberts family arriving at the resort and as they pull in melvin taxi car open the door. So I can get their bags. I tell the kids what great hats they have on and moms beautiful ring and analogous the children and give them a balloon and tells dad, where you’re going to have a wonderful trip here and you’re, seeing it when we get to the room, everything’s perfect clean, and it takes you through a week at disney. You wrote this by this i. Have it because each one of us have to buy an ice cream cone a little girl selling the ice cream, told johnny. He would she loved his business coach atlanta braves hat, and he just was so happy and and then, when I went to get on the bus, the bus driver was singing on the way back, getting everybody on the bus singing. That’s what the best bus drivers do and I will send. You write the store and then you tell me we want to start doing this and I was security officer, I deputized your son to have a good time and give him a little batch scary people don’t do that is awesome. Bro, yeah, perfect drive will look like i, loved and I loved, because it is what I hear with you and other successful entrepreneurs and business owners and leaders interviewed as you are having fun. This is your this is. This is fun. It doesn’t feel like it’s working his work, it’s hard, but you are. You are his father that you are thriving when you’re working we were going to visit you or thriving work has been in in a lumber yard. There was some fun times during the day when we stop and take a break or go drink a beer, but any rehearsals, and you basically just like there’s no broadway show where they don’t rehearse it.

So it goes perfect and everybody knows her lines and people step out on the stage when they’re not supposed to not five minutes early, and if it’s supposed to be an american flag there, it’s there. Somebody didn’t forget to put it out there, so you rehearsed. We do that at disney. We do a lot of simulations, so we rehearse for for crisis. We were hurst two or three four five times a year. We have a company, puts us through them, so on 9/11 we just went into business close to park, shut them down. Please smashed with three hurricanes. In one year there right at 3 in 1 month, 3 in 1 month in in 04 called hurricane mickey and when I retired they have this manufactured in the central shops at disney and gave it to me because I managed the three hurricanes in 04. We had three hurricanes in one month and we open the command center. We have a probably the best command center in the world. Where really can handle. You know obviously got a hundred thousand gas station in the hotels we have to manage that very carefully, and so you run the command center and he’s watch the hurricane coming for 2 or 3 days and get everything on property done and get it all tied down and make sure everybody safe and-and so this was something they had made for me and I love it’s one of a kind, there’s no other hurricane mickey in the world, but this one through three hurricanes there in one year and because you rehearsed your team known freaked out, people are ready to take care of 75000 guests and she literally waiting to have one injury we didn’t have. We couldn’t meet the deductible on our insurance. We had hardly any damage. We tied everything, damn tight every fan to call the furniture way every may we have a plan to pick up everything loose on the whole property so that when hurricane start you don’t have things flying around. We have a whole plan, the governor out of this. What’s taking, maybe the people in atlanta out of this, let’s just say in general:why does government is a general struggle so much to respond to emergencies and i? Don’t think they anticipate what’s going to happen and I think they try to get to clear about specific little things and usually you’re at your reaction and a crisis is always the same, but it’s a hurricane or 911 or fire. You done the same thing for first protecting people, everybody that works. There knows what to do. Everybody knows where the fire extinguisher is. Everybody knows what their role in the show is during a crisis. I was just I’d already done my work before get the leadership pride get in the plans right, I just stood back washed. It all execute, see you and even in small business, even in your home, if you do it on a smaller way at home, a fire making sure your kids know what happen. If there’s a fire, you can’t have a meeting that they got to know exactly where to go. For on a tornado, you don’t have a meeting to decide what I’m going to you’ve already decided that long ago, and you ever cared. You got 20 business coach seconds, you better know what you doing better, if I’m a sales person on phone calls, if I’m in a restaurant, if I’m working as a doctor, if I’m working as a nurse, is it matter what profession find a furniture store if I own a muffler shop, I need to rehearse rehearsal rehearsal, I get it to my team, gets it and then we’re going to her some more so when it happens, we’re instinct. Do you know how to do it? Okay, blowing? How does he do it at disney? How can you do it? Your small business? You have to build a great workflow, then after you design a great customer service experience, the only thing that holds it together and makes it possible. Is this fabulous thing called a checklist. We come back like how quickly cockrell gets spiritual on how to make an execute. The perfect checklist for small businesses, big business, is it doesn’t work without a checklist in a maniacal focus on delivering exceptional results. Checklists checklist, stay 2

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