Search Results for: top talent
Story Teller
Image source: Sharon Cauthen
Story Teller
By: Sharon Cauthen
Recently, I was clearing out a box of old photos and papers when I came across two pages of childish script. I knew instantly what it was, and I felt transported to a moment in time – the emotions of the day flooding back in an instant. The truth is, I’ve never forgotten what happened and how it made me feel. It was a simple story that went something like this…
When I was in fourth grade, our teacher assigned a creative writing assignment. I loved writing and spent much of my no-frills home life tuned in to my internal fanciful thinking or reading anything I could get my hands on. For the assignment, I wrote a story called Lifecycle describing in youthful detail, the beginning, middle, and the predetermined end. There was a special gotcha at the end of the story, of which I was particularly proud. I turned in my paper, eager for a good grade and some recognition from a teacher who never quite seemed to like me very much.
The paper was returned to me with a notation in bright red across the top – “Was this plagiarized?” and a score of F! The shock of embarrassment ran through my body as my face flamed red and my heart pounded loudly enough to drown out the sound of anything but its beat in my ears. Students sitting in nearby desks could see the terrible grade and the angry red writing scrawled on my paper. Having my clever idea and hard work dismissed as something I wasn’t capable of stung, and I felt tears threatening to spill over.
I had to take a note home to my parents who were none too pleased. They were the kind of parents who always stood behind the teacher whenever there was an issue, but on this one (and one other story I’ll save for another day), they stood up for me. You see, I had written the story at home, sitting at the kitchen table and I read it out loud to my family because I felt so giddy with the preciousness of my story idea and its surprise ending. There were a thousand things they would have believed the teacher about – but my ability to craft this story wasn’t one of them. Their faith in my storytelling skills gave me the runway and confidence to continue writing to this day.
I learned a lesson that day that superseded one young girl’s paper. It serves me still today.
Anyone in a position of authority can leave a scar with one ill-conceived or short-tempered remark, the pain of which may never be forgotten. Building up the confidence of others and recognizing their talents pays back and forwards.
Lift people up whenever you can. A simple acknowledgment that you see them and appreciate their contributions is important but taking the time to learn about their interests and passion projects beyond their daily job duties is heady stuff. It’s magical. The people who fill our teams are whole multifaceted humans who possess untapped potential.
One final thought. Believe people until there is a real reason not to. It’s been almost half a century and I still remember my creative writing assignment, and I vividly recall the feeling of knowing how it felt to be denied – and who believed in me.
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That’s Bananas!
Photo Credit: Savannah Bananas Twitter
That’s Bananas!
Bananas are a very versatile fruit – a good source of potassium, magnesium, and vitamins B6 and C – and are consumed plain, in recipes, and as an ingredient in many a smoothie. Did you know that bananas are berries, but blackberries, mulberries, and raspberries are not? This article published by McGill University in Canada explains this fact in much greater detail. But suffice to say that things can be radically different than what we believe. We get so attached to the truth as we know that it can be incredibly difficult to allow our brains to embrace a different reality.
Jesse Cole figured out how to crack the code. In 2016, the Savannah Bananas took to the field. A minor league baseball team, the Bananas understand that baseball isn’t just about the fundamentals and stats – it’s about entertainment. And boy oh boy – this is a team that knows how to entertain! They sing, dance, and sell out every game and win more games than any other team in their league. Their mascot is a muscle-bound banana named Split. Of course.
Part PT Barnum, part Harlem Globetrotters and part like nothing you’ve ever seen – the Bananas are a winning combination – and the peeling – er feeling, is contagious. The players aren’t afraid to look foolish, they lean into the tomfoolery and as a result, their fans lean into it too – hard. Banana babies, Bachelor parodies, playing in kilts, and stands full of banana everything – including underwear as outerwear. Bottom line – everything is about creating an exceptional over the top entertainment experience for the fans.
Sounds crazy, right? Maybe. Maybe not. Jesse Cole has authored two books: Fans First and Find Your Yellow Tux. How might we in the multifamily business radically change the resident experience if we learned the fundamentals of entertainment and implemented those principles in our business? It’s not so far-fetched as it seems. I have long believed that what we do is performance-based in that we opened the theatre of property management every day, but this is lightyears beyond clean, safe, and friendly.
If Cole could figure out how to take talented baseball players and convince them to go all-in on the spectacle and the game, I have to believe that we can bring a fan-first entertainment-focused resident and prospect experience to the multifamily space. We just need to be willing to think about the customer and team member experience in a radically unexpected way.
