Mills
Multifamily Leadership: Be a Coach
One goal for any organization worth it’s salt is to serve its customers compellingly and profitably over a very long bit of time. How do they do that? The leaders in the organization understand that their chief goal is to serve the people that serve the organization. They do so through expanding people’s capabilities by way mentoring and coaching.
When I hear the word coach I am instantly taken back to the years I ran up and down the court playing basketball. I was blessed enough to have some amazing mentors an coaches in my life. And, through their teaching, training, prodding, gentle and sometimes harsh discipline; I was afforded a full ride Division I scholarship to play basketball at Texas Tech University. They gave of their time, their effort and their knowledge of the game in order to expand my capabilities. They served compellingly.
Multifamily Coach
My punch line today: Be a Coach
1. Be selective about who you give of your time and effort. I once was told that I was not the savior of all humanity. Apparently at the time; I thought I was. That aside, it made a ton of sense to me. Not everyone is there to learn and grow. Some are just there to give you 100% from 8 to 5. Other’s much less than that. Point: choose wisely.
2. Use moments of truth as your catalyst for discussion. Just last week I was involved in a formal coaching session with two employees. A supervisor was delivering a written message to a co-worker and the proverbial ‘but’ sandwich came out. You did this ‘but’ you also did that. I took the time to suggest that the words ‘and in the same respect’ were used in lieu of ‘but’. In my head, it allows for the power of the lead statement to endure in ones mind whereas a ‘but’ crushes the lead statement.
3. Become a master questioner. Be incisive. One of the best questioners I have come across in some time is Mr. Mike Whaling of 30lines. It’s an art and if you ever have the chance to talk to Mike, be prepared to have your logic and wherewithal challenged with thoughtful questions.
4. Use the classroom to arm people with tools and strategies. Use the real world as the place to apply, learn and thrive on the application of those tools.
Share your thoughts with me; What would you add or take away from the list above?
Your always looking to be a coach contributor,
M
Mills Properties: Blog Stats
Thought it would be fun to share our Neighborhood Blog stats from time to time in a snap shot view.
Melissa P wrote about the team in her post titled: (B)usiness (L)ove and (O)ther (G)uts whereby she laid out the overarching premise of our new marketing strategy.
Our first blog post went live on November 24, 2010 and since that time we have achieved the following.
Stats are accurate as of lat May, 2011.
Multifamily Management: Release
“My motto is ‘release’ I have it written in my violin case. ‘Release’ , meaning, ‘Step back a little’. Those are the words of world renowned violin virtuoso Charlie Siem. It struck me as I was reading through the latest copy of Monocle magazine. So many times in life and in the multifamily business we get caught up in the detail of things. We major in the minors making huge mountains out of what should be considered but mere speed bumps in the path of progress.
Major in the Majors
Charlie goes on to say, “Because when you hone in on all the tiny details, it’s natural to tense up – and then nothing flows.” Suffice it to say that everything moves at the speed of light anymore. Not when you tense up and take time to focus on the minutia at a very granular level. It stalls flow, it mitigates advancement and it stifles trust.
Granted mistakes can be and always are traced to the details of things and more astutely to people. Causes are often found in flawed policy and or application of business practices by teams or individuals. It’s still, at least in my head, not cause for alarm but rather time to address the mess and move on; a teachable moment.
I rather think you pick a course, put your metrics [budget] in place, gear yourself up [get the right people on the bus] and run the marathon set before you. Understand that you will experience adversities along the way, just make sure you have plans in place to address them quickly. But overall, stick with the majors. Sticking with the majors as it relates to a marathon would be to pace yourself, keep yourself hydrated and feed yourself mentally and physically along the way. Do that and the rest falls into place.
In contrast, focus on the nagging toe nail pain, foot pain, side cramp or bleeding nipples caused from friction between your shirt and skin and all of a sudden you stall your pace. You forget to hydrate and your mental and physical faculties give way to fatigue. It’s just not worth it.
My word this week – ‘Release’
Your releasing contributer,
M
Get Social with Mills: The Journey Begins
It’s official – Mills Properties is taking the plunge into new media. For the past three years we have been at work producing real results with simple tools like Craiglist and vFlyer. One example, which I will fully detail in a later blog post, includes a manager that used CL exclusively to add 23 points of occupancy in just seven short weeks. It’s an amazing story but it is not where we wanted to be. We wanted to be fully immersed in the use of new media as it relates to marketing apartments.
The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with One Step
I am jazzed to report that Mills Senior Leadership has given blessing for me to document the entire journey from soup to nuts. In doing so I hope to utilize all the rich media out there in order to produce some massively cool dialog. The chief aim is to bring real meaning to the word engagement as I am fully convinced that the word is very often misplaced and misused in the world of marketing and new media specifically.
All that being said, I invite you to join us as we take the first step to Get Social with Mills.
Update: And, if it starts to look and or feel like a ton of self promotion, company promotion or ego-centric rhetoric, say as much. Our intent is to tell a story that may add value to your new media marketing efforts.
M
