Holding People Accountable & Inspiring Your Team Every Week (with Former EVP of Disney, Lee Cockerell)

Audio Transcription

It’s easy to inspire somebody for a day. It’s easy to be highly motivated when you start a business. But, how do you find the fire that is required to inspire your team and hold them accountable to a standard of excellence on a weekly basis? During this interview with the former Executive Vice President of Walt Disney World resorts, Lee breaks down accountability and the importance of being intentional about inspiring your team on a daily and weekly basis.

Holding People Accountable to Brand Compliant Values

1. We are putting on a show
2. People must be held accountable
3. People want consistency
4. How to attract top talent in small business
5. Becoming a boss that people would want to actually for
6. Small businesses must take really good care of their people
7. Provide powerful on-going training
8. Management must provide mentorship in order to keep great people
9. You must become a teacher to keep great people

How to Inspire Your Team on a Weekly Basis

1. Touch every staff member at least one time
2. Touch your teambers before you touch a computer
3. Have a meeting with your key people to maintain consistency
4. You can’t inspire your team unless you get to know them
5. Half your team is probably living on the edge. You must be their light.
6. You must look for commitment
7. The way you treat them is the way they treat the customer

Developing an Inspired Team

1. People in finance and legal typically don’t understand that need to interact with people on a personal level
2. Inspiration makes us go beyond the call of duty
3. Everyone wants to matter and to be recognized
4. How to properly survey people
5. Disney interviews / surveys 2,000,000 people per year
6. Asking customers, “How likely are you to recommend us to a family or friend?”
   1. Net Promoter Score – Harvard Business Review
7. Find problems and fix them quickly.

Welcome back to the business coach led conversation you know, one of the biggest challenges of running a successful company is holding your team accountable, day-in-day-out reach day in and day out. It’s not just a one-day event is not the inspiration to get you excited for a weekend or a new there’s, a lot of business owners always introducing a new management strategy, a new way to inspire the group new automated. How do you hold your team accountable to the values you’ve set day after day? How do you inspire your team on a weekly basis and leek executive vice president of walt disney world resorts sat down with me for exclusive interview to explain just that. How do you inspire your team on a weekly basis and how do you hold your people accountable? So now, I need further ado exclusive interview with lee cockrell, the former executive vice president, who wants managed 40,000 employees and 1 million customers per week at walt disney world results. Did you ever feel judgemental for having this type of attitude towards what someone should or shouldn’t look like to stay on dizzy brand i? Think about that a lot that I’m sure people would accuse us of being judgemental, but it’s the same old story we’re putting on a show with role in the show. So we’ve decided what we want. Our brand stand for and the walt disney sign the brand has to happen when you go inside the park. It’s like when I look at a marriott brand on the wall outside hotel says marriott I know what’s going to happen when I go inside inside it’s going to be married, that’s where I see them sign that I know it’s an inconsistent and it’s good. Sometimes it’s bad! You know strength of brand. We’ve got to decide what you’re going to be. Then that’s what you got to be, and you talk about some of the best companies today. You know they’re focusing on apple’s whatever they do, that’s what they do and chick-fil-a chicken the weather brand. Let me ask you this year in the sba says that 99.7% of all jobs created in the united states over the past decade, so 99.7% of the visit of the jobs created in the past decade have all been created from small business, small business out there. So what should a small business owner? What should I do to begin a topic attracting top talent? You know it’s difficult when you’re, just starting out in your you, don’t really have all the perks and you don’t have the pigeon plans at all the stuff I think you know, but I think there’s a lot of opportunity cuz today, because a lot of young people want to work in a small company.

