How do you treat people who highlight problems in your apartment management business? Yes – the squeaky wheels.
Do not Bring me a Problem Without a Solution
Is your natural response to those who bring gifts of unrest and disrepair – “don’t bring me a problem without a solution?” Alternatively, do you quietly clench your fists out of aggravation and offer your own set of solutions? On the other hand, do you blow a gasket and start in with the wit and prose of an aggravated leader?
The problem with – “don’t bring me a problem without a solution” – is that people stop bringing you problems. They even let the most catastrophic of all go unannounced, as they would rather eat razor blades than incur the verbal or nonverbal shaming.
Everything that Happens in the World is an Education
I am a firm believer that everything that happens in the world be it to you or another is a chance to learn or lead. In addition, if you embrace it as such, you will be all the richer for it.
Want to Scale?
If the intent is to scale up your apartment management business – pay absolute loving attention to problems and don’t discriminate between the large-scale and small-scale. Big problems need laser-focused action and small problems – well they become big problems with alarming speed and if not addressed can undermine even the best in breed.
As Mills Properties goes all out to scale the business – we will undoubtedly start the hard work of looking at each behavior that can/will hold us back. Giving attention and education to squeaky wheels is one of those areas. Not to suggest that all the answers will be front and center but tools such as resourcefulness and wherewithal will be. Teaching people to use the tools will be in part – a key to Scaling Up.
From the top down, we must learn to invite problems – no matter the nature – with open hearts and minds. Not as a chance to vilify and shame those that work with and for us. We will look at each as an education in progress, greatness and excellence.
Dividends
Taking time to teach today pays big dividends down the road. More times than not people bring you problems not because they want to displace work. Not because they are lazy. Not because fear paralyzes them. No – it’s because they simply have little to no aptitude for solving them. Moreover, the size of the problem doesn’t matter.
A leader’s job is to teach. So next time someone drops a bomb in your lap. Stop. Breathe and Teach. And do so understanding that dividends pay handsomely over time.
Your looking forward to every problem as an education that will pay dividends Multifamily Maniac,
M