I have written in previous blogs about how close I live to Walt Disney World in Florida. (If you’re new to Teammate Tuesdays, we live close enough that my daughters can watch the Magic Kingdom’s nightly fireworks from their bedroom window.)
Because of my proximity to the park, many of my neighbors are cast members—what Disney calls its employees. This often allows me an opportunity to interact with them when they are off-duty and away from the crowds.
I enjoy hearing their stories about life behind the scenes and what it’s like to work for The Mouse.
Every once in a while, I will catch a cast member using a Disney “work” expression that I really like. Last week was one of those such occasions.
I was speaking to a cast member when he said, “Sometimes you just have to keep your ears up.”
Let me provide some context to the conversation…
We were talking about the unexpected challenges of his job, the sort of things that you would never expect to be an issue, yet very much are. This particular cast member is a manager of a bar in one of the Disney’s on-site hotels. Every night, an onslaught of fathers descends upon his bar, and they can be surprisingly difficult customers.
They are the fathers who have paid beaucoup bucks to bring their families to most magical place on Earth. One would expect individuals on vacation to be in a good mood, but these men rarely are.
They have just spent the entire day carting their whiny, seemingly ungrateful kids around in the sweltering heat. They are physically and mentally exhausted. And they’ve reached their breaking point.
While their wives are putting their kids to bed, they’ve escaped to the hotel bar for a cold adult beverage and few minutes of reprieve.
The cast member told me the negativity radiating from these poor, beatdown fathers can take its toll. It can be incredibly challenging for him to remain positive and maintain the Disney “magic” under these circumstances.
But, as he said, sometimes you just have to keep your ears up.
Obviously, that expression is a reference to the metaphorical Mickey Mouse “ears” that every cast member wears to ensure that all guests have a magical experience.
I like the expression because I think it has relevance to the art of being a good teammate. So many times, we find ourselves surrounded by naysayers on our team. And their toxicity can bring us down and cause us to be jaded.
You can’t let this situation happen to you, or your team. You have to be above your team’s pettiness and see beyond the negativity that seems to be surrounding you. You have to maintain your positive attitude in spite of the toxicity.
In other words, you have to keep your ears up.
Good teammates listen, but in this case, your ears have nothing to do with your willingness to listen. In fact, it’s the exact opposite of that. You must care about your team enough to block out the sound and not listen to the negativity.
As always…Good teammates care. Good teammates share. Good teammates listen. Go be a good teammate.
