Double your personal productivity in 30 days? Is it possible? Absolutely! This article will provide three important steps for making the best investment you have ever made…an investment in you! Why is this critical? Because a small investment made today will yield huge dividends for you in the future. As a business coach since 1995, increased productivity is a popular topic with my property management clients. Why? Because finding a way to leverage small shortcuts, which generate large results, continues to be an important theme in the fast-paced world we experience today and the pace we can anticipate in the future.
Using a recorder: Begin by using the recording features in your Smartphone to capture your voice thoughts and ideas. This is the perfect way for taking voice-notes while you are walking/inspecting your properties and these notes can be used to develop a checklist for your next team/maintenance meeting. Voice recordings are especially useful for dictating a company letter or memo as you can rapidly speak your ideas into your Smartphone and have a support person or your assistant actually do the typing for you, thus giving you the time to handle other more important tasks.
Tip From The Coach: Your mind is a powerful tool but frequently it works in overdrive creating new ideas or solving problems, which distract you from fully concentrating on the task or person in front of you. Use your voice recordings to dump all your thoughts/ideas and then return to the task or project you are working on with a clear head. Start by capturing a steady-stream of your powerful ideas as voice recordings, and watch to see how many of these turn into great ideas! On a personal note, voice recordings are great for making grocery lists, for building a list of errands, or storing the notes from a cellular telephone call you have just completed.
Learning to speed-read: On a daily basis you are bombarded with thousands of words/images/text messages and E-mails and it can be overwhelming just trying to keep up. Yet keeping up becomes more and more challenging with the pace of technology and the increased performance expectations in the property management profession. The solution…take a speed-reading course and learn how to triple your reading velocity and improve your learning comprehension, at the same time. Organizations, such as Evelyn Wood, offer one-day seminars for $149 and will teach you how to become a more powerful reader and give you a step-by-step plan for increasing the comprehension of what you read and see.
Tip From The Coach: Once you have learned to speed-read, you will no longer experience information-overload because you will be able to grasp concepts and learn new ideas at a more joyful and fun pace. On a personal note, learning to speed-read will help you become a daily-learner which will be critical to your continued success in the property management profession. Those who understand this important concept will be the future leaders in this industry. So…become a speed-reader and learn at least one new idea every day because one year from today, you will own a treasury of 365 new ideas!
Developing a database: A database manager is powerful software that stores important information that can be quickly accessed, can easily store a person’s name, phone number, address, his/her type of business, and will even remind you when a variety of projects/tasks are due. The real power in having a database is being able to access a vendor, a supplier, a prospect or an industry expert in just seconds. Plus, you will be able to sort your database and print an endless variety of reports, telephone numbers, mailing labels and resident/prospect lists, which will increase your daily closing ratio and resident retention.
Tip From The Coach: For database software consider purchasing ACT, Goldmine, Telemagic, Maximizer, Sharkware or Salesforce.com. Most database programs perform similar functions so ask those in your property management company which software they use and ask them to show you how they use it. On a personal note, a database is great for birthday reminders, for printing labels when mailing holiday cards or for planning a family reunion.
Want to hear more about this important topic or ask some additional questions? Send an E-mail to ernest@powerhour.com and The Coach will E-mail back to you a free invitation to be a participant on a PowerHour conference call.
Ernest F. Oriente, a business coach/trainer since 1995 [31,500 hours], serving property management industry professional since 1988--the author of SmartMatch Alliances™, the founder of PowerHour® the founder of PowerHour SEO, the live weekly PowerHour Leadership Academy and Power Insurance & Risk Management Group, 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, powerful tools for hiring property management SuperStars and building dynamic teams, employee policy manuals and social media strategic solutions. Ernest worked for Motorola, Primedia and is certified in the Xerox sales methodologies. Recent interviews and articles have appeared more than 8000+ 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 225+ articles for the property management industry and created 400+ 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