You feel a responsibility to your work, a need for a personal life and what can sometimes feel like a hopeless desire for a little more time to spend on the activities you enjoy most. Finding the right work-life balance may not require working less hours, but it will require a greater focus on how your time is spent. Here are five tips from WebMD that may help bring balance back to your daily routine:1. Build downtime into your schedule: Building activities that you enjoy into your schedule not only gives you something to look forward to during your week, it ensures that your priorities are just that. Unscheduled time has a tendency of escaping even the best of intentions.2. Drop activities that sap your time or energy: Your habits could be working against you without your knowledge. Spending time checking bank accounts, collecting office gossip and engaging in other similar counterproductiv …… Continue reading →

Disney and Marvel recently partnered to create one of the highest grossing summer blockbusters of all time, The Avengers. But how can a seemingly rudimentary comic book series turned blockbuster apply to your business? Here are three lessons you can take away from The Avengers success:• Reward your true fans: The comic book reading genre is a special subset of the population, but that didn’t prevent writers from injecting insider references throughout a movie intended for a mass audience. The moral? Do not lose sight of your most loyal customers as you seek out ways to attract new ones.• Think big picture: The Avengers was not an idea created subsequent to the release of four distinct superhero movies, but rather, a deliberate collaboration …… Continue reading →

Initially it may be difficult to determine individual strengths on your team. When a leader spends time and communicates with employees, he/she begins to recognize different strengths and can align talent in the best way possible. Engage your employees to figure out their passions, and let your team members try different things. Team building activities are also important to unify your team, develop relationships and build trust. Tells us what you think is the best way to identify strengths? How do you then align your team members to execute those strengths? …… Continue reading →

The importance of organizational health is often lost on companies afflicted with a bias, suggesting that they are they are “above” the task, looking for a quicker fix or are otherwise unable to quantify how an improvement in organizational health will impact the bottom line.As Patrick Lencioni, best-selling author and President of The Table Group notes, it is almost impossible to create and maintain a competitive advantage based on knowledge alone. With the speed that information travels and the ease with which knowledge can be captured, copied and transferred, companies are forced to look elsewhere to increase their competitive advantage. Here are four disciplines Patrick suggests are essential to building a healthy organization and maintaining a competitive edge:1. Build a cohesive leadership team: Be vulnerable. Great leaders use vulnerability to create trust with their employees.2. Continue reading →

The pressure of meeting deadlines can be a powerful force. Disney Imagineers believe that the best ideas are brought to life after being given time to mature. They spend a considerable amount of time writing and can, on occasion, find it difficult to create a new idea or keep the ball rolling. Here are several steps you can take to help avoid writer’s block and meet your next deadline on time:• Get something on paper first: Resist the temptation to stare at a blank page. Some with something, anything, to work with.• Set it aside: Sometimes the best course of action is to set the project aside for a few weeks, days or even minutes.• Come back later: Once you have given yourself a break from your project, come back and look for ways to improve the work you have already done. Consider asking the opinion of a coworker or friend.• Continue reading →

Creating an engaging and collaborative work environment is an ongoing challenge tasked to all leaders. But similar to personal relationships, working relationships require give and take, as well as a sense of commitment in order to flourish.Here are five behaviors that, according to Forbes Contributor, Meghan Biro, leaders can exhibit to encourage happier, more loyal employees:1. Tell the truth: As obvious as it may seem, leaders may be forced to make difficult decisions regarding teams, promotions, responsibilities and other challenges that present a chance to place  blame. Take this as an opportunity to motivate your employees and show your willingness to be upfront and honest.2. Communicate roles and responsibilities: Staying on the same page as the rest of your team is crucial. Provide them with clearly defined roles and paths to success and develop performance plans for those w …… Continue reading →

It’s important to care for your employees, but actually putting it into practice requires a plan and tangible services. At Disney, we value the morale and health of our Cast Members and are committed to providing them with quality service.Some areas offer on-site tailoring and dry cleaning services, while other departments have a “Company D” Store, accessible to all Cast Members where they can buy items such as stamps, Cast Member-exclusive merchandise and discounted movie tickets. An on-site YMCA is also available for individuals needing childcare. We believe that by assisting Cast Members with personal needs, they will be better able to perform in their roles. Here are some ways you can help care for your employees:• Provide flexible work hours for employee to take care of personal or family needs.• Work with other local business to extend discounts for individuals in your organization.• Think about adding your own on-site store. …… Continue reading →

“What time is the 3 o’clock parade?”That is a question asked at Disney theme parks more frequently than you might expect, but rarely is that the true question the Guests intended to ask. Guests, encapsulated by an abundance of sights and sounds, are often asking for something more than simply the time of the parade. This provides our Cast Members the opportunity to go above and beyond simply repeating the time to the guest, which may otherwise be a satisfactory answer.Instead, Cast Members take this opportunity to draw from their theme park knowledge and training. They may let the Guest know what time the parade will go through certain parts of the park, offer the best vantage points to view the parade or advise when to leave another area and still arrive at the parade on time.Ask yourself, what is your organization’s “3 o’clock parade” question? How will you train your employees to anticipate customer’s needs and forgo t …… Continue reading →