Search Results for: goals
Multifamily Types: What is Your Something New?
I love what Seth’s Blog: said on the likes of sitting down to begin your day:
You’ve just surrendered not only a block of time but your freshest, best chance to start something new.
Time Sucks
It’s true; if I start my day in the office I inevitably get caught up in the race to get my inbox count to zero. Or, I get drawn into the necessary but time sucking “got a minute” conversations. Both of which leave the “move your business forward” stuff to suffer. There has to be a better alternative.
Something New
My something new for this year? It’s not really new but it is a more determined effort to exercise a relentless focus on delivering the things that matter most. Things that move my business forward. Things that keep my apartment management clients, collaborators and vendors feeling connected, communicated with and most important – wowed.
With that I’m considering a more mindful approach to consuming email, Twitter, Facebook and the such. I’ll be focused more on the end result of my actions as opposed to the processes that get me there. I’ll employ the build backwards approach to getting things done; thinking first of the end goal then the avenues and resources to get me there. It’s saying no more often. No to email. And, no to – got a minute meetings. A more controlled approach if you will.
First Things First As it Relates to Business
I am making this blog one of my first things first. I’ve admittedly been all over the board with my posting efforts. Will I do it better in ’12? Will I do it more in ’12? Will I at very least be more consistent? I think so. One of my blogging goals is to post on Mondays (Brief: inspirational – motivational) and Fridays (Apartment marketing, operations and at the urging of a friend some accounting).
Main takeaway – take control of your time as it will always be happy to take control of you.
Your taking back control of his time multifamily maniac,
M
Photo credit: GoodROI Internet Marketing
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How do I Build Habits?
I am often asked questions that lead with the word, how. How do you do this, how do you do that, how can I be or do better in my career, life or otherwise. Or, how do you go about creating good professional habits? Which follows the lines of my favorite question, also the premise of this post; how do you get out of bed so early in the morning? My answer: I made it a habit.
Those that know me, know that I work crazy hours often times hitting the pillow right prior to the rooster’s announcement of the day to come. And, I rise at roughly 6:00am everyday without the aid of an alarm clock. It used to be 5am but the older I get the more sleep I am learning I need.
How Did I Build the Habit of Rising Early?
It all started in college. I played basketball at Texas Tech University back in the early 90’s and part of our pre-season conditioning was running at 5am – 4 days a week. Imagine trying to have a social life while being a student while training for basketball – its brutal. Granting the pre-season training was just a six-week stretch; it was still tough. And, required good habits. Rising early being one of them.
Rising early was not an easy task and getting to bed earlier was just not an option at that time in my life. So, what did I do? I put the alarm clock as far away from my bed as I possibly could. That act alone forced me to get out of bed and walk to turn it off. At that point it was absolute will power to not crawl back between the sheets. Now granted; I had massive leverage in that missing a morning run meant a serious consequence up to and including losing my full ride scholarship. But the action of getting out of bed that early over a six-week stretch, even with three days a week off, got me in the habit of rising early. And, I have never looked back.
Laying the Foundation Habits
What does rising early have to do with building good professional habits? I see three things in the life experience cited above; 1. catalyst 2. will power 3. massive leverage. It’s not one but all three working together that builds good habit.
Catalyst
Professionally [using a marketing bent], your catalyst should marry around something to the effect of; you will be the greatest social marketing master of all time. No kidding. Okay, maybe master is a stretch given the constantly changing environment. The point is that you must be willing to sacrifice massive amounts of time, effort and brain power to get up the curve and stay there. And, don’t think once you get there you can coast. It’s just as hard if not harder to maintain the pace concerning innovation, consistency, quality and quantity.
Will Power
To put it bluntly – some days it will just suck to be you. How do I get over that? I read a book some years ago that depicted a scenario where you pick the thing about your day that you just don’t want to do and go about making that the ‘knock it out of the park over the top most compelling and rich’ thing you have ever done in your life time. Try it – you’ll get the point when you get to the end of the project.
Massive Leverage
How do I create this in my life? I think about two things 1. My wife and kids depend on me to be the best I can be. 2. My good self can only be expanded upon or reduced upon by me. No one runs my game. I am responsible for the good, the bad and the ugly every day of the week. And to make sure I remember that; I read my personal creed along with my personal, professional and economic goals every single morning and with massive passion [read: creating massive leverage]. Read enough, things just seem to come together. I really can’t explain it except to tell you that it works 100% of the time.
