Lee Cockerell | Former Executive Vice President of Operations for the Walt Disney World Resort

Lee Cockerell

Former Executive Vice President of Operations for the Walt Disney World Resort

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Orlando, FL, US

Lee Cockerell
Biography

Lee Cockerell retired as the Executive Vice President of Operations for the Walt Disney World® Resort.

Growing up in Oklahoma, Lee attended Oklahoma State University for two years before joining in the United States Army.

Lee’s career includes eight years with Hilton Hotels, seventeen years with Marriott International, and sixteen years with The Walt Disney Company. Lee Joined Disney in 1990 as Director of Food and   Beverage, Quality Assurance, and Vice President of the hotel division for Disneyland Paris.

In 1993 Lee became the Senior Vice President of the hotel division at the Walt Disney World® Resort in Florida and in 1997 was promoted to Executive Vice President of Operations for all of Walt Disney World Operations, serving in that position for ten years before retiring to start his own business, Lee Cockerell, LLC., a training and development company.

Lee is the author of six books on leadership, management, and world-class customer service.

Lee and his wife Priscilla reside in Orlando, Florida.  Lee enjoys teaching leadership, management, and service excellence seminars, traveling, dining out, and most of all spending time with his three grandchildren, Jullian, Margot, and Tristan.

Lee Cockerell
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Lee Cockerell
Featured Keynote Programs

Time/Life Management

(2-hour seminar or 75-90-minute speech)

* Learn how to put more control into all parts of your life through this simple system for planning and carrying out your responsibilities.
* Learn the most important question to ask yourself every morning before you start your day.
* Learn the four steps in planning each and every day (the fourth one being the key to a happy and successful life).
* Learn what you can do today to avoid having a long list of regrets later in your life when it is too late.
* Learn how to maintain strong relationships, prepare yourself for the future, maintain good health and reduce stress in your life.
* Learn a simple system for doing what has to be done, when it has to be done, in the way it should be done, whether you or those around you like it or not.

Lee has taught this seminar to more than 75,000 people over the last 25 years with extraordinary success.

What are people saying?

"This is the best class I have ever attended. It really inspired me to think."

"Since taking Lee's Time/Life Management Class my life has changed dramatically, for the better."

"Like everything Lee teaches, this seminar is simple but so powerful and effective."

"Lee, I want you to know that your class saved my marriage."

Forget About Diversity (1.5-hour seminar or 1-hour speech)

Lee has cracked the code on how to achieve the diversity all organizations desire.

* Learn the ten things leaders must do to create an inclusive workplace that leads to a diverse workforce.
* Learn why diversity is not the goal, but the outcome for organizations.
* Learn the difference between being diverse and being inclusive.
* Learn what all humans want the most. Give it to them and they will reward your organization with excellent results.

Lee has taught this seminar all over the world. His message resonates and is appreciated by all. We live in a time when your attitude and the respect you show all people will determine the effectiveness of your results.

What are people saying?

"Now I know what to do to make a real difference in creating the diverse workforce we all want."

"Your ability to simplify concepts and issues is amazing. I now have a whole new viewpoint on my responsibility for creating an inclusive workplace."

"Your candid and humorous presentation on a delicate subject was powerful and thought-provoking. You changed me forever."

YOU Can Create Magic Too! (2-hour seminar or 75-90-minute speech)

Learn how "you can create magic too" in your business.

* Learn exactly what you must do to be perceived as a great leader.
* Learn why you must understand the big difference between management and leadership.
* Learn how to practice great leadership that will ensure you leave a legacy.
* Learn about the free fuel we all have and don't use enough.
* Learn four simple ways to set your organization apart in the eyes of your customers and your employees.
* Learn why the customer does not come first.
* Learn the most important leadership behavior that will ensure success for you in all parts of your life.

Lee has delivered this powerful yet simple message to audiences all over the world. His ratings are continually in the 4.5 to 4.75 range on a five-point scale.

What are people saying?

"Wow, you really brought it all home. Now I know how to go out and be a better leader for my team."

"Your down-to-earth delivery style and stories made it easy to understand how to become a great leader."

"I wish I had heard this talk a long time ago so I could have avoided the many mistakes I made in a past job assignment."

"I had never thought about the responsibility of being a leader in all parts of my life. Thank you. This was the best talk I have ever heard on leadership."