Y’all are going to station I think you have to be more open-minded to treating people as individuals and working with them on their schedule and time off, giving him some life lot of kids today or not going to work day and night. They want a life. They want to be time off and want to do things. Someone want to work from home once a week. I think there’s a lot of just making sure that you can accommodate somebody, so they wake up in the morning feel good about where they working small business is even harder, because when y’all got two or three people, you can’t make a mistake. You can’t have two of them and then I think you got a good way to keep them as make sure you’re giving them the right training the right education you might be here. You might have to figure out some new ways to sit down with him once a month and teach him the business here and make sure they can understand one day they can leave you and go out and open their own business show are really interested in it. I have this place v than small business, to be a good manager. You have to be a mentor like you have to mentor people in order to manage it was going to want to work for a small business and not have those perks. Left I can have the bar to get minutes or something I kind of laughed avoid crying when I think about how I used to be when I was 20 years old, before a business coach and running the business I was not the kind of person I would want to work. For what kind of person do you have to become to attract top talent? Your mind? Well, I think you certainly need to be a teacher. I think you really need to understand. That’s a big part of your responsibility is to teach people, because that can be better than pay in the long term that can pay off for them 3 years down the road that you took the time to teach them the business and i. Look back my own career early on a guy took care of me and taught me the business as a waiter. He didn’t have to I didn’t know how to fold a napkin, never even seen a linen napkin right. I said we had paper napkins at home. We use them on holidays. During the week we didn’t have napkins and went 1-4 can switch glass. You pour the wine and I think about this guy. He took an interest to me and got me started the right direction. Cuz I didn’t know anything and I mean nothing and so yeah how you I think that’s one way as taking an interest in somebody and let them know that you’re going to give them something of value to me is huge and I think finding ways to let them know that they matter, and you really do care about them and I mean really when you think about your kids over.

That’s what you do all the time to build her self-esteem, their self-confidence to make them more loyal to the organization and understand they’re going to leave. Maybe in two or three years. That’s fine! But if you can have a great person, two or three years I wanted to years, yeah byron small business. What would you recommend I do on a weekly basis to inspire my team? Is it a weekly meeting with my staff, or is it daily catches daily 5 minutes or is what you got a small staff? You should find time throughout the week to at least touch him during the week and saying how much I always tell people it’s important that you touch the people before you touch the computer, get to work, go around see if people in the morning tell me how much how’s it going. How was the soccer game last night how’s your mom doing anything I can do to help with her. You know, first part of the day. Do that I do when you get in okay before you get wrapped up in all the problems of your going to have a man, you might even be there the rest of the day time something happens at home. You got to go always tell people touch your people, but touches paper later touch that go around. Tell your people how’s it going to check everybody. When you have a small team, you can do that touch the people. That’s the paper later paperwork in the computer before you go around see how everybody’s doing? How is your mother last night, she I heard your father fell and broke his hip. Is he doing okay? How is the business coach business? and then we can do to help you do you need some time off? I mean just feel good wow. What a great boss I have. So you like to take it to inspire your team, that’s sick time every day to touch the people first and then the paper jets have an inspirational meeting with your team once a week or is there a newsletter? I need to be sending out you meet with people when you think it’s appropriate I used to meet with mine once a week and they started complaining, say we don’t really have enough stuff to talk about once a week and was wasting our time. We have to drive over here and we got to take care of customers taking us out of our operation and so i, listen to them and I switch shifts to once a month.

