From ordinary to extraordinary!

Doing ordinary things is easy and I believe what sets successful people apart is the ability to know and understand the difference.  As my friends and family know, I am currently involved in a career change.  Sometimes this is a little scary, sometimes exciting.  I look back on the many successes I have had from going into the military to entering property management, then performing training and consultation to working for Disney.  Recently I have had the opportunity to reflect on where I am and where I am going because of the opportunity to be selected into the Emerging Leaders Program with the Walt Disney Company.  Out of over 60,000 cast members (we don't call them employees), thirty are selected by their supervisors and an executive board to enter this program.  I was one of the thirty, and have looked back on how and why I was nominated for this prestigious honor.  Why was I asked to become a part of this select group?  What things did I do that made me a candidate?  If you think about it, there are few in this world that cannot to related to Disney and what it stands for and identify with the brand.  Companies all over the world look to Disney and emulate their business practices and principles.  Everyone wants to be like Disney and carry the reputation they stand for including other great companies.  Of all the companies out there, Disney does an amazing job at satisfying the customers needs, however, it really starts with the cast members and some basic principles.

While doing a shadow at the Concierge desk at a four diamond resort, I met an executive for Chevrolet who was here to attend a Disney University training program.  She was selected to participate in a program to understand the Disney basics and how she can apply them to her dealership.  If you think about it, Chevy is not a brand without recognition and brand identity itself.  For decades they have been know for providing superior products and services covering many different labels (Chevrolet, Buick, Saturn, General Motors, and of course Cadillac).  How was it that a company known throughout the world was sending their executives to Disney to learn about my company?  The answer is in the difference between ordinary and extraordinary, and how its cast members are taught to deliver an extraordinary experience. 

There are basics related to service at the Walt Disney World Company and the first one is called the Four Keys Basics. 

• Safety:  I practice safe behavior in every thing I do
• Courtesy:  I practice a positive image and energy.  I go above and beyond to exceed guest expectations.
• Show:  I stay in character and perform my role in the show.
• Efficiency:  I perform my role efficiently so guests get most of their experience.

Now you might think Walt and the organization thought these were enough, however, they did not.  They also came up with the Disney Service Basics.

•  I project a positive image and energy.
•  I am courteous and respectful to all guests, including children.
•  I stay in character and play the part.
•  I go above and beyond.

 Again, you might think this was enough, and again you would be wrong.  They also identified that leadership plays a significant role in the guest experience and therefore leaders should also have identifiers so they came up with the Disney Leader Basics.

• I lead with a positive attitude and demonstrate a commitment to my cast members.
• I know and manage my operation and teach it to my cast members.
• I recognize and hold cast members accountable for delivering the Four Keys Basics.

In addition to the above there are also 7 Key Values at Disney, as well as  12 Leadership Competencies.  You see the ordinary would be the Four Keys or just having the Disney Service Basics.  Being extraordinary identified just being ordinary would not meet the goal Bob Eiger (CEO of The Walt Disney Company) has which is, "Ultimately, our goal is to be the most admired company in the world."  Now he did not say he wanted us to be the best, or the greatest or the biggest, but the most "admired" company in the world.  Kind of puts things in a different perspective and because of taking the basics to additional levels he set the stage for its success.

So the next time you look at your employees or cast members ask yourself, "What takes us from ordinary to extraordinary?"  Is it that you have basic principles and values or is it more?  I believe we all know the answer!  So the as you search for extraordinary first look at yourself, then your team, then your leadership, then your organization.  Do you have in place values that are extraordinary which can lead to your company being anything but ordinary?  Make it a great day!

What the future brings....Part Two

So much of my writing is meant to be inspirational, and several times in the past year I have written about embracing change.  A perfect example are the changes I am experiencing in my career at this time.  After leaving the US Navy, I entered the property management industry.  First I managed office buildings, then went to shopping centers (enclosed malls).  Then after a life changing event and the loss of my job when the shopping center was sold, I found apartment management which is what I did for twenty-three years.  I always thought this would be my final career, and honestly could not see myself doing anything else say.  Well after apartment management I performed consulting and training in the property management industry (and also for some Fortune 500 companies), then had the opportunity to use my professional dive skills as a Dive Master for Disney while I was speaking and training.  Then I made the decision to seek full time employment with Disney which happened this past December.