A Day of Learning . . .A Lifetime of Making a Difference. YOU Can Create Magic Too!

Spend one day taking all three of Lee Cockerell’s powerful seminars that will dramatically improve your ability as a Manager, Parent, Citizen, and Leader in all parts of your life.

“It’s Your Life: Time/Life Management”
“Inspiration - The Real Work of Leaders -
“12 Great Leader Strategies”

These three seminars can improve your ability and your organization’s ability to attain world-class results in Leadership, Employee Engagement, Customer Satisfaction, Organization Effectiveness, and Business Results. This eight-hour day can change your life and the lives of the people you lead.

Taking these three seminars together provide you with new common-sense ways to “think” about your leadership effectiveness and your management efficiency.

* Time/Life Management teaches you a system for getting it all done. Effective organizations have great systems and processes. Effective Leaders must also have an effective personal system for carrying out all of their goals day in, day out. Most people know what they need to do, but most people have no personal system for managing their organization’s goals and their own personal goals. It really does not matter how much you know or what your goals are if you cannot get them accomplished.
* Inspiration - The Real Work of Leaders will teach you those things Leaders must do every day to create a special environment for their employees and for their customers.
* The 12 Great Leader Strategies Seminar will teach you powerful strategies and models for becoming a Leader who is able to achieve maximum results by creating an environment where your employees are not just interested in their jobs but committed to them.

Lee Cockerell
Featured Books

The Customer Rules: The 39 Essential Rules for Delivering Sensational Serviceby Lee Cockerell

The Customer Rules: The 39 Essential Rules for Delivering Sensational Service

by Lee Cockerell

The former Executive Vice President of Walt Disney World shares indispensible Rules for serving customers with consistency, efficiency, creativity, sincerity, and excellence. 

Lee Cockerell knows that success in business--any business--depends upon winning and keeping customers. In 39 digestible, bite-sized chapters, Lee shares everything he has learned in his 40+ year career in the hospitality industry about creating an environment that keeps customers coming back for more. Here, Lee not only shows why the customer always rules, but also the Rules for serving customers so well they'll never want to do business with anyone but you. For example:

Rule #1: Customer Service Is Not a Department
Rule #3: Great Service Follows the Laws of Gravity
Rule #5: Ask Yourself "What Would Mom Do?"
Rule #19: Be a Copycat
Rule #25. Treat Every Customer like a Regular
Rule #39: Don’t Try Too Hard

As simple as they are profound, these principles have been shown to work in companies as large as Disney and as small as a local coffee shop; from businesses selling cutting-edge technologies like computer tablets to those selling products as timeless as shoes and handbags; at corporations as long-standing as Ford Motors and those as nascent as a brand new start-up. And they have been proven indispensible at all levels of a company, from managers responsible for hiring and training employees, setting policies and procedures, and shaping the company culture to front line staff who deal directly with clients and customers

Chock-full of universal advice, applicable online and off, The Customer Rules is the essential handbook for service excellence everywhere.

Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disneyby Lee Cockerell

Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney

by Lee Cockerell

“It’s not the magic that makes it work; it’s the way we work that makes it magic.”

The secret for creating “magic” in our careers, our organizations, and our lives is simple: outstanding leadership—the kind that inspires employees, delights customers, and achieves extraordinary business results.

No one knows more about this kind of leadership than Lee Cockerell, the man who ran Walt Disney World® Resort operations for over a decade. And in Creating Magic, he shares the leadership principles that not only guided his own journey from a poor farm boy in Oklahoma to the head of operations for a multibillion dollar enterprise, but that also soon came to form the cultural bedrock of the world’s number one vacation destination. But as Lee demonstrates, great leadership isn’t about mastering impossibly complex management theories. We can all become outstanding leaders by following the ten practical, common sense strategies outlined in this remarkable book. As straightforward as they are profound, these leadership lessons include:
Everyone is important.
Make your people your brand.
Burn the free fuel: appreciation, recognition, and encouragement.
Give people a purpose, not just a job.

Combining surprising business wisdom with insightful and entertaining stories from Lee’s four decades on the front lines of some of the world’s best-run companies, Creating Magic shows all of us – from small business owners to managers at every level – how to become better leaders by infusing quality, character, courage, enthusiasm, and integrity into our workplace and into our lives.

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