multifamily
Human Behavior
At the deepest levels we multifamily types are forever students of behavior.
For you bottom-liners; we are in the business to lease more apartments.
But, for you that understand that the multifamily business is in place to serve the people who serve it; the study of behavior and the power it yields is where it’s at.
Strip it down to the brass tacks and you have – the study of people and their actions.
For the analytic among us – a problem is a set of numbers.
For the servants among us – a problem is human and compelled by care, compassion and empathy.
For the savvy apartment marketer – creativity can change the way people think, feel and ultimately act/behave.
Human behavior is a very compelling body of knowledge and well worth the time and effort to study and understand.
Understand behavior and you get at the core of a persons needs.
Powerful stuff when you think about it in the context of one of the most fundamental needs of all – shelter (read: apartments).
Your thinking deeply about human behavior Multifamily Maniac,
M
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Feeding Multifamily
You know what can never be measured in the Multifamily business?
Needs
Wants
Dreams
Hopes
This kind of stuff is not manufactured.
This Stuff
This stuff is human. This is the kind of stuff, if tapped into, will change the world because it compels people to change.
Find this stuff in your customers, vendors and employees and your business will be so over-the-top amazing that people have no choice but to join your quest.
And, they will be crazy loyal.
Your thinking the work of a property management company is human Multifamily Maniac,
M
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Multifamily Purpose
What is the purpose of your Property Management Company?
Is it driven by profits?
Top line growth?
Y/Y rental income growth?
Y/Y NOI growth?
Cash flow?
Purpose Larger than Self
Multifamily people get inspired when they know they are working for something larger than self. And believe it or not; it’s not all about the bottom line. No, it’s about much more than economics.
It’s About Service
I am fully convinced that business sets in place to serve the people who serve it. And companies that understand that will prosper in the coming business cycle.
Michael Porter suggests as much in the quote above. Not sure how he defines societal purpose but I look at it two-fold:
1. Business serves each person that serves it; the role of business is to build people of character;
2. Character results from businesses manufacturing quest(s). The business also supports the quest. And, carrying out the quest(s) results in the building up of character
The purpose is to change the world; the world is people. Give people the chance to grow and change and the world will change.
Your thinking more deeply about purpose Multifamily Maniac,
M
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Multifamily Quality
Quality is one of those things that is elusive. Elusive in the sense that it’s ultimately defined by the end-user. Quality to you could mean something far different from what it means to me. And something overly different to the next guy/gal.
It’s the Soft-Side of Quality that Matters
I’m that people-guy. My entire career is one big advocacy for the people side of the business. The pump you up so you can go out and do things you never in a million years believed you could. I believe in people even when they have a hard time believing in themselves. The softer side of quality.
That type of leadership carries a heavy burden on the ‘quantify it for me’ side of the business. I’m not a metrics guy, not a numbers guy, not an analytics guy. But quality in that area drives every multifamily organization across the planet. Quality in the numbers!
We can’t make decisions without rattling out ready-made overly analyzed super-sized schedules for schedules that drive schedules that tie to other schedules for the first prize of all schedules – the budget. I get it; while not being a numbers guy, I understand most spreadsheets put in front of me.
I can work them. I can think through them. I can research them and I can rattle most general assumptions right of the top of my head. (read: those last few sentences are for the guys/gals that might otherwise analyze my statements and draw assumptions about my wherewithal. Written with a snarky smile.)
All that necessary evil stuff is the work side of the business for me. It sucks the very life out of me to bend my mind over a spreadsheet.
The point is that guys like me (in my current role/title) normally demand measurement. We want everything quantified to the nth degree. Right down to the date, time and current air temperature along with near term and long-range forecast. Be it sunny or fair to partly cloudy – we want to know whats coming at us.
You know what I’ve learned – that doesn’t work. What does work? Your Care Quotient (CQ). Does it scream with quality or does it scream so loudly in the other direction that no one can hear what you are saying. No one buys into you because everything you do looks like a reason to unlike you on Facebook or block you on Twitter or worse yet – ignore you by letting all you say go in one ear and out of the other.
Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care –
Roosevelt said it best in the quote above.
None of the metric nonsense matters if people don’t get the sense that you care. And I mean quality care. Quality concern for their health and welfare. Quality concern for their future and the future of those they care for. Quality care for the birthdays, anniversaries and little league ballgame victories and better luck next year kind of stuff. Quality concern as it relates to feedback for their future. And quality plans to help them get their.
And for those of you that would argue that the business doesn’t work without the data analysis – I say CQ > IQ everyday of the week.
Your thinking I came up with something meaningful for the analytic types to measure (CQ) Multifamily Maniac,
M
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Multifamily Education
Mike Brewer · · 1 Comment
I often liken the world to a gigantic hotbed of education. And to boot, one of my favorite conversations in the multifamily space leads with the statement, “You have to look at every single thing that happens to you as a chance to learn something. It’s the world’s way of preparing for a conversation you will no doubt have down the road. It’s your testimony. And it’s steeped in the real world.
It’s not some fly-by-night-flamboiant rah-rah cheerleading consultant flavor of the month rhetoric.
No – it’s powerful I am in your shoes so let’s rock this thing together right now kind of stuff.
Your job – everyday of the week – is to explore the education being offered to you by the world.
Testimony
While I am not a church going type – I do love a good sermon. Not the dull put me to sleep bible thumping get it right or else type. No I like the hell fire and brimstone type. The type that makes me walk of the building on fire for the next lesson that life has to offer me. But it goes beyond the message. It’s all about the person delivering the message.
If the preacher is straight-laced never steered left or right of center in their life – count me with the group that is checking email and passing text messages off to the person sitting next to me.
If the preacher is a recovering addict (insert your choice of vices here) – I am all in and all ears.
You see that guy gets me! Period.
Back to the Point
If you embrace the education and you see it as a way of building up your character; somewhere down the road you will sit in a position of awesoemness. Don’t trust me on this; trust the words of the great poet – T.S. Eliot
We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
As a leader in the multifamily space; you will no doubt sit in this place one day. You will be the service supervisor, property manager or regional manager that spent time in the trenches. And because you explored the lessons the world taught you along the way – you get to give your testimony to those that follow. And because you have grown as a person and a professional – you will be seeing it for the first time. That is #rockyourworld kind of stuff. Gives me goosebumbs as I write it. Whoa!
Your forever looking for the lessons that life has to offer Multifamily Maniac,
M
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