Bravery Before Perfection: Interview with Longtime Disney Executive Jim MacPhee
I recently went one on one with longtime Disney executive Jim MacPhee. Jim spent 43 years at Disney and served as COO/SVP of Operations at Walt Disney World.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Jim: Thank you Adam, and let me start out by saying how much I appreciated the opportunity to take part in this discussion. How did I get here?.. .Wow.. that’s a big question. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I believe my path was set in 1978, when I was faced with a difficult teenage life decision…what am I going to do with myself. Having grown up in the hospitality business in Ormond/Daytona Beach, Florida, working in service oriented positions across hotels, restaurants and the like was a way of life while going through high school. I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in this area. I went to Florida State University, where they have a robust Hotel / Restaurant degree program, and started plugging away. After my second year, I hadn’t settled on whether this was the immediate, right path for me, so I spoke with my parents about taking a break from academics and working more deeply in the hospitality industry.
This was roughly 1978, and Walt Disney World had opened in 1971. My father reluctantly supported my recent choice to take a break from college, but was clear to say that he expected me to work right out of the gate. He suggested perhaps I check out that place called Walt Disney World. Little did I know at the time that his advice would set the course for my next four decades.
As far as “failures, setbacks and challenges”…there have been quite a few! But fortunately the successes far outweighed them. There are several things I would consider in these categories…failures…I’m thankful that I haven’t had many, but with taking risks, failure is inevitable. I was blessed to work in an environment where we embraced trying new and different things. Our batting average was pretty solid, but in hindsight, there were many things I’d adjust the dials on. For me personally, the biggest challenge I faced was a prostate cancer diagnosis in 2012. I had a pretty complicated disease, which led me to the Mayo Clinic, and I’ve been going there at least twice a year for the last decade. While challenging, it played a major role in illuminating the fact that life is fleeting, the relationships we build with those around us are extraordinarily important…and finite. I’ve used this as a catalyst to approach work as one part of life, and to live each day blessed to be alive, and blessed to have an incredible network of friendships and support.
Adam: What do you hope readers take away from your new book?
Jim: When I retired, I hadn’t planned on writing a book. After being encouraged by several close, respected colleagues, and talking it through with my wife Marty, we concluded that – what the heck/why not – there is no better way to leave a legacy for my family…Marty, Anna and Carter…than taking a look back on my journey. What I hope people take away is the fact that leaderships matters, and relationships – at work or at play – matter more. I truly believe that I was successful through this principle, and that the workforce is motivated and inspired by those who invest in their cast members / employees. At the heart of leadership, the ability to engage and inspire those they work with is a fundamental key to great leadership. Technical knowledge and expertise is important, but if you are going to get people to follow you up the mountain, they have to believe that you believe in them.
Adam: What are the best leadership lessons you learned from your years as a Disney executive?
Jim: I believe that leaders who possess the ability to think both vertically and horizontally are going to be the most successful. Of course, in an ecosystem like Disney, there are many, many moving parts. At Walt Disney World, I was charged as COO with leading nearly 55,000 cast members (employees) across parks, resorts, RD&E, sports, transportation, etc. I was fortunate to learn the value of not just delivering these experiences vertically but connecting the dots on how they all came together to create a holistic, end to end view of our business. Our consumers don’t care about org charts…they want, in fact demand, a seamless and end to end experience. It was my responsibility to wake up every day thinking about how we could improve our experiences, and therefore our business, in a holistic and end to end way. So, stepping back, the best leadership lesson I learned is that we are all part of a bigger, interconnected environment that has to work seamlessly across all verticals.
Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader?
Jim: I talk a lot about the importance of authentic, transparent and humble leadership, recognizing that my role is to help remove barriers and enable the great people I work with to do their absolute best. And do so through a mindset of commitment versus compliance. That’s not an easy task. I often reflect on what inspired me early in my career, and it was really because leaders invested in me on a “whole” level. It wasn’t necessarily about the task, but more so about the purpose and the “why”. They made me feel a part of a bigger picture with clarity on how my contributions would make a difference. They wanted to know about what motivated me in life, not just in work. This authenticity inspired me to want to do more and be a part of a bigger picture.
Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Jim: I think step one in the answer to this question is to be vulnerable, humble and recognizing that we always have more to learn. Seeking to understand a company’s mission and vision, and how you can contribute to that, is key. I also think that everyone needs to look outside themselves to broaden their diverse thinking, build a solid base of diverse experiences to become more familiar with the interconnectivity of how different roles, departments, disciplines etc play in to it, and so on. And then finally to recognize that an organizations success isn’t accomplished by one or two individuals, but rather the sum of the energy that is created when teams work together to get to where they want to go.
Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams?
Jim: It wasn’t that long ago where a common theme in team building was to assemble like-minded individuals to accomplish the goals. While I wish I would have recognized this earlier, it became clear that the exact opposite is key – surround yourself with diverse thinking, diverse experiences and even contrarians that challenge you to think differently. My favorite quote is from the book of Romans…”Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but transform through the renewal of your mind…”. Conformity is the enemy of greatness, and the ability to diversify yourself and your team is paramount to sustainment AND growth.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?
Jim:
Be Curious – hunt vs. farm
Be Bold, Be Brave – bravery before perfection
Define Your Destination and GO…be nimble and agile along the way
Adam: What can entrepreneurs and leaders learn from the Disney experience?
Jim: First of all, any organization needs to be clear on it’s purpose…it’s “why”, and relentlessly deliver excellence in the pursuit of them. We were blessed to have incredible IP, and branding. More important, storytelling. Our experiences are built around rich, evergreen stories, and those that are new to the world. I am also an advocate of transformation. I love the definition of the two words experience and transformation. “Experiences” are defined as how we make people FEEL at various stages of interacting with our product. It’s not the number of things people do, but how we make them feel. “Transformation” is defined as the process of profound, radical change that reorients a company/organization – it’s culture, it's leadership and it’s product – to an entirely different level of effectiveness. I love transformation, and consider it an important leadership tenet to deliver “above and beyond” results to a company, it’s consumers and it’s shareholders.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Jim: Wow that’s a deep question. For me, humility is paramount to a leader's success. In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins talked about level 5 leadership as the top 3% of CEO/COO level leadership, and he said that the virtue of humility, along with drive, was the key enabler. I was encouraged often to respectfully challenge the status quo and seek the “why” behind decisions. And what I learned as I grew through the organization was that it was my privilege and responsibility to articulate that “why” behind my decisions and in stating our overarching direction.
Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?
Jim: In this day and age, with everchanging cultural and geopolitical dynamics, it’s really important for an organization to connect to the hearts and minds of their employees in order to create a culture of commitment. Now more than ever, the workforce has a myriad of choices to pick from. The leadership teams that first Engage, then Inspire will ultimately Lead their teams to accomplish the impossible. Product development is competitive…but if we go back to the definition of Experience – how we make people feel – to me that’s the most powerful competitive differentiation an organization can have to surprise, delight and ultimately win.
Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.
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