Then that way we had a lot on the agenda and a month and during the rest of the month, I communicated with him either email or text are the face or on the phone we have so many ways and I wanted to meet when they thought it was broken. When they just so I can get in front of them, be the boss, and you know, set up the head of the table your mind then do you make it sound? So simple I mean i. Think that’s the thing about doing it consistently. But to me it sounds so simple for the business owners that are really struggling and the managers are really struggling to inspire their team. What would you say that? Why would you encourage the most of every day? Why you can’t? Unless you get to know them, you can’t inspire them less. They know you care about them and I would say, be careful how you handle them have to be open-minded about helping them after their schedules and with all the difficulties, I would say. Most people have a half. Their team is worth living on the edge ustedes foreclosure divorce. All kinds of problems, in fact you may be the light when they come into work in the morning. Maybe the best part of the day don’t make it worse. They already got enough problems, make it better and when you got people who become committed, I love the word commitment because you’re not looking for loyalty you’re, not looking for just people to show up you looking for commitment, people who go all the way from the company will go all the way for the customer who do it because they feel, like they’re part, that they feel a responsibility to do it. The way you treat them the way they treat the customer. That’s where was lee cockrell when we come back, get ready to enter the thrive time, show the sea we cockrell, the former executive vice president of walt disney world resorts. During this business coach interview he says a lot of stuff that I find to be pretty incredible. The things he talks about is how to inspire your team, but he says that it disney world. They currently interview 2 million guess they serve a 2 million guests per year and the question that they asked me to go out. If you want to know what were the questions you ask if your mystery shopping, your own business? What are the questions that you should ask the power move right here, there’s just one question and it’s written about in a book. Just look up the net promoter score. The net promoter score harvard has articles about it. There’s books written about the net promoter score. You are paying customers, you say on a scale of 1 to 10 how likely. Are you to recommend us to a friend or family member with 10 being the highest? If they give you anything less than a 10, then you ask why and what can we do to improve if they give you a 10, you say what did you like the most? That’s it and anything that they’re not happy about. You want to fix and solely by serving two million paying customers a year was able to make 2 million improvements here and prove it to me little small things like they’ll say:hey.

It was hard to find the bathroom, so then they immediately go get a bigger sign. They say:hey the food. Wasn’t that great in this area. That’s okay! So many things they did at disney world to improve the experience that 2%, better 2% better than a lot of people, get excited about making a 2% improvement every week. You can’t just jump off the deep end and improve, and you know, create all of your systems at one time you got to make them better and refine 2% every day. How do I still go crazy and you’re going to end up failing on your goal that you said so, you just got to get 2% better every single day and that’s the consistent key to success. I just noticed that people who are very successful, they all embrace the concept of continual improvement you’re, not growing, you’re dying it, but the people that struggle and never really have any traction or success in the game of business. They have to one of two things:they do what they want to make all the changes immediately. They want to make them all real fast this week at a buick, debut improve it as an event. The second the second category they just can’t handle the fact that it’s not is it yet and they start to freak out on their people that things aren’t done perfectly and then they have no longer have an interest in running the day-to-day aspects of the company because they realize that a complaint it just overwhelms. Yes, I’ll give an example:elephant in the room are men’s grooming lounge on we cut the hair for thousands and thousands of great tulsans every week. You know if we do that we actually have an opening up tree locations in jacksonville florida very soon and up I was asked this by a potential franchisee. He said, hey I’d like to know if we decide to buy one of these after you guys franchise. What kind of you? No complaints? Do you guys get and I said well? Usually 3% of our customers aren’t happy with their hair cut in a we try to get that as well. We have some of our top stylist to get like 1%, some that are not good. Therefore we could go to more improvement and they are I am maybe like a 4% or 5, but on average I mean you take the really great business coach people and some of his maybe making some mistakes and average is 3 and he could not get over how low it was because he owns a different kind of business. That does they build tanks, and he just couldn’t believe how low it is. But to me it’s it’s high, because people go on google and a blast us with bad reviews or facebook and hundreds and hundreds of great reviews, but we get blasted by people that are upset and typically don’t tell us.