What might that look like? It’s gonna take courage, grit, and the ability to risk looking silly. It seems to me that this radical shift is about creating a feeling – a memorable experience that leaves our customers feeling ‘something extra’ about living at our properties – more than service and bigger than pleasant – it requires the creation of a full-on profound experience. The kind of experience that fills up your social media feed with resident and guest accolades because it is just that incredible. Shockingly cool.
The question isn’t when this type of experience is coming to multifamily – it’s WHO is going to do it first.
Please share your theatrical resident entertainment stories with the members of the Multifamily Collective! The thought is pretty a-peeling.
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Superpowers & Disabling Ableism
As I dig into this week’s topic, I first want to encourage you to watch or listen to this week’s episode of Collective Conversations featuring TEDx Motivational Speaker Alycia Anderson. Born to an able-bodied identical twin sister, Alycia has a congenital disability that requires her to use a wheelchair for life. Alycia’s passion for diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility makes her a profound advocate and expert. She is an inclusion superwoman and brings her expertise to the uncomfortable topic of ableism.
What is Ableism?
Ableism is defined as discrimination and social prejudice in favor of able-bodied people based on the belief that typical abilities are superior. It is so prevalent that we don’t even realize it exists. Ableism occurs when we look at someone with a disability as needing to be fixed in order to be whole or we define them solely by their disability and miss the person altogether. Saying “You don’t look disabled” as though it is a compliment or “You’re too beautiful to be in a wheelchair.” Those and so many other dehumanizing comments happen regularly throughout the life of a person living with a disability. Some disabilities are easily evident by the use of a wheelchair or other assistance device. According to accessibility.com, an estimated 20% (or more) Americans live with invisible disabilities.
Bold Strokes
Listening to Alycia share her experience, it quickly becomes evident that she brings significant talents to the table, some of which were honed because of her disability. A longtime member of the multifamily community, Alycia tells in her employment story that she never told a potential employer that she would arrive to the job interview in a wheelchair. Some time after she was hired, she asked her boss about the decision to hire her and he said, “I knew you had to be a planner. You had to plan how much earlier to leave, how to navigate the obstacles to arrive here on time for the interview.” He saw the skills she perfected because of her disability in addition to her formal education, experience, and infectious enthusiasm.
Anxieties into Assets
All of us have things we are insecure about and an internal story we tell ourselves about our limitations. Shifting your mindset to turn those anxieties into assets is a skill we can all take away from Alycia’s story. I think that also applies to how we engage with people who live with disabilities. I encourage you to move past any fear of saying or doing the wrong thing and engage human to human, laying aside any preconceived ideas about ability or inconvenience.
I will close with a call to action that we do the work to make accessibility, diversity, equity, and inclusion the pathway to developing the superpowers of those around us. It is fundamental to our businesses and in our work as providers of housing. Serving people. It’s what we do.
Let’s work together to flip the switch and disable ableism.
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Early Warning Systems
The National Weather Service tracks indicators of hurricanes, tornadoes, major storm systems, and other weather-related events using an intricate process that assesses meteorologic conditions and storm progression. Radar images, alive with motion, show developments in vibrant color, informing and encouraging the populace to prepare.
Early Warning Systems are critical to providing people with the lead time to safeguard their homes and businesses against potential damage. As situations progress to imminent danger, Emergency Warning Alert signals are broadcast through television, wireless, and weather apps in the affected areas, warning people to take cover and get to safety immediately.
Front Lines
The global pandemic has created conditions in several sectors that coalesce into an early warning system related to labor. Members of the medical profession have been on the front lines of this crisis since its inception and the toll is well past the early warning stage. Medical workers report burnout and many are leaving the profession entirely. So much so, that it is fair to say the medical labor situation is in a full-blown emergency. It wasn’t hard to see this one coming, but the solutions are much more complex.
Another sector in distress is the tech industry, where workers report chronic burnout, limited career progression, and unrealistic demands. According to research by TalentLMS and Workable, nearly three-quarters of tech and IT workers surveyed report that they intend to quit within the year. IT workers keep all the systems of our world functioning, and they were then tasked with immediately transforming physical workplaces into remote work without the lead time they needed, and they did it beautifully. So much so that we failed to recognize the toll it was taking.
We called them heroes – these people who worked beyond their capacity for months on end with no relief in sight. The flip side of ‘hero’ is a human whose life is out of balance, who is forgoing personal care and investment in relationships. The novelty of heroism has worn off. It doesn’t compensate for exhaustion, personal sacrifice, and frankly, lack of compensation for the extraordinary effort.
