Ep. 2 – Management Mastery with Lee Cockerell

Audio Transcription

What testing for the center of the universe and the thrive 15.Com small business coaching world headquarters the conversation today with the former executive vice president of walt disney world resorts, a man by the name of lee cockrell, who wants managed over 40,000 people as the executive vice president of walt, disney, world, resort, so I see it all the time and small business that managing people is a very hard thing for most people to do, and so I had a chance to sit down with lee in orlando florida. To just ask him all the questions. I think I must every small business owneror every manager I was always asking me:is a business coach people always asking? Do you talk to the people who do the paperwork? First, people have when making your brand? How do you develop a relationship should have customers have relationships with your people? How do you create the magic through training? How do you do a customer complaints? I? How do you eliminate bad policies? How do you make decisions? It just so many great aspects to this part 2 of a three-part series with lee cockrell on management mastery. So without further ado might exclusive interview with lee cockrell, the former executive vice president of walt disney world, resortsand i. Think of all these companies do come, don’t they become really small families? Yes, they work together over and over and over I mean some of our family members are just don’t get to the work too quick in the morning until you get to the people once you get the people feeling good and anything I can do for you, your dad’s in the hospital. Do you need to leave early today to go? What can we do to the people before the paperwork always touch the pay before it touches? Piper picked it up and carriage touch and your wife’s busy at home at five kids, what’s more important for your wife to wash the dishes or read a story to the children, for they go to bed if she has to make a decision which is more important, does the dishes don’t care? If you break a dish, they don’t even care it with. 5 kids were going with a lot of paper plates right.

Now you can eat on the floor with a blanket sets. Picnic red love, it actually love it. Even more, chapter 5, your book, you did mention you need to make people your brandt. What does that mean? And how do I do that from swimming so I when I think of companies, you know so many things are commodities today, at the end of the day, I can go to lowe’s or I can go to home, depot or I can go to the little local store. What’s the difference, the little local store you know may bring it out to call me back. They’ll deliver the people. How people treat me they know me. You go to the big box stores, the odds of them. Knowing you is about as low as I can go, and when you have relationships with people that do small business coaching with you, even though you charge a little more, they still do relationships matter and people create relationships. That’s in that are successful, have found a way to build relationships on a big level like so starbucks. Each one feels like its own local, so I can load coffee shop, that’s what they did and they heard all the little cough chest cuz. They created that same environment when I walk into starbucks in the morning. Every morning, lee good morning, I want to see me coming out of the parking lot and I’ve already got it filled. That’s awesome and i, don’t know if I told you I used to eat oatmeal every morning when I decided, but when I got in there, they are at don’t make the old man. When you see me get out of my car rating magic through training and I I know this cuz I’ve been guilty of this I mean years ago when I started the dj company. One thing I would do, is you know you spend to get up early make my to do list. I was trying to think of how many weddings can we book to pay the bills?

We have to provide entertainment for brides and grooms on the weekends and I’m going to be going to book two or three weddings this week for me to pay the bills, so I could focus on bookings, bookings, bookings and then it became taken care of the customer had time for training. I never had time to train. It was always accounting or booking or and in training, was kind of like the last thing that you would do and now I got older I realize man. Training has to happen first, but I’m just been fascinated by the small business coaching importance that you place on training. Could you maybe talk about what you mean by creating magic through training? I? Don’t think people have self-confidence and self-esteem and believe in themselves? If you ever had a job where you didn’t know what you were there on the first 3 weeks, how you felt i, don’t think I’m ever going to figure this out a month or two better, you got you get it new employees feeling lost and not committed they, and if you don’t know what you’re doing it really hurt yourself confidence that you feel that way. I think it’s like. We said we don’t have time. Sometimes to do it and I could say to you. You can say to your wife, I really don’t have time to spend with the children, cuz I’m busy, I don’t have time to talk to them. About value is i, don’t have time to take them to church. I, don’t have cuz I’m busy I’m looking better when you know what you got to figure it out, because you got to do it all does.

