“If you ever get the chance to work for them, take it.”
If you’ve been around property management for some bit of time and you’re a good leader, you’ve either said this and/or it’s been said about you.
People rank development near the top of what they want from an employer. In LinkedIn’s 2018 Workplace Learning Report, 94% of employees said they’d stay longer at a company that invested in their career development.
A teaching culture lives in daily habits more than in a training program. Three are three that stand front and center in my mind:
- Explain the why before the what. “We’re holding rent on this floor plan because renewals there dropped two points last quarter. Here’s what I want you to watch.”
- Debrief for judgment. After a hard call, ask how they thought it through before you discuss whether it worked.
- Hand over a stretch decision. Every quarter, give each direct report one decision a level above their role, and coach them through it.
Former team members talk about the leader who made them measurably better at the work. In an industry this connected, those conversations become your recruiting pipeline.
Do a real-life assessment this month. Ask two people who used to report to you what they learned working for you. If they struggle to answer, start with the first habit on Monday.
Teach the people in front of you, and they’ll recruit the people you haven’t met yet. — Mike Brewer
Discussion Prompt: What would your current and former team members say they learned from working for you, and which of the three habits would make that answer clearer a year from now?