Creating Magic

When your boss says you have to read a book and then he buys it for you, you know it’s probably something that you should read. (I’m not that smart but I’m smart enough to know that.) With that, I just wrapped up Creating Magic by Lee Cockerell, the former executive vice president of operations for Walt Disney World Resort. The book contains principles that are taught at the Disney Institute. The book is broken down into sections based on ten leadership strategies used at Disney. Here are some of the highlights from my reading:

• “If your company’s competitive advantage is based on products and services alone, you are at risk. But if it’s based upon products, services, and quality service, then you’ll have a competitive advantage that’s very difficult to match.”
• “If you want your employees to deliver excellent service, you’d better provide them with excellent leadership.”
• “Good leaders are humble enough to admit what they don’t know, and great leaders are constantly looking for new information.”
• “Great leaders always focus on others, not on themselves. They hire the right people, train them, trust them, respect them, listen to them, and make sure to be there for them when needed.”
• “The days of the vertical chain of command as a way of doing business are over.”
• “If you want to lose great people quickly, look over their shoulders all the time and make all their decision for them.”
• “If you give people responsibility without als giving them the necessary authority to carry out hose responsibilities, you are setting them up for failure.”
• “One typical symptom of a flawed organizational design is too much time spent in meetings.”
• “The ability to lead is something to look for in everyone you consider hiring, no matter what the position is.”
• “Hire people who are smarter and more talented than you.”
• “If someone is not performing well, you owe it to everyone on the team, as well as the company as a whole, to change the lineup as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
• “I got coffee for employees rather than ask them to get it for me.”
• “Make every adjustment with the attitude that it’s reversible, that not only can you change it again, but you eventually will have to.”
• “People who read for pleasure tend to be more successful because their reading makes them more creative.”
• “Many people talk about having a business life and a personal life, but in reality you have only one life, and the best leaders are passionate about everything in it.”

These are the only challenging statesment for the book. There are many more. Some only apply to business leaders, but there’s a lot of great content for ministry leaders as well.