@mbrewer
Multifamily Leadership: Set Clear Goals and Priorities
Up to this point in our Seven Behaviors Leadership Series we have talked about Knowing Your People and Knowing Your Business and Insisting on Realism . What do you think so far?
In Part 3 of the series we are going to brief on the subject of clear goals and priorities…
You cannot Hit a Target that You do not Have
This was an interesting exercise for me; thinking through what I would share today. So many angles you can take with the subject of goal setting from the process of identifying, reward systems, etc. In the spirit of brevity and clarity, I settled on were the follow three things:
1. Get
2. Read
3. Act
At some point, every self improvement guru, management consultant and business coach in the world starts and or introduces the subject of goal setting. Wether they call it strategic objectives or just objectives or more simply – goals. They talk about them. And, they do so because they are critical to both your personal success as well as your business success.
If you think about it from a multifamily leadership perspective, budget numbers are goals. We set them at the end of every year for the year to follow and then we work like wild maniacs to ‘beat the numbers.’
The simple point is that how ever you go about getting them – go do it and do it today. Pick your guru and system and get them on paper or in an electronic format.
PHD&D
Business Coach Chet Homes author of the famed book: The Ultimate Sales Machine trumps the statement Pig Headed Determination and Discipline with every point he makes in his book and otherwise. I reference it as a premise for point number two. You have to get pig headed about reading your goals every single day without fail.
The great Napoleon Hill writes about Think and Grow Rich. He makes the point of reading them before you go to bed at night and again when you wake in the morning. His posit; while in slumber your mind works out ‘the how’ as it relates to getting your goals accomplished. My posit; ‘read them’ and the rest will take care of itself.
What the Mind of Man Conceives and Believes and ACTs on he Achieves
Napoleon Hill penned the above absent the italicized piece – I added that for good measure. My epiphany with ‘action’ came in the early years of my management career. One of my absolute favorite mentors in the business – Jackie W. – wrote me a letter than contained the following statement. All the best intentions in the world are worth nothing unless followed through with. It hit me like a Mack truck in high gear headed down the open freeway. More than an Ouch!
Meaningful Specific or Wondering Generality
Let’s close with a good question; it comes from Zig Ziglar; “Are you a meaningful specific or a wondering generality?” Goals insure that you run with the former part of the question.
Your PHD&D contributor,
M
Multifamily #Trust30: Writing Challenge with a Multifamily Bent
For those of you that take the time read our content here at mbrewer group; we want to thank you out loud! You really make it worth the time and effort. The dialog over the past seven years [through our various blog names] has been rich! We are morphing the site to include some new guest authors who I will highlight in the coming weeks. The content will remain somewhat random with a loose focus on every facet of multifamily as that is what we do. As we move in this new direction; I ran across what I thought would be a cool exercise. And, a big personal challenge. Write for 30 days straight using Ralph Waldo Emerson prompts as inspration.
The idea came from the following link:
My hope is that it does not come across as noise and my aim is to be brief in nature with each offering. Great thing about our blog is that it’s opt-in and/or opt-out. We totally understand. My additional hope is that we add some value and provoke some good discussion or good cause for sharing. Or even more compelling; your opting to take on the #Trust30 challenge.
In any event; have a compelling June. Make it a relentlessly awesome one.
Your taking the #trust30 challenge contributor,
M
Multifamily Leadership: Get Real
Part three of a seven part leadership series.
I will never forget the day I walked into the corner office and disclosed to our owner that I approved spending a large sum of money on attorney fees for a commercial eviction case. Was I nervous? No
Insist on Realism
Worse than nervous is how I really felt. I was disappointed in myself but very comfortable communicating the situation. Why? Realism. The individual I work with and for had the following words for me, “Mike, consider this an expensive education. Now, we don’t want to have to many of these but it’s not the end of the world.” I can’t say I would have been as staid in my response had I been in his shoes. It did, however reinforce the value in being real.
I think it fair to say that a good number of people, in or out of the multifamily space, work hard to shade or avoid reality all together. Why? Short answer – Fear. Fear of confrontation. Fear of looking stupid in the eyes of others – especially those in superior roles. Fear of being labeled.
How to Make Realism Real
It starts with Brand YOU! You have to be realistic with yourself!
No matter your role in the organization, you have to insist that realism is central to every conversation.
If you are the leader, get out and ask people at all levels what your property management organization is doing right and what it is doing wrong.
Listen.
Take notes.
And, take that feedback and make meaningful changes.
Your working to stay real contributor,
M
Multifamily Leadership: Know Your People Know Your Business
In the world of leadership it just makes sense that you would be out there glad handing, cheer-leading and relentlessly challenging those who serve your business. I have long held the belief that organizations exist to serve the people that serve it. Thus, it is the leaders calling to serve. And, baked into that calling is the need to know your people.
We have all been there, “Hey Fred, now what is that porters name again?,” “And, what is the assistant manager’s name?” I’ve done it myself more than once. Not only is that embarrassing, it just plain wrong. No a fact I am proud of for sure. Can we all agree that people want to feel like and more importantly know that they are part of something bigger than themselves. They want purpose, they want mission, they want values that are in alignment with their own. They want to be dignified. And, they want you to know their name and be genuinely interested in them.
Multifamily Management by Wondering Around
MBWA was made famous by Tom Peters and Bob Waterman when they researched and wrote about it in the book, In Search of Excellence. The practice was a cornerstone of Hewlett Packard’s business model. [A practice they seem to have forgotten; as of late at least.] The thought was that the most unadulterated pulse of your business comes from the front lines. The forward facing people that serve the people that participate with your goods and services. They are the ones that give you the best sense of what is and what should be as it relates to running a profitable business.
How do we do that?
First, we show up. Go ahead, make an appointment with your front line people today. Make two or three and stick to them.
Next, we ask probing questions. Get that list together ahead of time. But make sure you leave the environment open for fluid conversation.
And then, we listen! There is a reason you have two ear and one mouth. Listen twice as much as you talk and you are guaranteed to learn a lot about your people and your business.
That’s it. Simple as it sounds it is likely the most overlooked and underutilized piece of our business. We get so caught up in the deal, in the reporting, in the fire drill that we put the site visit off. We assume the people will understand. They get that we are in growth mode. They get that we are busy. They get it. It’s all good. Truth be know you rob them of their dignity, their pride and their wherewithal.
Your making several meaningful front-line appointments for next week contributor,
M
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