If you have children, you had them. If you have that leader of business, you did it, you got the responsibility for these people and you’ve got to figure out how to spend your time to get it all done, or you shouldn’t be in that business. I love the definition of responsibility. You know somebody told me responsibility. The word really means your ability to respond. Do you have the ability to respond to a customer when I’ll just cpr if I fell down right now with a hard dick? Do you say, but in this room have the ability to respond to you? So we have nobody here and she can always make sure all the ladies room I could do cpr I want them to be able to respond, or do you have the ability to respond when a customer has a problem because you might be taking a course on this website? Do you have the ability to respond when an employee is not performing or do you need to go? Listen to one of these videos and here’s how you do it just how you do it properly, because how do you learn to respond in life? Education, training experience you don’t so when it happens, you’re ready and you can pretty much anticipate what kinds of things going to happen to be training, people how to respond before the run into the problem absolutely, and they were talking about how the front desk person just never knew what to say when people would ask about billing questions and I gets common sense, you’re what’s common sense, this is really common. Sense is not common. If I’m not familiar with weird with this area, I mean if I’m new to this particular kind of business. I have no idea for five problems to keep happening over and over and over maybe 10 problems that keep happening. Every business I’m in your side, side 9 times out of 10 the same things happen over and over and over and there’s not many new ones every week. So if you can just get mine small business coaching train on nine of them, when the op comes up that you’re available to help him get through it and they know how to handle app and after a while you’re not going to see much difference, I mean it’s just not that paint or anything like that, but you always have people jack about price.

They have jacked about the time that I have time to talk to you or they don’t have a need for what you’re selling and if you train people had to deal with those three, then that’s pretty much all you ever deal with and it didn’t know it’s the same objections. You know, and we know what the objections are going to be in anything we do in life and you prepare for the magic by eliminating hassles. What does that mean? You know if I’m dealing with a company and they got these policies for rules that I want to take something back. Cuz, it didn’t work and their policy is we can’t? We can’t take it back because you open the box awesome. How was I going to know it didn’t work till I open the box and they got really. You hassle your customers and if you hassle me, I’m not coming back I bought priscilla a suitcase once at costco got home. What do you think she said? It’s not big enough. She needs a big suitcase when we travel took it back to 30 seconds to return it. No questions asked I went to sears member sears going to be a big. Come in, I took a faucet back once I had spent half the day there had to see the gm, it was like. I was being indicted for theft, and why are you bringing this back? What we did you really have a receipt. I mean it was humbling. I never went back there again, farmers insurance and farmers in from the kind of insurance that I pay for it’s a little more expensive, but they specialize in being able to make sure that you have all the insurance you need for your small business coaching equipment if your company and I remember paying a little more for it and take him in this isn’t works pensive. My agent took more time to discover my needs and find out what I needed, but we had a camera equipment.

Stolen I had a check in like 7 days, and it was like a quick process. Work with another company, as you mentioned, I feel like i, was being indicted. I felt, like i, was having to prove my innocence. I had to provide police reports and another report and verification, and it it really is a night in dade. What’s the price becomes almost unimportant when there’s great service and people, don’t even tell you if you hassle me I’m busy, i, don’t have time for this. You hassle me I’m, not coming back. There’s a lot of places to go, buy a refrigerator, a cup of coffee, a lot of places to anything. I can just go to amazon and never come back to anywhere you just you, don’t tell anybody, you just won’t come back she’ll, let you know she’ll write you a letter to never you’ll, be sorry ever let it go. My grandmother’s like that. She’s one of these nice people from oklahoma bartlesville. She would never complain to somebody. She was welcome back. You talk a lot about creating the small business coaching magic by learning the truth and I’m going to give you a scenario:real, quick, okay, there’s a lot of small business owners that again. Very busy with with tim, please or less I know. For me, it was really hard managing my company when I had a few. Just a few employees became a little bit easier. The bigger I got because I wouldn’t have to do accounting and sales and it’ll finance and have you all those areas I can just focus on one manager and not have to do certain test, but a small business.

