Creating Magic

Cockerell, who ran Walt Disney World Resort operations for more than a decade, reveals the leadership principles that not only guided his own journey but also formed the cultural bedrock of the world's number-one vacation destination. As the man in charge of operations at Walt Disney World for more than a decade, Lee Cockerell created the Disney Great Leader strategies--the principles that not only guided his own journey from a poor farm boy in Oklahoma to the head of a multibillion-dollar enterprise but also soon came to form the culture at the world's number-one vacation destination.

For the past decade, these common sense principles have also made up the core curriculum at the internationally respected Disney Institute, which trains more than fifty-thousand top-level managers and executives from a wide range of industries each year. In CREATING MAGIC, Cockerell shows how each one of us can bring the magic of one of the world's best-run companies into their workplace.

As simple as they are profound, these lessons for leadership include: Everyone is important Your people are your brand Give your people a purpose, not just a job Burn the free fuel: appreciation, recognition, and encouragement Combining sound business wisdom with entertaining stories from Cockerell's four decades in the hospitality and entertainment industry, CREATING MAGIC provides clear, practical advice to become better leaders, not only in our careers but also in our communities and in our personal lives.

Review: Shows the magic in leadership -- and the leadership in magic! Read this book! -Marshall Goldsmith, New York Times best-selling author of What Got You Here Won't Get You There, winner of the Harold Longman Award for Business Book of the Year. In Creating Magic, Lee Cockerell delivers his ideas about leadership in a common sense way that can really reach people and help them improve their effectiveness at work, at home, and in their communities.

His valuable leadership strategies and remarkable Disney stories will ring true for everyone who reads this book. --Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager and The One Minute Entrepreneur Elegant in its simplicity and practicality, Lee has distilled many powerful leadership strategies into the lessons many of us learned as children.

They are no less relevant to our working lives. At its core, Creating Magic is a collection of stories that reminds us to demonstrate care and respect for every member of the team and to focus our efforts not our ourselves but on the people we lead. -George Bodenheimer, President, ESPN, Inc and ABC Sports Lee's common sense principles and down to earth storytelling is refreshing.

His book will help leaders and managers at all levels become better in all parts of their lives. --Lee Huebner, Director of the School of Media and Public Affairs, Georgetown University. .,. Creating Magic transcends the leadership business-speak so prevalent in modern day motivational tomes and offers a real approach to sensible and practical strategies culled from the experience of a lifetime spent in pursuit of leadership excellence.! -Ted J.

Kleisner, President andChief Executive Officer, Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Company Disney is one of the world's prime exemplars of service having pioneered and implemented much of what is today seen as best practice in service management. Lee Cockerell has played a major role in this....For those wishing to learn how Disney has achieved its reputation for service, this will be a book to read. -Chris Voss, Professor of Operations and Technology Management, London Business School In the hospitality industry, people are our most important asset.

No one understands how to develop this asset better than Lee Cockerell who clearly articulates in Creating Magic how leadership environments that are committed to achieving excellence through lifelong learning, continually honing our professional competence, maintaining personal control, and rewarding behaviors that recognize the personal worth and reinforce the professional accomplishm