Oct 11, 2018
Disney goes out of their way to create magical moments for guests but what about for the employees?
If you’re going to do something for your guests you need to give a taste of that to your employees.
Sometimes when you’re heads down in your work you can forget to think about the moments that need recognition so it's a great idea to have someone around who will remind you of this or put things on your calendar as a check-in to see if you’ve done anything for the organization lately to recognize your team.
At times at Disney, we’d underestimate the number of guests who would come to the park and we’d have to make a call to extend the park hours so the guests can have the right experience. This, of course, meant that the cast would need to stay later as well which would interrupt their day. We created a process for this where if we ever had to do that, at night when everything was closing we’d have a cart of snacks and treats we’d give out to our cast as a ‘thank you’ for staying late.
Showing you appreciate the effort of everyone is really important and a little bit extra goes a long way. People won’t forget how you made them feel. A nice touch that makes a memorable moment is if you can send a note or gift to the home of an employee as a ‘thank you’ for loaning your wife or husband during a really busy time if they had to put in some extra hours.
If someone works hard, make sure you give them that recognition. There’s never anything wrong with letting people know how much you appreciate them. Thoughts and small gestures really count.
Recognize those that earn it rather than worrying about the favoritism piece.