Now I have been accepted into Walt Disney's Emerging Leader Program, an honor and privilege only given to a small group of cast members each year.  I will be attending Disney University classes for eight weeks, while also working at one of our fantastic resorts in a front office management position learning the ropes of lodging.  Who would have thought at this point in life I would be changing careers and working for one of the best known companies in the world.  But, that is exactly what is happening and I am extremely excited for the opportunity.  Property management and training/consulting has been great for me, and many of the business and leadership applications I learned and developed will no doubt be of use.  I do however, look forward to continuing to learn as I complete the EL Program with Disney and find a leadership position.  

As I start my new journey into a magical world where tickets may be sold but memories are for a lifetime, I do so inspired by what we do and as always work to helping others achieve excellence.  Whether managing apartments, people, or facilities one thing is constant in any great organization.  Our customers or guests have the ability to fire everyone from the CEO of a company on down, simply by choosing to spend their dollars somewhere else.  Seek greatness, teach excellence, inspire others, and develop others to make your organization as strong as it can be.

And to think it all started with a rabbit, and not a mouse!  Check up on Disney history or wait for my next blog.      

Happy Holidays from The Mouse House

Ok, so not really at the Mouse House when I am writing this but close enough to watch the fireworks at Epcot from my office window.  As many of you know I have had a very successful career in both property management and as a trainer and consultant in the property management industry.  I am so thankful for the fantastic people I have worked with and especially the ones that have touched my heart and soul.  I have had wonderful mentors as well as some fantastic teams who entrusted me as their leader.  When educating and training I assisted in the development of thousands of team members over the years to find inspiration in reaching personal and professional goals, and still have a file containing some of the exceptional comments I have received which I call my “Not having my best day file.”  I have used this to get the creative juices flowing if a mental writing block comes into play, as well as giving the occasional boost of confidence when trying to detail a training outline for a new presentation. 

When not visiting Michigan in February because I have a workshop to give (Who would go to Michigan in February unless they were being paid well for it?), or spending part of my vacation working on a new Power Point presentation, I do insure my downtime is quality which may include my passion for our aquatic world.   Most of my down time is working as a scuba diver for Walt Disney World and their Dive Quest program, and I might add doing some extremely interesting and I might say important things and getting paid for it.  My responsibilities have included safety diver coordinator for character diving, a.k.a. Mickey Mouse scuba diving in the 5.7 million gallon aquarium (see photo).  Pretty cool when you are the person responsible for making sure Mickey Mouse is alive for his next movie or parade event.  Other tasks have included helping capture a large spotted Eagle Ray for his regular vet checkup, or helping transport a 1,400 pound West Indian Manatee from Disney to the University of Florida for an MRI and getting him back home.  Or how about being responsible for training divers how to use chain mail suits safely so in the event the vet staff needs to capture a shark for a checkup, it is done safely.  Throw in having seen some unbelievable animals in the wild which most people may be lucky to see on National Geographic is down right awesome. 

I guess where I am going with all this is none of us knows what the future may bring.  We could be working extremely hard and performing extremely well, and the company we are with runs into financial problems.  You go into work to find your position has been eliminated!  Yes, happened to me.  Had my position not been eliminated I might not have been a speaker and trainer for the National Apartment Association and touched so many lives.  I might not be a scuba diver at the “happiest place on earth,” as it is called and work personally with the “big eared guy” himself.  After completing course work I am now a Disney Trainer, and been selected for a leadership position with the organization.  None of this would have happened had fate not touched me and something at the time that was perceived as “really bad,”  found a lighted path to what may be a new career.  So the next time life gives you lemons, find an adult beverage that requires lemon juice as you focus on moving forward.  Or if you don’t drink, make sure the ice cube trey is full and have a cold glass of lemonade. 

