m. scott peck
Multifamily #Trust30: The Road ‘almost’ not Taken
Day 11 of the #Trust30 Challenge –
Consistent daily action is only a virtue when bundled with a willingness to remain open to the unknown. In this exercise, look at your current quest and ask, “What alternative opportunities, interpretations and paths am I not seeing?” They’re always there, but you’ve got to choose to see them.
I read this mornings prompt and instantly thought of Robert Frost’s classic: The Road Not Taken .
And, M. Scott Peck’s: The Road Less Traveled, another classic in it’s own right. I still remember the first sentence of the first chapter – Life is difficult.
Sure enough is…
Multifamily The Road Almost Not Taken
My start in the Multifamily business was a humble one. I was fresh out of college and had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do when I grew up. So, I spent the next couple years dabbling in this and playing in that before I landed a job managing a 18-unit community on the wrong side of the tracks in the small town that I grew up in.
It was the type of PM job whereby the manager does it all. I was expected to mow the lawn, paint and maintenance the unit turns, complete all requests for service, clean and make ready the swamp coolers in the summer and just the opposite in prep for winter. I lived for free in exchange for taking care of the place. At that time in my life, it was awesome.
Fast forward two years, I decided to leave it all to go back and finish my college degree. The thought was that I would just get a service job to finish up the thirty or so hours I needed to graduate. Collections, I thought! I used to do that in high school for a furniture company. So, I interviewed and got the job. At the same time I had interviewed for and been extended an offer as a leasing consultant for a very large multifamily community in Lubbock Texas, The Beautiful Willow Bend – if my memory serves me correct.
Weighing my options and after some colorful debate with my girlfriend, at the time, I choose leasing. And, the rest is history.
To the point of The Prompt
Many of the alternatives that I get blessed with from time to time, look and feel dynamic and many of them might be. And, while my mind remains open – something I have learned to embrace over a long bit of time, my heart and mind are still on fire for this great business. My imagination is that I will one day be faced with the divergence of two paths in the road and I will choose the path less taken – just, not for now.
Your happy with the chosen path contributor,
M
Photo props to: Virtual Tourist
The Time-Value Paradox in Multifamily Leadership: Elevate Your Worth to Elevate Your Team
Photo by 愚木混株 cdd20 on Unsplash
Time, the most valuable resource in property management and leadership, is non-renewable. In a multifamily environment where operational efficiency is paramount, understanding the value of time isn’t just a good practice—it’s a necessity for success. The famed author M. Scott Peck once said, “Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.”
Let’s take this further: Until you value your time, you won’t value the time of your team or your community members. That’s a harsh truth that resonates across the boardrooms and operation centers of multifamily management firms.
The Anatomy of Time Valuation
In the relentless hustle of real estate and property management, every tick of the clock either adds or erodes value. The nuance lies in distinguishing between urgencies that distract and strategic goals that matter. If you’re engrossed in extinguishing operational fires all day, you’re consuming the resource of time without amplifying its value. That sends a subtle message to your team that their time isn’t valuable either.
Tech-Driven Time Management
To solve this, think of PropTech. Integrated Property Management Software (PMS) platforms like Yardi or RealPage can be customized to feed real-time data analytics. But let’s go a bit contrarian here: Blockchain technology, still a nascent field in real estate, can radically change how contracts, leases, and financial transactions are managed, freeing up executive time for strategic decision-making.
Human-Centric Approaches
Human-centric leadership revolves around acknowledging that a leader is not just an overseer but part of a dynamic human ecosystem. When you show, through actions, that you value your own time, it has a domino effect. Your team, in turn, becomes more conscious of allocating their hours and minutes, elevating productivity.
Disruptive Time Management: The Pomodoro Technique
Conventional wisdom advocates for multitasking, but science indicates this is flawed. In a twist, let’s consider the Pomodoro Technique—a time-management strategy that allocates focused sprints and breaks, making time a friend rather than an adversary. This methodology is perfectly adaptable to a real estate setting where attention to detail is crucial, yet the demand for speed is ever-present.
