Any service oriented business relies on its customer service and relations. Sometimes the business goals get in the way of management needs. We pride ourselves on our commitment to service through consistency and positive exchanges but none of this is possible without a strong mission, culture, and ongoing professional development – for our clients, our tenants, and even our staff. Actively pursuing and adapting these elements of our business help us bring our best with our clients, for our renters, and among one another.
Ensuring that staff is supported may not be the easiest business practice, either. The day to day may distract from actively practicing agency, equity, and cultural wealth. However, it is something that only serves to benefit an organization. For an industry like real estate that relies on outreach and interaction, we need to actively empower and develop our practices in order to offer a staff and culture ready to bring its ‘A’ game every day.
Find Your Values
Understanding the structure, reality, and goals of any organization is vital to supporting and growing a business. It also helps existing partners or prospective partners find the values they align with as well as weed out what they do not. Whether you operate through top-down, decentralized, or another form of leadership, identifying the infrastructure provides context for how tone and culture are transmitted.
These values may be abstract but they should mean something specific to your organization and your team. While we do not want to muddy the waters with private values, having these accessible for reference make a big difference in terms of our success. When individuals feel a genuine sense of commitment and responsibility because their personal values are also extended into their work, the level of efficiency and achievement increases.
Finally, the tone and culture of the organization need to be clarified so that a decision can be made to scrap, maintain, or evolve them.
Get on the Same Page
It can often be difficult to orient a group or external individuals around a general set of principles. Finding a few tangible goals that can be easily attached to these abstract, overarching principles is one way to get on the same page. Brief, consistent meetings on a regular schedule with quick but empowering content can be another option to provide your messaging, endorsement of concepts, and recognition of behaviors. The better you can express your management goals within and beyond the walls of the business, the better your property managers can address the needs of the company and, even more importantly, the needs of clients and leaseholders.
Incorporating the individual goals of your staff also provides the necessary interpersonal context for you to equip yourself to invest in and engage those individuals. When you can share and relate to interests, the capacity to work and enjoy work raises infinitely as mentioned earlier. Apart of personal values, personal goals can give the necessary but appropriate lens of accomplishment for staff and clients alike.
Second only to healthcare benefits, mentorship is the biggest consideration for the millennials and generation Z workforce according to a Door to Clubs survey. The younger end of the workforce is not alone in extended learning, either. There is also substantial research noting a demonstrable interest in job-related learning with 63% of workers pursuing it from their workplace, online, an outside facility, conventions/conferences, at home, or elsewhere.
Ask For Feedback from your Property Managers
Look for constructive criticism from your property managers. Ask for commentary from your market audience. Whose needs are being met? Whose aren’t? In order to identify progress or establish areas for improvement in an industry that is already heavy on communication, look for innovative and even subtle opportunities for feedback. Often, low-risk assessments can give way for intentional changes with enduring, positive impact. Opportunities exist in an agent referral program, contact pages, or even voluntary, drop-off comments from tenants.
Building a stronger community of professionals and people within real estate not only provides a more welcoming environment within the office but it can also influence the way that your property managers interact on behalf of the business beyond the office walls. When your managers are empowered to work they leave lasting impressions through the services they provide. This goes a long way toward creating healthy, flourishing relationships and is invaluable in the Treasure Valley.