Happy Holidays

Larry

Training is not an event...it should be a process!

A recent accomplishment was being certified as a Trainer with Walt Disney Companies.  Pretty cool saying I am a trainer for Mickey Mouse.  While I have been providing training and education for over 15 years and previously taken TTT classes (that's Training the Trainer for those in Rio Limbo), being a Disney trainer is something few get the opportunity to say they are.  One thing is sure, Disney does things right and they look at training as a constant moving target and an evolutionary process.  We have Disney University and the Disney Office of Learning and Development, in addition to trainers within the organization by the hundreds.  As with my position on the Dive Quest dive team, we are always involved in training and re-training.  As an example, each year we have several courses we have to take even though we have taken them before.  This includes BBP, HAZCOM, Safety in Motion, and other important areas.  In addition, we are subject to training exercises at any time and without notice involving emergency response, CPR, and First Aid. 

Where am I going with this?  No matter what you are doing or what position you hold, training should be thought of as a process.  As in property management, we occasionally hold Fair Housing training with our team.  Some companies when they hire new employees do Fair Housing training, and believe they have done their job.  Problem is every year law suits say some members of our teams do not understand Fair Housing.  I have said in previous writings it is very evident from a survey I once did.   Out of twenty managers I had at a training session, only two could tell me the seven protected classes.  This is sad people, and proof we need to insure what and when we are training is as clear as why we are training.  

Another important factor is how we train related to both presentation and content.  Not everyone learns the same way, and understanding learning styles is critical from a training perspective.  A learning style is an individual's natural or habitual pattern of acquiring and processing information in learning situations.  The three basic styles are auditory, visual, and tactile (also known as kinesthetic), with one critical aspect being we as trainers need to be able to identify the needs and comprehension of our learners.  When we hear a trainer speak, what is the first verifier that makes us want to listen?  Many studies say credibility is first, and proving the trainer is knowledgable about the subject will either enhance comprehension of the material or place up barriers.  Next is how the material is presented and how the trainer creates both a verbal and visual relationship with the learners.  Are they exciting in their presentation and create an environment the makes the material user friendly?  

Training is not something that happens the day we are hired, or waiting to see someone is not performing at their best to suggest additional training.  It needs to be pro-active and not re-active.  I have often heard, "we don't have time to add additional training."  So you have time to counsel team members when they are not performing, to deal with other team members who are unhappy because you don't have a motivational environment, or finding and hiring new people that leave or are terminated because we did not believe training was a process.  Make training a process and you might find things in your life and organizational, less eventful. 

Finding Inspiration!

Where do you find inspiration?  Being inspired can come from events, people, or from within based on our values and how we are raised.  Today I was working on my novel which is taken from a screenplay I completed some months ago and received a phone call from a friend.  In asking me what I was doing I explained I was in a writing mood and working on a novel.  He replied, "You're the busiest person I know and are always working on something.  What inspires you to do all the things you?"  "Well," I said,  I don't like to be idle and have a passion for what I do."  After all, writing a novel isn't one of those things most people would say they are doing on a Monday afternoon.  Those of you that know me understand my passion for writing, and today I was "inspired" to write.

Inspiration I believe comes from our values, in addition to events and others we come in contact with.  My hard work ethic I get from my Dad, and my values from my Mom.  I also get inspiration from the belief if we can't find opportunity in your life, find it!  You see being inspired to me is being creative in addition to sharing information.  When I write about business or property management, it is to share my knowledge and experiences to inspire others to exceed and excel.  When I write for fun, it is to inspire others to ask questions and see you must sometimes seek inspiration to enjoy it.  Today, I am writing for me, and that gives me so much pleasure internally.  When he asked what I was writing about I told him it is a novel about a magician.  This magician (ok some of you know I have some knowledge in this area), also happens to have another secret.  He is an agent for a secret government organization called M.A.G.I.C.  The acronym is Military Assisted Global Intelligence Command, and is known only to the President of the United States and a few military personnel at the Pentagon and in his administration.  This magician and his specialized team use magic and illusion to prevent terrorist plots and any global or international crisis that comes up.  The first screenplay is written and has been reviewed by Warner Brothers, and I have already started the sequel as well as turning the first movie into book form.  

