After 35 years of working at huge companies like Hilton Hotels, Marriott Corporation, and creating magic at Disney, Lee Cockerell left corporate life to finally start independent work. One of Lee’s major and lasting legacies was the creation of Disney Great Leader Strategies which was used to train and develop the 7,000 leaders at Walt Disney World.

He founded the Cockerell Academy designed to give leaders the tools they need to focus on being the kind of leader people admire, doing the right things to manage an organization, and serving people in a way to set them apart.

On Creating Your Encore Career, Lee gave his insights into leadership and the keys to his success:

Takeaways from Creating Magic:

• Hire better people so you don't have to worry about performance.

• Make sure training is really strong because that's how you get people to feel good about their job and feel comfortable and confident. 

• Hire right, train them right, and treat them right, and you'll have a good organization where you can get more done. 

• When people know you're committed to them, they'll do more for you. Then the turnover goes down.

Advice to Young People Today:

• Get around the right people and the right organizations that care about you, train you, and develop you.

• Get experience and exposure to not just education, but experiences and exposure to people from all backgrounds. 

Tips to Improve Customer Experience:

Be reliable and be credible. Keep your promises. Get back to customers. Keep in touch with your customers and check in with them every month to see how they're doing. Even if you're not always trying to sell them something, make sure they know you're available and they can reach you any time. This way, people will get emotionally committed to you.