Small Signs of Big Trouble
In the multifamily space, we need to consider our early warning systems when it comes to team member burnout. Manager relationships, smart listening, and intentional connectivity are some internal tools to detect early signs of disengagement. The manager/team member relationship is of prime importance to employee engagement, but it only works when the manager is fully aligned with the cultural values of the organization. Every leader needs to have their ears attuned to any small comment that could indicate a bigger problem. Remarks that reveal dissatisfaction can masquerade as sarcasm, or complaints about extreme ‘busyness’, or even dark humor. Those types of comments should tickle the ear of the listener and encourage a quick check-in – something like, “Hey, sounds like you’ve got a lot on your plate. I want to check in with you. What can I do to relieve the pressure and help you get your balance back?” Those soft small check-ins are a huge tool in the effort to create harmony between stated core values and the team member’s experience of your company culture.
One of our Collective Conversations featured Jen Piccotti with Swift Bunny, a company that offers feedback, insights, and actionable plans that serve as an early warning system for employee satisfaction. The Swift Bunny system gives a line of sight into team member engagement and provides leading indicators of potential turnover risks. Retaining talent has always been a priority, but in a tight labor market, it is all too easy to shift attention towards attracting and hiring new people to fill vacant seats. Existing team members need and deserve recognition, support, and appropriate compensation. Neglecting your current team is a sure path to more employee turnover.
Stay Interview
Many companies employ an Exit Interview process to help them learn from soon-to-be-former employees. A far more innovative and useful early warning system is the Stay Interview. The stay interview is a periodically scheduled conversation between a manager and a team member designed to learn the drivers that keep an employee on board and to suss out opportunities for company improvement. Consider the stay interview as a performance review for the company, not the employee. What should we keep doing? Stop doing? Do better?
Stay interviews work best in companies that value trust and candor, and where the stay interview is a safe space to speak honestly without fear of negative consequences. Managers should come prepared to ask meaningful questions, seeking to build trust with and accept constructive feedback from the team member.
Danger Zone
There are some indicators of late-stage disengagement. When an otherwise communicative team member goes silent. Or when a regular PTO pattern changes abruptly. By then it may be too late. Once an employee decides to interview with other companies, you’ve lost them. While you can try your best to overturn that decision or offer incentives to stay, the immediate-, mid-, and long-term success rate for that hail Mary play is low.
What are your early warning systems when it comes to talent?
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How To Build a World Famous Garden
Mike Brewer · · 1 Comment
Upon purchasing a winning lottery ticket, a fortunate man was made instantly a rich one. His new wealth enabled him to realize his dream of traveling the world. During a visit to Versailles, France, he became enamored with their world-famous gardens. When he returned home, he was determined to have gardens that would be the envy of all who visited. He hired a garden designer and instructed him to spare no expense in creating his personal Versailles of immaculately landscaped grounds.
The gardener laid out a beautiful and thoughtful design and set to work bringing the plan to life. He labored long over the installation of trees, flowers, ponds, hardscapes and wandering paths. When he finally completed his work, the garden was an idyllic escape. The man was overjoyed with the result and paid the garden designer handsomely.
Eager to show off his newly landscaped garden, the owner planned a lavish party in six months, by which time he expected to return home from yet another trip. He invited friends, family, and dignitaries to come and experience the beauty created at his request. On the day of the event, he walked to his gardens. With shock and dismay, he noted the condition of his once beautiful grounds. The flowers were dead, the grass overgrown, the new trees drooping, and the pond filled with algae. How could this have happened? His garden was once sheer perfection, and now it was in ruins.
In a furious rage, he called the garden designer and demanded an explanation! The gardener asked him, “What did you do to maintain the garden? Did you weed it? Fertilize it? Prune it? Water it? Did you hire someone to take continued and careful command of the daily work in the garden?” Sadly, he had done nothing to ensure the maintenance of his garden. He wanted all the beauty and glory but none of the labor. The most beautiful garden in the world is nothing more than a plan. It is the daily care and work that makes a garden a success.
It is the same with the people in our care. Attracting top talent is fundamentally a marketing tool — the very first steppingstone. As leaders, we must take care to nurture our team members, to engage, to course correct, to build up, and even to prune back – all of it done with a beautiful intentional human-centric approach. People are at the heart of leadership. The best marketing and onboarding experience quickly becomes like the dying garden when team members are left to fend for themselves in the absence of fully engaged leadership.
Have you tended your team lately? What steps are you taking to ensure that your people take root, blossom, and thrive in your organization’s garden? Are you doing the daily work to grow world class talent?
What are your thoughts on this topic? We love to hear you so please share your experiences below.
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