So what inspired me to write?  One day this idea just popped in my head after watching Fox News and information related to a terrorist plot.  Within an hour I had an outline, a synopsis, and knew exactly what was going to happen and how it was going to happen.  I just needed the time to write it, which took about three months.  I know magic and illusion, have work in an intelligence billet in the military, and have a mind that sometimes might be a little "out there."  Putting this in book form is turning out to be a little harder than I thought.  Thank God I have a good editor and proof reader.  

Find inspiration in what ever you do, but find it.  Being inspired might be tackling a black diamond trail on a ski slope.  It might be learning to fly an airplane.  Or, in my case it is writing.  No matter what, all you have to do is look for it and inspiration can find you.

Leadership - Finding the leader in you

Just completed writing my second book, "Leadership - Finding the leader in you."  It's a quick read and a fun write.  It's a topic as many of you already know which I am very passionate about.  You can find it on Amazon.com for your Kindle, or if you have Kindle viewer can upload on your PC or MAC.  You can click on the Amazon like which will take you to the site.

Thanks to everyone to encouraging me to write it.

Larry

Assets are more than property...they are our people!

As I have finally hit my 30,000th visit to my web site, I thank the hundreds of you that have commented or contacted me on how it has motivated you to exceed and excel. Now I don't say this to boast or brag, but to stress the point of sharing information and how it can expand horizons.  I have equally learned from your comments and feedback, making this what is was originally intended to be...a learning experience for everyone.  Whether marketing, leasing, sales, or any task we may take on, most of the time we depend on others in reaching goals and objectives.  

A topic that I have loved to present and speak on has been hiring and in particular hiring the right person for the right job.  I have a full day workshop I present on this, and has been one of my more requested topics.  In my opinion, it is also the most important!  I can present or train on leasing, marketing, risk management, maintenance, budgeting, financial analysis, etc., etc., etc.  The end result if I do not have the right team to implement actions in all of those areas to reach goals and objectives, basically "I'm fishing without bait."   I may enjoy the water, the tranquil environment, and even the sunset, but basically I'm not taking anything home at the end of the day.  Whow, I just thought of that!  

If you have ever read "Good to Great" by Jim Collins,  one of the primary things he highlights is "People are not your greatest asset; the right people are!"  Now think about it, we all have people but do we have the right people and the best people.  If I were to ask you if you left today to start you own property management company or business, who would you take with you and why?  Think of those people that really make a difference to your current organization.  Then think of those that you would not take and why.  Last, think about what you could do to help those on the lower rung of the ladder to climb higher.  Now we are touching into what a true leader does consistently to insure we think of our people as our assets.  We can renovate or fix up a property to improve and make it more marketable, however, we don't always look at what we can do to insure our people assets are also able to excel.  

Another area is if we have done all these things, what do we do with team members that do not develop into those we would take with us.  I believe we all know the answer, and it is not the easiest or an area anyone from a management or leadership likes to deal with.  Question: If I made changes...hard decisions, how much more would it add to the success of the team and therefore my success?  We do not work in a vacuum, and the our success as well as the success of our team or department is based on decisions we make related to the people we hire and position within the organization.    Jim also said in his book; "Get the right people on the bus, get the wrong people off the bus, get the right people on the right seats on the bus, and the bus will take you somewhere great."  

Who do you have on your bus and are they the right people and in the right seats?  Remember, you are the driving force of the bus and it is up to you if the bus reaches the desired destination.  The right maintenance, the right fuel, the right stops, the right speed, and the right direction are in your hands.  And as you have heard me say before, "Now go lead!"