Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

…What are your false comparisons? What are your false expectations? What are your false investments in a story? List them. Each keep you from that internal knowing about which Emerson writes. Each keeps you from making your strong offer to the world. Put down your clever, and pick up your ordinary.

(Author: Patti Digh)

Multifamily Right and Wrong

There was a time not so long ago that I go so wrapped up in social media and the highs it gave me that I lost track of being ordinary. Be it comments on my blog posts or twitter conversations with people on the local or national scene in the property management business or the occasional back and forth with a best selling author, it was all very addicting. Addicting to the ego and contradicting to the ordinary.

It cost me in a big way personally about five years ago. I got so caught up in that I ignored the most important people in my life. Not so good. I read a book back then titled: The Heart of Man by Eric Fromm. In it, he described the ego in the way of every man being a wolf. Innate in all of us is this wonderful gift termed free will. It’s right on when handled right and likewise when handled wrong. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the ecstasies of work, life or otherwise because the wolf is always at play. He’s looking for the moment to strike at the true heart. The wolf loves clever and every other wild endeavor. He abhors ordinary.

My prompt – stay true to who you are. And, by all means necessary [put down the phone, the email, the text, the facebook, the twitter, the iPad] to ensure you are true to the ones you love and the ones that love you. Ordinary is extraordinary when you think about it. Try it on for size sometime.

Pretty good prompt for a Friday -

Your see you down the stretch contributor,

M

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

Multifamily Doers

What is a doer? I heard a saying one time that went something like this; I would rather catch a tiger by the tail than have to light a fire under an elephant’s ass. It speaks loudly in the way of defining a doer. Doer’s get things done. They move mountains. They find ways that others never even dream about much less think about. They never let a day go by without making meaningful progress toward their goals and aspirations. And, doers get rewarded.

Three Suggestions

1. Measure what you expect and reward what you measure

2. Reward the doers far in excess of the status quo – exaggerated and excessively reward the doers

3. Promote those that get things done – quickly

Results Rule

Up to this point in our Seven Behaviors Leadership Series we have talked about Knowing Your People and Knowing Your Business,  Insisting on Realism , Setting Clear Goals and Priorities.

In today’s entry we are going to discuss follow through. I have disclosed my follow through epiphany story a couple of times on this and a couple other blogs. It really was the turning point for me in my career as the point of follow through hit me right between the eyes. It was one of the those duh! moments.

Multifamily Team Follow Through

That said and on the heels of our Relentless Courage a couple weeks ago. The post spoke to people withholding comments and feedback in group meeting forums. So much gets missed if we don’t encourage an open culture where feedback is paramount to getting better. Once you have the sharing culture set in place; follow through should be next on the list.

Four Things to Consider

1. Team leaders/communicators have to make objectives or action items very clear. Ask clarifying questions such as; Do you understand what is expected? or Is there anything you don’t understand about what we need to get accomplished?.

2. Help people understand the ‘Why behind the what’ of follow through items. Helping people see the big picture assists with two things

a. They see the action item as a mission and not a task

b. They understand that the action is assisting in the creation of something bigger than self. A key motivating factor for many

3. Set the right follow through mechanisms in place. Who is responsible? How will they track? Who will they report out to? When?

4. Ask questions along the way. Don’t just assign and forget. As the leader, it is imperative that you check in along the way.

5. Always conduct postmortems? Review the results of follow through or lack thereof. There is tremendous value in replaying events.

Your off to follow through on today’s commitments contributor,

M

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

Mouth of Truth

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

MFMBWA

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

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

Back in my early corporate days, this came as quite a shock to me: that people sitting around the table didn’t always say what they were REALLY thinking! Shock! Horror!

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

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)