Apartment Leadership
Multifamily Leadership: Relentless Courage
We have all been there; sitting around the conference room table discussing the latest property management opportunity, issue or otherwise and you just know in your heart of hearts that no one including yourself is saying the tough stuff. Just this week I posted over at propertymanager.com about courageous conversations and moments of truth. In my head, it is the only way to grow an organization.
I love the way Hugh captures it visually over at gapingvoidgallery
The sting of unspoken words gives cause for what Hugh calls, complete agreement. On the backside we have; 1. That is the stupidest idea I have ever heard. 2. That will never work. 3. I am doing my own thing. Or, worse yet – 4. I’m not changing a thing.
Take away: Don’t be “That Guy” or “That Gal” Instead be – “Not Afraid”
Silence or compliance cheats the group out of being a better organization and you out of being a better leader.
Your ‘Not Afraid’ Contributor,
M
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Multifamily Leadership: Seven Behaviors
It feels like a leadership Friday today. Not sure if it’s the cloudy skies, the chance for rain or the innate need to start a series. I do know that over the long bit of time I have spent in the multifamily business, I tend to naturally migrate to two primary drivers; leadership development and marketing and branding. And, with the advent of the Internet and the massive proliferation of it’s use for marketing apartments much of my time and attention has been invested there. But, as of late I am feeling a draw back to leadership.
Seven Multifamily Leadership Behaviors
Leadership is one of those topics that is rife with, great theory, good thought, wild opinion and plain misinformation. Even I struggle to nail down my own convictions after nearly twenty years of studying the subject both in academia and by real life experience. There are a number of reasons for that ranging from the four distinct generations that make up many of our work teams to the advent and use of efficient communication technologies. That said and for the sake of this series I intend to draw from Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan’s book: Execution.
Execution is not a book about leadership as much as it is about setting up environments that are conducive to getting stuff done. But innate in the literature and as captured in Chapter 3; leadership is really the premise. And, they have narrowed leadership down to seven behaviors that make a lot of sense to me.
Those seven behaviors will be the premise for my seven part series. I hope to get a brief post, focusing on essence, out every Friday which will be a true exercise in discipline for me.
Here are the seven behaviors in list form:
1. Know your people and your business
2. Insist on realism
3. Set clear goals and priorities
4. Follow through
5. Reward the doers
6. Expand people’s capabilities
7. Know yourself
I look forward to expanding on the seven behaviors drawing from my treasure chest of stories. I hope we have some fun sharing.
Your looking forward to a relaxing weekend contributer,
M
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Apartment Leadership – Your Answer May Not be the Only Answer
I read a story today that held a lesson too important not to share. The overarching premise related to creative solutions for business problems. The key lesson being that just because you [leaders] don’t get the answer you are looking for does not mean the answer is not an acceptable solution for the problem.
Allow me to take you back to my childhood for a second to bring this point home. I grew up on a farm just South of a small town on the Eastern Plains of New Mexico. The summers, outside of crazy boring chores, were packed with a ton of down time. My only mode of transportation were two wheels straddled by a frame, two peddles and a seat. It was four miles along the highway to the edge of town and another four to my nearest friend. Needless to say, I was not jumping at the chance to make the trip very often.
Both of my parents worked so my sister and I were left to make the best of each day. Days that included a long list of chores to complete before they made it home. On one occasion that list included a request for me to pull an acre of weeds no less than four feet tall [exaggerated for emphasis]. A project that wold have taken the better part of two days to accomplish [no exaggeration on this point].
Now I don’t claim to be any more resourceful than the next guy or gal but I can say that if there is a more efficient way to do something, trust that I am going to find it. In this instance, I went next door and asked by neighbor if I could borrow a few of his healthiest farm animals to assist in my assignment. He agreed and it took them the better part of a half-day to complete the project. They mowed the weeds right down to the dirt and in many cases pulled them out by the root. Needless to say, I was very proud of my accomplishment and could not wait to share it with my step-father.
“What were you thinking? I asked you to PULL the weeds,” he thundered upon my sharing. I was shocked. Devastated. And, angry. Why was my solution any less effective than his alternative? The reason according to the story I read this morning was because it was not his desired solution.
Getting to the point, how many times in our property management careers have we been put off or put back by resourceful thinkers that get things done in a different or better fashion than you. Do you coach them as it relates to your desired solution? Did you coach out of an underlying premise of frustration or anger? Here are some things to think about if you are in this crowd of thinkers:
1. Are you stalling creativity?
2. Are you screening out innovation?
3. Are you killing a free thinking environment?
4. Are you killing moral?
5. Are you losing good people?
Photo Credit: conversations.nokia.com
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Apartment Leadership: Team Meeting
I was chatting with Behind the Leasing Desk’s Heather Blume last evening and the topic of leadership came up. Then by some stroke of Seth Godin genius the follow blog post pops up this morning. Seth’s Blog: Check-in, Chicken. In essence, it speaks to the value in checking in with your team. And, in an effort to prime the pump for an post I am going to pen for Heather, I thought I would share a story with you.
In late 1999, I lived in Seattle Washington where I worked for Equity Residential. At the time I lead a twenty person team at a 750 unit property called Waterstone Place since sold and renamed Club Palisades. The property gave a whole new meaning to the words – never a dull moment. That being said, I had the pleasure of working with some crazy cool people who loved what they did for a living. It was fun to them. Hard work but lots of fun. And, as a team we practiced the art of checking in.
Every weekday morning started with the admin and sales team listening as I read from both old and new inspirational and motivation books. Truth be told, I’m not certain everyone loved it as much as I did nevertheless they indulged me. I remember reading lines from books like Think and Grow Rich and The Laws of Success by Napoleon Hill. Stories of definite major purpose, courage, desires and wherewithal. All powerful and rich with discipline. A few paragraphs everyday with one follow up question – what did that passage make you think? Around the room we would go – one by one – sharing. To this day – I take reminders from that group of people of the power in that exercise and what it meant to the team. We took the site to a historic 98.8% occupied with just 2.2% of the inventory left to lease at the pinnacle. I have to believe in some way that the power of checking in every morning had something to do with it.
Have a crazy amazing Friday and check in with your team – I know I need to!
m
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Property Management Company: Cause
It seems to me that Property Management Companies are in essence Professional Service Firms. The chief objectives are to maximize the physical and fiscal performance of a real estate asset for institutional and or private owners. But are they really called to be and do more?
Property Management Company: Cause
I received an email not long ago asking a question along the lines of finding a cause for a firm – in an email exchange I penned the following:
I see a cause as being something bigger than self or team. To me – it’s audacious in nature. And, it has nothing to do with selling more stuff but everything to do with building individual and organizational character as a way of changing the world. I don’t use – changing the world – in jest. It is the only premise with which to build an organization. In my head organizations are built to serve the people that serve it – period. That is first and foremost. If built right all else will fall into place. An organization that focuses on building character will see that character exercised in the way of success on every level with every metric.
I think Emerson said it best when he penned the following:
“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children…to leave the world a better place…to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
Capture that in the way of a cause that lays over your companies mission, vision, strategy and goals that help to execute as much and you have something people can believe in. You will have found something that people can get out of bed in the morning for – you can change the lives of hundreds if not thousands and as a default – you will create wealth beyond your imagination and more important – the imaginations of those that are served by the organization. They will have lived what Emerson had in mind – all because you made a decision to offer up a worthy cause.
Do you have a cause? What is it? Why do you think it is important?
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