Becoming Successful with the Walt Disney Company — What is Leadership?
The question, “Where do you see yourself in five years?'“ is easily one of the most basic, outdated questions you could get asked. Whether it comes up in a social, personal, or professional setting, everyone’s probably gotten this question multiple times throughout their lives. And nine times out of ten, if you’re another twenty-something year old like I am, you probably have no idea where you’ll be in five years. Even when I think I have an idea, everything changes within the course of a few months.
It’s totally okay to not know where you’re going to be five years from now. Nobody really does. And you can’t exactly plan for it. Life happens and things get out of your control, new opportunities present themselves, and you may simply just change your mind. But being asked that question gets you thinking about what you want for yourself and what is important to the current version of you. And even if what you want now isn’t exactly what you’re going to want five years from now, having an understanding of your goals and putting in the work to achieve them are the important pieces.
In elementary school (and middle school… and high school… and college), I was always the teacher’s pet. I sat at the desk closest to my teacher’s desk every year and my academic & career achievements were the most important things to me. But I was also very shy. I had about one person I spoke to in elementary, middle, and high school, but otherwise I kept to myself. I loved learning and talking to my teachers. But the one thing I absolutely dreaded in elementary school that would keep me up at night? Being the line leader.
Every day in elementary school, we had a new line leader that was chosen randomly. The line leader would lead the rest of the class to the library, the gym, recess, and lunch. And I prayed every day that it was not me. I did not want to be in the front. I was terrified to mess up. I didn’t want any attention on me or people to be following me. I hated everything about it.
I was also terrified to make decisions when other people were involved. I vividly remember this one instance in second grade. My friend Emily and I were always finishing our work earlier than everyone else, and our teacher would give us extra assignments for us to work on together for fun. We were given the task to create a poster about different species of fish, and I guess I had stayed quiet and looked to Emily to speak for both of us whenever we were asked a question about what we wanted to work on. Our teacher stopped and asked me why I kept looking at her for her answers and didn’t offer any of my own opinions.
But as I got older (and my control issues started growing), I started to take on more leadership positions. I am still very much an introvert and always have been, but I also became the one who, during group projects, would assign everyone their roles, explain the entire project to them, and then end up creating, managing, and editing our entire submission.
I had a realization a few weeks ago about leadership. I was working my very first Treats shift at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. I didn’t know any of the coordinators for that location or anyone else that I was going to be working with that night. Taking that shift was already out of my comfort zone enough, but I wanted to experience a Treats shift so bad. There were maybe thirty of us working in Frontierland Treats that night, and we all got randomly assigned different roles. I was given the role of Breaker along with another girl named Hannah. The Frontierland coordinators told us that we were essentially “baby coordinators” for the night. We were in charge of putting the other cast members from our group into positions and giving them their breaks. There was only one radio, so I (half-happily and half-nervously) volunteered to be in charge of the radio so I could communicate with the actual coordinators once they left us.
Hannah and I decided to do a rotation system. Once everyone was in their starting positions for the night, the two of us floated around where we were most needed, checked in on everybody, and started giving their breaks. Keeping track of everyone’s positions and breaks, creating a rotation system, and being in positions ourselves was challenging at first, especially doing everything on paper without a set schedule. But I actually loved it. Checking in on all of the cast members in our location and making sure they all got a chance to be in the Barrels position (a.k.a. the position that actually scoops the candy for guests) and see one of the two parade shows was so important to me. I wanted to make everyone happy, and Hannah and I got so many compliments from the cast during and at the end of our shift. (I even got a Five Keys Appreciation compliment from one of the coordinators for how I handled a situation with a family who was separated. AND I received a cast compliment from that family as well.) When I got home from my shift, I made a video to update my weekly vlog on how the night went and I said I wanted to become a real coordinator.
That experience inspired me to participate in the Disney College Program Leadership 101 course, which is a four-week class on—you guessed it!—leadership. Week one of the course introduced what being a leader entails and why leadership is so important.
In leadership at Disney, your cast is your main focus, much like how I wanted to make sure everybody working Treats that night had the best time. For starters, it’s personally important to me to make sure others are happy, regardless of the affect their happiness has on anything else. Disney is a company that specializes in happiness and magic, which is at the forefront of everything we do. But having a happy cast isn’t just a win for that cast member. It’s a win for everybody! If you have a happy cast, you have happy guests, and therefore a successful business. They all go hand-in-hand. Your job as a leader is to focus on your cast members so they can treat our guests correctly, so the business will be a success.
But what is a leader and what do they do? A leader is someone people want to follow. While managers focus heavily on the business side of a company, a true leader focuses on the people that make up that company. Being a leader is all about your actions and your mindset. You don’t need the official Linkedin title of “Leader” to be one. Be comfortable making decisions, inspiring others, and taking initiative.
Leaders inspire optimism. Walt Disney himself was the ultimate optimist, which is what we still strive for at Disney today. Consistently reinforce that success is possible and show appreciation for others.
Optimism is a personality trait that exists in everyone naturally, and positivity is an attitude that you can choose to have every day. Have a positive impact on others and be careful who you listen to. Some people can bring you down by being overly pessimistic and emotions are highly contagious. What you permit, you promote. Promote positivity. It will have a lasting impact on your cast.
And while it is important to affirm the good things and acknowledge the roles everyone plays in creating an uplifting environment, it is also important to acknowledge what is out of your control and focus your attention on what you can influence. It’s okay for leaders to be vulnerable, but remember to control your emotions and know when and where the appropriate times are for vulnerability. Emotional intelligence and strength is key to good leadership. You need to be self-aware, self-regulating, empathetic, motivated, and possess social skills because your reaction matters. Even if you can’t control a situation, you can control your response to that situation and as a leader, others will look to you to make the right decisions. Situations you didn’t account for will pop up, and change will occur. Prep yourself for changes. Lead with authenticity and do your job without compromising any of your personal or company values.
It’s also important to know how to reframe situations to inspire that positivity and connect with your cast. Rather than saying, “I am laying bricks down”, you can instead say, “I am building a cathedral.”
Innovate with courage. Take informed risks and don’t be afraid to fail. Use failures as lessons. And ask for help! You’re not expected to know everything. You can learn something from every single person, and you will also build stronger relationships with your cast members by asking for help, receiving feedback, and learning from them. Don’t get stuck because what you have “works”. Get out of your comfort zone. Learn. Grow! Seek to do the impossible.
And commit to your purpose. Your purpose is what you do, how you do it, and why you do it. Your leadership purpose is who you are and what makes you distinctive. Once you figure out your purpose, write it down. It’s going to continually change. When you’re feeling lost, re-read your old purpose statements and ask yourself: “Is this still relevant to me, or has this changed?” Update it accordingly.
At the end of the day, I don’t know if I ever will be a Coordinator. I don’t know if I will ever become an “official” Leader. I don’t know where I will be in five years. But I do know that right now, leadership is important to me and I would love to be in a leadership role in the future. Maintaining a vision for success and what will make me happy is important to my growth, wherever I may end up. Visualize your end goal and begin there.
And remember—there are always people who believe in you even when you think there is absolutely no way you can do something. I believe in you. Now go make some magic!
