Scott Wolf: What is Ambassador 101?

Diane Killeen: One of the things I had been wanting to do for awhile and just never found the time to do was to create a workshop to prepare Cast Members for the interview process. Becky and Andrae stayed on a second year for the 50th Anniversary (2005) and they were in charge of putting that program together and they came up with a five week developmental workshop called Ambassador 101 and you can sign up for it in the spring.

We spend five weeks covering all the different aspects of how to prepare yourself for the interview.

First you learn what the Ambassador program is, it's history, it's heritage, what the role is so you really understand it. Then the next time you go through interviewing skills.

They're three hour sessions so you'll spend the three hours learning about what are the things you want to highlight about yourself in an interview, and then we do mock interviews with them. We bring people in from all over the resort and they are set up in peer interviews and they get feedback right then. Coaching, right then after they finish their interviews.

The next week we do presentation skills, so somebody from Entertainment comes in and spends three hours with them, actually doing interviews.

Then we do media. They spend three hours with a media consultant, teaching them how to do on camera interviews. They actually film them and we give them their DVD at the end so they have not only what they did, but the coaching provided by the consultant.

Then the last day we combine two sessions. We do business etiquette and business communications. So they learn how to eat properly, how to dress themselves and introduce themselves and handshakes and all those kind of important things. Then the next half of the class they'll learn how to write proper thank you letters. So after you're done with an interview, what arethe things that you want to make sure you cover in a thank you note? Just really that written communication piece. That is all to prepare them for the interview process.

That sounds like a reason to work for Disneyland even if someone didn't want to be Ambassador!

Well, some people choose to go through it and they're not ever going to apply (for Ambassador), but they're using it for developmental.

We've seen in the candidates that come through from the first round since we implemented 101, the improvement is amazing. They are prepared, they know what to expect in the interview, they kind of get media, they understand what they're supposed to do when they're doing a mock media interview and the quality is just so much better.

Who teaches Ambassador 101?

DK: The Ambassadors teach two of the classes, we partner with other areas, and then I teach the business etiquette. We bring somebody else in for written communication.

What is your involvement in the Ambassador program?

DK: I manage the entire program here, so I am responsible from the ground up. From the marketing and recruitment of the new Cast Members, putting them through the entire interview process, providing them their coaching the feedback along the way. So after each interview I take a lot of notes, and also the people interviewing them will take a lot of notes, then I provide individual coaching to everybody that comes to the program. So whether or not you go on you have the opportunity to come back for some coaching.

It sounds like “American Idol”, after each time you're giving them tips to help them through to the next round.

DK: Yeah, exactly, we want them to improve and whether or not they choose to come back the next year and interview or not it's beneficial to know what am I doing great in an interview, and what are the things I need to improve upon? How beneficial to get it from how many different areas of the resort.

So I do provide them the coaching the feedback at each level all the way through to the executive interview. I do arrange those. We put them through a little bit of training in between their interviews so I can observe them in media. We'll put them on Cast TV (the internal television station for Disneyland Cast Members). See how they react in front of a camera. See how their kind of acting skills are, because there are times they have to do that. We'll put them out to dinners with executives to see how comfortable they are. We want to make sure that not only do they have all the presentation skills and everything, but I want you to be comfortable sitting next to (current Disneyland president) Ed Grier for a dinner. Are you able to make that conversation? I send them out to Disney VoluntEARS activities during that week so I can see them interacting with Cast.

It's also important that I see how the candidates are acting with one another because I want to be make sure that their chemistry is really good, so if you're both selected, I know that I watched you, you interact very well. You have strengths that he doesn't, and he's bringing strengths that you don't and together they make a phenomenal team.

When I talked with Becky and Andrae I was impressed with how well they worked together and the chemistry they had together.

DK: Yeah, it's amazing. For me, that's ninety percent of the battle, if they have a chemistry and they can connect and they have things they can bring to the table and share and learn from one another, that's half my battle. You can give them the presentation skills and really work with them with the media, but they have to have that true connection as well. People pick up on that.

The first interview is a pair interview, so there's three of them in there at the time and that's when I'm really watching for how you interact with one another because that's really telling. If you're only concentrating on yourself, that's probably something that you're probably going to need to be coached on and work on.

The second interview they do on their own, but they've been provided a lot of coaching between that time period, and then the third interview with Ed and his executive team is on their own.

And you continue to narrow down finalists after each interview?

DK: Yes. Everybody that applies and qualifies, that meets all the minimum requirements for the position is interviewed. Then we decide as a group, how many to pass on to what we call semi-final candidates. We agree as a whole, with everybody in that room, that with the proper training, we all agree that we would use those folks as Ambassadors. If somebody in there says, "You know, I would not be able to use them for media because they have," and I'm just making this up, "a high-pitched voice, and I don't think it's coachable, I don't think it's trainable, I wouldn't be able to use them." Then we can't pass them on because they have to be able to be used in every category of Ambassador usage. What if one is not available and what if you go out on tour and the only one you have to go do media is the one that you are not agreeing to. So we all unanimously agree and then the second time those folks get interviewed we narrow that down to final candidates. We don't have a preset number. I don't say, "We need four people," or "We need five people." The candidates that we feel truly, truly exemplify all the Ambassador qualities and have those skills and that we think with the proper training will be great Ambassadors are the ones that get to go on.

That's when I spend the week with them and we put them in different scenarios and we provide them with ongoing coaching, not only from that interview but from everything they're doing that week, and then they have their final interview with Ed. Even after they're final interview and they're selected, I do provide them with coaching from that and everybody that didn't make it, they usually come back and we provide coaching, too.

Does Ed give you his personal feedback after that last interview?

DK: I sit in in that final interview so I actually get to hear all of their dialogue and I do write a lot of notes down. They'll share a lot of comments, too. They'll even say, "Even though they didn't make it, would you be sure to pass along to this person that we think they were wonderful in this particular area?" So that's great coaching to be able to provide that, too.

More from Diane:
The role of the Disneyland Ambassador

Once an Ambassador is selected

Hospital visits, and Diane's personal favorite Ambassador memory


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