If you are the general contractor building a new apartment community, is your carpenter more important than the electrician? Does the plumber play a larger role than the roofer? As the manager of the overall project, you know that building standards, the permitting process and attention to details lay the foundation for building a beautiful apartment community. Drawing on this analogy, the foundation for the success of your property management company relies on a foundation of high quality, sound business practices and attention to small but important details. This article will address how a persons’ level of compliance impacts performance and future articles will discuss interaction, steadiness, and drive…all key components of the behavioral styles of those on your property management team.
Defining compliance: As a leader within your property management company, you have certainly recognized the diversity of behavioral styles of those on your team and you probably have considered how this impacts your bottom line. Compliance can best be described as the way a person responds to procedures and standards set by others. For instance, their response to company policies, quality procedures and meeting deadlines will be a good indicator of their level of compliance. A persons’ level of compliance, whether it is lower or higher, can be an asset to your property management company. Your level of compliance as a leader is a combination of your inherent nature and the nurturing of your upbringing. In addition, your level of compliance was formed by the time you were ten or twelve years old and will not be likely to change over the course of your lifetime.
Tip from The Coach: Time for you to be the coach! On a scale of 1-100, what level of compliance does Roger Federer have as compared to Rafa Nadal? Does it matter? Based on their levels of compliance, they certainly have different styles, yet both are champions in their own way. As a leader within your property management company, could the differing styles of Roger and Rafa both find success on your team? Can a person with a lower level of compliance work with a person who has a higher level of compliance?
Looking for clues: When working with those on your property management team, a persons’ level of compliance can be easily determined by looking for some observable clues. For instance, a person with a higher level of compliance will be conscientious, systematic, conservative and task-oriented. In addition, the physical clues of a person with a higher level of compliance include a neat and orderly workplace, diplomatic interaction, striving for perfection, and a careful approach. On the other hand, a person with a lower level of compliance will tend to be unconventional, fearless, free-thinking in a team environment and have a lower attention to detail. The physical clues of a person with a lower level of compliance will be someone who will use business short-cuts for organization, will be creative when designing rules/procedures, can readily adapt to change and will often exceed the speed limit if you are driving with them.
Tip from The Coach: To quickly determine whether a person has a lower or higher level of compliance ask yourself these two questions about each person on your property management team: Is this person more introverted or extroverted? Is this person more people oriented or task oriented?. Remember, a persons’ level of compliance will offer visual, verbal and non-verbal clues.
Coaching a person with higher/lower levels of compliance: Ready for the next step? Once you have determined whether a person on your property management team has higher drive or lower level of compliance…the rest is easy! When communicating with a person who has higher levels of compliance, here are some specific ways to maximize your effectiveness when coaching this person: prepare your requests in writing, present specifics, require a follow-up action plan providing specific dates and milestones, and support your ideas with data and testimonials. To coach a person with a lower level of compliance, here are some tips: focus on the big picture and keep details to a minimum, support this person with a partner that has a high level of compliance who can assist with follow-through, when communicating be informal and flexible, and help this person avoid over-promising in what they can deliver.
Tip from The Coach: As the leader within your property management company, your teams will deliver peak performance when you have carefully selected a team with a range of lower and higher levels of compliance. In addition, by carefully balancing the levels of compliance within your teams, improved quality and increased creativity will result.
Would you like to know how your compliance measures on a scale of 1-100? Would you like to know the level of those on your team or be able to measure the level of compliance of people you are interviewing for a position within your property management company? Send an E-mail to ernest@powerhour.com and we will E-mail you a one-page behavior assessment form which can be completed in ten minutes or less. E-mail/scan your assessment form back to our office and in return, you will be confidentially E-mailed an 11 page assessment* (a $100 value) outlining your unique level of influence. Then, we will schedule a 45-minute call (a $400 value) to review your results. [* A small processing/analysis fee of $25 will be assessed, limit one per company]
Ernest F. Oriente, a business coach since 1995 [29,030 hours], a property management industry professional since 1988--the author of SmartMatch Alliances--and the founder of PowerHour, has a passion for coaching his clients on executive leadership, hiring and motivating property management SuperStars, traditional and Internet SEO/SEM marketing, competitive sales strategies, and high leverage alliances for property management teams and their leaders. He provides private and group coaching for property management companies around North America, executive recruiting, investment banking, national utility bill auditing, national real estate and apartment building insurance, SEO/SEM web strategies, national WiFi solutions, and powerful tools for hiring property management SuperStars and building dynamic teams. Ernest worked for Motorola, Primedia and is certified in the Xerox sales methodologies. Recent interviews and articles have appeared more than 7000 times in business and trade publications and in a wide variety of leading magazines and newspapers, including Smart Money, Inc., Business 2.0, The New York Times, Fast Company, The LA Times, Fortune, Business Week, Self Employed America and The Financial Times. Since 1995, Ernest has written 196 articles for the property management industry and created 350+ property management forms, business and marketing checklists, sales letters and presentation tools. To subscribe to his free property management newsletter go to: www.powerhour.com. PowerHour® is based in Olympic-town…Park City, Utah, at 435-615-8486, by E-mail ernest@powerhour.com or visit their website: www.powerhour.com