They don’t tell anybody until we can’t fix it. He got ahead of that by saying this, but by and large we’re going to be the ones prompting the conversation, big fight, invite interviewing and surveying 2 million cups tomato. How you develop an inspired team, you said you cast the vision, you hold them accountable and you bring that consistent motivational. Instructional practical training breaks down developing an inspired team. How did lee cockrell walt disney world develop inspired team funny, further ado I meet with business owners everyday, who are like cash? No I just don’t want to have to inspire my employees. Why can’t I find some inspired? People and I always tell him I say well. If somebody was already naturally inspired, they’re, probably going to be a business owner of themself or there a manager, but everybody else they’re going to need a little inspiration in the you know:you’re mean you’re going to hardcore. They don’t believe people need anything but a job in a paycheck and they don’t believe they don’t understand the emotional, a lot of people. You know even some trait you know and i. Don’t not point somebody out some people in finance or legal. They don’t get this cpas softer side. You can be a good cpa, but also how you keep your customers is my my cps in oklahoma city and they always have a receptionist answer the phone and he got on the phone I said joe. I won’t tell you on that. I was thinking about you today, I love, you’re, coming cuz. You always answer the phone, they said. Let you know it’s funny. We were going to put one of those voice, trees in and we decided not to do that. Cuz. He said we figured out. Anybody can do your taxes, but not everybody can service. You like we do, and it’s so true and there’s a story about him in the book cuz. He answers the phone yep, not cuz. He puts me through some contraption that thang aggravates me and i, wonder if aiden got it simple, thing, connect and I tell him. You know he inspires me and make sure he knows about it. And then you know it’s what makes us go beyond the call of duty, because somebody just watching because somebody we’re going to get recognized for at we’re going to get in a war we’re going to get a pat on the back who want who doesn’t want to matter who is not proud when somebody says you did a great job, I’m glad you’re with our company in front of everybody else, I’m a nobody makes my day when people tell me that they say levi, you do this speaking I said cuz people applaud cuz people are plugged current as far as me, why? Why does that feel differently than when you don’t get it, and even then I guess I’m saying this even when I’m discovering is even you as the boss need a source of inspiration so that way, they’re doing customer service like feedback loops, has for me, as an owner.

Very few people ever come to me and said boss. You are awesome. Thank you for working hard today. The customer feedback is where I get it. That’s where you get it there and if i, don’t question I had here for you as far as inspiring your team. Obviously you survey people a lot when they leave the park. How was your experience? How was it today? What did you think about the cleanliness of the park, the rooms, the hotel? Do you share that with your team and if so, how consistently do you share that feedback from guests with your team, leaving change that we interview too many people here at when interview on the internet? We have it on my as they enter the park. We interviewing when they’re checking in when they check it out there and if you don’t want to buy in an ice cream cone when they’re leaving the park at night to get on the bus I’m by the race, like we’ve, been changed it further. When you check in a lady will be, there was an ipad and when you’re missing your check it out of your hotel and she’ll, ask you:how was your staying if so great and she’s? Basically, you would recommend it to a friend or loved one, and you say no. We say why and she says cuz mary when I checked in with rude and we got to my room and there was cigarettes in there and the tv didn’t work and the reason we do it now that way, we correct that immediately. We fix mary before the next person. She checks it and if you say yes i, would we say why? Because mary was so great when I checked in she paid attention to my children to go to mary’s and mary and I just keeps it going now.

Learn quick, fix, learn, quick fix fix it now a year from now. Looks it every so then outside your business, small people like yours, talking about entrepreneurs, stand outside higher college kid and give her 50 bucks stand outside one day a week and has to customers as they leave. Excuse me, ma’am I’m, a college student doing surveys for some work. Would you recommend this place to your friends and loved ones? Yes, why know why and then go and tell the boss? So you and the people sitting around ever come back here. Why cuz they put fish in there and I ordered a sandwich or hamburger, and you go in to fix that and get that personal stuff in the bags and gives more training turn that thing around and are the bathroom is filthy. That’s you know women who don’t have clean bathrooms. They don’t come back through. My wife is commandments. We had a very, very high standard quality and my wife of what to push the car pass. Other gas stations chick-fil-a. So that’s kind of getting business coach  feedback immediate and exact, not 10th. Don’t ask me to four hundred items:i! Don’t care about the dust on the frame. Would you recommend this to of yesterday one or not you sure that be back with your team immediately every day, so we used to do it like mostly know how it’s everything’s got to be faster now faster, faster? If you can’t wait, another thousand customers, cuz you’re, not fixing that problem probation tomorrow, we’re going to have more with lee cockrell. The only one in this show with a business coach boom