Multifamily leadership
Number One Way to Motivate Apartment Talent
In Lisa Trosien’s recent post: Dear Mr. (or Ms.) Property Management Executive , she speaks to ten complaints from site teams across the country. It strikes me that every single one of these have been relevant to our industry for as long as I can remember. And, every single one of them impedes progress. Which, according to a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, is the number one motivator of employees.
Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer penned: What Really Motivates Workers in the Jan-Feb 2010 issue. In the article they sight the following five factors as being significant drivers of motivation;
1. Recognition
2. Incentives
3. Interpersonal support
4. Support for making progress
5. Clear goals
All important but Amabile and Kramer contend not the number one motivator. After conducting an intense multi-year study tracking a multitude of levers – progress – it seems is the number one motivator.
“On days when workers have the sense they’re making headway in their jobs, or when they receive support that helps them overcome obstacles, their emotions are most positive and their drive to succeed is at its peak.”
Seems to me progress, not unlike every item in Lisa’s list, is completely in the control of executives across the country. The article suggests the following ideas for helping progress;
1. Avoid changing goals autocratically
2. Be decisive
3. Provide support in the way of rolling up your own sleeves
4. Celebrate progress – no matter the stretch
I have always believed that a happy employee is a productive employee and that the property management organization exists to serve the people that serve it. And if those two mantras are employed as a premise for all decision making the rest will happen by default.
For those who would huff and puff about about the soft stuff, there is the alternative;
“On days when they feel they are spinning their wheels or encountering roadblocks to meaningful accomplishment, their moods and motivation are lowest.”
I trust the week to come will be one of smashing progress…
Related post: Can Apartment Marketers Afford to Disconnect a 24/7 generation?
Related post: Make Sure You’re Not De-Motivating Your Team
Related post: Eight Things Your Employees Want From You
(Photo credit: Dan Pink’s: A Whole New Mind)
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Apartment Internet Marketing – Exclusivity
Came across an interesting survey at over at emarketer that spoke to the want’s of social following. The results were captured in the following chart:
Using this chart as a catalyst, we are going to do a five part series titled: The Five E’s of Apartment Internet Marketing. The overarching premise will be playing to the want’s of would be apartment Facebook, Twitter and other social medium friends. We start the series with Exclusivity.
What is Exclusivity?
Exclusivity can be defined as the sole right to a specific business function. AT&T’s exclusive right to market the iPhone is likely the most paramount example of this. Beyond that there is a huge push by aggregators to secure exclusive rights to content. We have seen this with the likes of Harvard Business Review striking a deal with an aggregator and Steven Covey striking a deal for distribution on Amazon’s Kindle. These are mass examples of exclusivity but the concept can be applied to things as simple as white papers. In this case the exclusivity comes in the way of getting for giving or more specifically, give me your email address and I will give you the white paper. It’s exclusive in the sense that not everyone would be willing to give personal information to get.
Value Exchange
The overarching point is that exclusivity has a give and take scenario baked in. You give up Sprint to get the iPhone, you give up buying from B&N and buy a Kindle so you can read Covey, you give up personal information to get information. The goods, services, experience or information requires an action on the part of the consumer and guess what, it’s the overriding reason they friend brands. They want to learn about specials, sales, etc..
Consumer Expectations
Human beings have a few things in common – one being the innate need to feel important, wanted or needed. When we apply that fact to the concept of exclusivity we can clearly see that the perception of being a part of what could be considered an elite group is compelling. We own an iPhone so we can feel cool. We read the HBR so we can feel cool. We read the latest Covey book so we can feel cool. We found our apartment on Craigslist and it was a great deal so we feel cool. Consumers are willing to give up stuff and things to feel important, wanted or needed – all day long.
Offer it and they will come
As it applies to Apartment Internet Marketing in the context of social mediums – more times than not, if you offer it they will come. Now, before I go on, I am not suggesting that you can just put any old thing out there and expect participants to join in, you have to work it. You have to willing to commit to listening, joining in, trying, failing, retooling and trying again. Otherwise it’s all for naught. I am suggesting, however, that if you do things as simple as offering a rent concession to the resident that increases your fan page base the most, or something we eluded to awhile back with tryvertising, or simply setting up a kiosk in your lobby set with twitter and facebook and asking anyone that walks in the door to friend you – you will gain an audience. However, it does not stop here…
…in part two of this series we will talk about what to do with that audience: Education
In the mean time, feel free to continue the Exclusivity conversation by leaving us a comment below.
And, have a compelling day!