Your rising early multifamily manic,
M
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Multifamily Leadership: Reward the Doers
Execution and results are the name of the game in any and all business. Be it for profit or not for profit, getting things done that most positively effect the outcome is the chief aim. And, there are several ways to make sure your multifamily business is achieving results. There is the almighty stick and the ever enticing carrot. Threats and rewards. For the sake of this post and the continuation of this leadership series let us focus on reward.
Multifamily Doers
What is a doer? I heard a saying one time that went something like this; I would rather catch a tiger by the tail than have to light a fire under an elephant’s ass. It speaks loudly in the way of defining a doer. Doer’s get things done. They move mountains. They find ways that others never even dream about much less think about. They never let a day go by without making meaningful progress toward their goals and aspirations. And, doers get rewarded.
Three Suggestions
1. Measure what you expect and reward what you measure
2. Reward the doers far in excess of the status quo – exaggerated and excessively reward the doers
3. Promote those that get things done – quickly
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Multifamily #Trust30: Character
Day 14 of the #Trust30 challenge – Trust
…Decide what you want the future to be and make it happen. Because you can. Write about your future now.
(Author: Cindy Gallop)
It’s an elegant way of saying Trust thyself. There is no way of really telling how many times a year we have brilliant ideas cross our mind only to be lost in the same instance. And, no way to tell just how many times that dismissal is a direct result of our innate lack of trust in our own wherewithal. Or, back to that ever persistent dream killer – fear.
What do I want people to say about me when I die
A number of years ago I took the time to write a personal creed for myself. The soul-searching was prompted by a book I was reading at the time; don’t quote me but I do believe it was Steven Covey’s 8th Habit. The methodology included thinking about your very own funeral. I know, morbid huh?
You are at the back of the room as you watch four people take the stage to speak about you: a family member, a co-worker, a coach, mentor, friend or otherwise and a civic/church member. In the exercise you wrote about all the things you would want those individuals to say about you. In doing so you would discern the things that meant the most to you in the way you would want to live life. In a word: character.
Once you defined the character traits, the next step consisted of writing your creed. And, once the creed was written it was time to pen your goals and strategies with which you went about achieving them, predicated on the creed. Or, what you were going to do to build your character.
Character leads the way
Every year in early Jan, I sit and pen my goals for the coming calendar year along with five years and ten years down the road. All predicated on my creed. All in an effort to work on character first, accomplishment second and gathering of things third. In my head if I work on character, accomplishments will come followed closely by money and the things that money can buy.
Over time I will post the creed and the goals that go along with it as one of the last steps in the methodology is to share openly with those that would hold you accountable to living up to what you penned. But, not yet.
What about you; what methodology do you use to create the future for yourself?
Your working on 2011 goals predicated on creed and aiming for good character contributor,
M
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Multifamily Leadership: Follow Through
Mike Brewer · · 1 Comment
Up to this point in our Seven Behaviors Leadership Series we have talked about Knowing Your People and Knowing Your Business, Insisting on Realism , Setting Clear Goals and Priorities.
In today’s entry we are going to discuss follow through. I have disclosed my follow through epiphany story a couple of times on this and a couple other blogs. It really was the turning point for me in my career as the point of follow through hit me right between the eyes. It was one of the those duh! moments.
Multifamily Team Follow Through
That said and on the heels of our Relentless Courage a couple weeks ago. The post spoke to people withholding comments and feedback in group meeting forums. So much gets missed if we don’t encourage an open culture where feedback is paramount to getting better. Once you have the sharing culture set in place; follow through should be next on the list.
Four Things to Consider
1. Team leaders/communicators have to make objectives or action items very clear. Ask clarifying questions such as; Do you understand what is expected? or Is there anything you don’t understand about what we need to get accomplished?.
2. Help people understand the ‘Why behind the what’ of follow through items. Helping people see the big picture assists with two things
a. They see the action item as a mission and not a task
b. They understand that the action is assisting in the creation of something bigger than self. A key motivating factor for many
3. Set the right follow through mechanisms in place. Who is responsible? How will they track? Who will they report out to? When?
4. Ask questions along the way. Don’t just assign and forget. As the leader, it is imperative that you check in along the way.
5. Always conduct postmortems? Review the results of follow through or lack thereof. There is tremendous value in replaying events.
Your off to follow through on today’s commitments contributor,
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