Creating Magic Summary

It’s no doubt that creating a family oriented theme park based on popular, beloved cartoon characters and imagination was a good idea. From Cinderella’s castle to the famous Main Street, U.S.A, there’s something extraordinary lying around every corner. Walt Disney World, other wise known as “the happiest place on earth”, or the place “where dreams come true”, was founded by a man with a dream of creating a place where children and parents could spend time together while making amazing memories. However, this extravagant amusement park is only one of the major accomplishments of Walt Disney.

In his book “Start With Why,” Simon Sinek describes the difference between leaders that inspire and those who simply delegate; he encourages readers to look at leadership with a new outlook, and he motivates people to act upon his vision: start with ‘WHY’ instead of ‘HOW.’ He supports his advice with anecdotes of events inspired by real people like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Write Brothers. He realized that these individuals all had similar leadership techniques, which happen to be the exact opposite of what other, less successful, leaders do. Sinek calls his formula “The Golden Circle” (Sinek, P.37), which provides insight for how people can be inspired, movements can be prompted, and organizations established. Upon finishing his book, I conclude that Sinek is onto something with his theory; in order to be an extraordinary leader, one must start within.

What matters the most is what you do day by day over the long haul, explains the author. If you continually invest in your leadership and let your ‘assets’ compound, the inevitable result is growth overtime. While some are born with greater natural gifts than others, the ability to lead is really a collection of skills, with nearly all of which can be learned and improved. You can be a good leader if you want to, since everyone has the potential to be one, you just have to understand that you can’t accomplish it overnight. Leadership is complicated and has many facets, and it takes a lot of ‘seasoning’ to actually an effective leader. Whether you do or don’t have the natural ability for leadership, the author states that in the development and progress process probably occurred in the following four phases: Phase 1 being ‘I don’t know what I don’t know’ here a person doesn’t realize how valuable leadership is and believes it’s for people up the corporate ladder thus passing up the opportunity to learn how to lead. Phase 2 is ‘I know what I don’t know’ here you begin to realize the importance of learning how to lead and the learning process begins’. Phase 3 is ‘I grow and know and it starts to show’, in this phase you realize you lack skills and begin daily discipline of personal growth in leadership. In phase 4 ‘I simply go because of what I know’ is when you’re knowledgeable and your ability to lead

Disneyland was Walt Disney’s dream of a theme park that would be, in his words, “The Happiest Place on Earth”. Walt understood too well that the people that were hired would need to be taught how to create that elusive atmosphere. He called on Van France to assist him in creating what has become a world renowned training program. This program taught their employees, or “cast members”, to achieve the ultimate result, a “good show”.

| It is important as a manager and leader to develop yourself within your role personally and within the organisation, both will gain from this. Within the modern world skill sets are updated and change

Lee Cockerell’s first leadership strategy that he outlines in his “Creating Magic” book is taking care of employees. In this instance Cockerell goes into detail on saying that in order to be able to run a very successful company the owners/company itself needs to give respect, appreciation, value, into everyone. He outlines this with his acronym RAVE (respect, appreciation, value, everyone). In doing so, the company will have a lot of loyalty and respect back from its employees. Cockerell implemented this concept with Disney, as Disney has the lowest turnover rate in their industry. By giving employers the RAVE treatment, employees genuinely care about their company because they view that the company cares about them. This method that Cockerell outlined in his speech and in his book is very similar to a leadership theory that we have learned in class this year, called path-goal theory. The path-goal theory is an ideology that focuses on the leaders to motivate their follower’s. In this instance Cockerell was in an executive position with Disney, and he had to make a decision on how to efficiently and effectively run the company through his position. He decided to motivate his employees through compassion. Cockerell was a very compassionate person towards his employees. One of the most significant ways that Cockerell was able to achieve this was with the RAVE method. The RAVE method was able to motivate his employees by giving them purpose in the business which created a

Yet as stated in the paper by Ellen Van Velsor and Victoria A. Guthrie(1998) "Enhancing the Ability to Learn from Experience" (cited in Business Leadership, 2003 pp. 224-225), "To maintain their effectiveness, people in positions of leadership must be able to learn, actively and continuously." The actors are recognizing new behaviors, engaging in a variety of development experiences, testing skills that were previously untested, trying new approaches, and developing and using a variety of learning tactics to acquire new skills as laid out in Velsor and Guthrie's Paper(1998). The fixing of the Stanly Steamer engine by Charles Howard is a prime example of this kind of growth, but Howard does not show himself as a leader until he hires on Tom Smith as the horse trainer.

The essay classifies leadership into four key approaches: (1) trait approach, (2) behaviour approach, (3) the

The first way a growth mindset can support leader is by encouraging to continue studying and learning from the feedback. Why is this an advantage of

How Successful People Lead, by John C. Maxwell, Center Street, New York, NY, May 2013, 148 pages. Reviewed by David A. Hudson

Imagine what would happen if the company elects not to invest in training leaders; the employee is going to feel as if their effort goes unnoticed and revert into the ‘Critter State’. The employee will not want to stay with the company for much longer. That is why it’s so important for leaders to be aware of the environment they create and ensure that employee feel valued enabling the ‘Smart State’ of the employee to come out. A leader that is trained will ensure that employees are full aware that they are valued and important to the company.

In order for a leader to be a leader he/she must begin with the assumption that you are the one who matters most. As a leader you have to possess that level of confidence in yourself that you are capable of leading yourself “before you can lead others”. And when you develop this belief then you are better able of affirmative influence “on others”.

The sum of education, experiences, and observations lays a foundation upon which I will grow to become a good leader. In this plan, I will focused on those aspects of leadership that I believe are most required for personal development as well as those which will be so significant for my future leadership career. I have identified three goals which will guide me in the development process. My goals are to develop my integrity, listening skills and communications skills. I assume that this plan will change and be altered as required by life circumstances.

With the beliefs that the company’s human talent is the core of the quality of its services, and the central precept is that the company’s quality is equal to the sum of its employees, the company always encourages the employees to think out of box in order to foster new possibilities, continually push itself towards greater excellence. Kingsmen Creatives also believes that the company should always learn something from its failure.

“The Most Magical Place on Earth”, this title has been used for Disney World for over forty years. What makes this park so magical? Why are people so happy when they arrive? Disney World catches the attention of children, but why do adults enjoy it? Some would say Disney World is overrated, but this park is one of the most popular vacation destinations for families to visit (FamilyFuns). The popularity of Disney World originates from the two major theme parks, the rides, and the activities.