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What Matters Now in Apartment Marketing
Generosity
As it relates to apartment marketing – generosity and being the difference that makes a difference is not status-quo. Being the difference takes a lot of effort and hard work and more times than not for little to no pay. The wage of a true hero in our space is paid in winning the respect of people across the gamut. It’s paid in knowing and understanding that the world is a better place for having shared all they know. More specifically, it is the free giving of time and resource that makes the real difference. It’s generosity…
How I Learned About Generosity
A quick story of reference – when I entered the apartment world some fifteen years ago I had the fortune of meeting one of these rare people. She took me along for a ride in her car one day and rifling through her purse looking for a compact she displaced six or seven thousand dollars worth of checks made out to her. Commissions for rentals and sales she had transacted over the past month. Her non-chalant response and the answer to my follow up question is what sticks with me to this day. “Oh – I really need to get those in the bank” – I asked – “Where do you bank?” She pointed – Our office happened to be right next door to her bank. I thought – unreal. Her follow up was – for me at the time – alarming. I don’t do this for the money – “I do it for the gratification I see in other people when they go through the experience of moving into their new home.” I thought [inside voice] – that’s crazy lady – I do it for the greenbacks.
It was only upon her losing a battle with cancer a few years later that the deeper meaning of generosity was cemented with me. I attended her funeral and witnessed what seemed like thousands of people paying their respects for her having given of her time and resource. Well before the mass appeal of the Internet and the advent of social platforms she had literally built a community of constituents. I have no doubt she achieved it in large part through her generosities. In my passing her casket – my time with her in the car ride came cascading back and in that moment – I caught the essence of generosity. She really didn’t do it for the money…
Now many years later I confess I am still chasing the application of what I consider a supreme human quality – in a me me me world, giving of time and resource takes a back seat far to often and I am as guilty as the next guy.
As it Relates to Family and Apartment Marketing
Might I suggest in 2010 that we get back to the art of giving and start with family and friends. And, as it relates to apartment marketing – give to your influencers and your non influencers alike. Give of time and resource in your community without the expectation of return. Figure out which charities that the top five businesses around you give to and partner with them to give of your time and resource. Do it regularly. Write about it on your blog. Get your influencers to influence their influencers and so on and so forth. The old axiom of the more you give the more you will get is really true and it applies equally to generosity. Be the difference that makes a difference in 2010. Be generous.
Inspired by: What Matters Now
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All the Best Intentions in the Social Media World
Tom Peters has carved out a very unique niche in the business consulting arena and rightfully so. His ideas, dating back 25+ years are as relevant today as they were back then. Many of them are still cutting the edge that we all innately yearn for. Over this Mother’s Day weekend I managed to read a post that really hit home in a simple but important kind of way. The following is an excerpt from the blog titled: Wrong Answer!
When I got back from the field, covered with mud (it was rainy season), I was sent directly to the Commandant with no time to change into a respectable uniform—a great embarrassment. General Chapman engaged in all of about 15 seconds of chitchat, and having done his duty to my aunt, sent me on my way. As I was literally walking out of his temporary field office, he summoned me back, and said, out of the blue, “Tom, are you taking care of your men?” (I had a little detachment, about 20 guys as I recall, doing the work described before.)
Yup, 40 years plus later, I remember his exact words—which is the point of this Post. I replied to the General, “I’m doing my best, sir.” To this day, with a chill going up my spine (no kidding—as I type this), I can see his face darken, and his voice harden, “Mr Peters, General Walt and I and General Buse are not interested in whether or not you are ‘doing your best.’ We simply expect you to get the job done—and to take care of your sailors. Period. That will be all, Lieutenant.”
The line, “we simple expect you to get the job done,” took me back to 1996. It was my rookie year in the role of property manager and I was as confident as they come – on top of the world and on top of my game. Or, so I thought.
The hand written note read; “all the best intentions in the world are worth nothing unless they are followed through with.” It was the last sentence in a long letter addressed to me from my district manager shortly after a very important property inspection. It floored me. It took my view of the world from a 6’7″ lens to that roughly the height of fire ant. Mind you – it was well deserved and sticks with me to this day.
She had entrusted me with a project that needed to be complete prior to the upcoming inspection. I put it off to the last minute not knowing that the regional manager would walk the property on the eve prior to the date her expected visit. She, along with my DM, caught us in the act of prepping the project in the eleventh hour and was clearly tweaked. The following day was both the best and the worst day of my PM career. The best in the sense that I clearly understood the definition of expectation – the worst in the sense that I did not meet it on behalf of the one that had bestowed the responsibility on me.
I say all that to say this – as we continue down the path of social media as it relates to marketing apartments; remember intentions must marry to expectations. Our consumer demands that we live up to and follow through with the ways in which they like to do business and not much concern is given to our sacred cows. Any more it is not our executive officers defining the way we do business – it is the consumer and we must engage. We must get the job done in a way that is being defined and redefined everyday.
What are your intentions for the coming week and who is driving them?
Have a famous week. M
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Apartment Leadership: 5 ways to cure tardiness
1. Educate: Make sure your standard and expectation are clear. And, communicate it often
2. Monitor: Keep track with a log – I would encourage you to automate it
3. Counsel: Communication is key – finding the why behind the behavior many times will solve the issue. Documentation is a must be it positive or negative. I use the SBI model: s: situation b: behavior i: impact – more on that in a later post
4. Follow up: Don’t wait for the behavior to happen again – instead follow up in three to five days and out some praise for showing up to work on time
5. Take corrective action: Hey, if you can’t change people; change people. Don’t be afraid to free up someone’s future.
multifamily leadership, multifamily HR, tardiness at work
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