How would you recommend that I learned the truth like i? Don’t wear that principle mean and how would you recommend it, but if I’m, a small business owner how I get to the truth or working for me and I always tell people probably the best thing when you have a partnership with somebody, that’s a marriage or whether it’s your employees here in this together, and you can count on that special small business. I want to have a very comfortable relationship with you. I, don’t want you to be feeling fearful when I’m walking in the door or I don’t want you to feel like you can’t bring me any issue. I won’t bite your head off, I’m not going to I’m going to appreciate it well. Thank you, I’m, going to stay low key when I retrain you. If I have to decide, if it’s going to be a very positive experience, when were they out? If you do it 20 times on my fire, but I want people to feel comfortable,. Just like you want your children to feel comforted coming to your dad, I need to tell you something, so you can help him get through it and you got to have those shifts and then I think that the same with your customers, they got to see you you can’t be. You know you got to have that relationship with them. Is there anything we could do better for you. You know how we doing and I just give you three easy for people to tell you. Let’s say that I have a small business coaching that requires my team to make sales calls at get to the truth. To know how customers felt about the calls are being made, how would you do I mean we do it from disney all the time we send room service, waiters to the room and how long and they’re bringing you a $50 breakfast for you and your wife, and so we’re pretty sure we train tomorrow and there’s certain things are supposed to be open. The drapes and you a paper pour you a cup of coffee, not just pushed, and maybe ask you if I can help you with a reservation for dinner tonight. What are we want to do and from time to time we, the manager goes with him unexpectedly. This goes with him just to make sure they know what they’re supposed to say. We don’t always know they’re doing it and occasional cards and you just had room service. Could you tell me, would you mind sharing with me whether he opened the drapes and forge? A cup of coffee? Give you a newspaper and how was the service?

Would you order again tomorrow morning? Did you have an experience? It was better than any other room service you ever had in your whole life, so you’re going to take the whole trust but verify approach to lately and that we serve hundreds of customers a day. How would you, then, in that situation, verify that service is being provided and I think a couple things I’m working with restaurants? Now, where we are college students get their mba or marketing plan that we put them outside the door when people leave-and she says hi emma as you leave I’m judy I’m get my degree at university of central florida I’m, just doing a little survey here and I hope you’ll. Tell me the truth. Would you recommend this place to a friend and you’re or your wife or loved ones, and they say yes, and you say why? Well because our way to the food was fact-and you know, I wouldn’t come, you know we had a hassle home and got here. The cable wasn’t ready and then also we took at disney. We tell the manager the manager needs to be on the floor, not in the office when the restaurant is open be in the small business coaching office when the restaurant is closed and if you need to do paperwork, do it and get yourself a little table in the corner and so you’re in there and then go around you touch every. If you go around and check in with every guest before they leave tonight, manager needs to be involved, run around listen to calls. If I run a restaurant, you need to be where the business is being conducted and then, when the store closes at 6, to go to your accounting and 7 and if you’re an entrepreneur, that’s the way life. Is you just got to work? Okay, you get rich enough to hire somebody to do it for you or turbotax, or get an account metal.

You can pay him in 5 years when you start making money or something maybe an apartment, but you’ve got to be where the businesses I said. Here’s how I tell people you know you can tell where you should be your title as restaurant manager. Does that tell you where you should be in the restaurant? Your office? Your time was not an office manager. If your title is chef, you should be near a stove right when we come back. Lee cockrell breaks down the power of following up, so many people are so concerned about micromanaging people and so many be level and sea level. Employees are constantly complaining about being micromanaged. We get lee cockrell one of the most successful managers of our small business coaching generation. Instructs us that we should follow up with people constantly and that micromanagement is actually a great thing to make your business excellence in the area of customer service and every other department in your business, and it’s always would like to end every single show with a boom, if possible, and so now that he further ado free to what poop