Because my wife and I live in a rural development about 30 minutes south from where we work, we have taken to listening to audio books during our commute. For the most part, we have listened to young adult fiction (entertaining and never contains questionable content like adult fiction), but while I was at the public library one day, I picked up a copy of “Creating Disney Magic” by Lee Cockerell. We had just been to Orlando the month before, so I was curious to see what were the “secrets” behind Disney leadership strategies.
To be honest, our Orlando experience did not leave me with a fantastic impression of Disney hospitality and service. We enjoyed Walt Disney World, but we found the staff to be less friendly and polite than Disneyland (and in fact we sometimes found the Orlando staff to be sarcastic, indifferent, or sometimes rude). We were also not particularly impressed with the services including the unreliable Disney bus transportation. Still, I recognize that Disney is huge and that the hospitality and tourism industry must have enormous turnover, so the fact that our experience was as good as it was, was remarkable.
My original interest in this book was mostly curiousity, but as I listened, it caused me to critically reflect on my own work environments and how I perceived my managers. I concluded that I had had a couple amazing supervisors who truly exemplified the qualities honoured by Disney. Those two jobs were ones where not only did I feel like I was making a meaningful difference, but I was excited to push ,myself and learn new skills on the job.
Unfortunately, I also recognized several issues that are likely the source of my frustration, discouragement, and general apathy at my current job. I began to make a list of all the things that were wrong with my current job environment and how all of it was someone else’s fault. Thankfully, before this got too out of hand, I decided to take a different approach. Rather than use this book to condemn my work environment, I used the advice to reflect on my limited scope as a leader and supervisor. I came up with a list of several things I would like to try implementing:
- Make a comprehensive list of job duties for the graduate students that I supervise.
- Schedule regular weekly meetings with ALL of these grad students, and use that time for mini TESOL professional development session should they not have any specific questions/concerns.
- Share “good” gossip about what these teachers are doing with one another. Help them feel a sense of community and feel comfortable contacting and interacting with one another.
- Prepare an agenda and email it out to all staff members who attend our weekly staff meetings.
Ironically, as I look at this list now, I realize that those are all things that I used to do at my last job. And they worked. So why did I stop? I think the adjustment to the new job, the confusion that I experienced for the first 8 eights as a result of no training or orientation, and the lack of co-worker support (I’m basically on my own here) all wiped me out. I feel as though I have been operating at a reduced level of effectiveness, and it hasn’t gotten any better this summer when I had to run a summer program with even less support (and still plenty of teacher problems).
Yet, I am determined to improve my outlook and my productivity. It’s not easy, but as Cockerell states, “It’s not the magaic that makes things work; it’s the way we work that makes things magic.” I don’t have to have a perfect job to feel good about my ability; I need to feel good about my in order to develop this job into something that is meaningful and successful.
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