April 2010     Keep Your Chin Up- Part II  

The below questions were submitted from participants on a recent GraceHill.com chat. Hats off to GraceHill to raising our spirits and supporting the multifamily industry when we really need it the most. I thought the questions were so valuable that I wanted to share those along with my responses. Hopefully you will find it helpful to stay motivated and successful even in tough times.

What are some inexpensive ways to improve my property?  We cannot afford to buy everything we need.

Set priorities of potential improvements. Separate the truly necessary from the ‘wants’ by determining ROI for your bottom line as well as bettering the lives of the residents. Partner with local business to sponsor the efforts with ‘naming rights’. i.e. update fitness equipment.

Have residents vote on what they want via Facebook page. Tally votes and contact supplier offering win/win partnership for advertising in Cardio Center, etc.   

What are some free ways to boost morale in the office?

Need to keep the team spirits up? Go to Compassion Capital Fund (ww.ccfbest.org). I love these ideas (silly but fun!): set up a Humor Corner with cartoons, Run a "Who’s-Who? Guess the Baby" contest (ah how cute??) or hold an "Ugly Tie," "Ugly Pants," or "Ugly Sweater" day. Give out award prizes for the "winners."

 Start off the day with a smile by posting a Joke of the Day for the team (ajokeaday.com), or positive motivating thought with Quote of the Day (justsell.com).

How about a fun surprises every week like surprise visit from president of company or share customer testimonials recognizing great customer service?

Make a HUGE hoopla every time a lease or renewal is secured with a loud gong; ring a bell or round of applause using handy clappers.

Partner with suppliers asking for a surprise moral boosters every Wednesday. Pick a week choose a supplier partner – Let me them know your goal. You will be surprised too!

How can I motivate my leasing consultants when the leases aren’t flowing?

Increase product knowledge and excitement of a select group of apartments. Hold a team meeting (service team too!) to brainstorm the 20 best attributes and features. Guaranteed to enlighten all with new ideas on how to sell and fall in love with the apartments again!

Develop Me!  Build and empower your leasing team by encouraging training and building new skills. This shows that the company believes in them to invest time and money to build their knowledge and skill set. This can include co-worker coaching, mentoring and shadowing.

What’s the best way to keep from getting so stressed out?

Did you know -- You become what you surround yourself with! Check out your surroundings and environment. Are changes required? Think of what relives stress and makes you happy like a working out, creativity, movies, laughing. Weave those into your life to stay balanced. 

How can I be positive when things are looking so bad? 

Get a FREE daily boost sent to your email from MotivationsToMove.com

Need an emergency pick-me-up? Go to www.JourneyOfTheHearts.com

Step back and look at it with a new set of eyes. What is good? What are you the best at? Where are you the happiest? Where are the opportunities? Focus on that first, set goals and you will find balance.

I would like to learn how to separate the hard times at home from the hard times at work. Before end of the day update priorities and your to-do-list for the next day. This will allow you get a jumpstart the next day.

Leave work at work. Enjoy calming music on the commute home or fun uplifting jams (disco or 80’s always works for me!). You will arrive home feeling regenerated and gears shifted ready to enjoy the evening.  Do something for yourself like go for a walk or catch up with a positive friend over the phone.

Higher end (A communities) properties that were never comps before have lowered their rents and are now in line with us.  They are larger, newer, and offer more amenities.  How can I compete?!

Selling stellar service, ideal location and solid reputation goes a long way to compete against anyone! Ensure that message is a part of every call and tour. If your team is happy and SOLD their community – customers will notice and will want to be a part of it!

Final Thoughts To Keep Your Chin Up:

Laughing is great way to brighten any day! :)

Employees crave communication and updates in a respectful and efficient manner. We also want to someone to listen when we are voicing our opinions and ideas.

Winning Motivating Strategies: Get buy in. Team involvement. Positive reinforcement. Treat people fairly. Set attainable work-related goals. Restructure jobs when needed. Reward people based on desired results and performance not just activity.

Excellent Books:

"Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" (Daniel Pink)

“365 Ways to Motivate and Reward Your Employees Every Day: With Little or No Money” (Dianna Podmoroff)

“100 Ways to Motivate Others: How Great Leaders Can Produce Insane Results Without Driving People Crazy” (Chandler/Richardson)

March 2010   Keep Your Chin Up- Part I  

The below questions were submitted from participants on a recent GraceHill.com chat. Hats off to GraceHill to raising our spirits and supporting the multifamily industry when we really need it the most. I thought the questions were so valuable that I wanted to share those along with my responses. Hopefully you will find it helpful to stay motivated and successful even in tough times.

How can I retain my residents in this terrible economy with people losing their jobs?

By offering the best service and care to our residents right now will evaluate some of the stress. Give residents what they really want: service response, communication from us the in office and a clean well maintained home and community. Let’s keep their home their sanctuary and a safe haven from these stressful times!

Empower residents with knowledge and ability to network to locate a new job such as partnering with local experts/companies to hold a job fair, have seminars to build resumes or improve interviewing skills or build management skills. You may also gain new residents as well!

Keep the line of communication open with residents with encouraging messages, service request follow up and going the extra mile to put a smile on their face.

How can I market my community on such a tight budget?

Determine what marketing efforts are working (resident referrals, outreach, location, Craig’s List) and maximize it to gain higher results.

Find your competitive edge by completing a Comp Comparison evaluating your community’s Special Attributes [an excellent group exercise] to zero in on what is your differential factor and determine possible changes to GET the competitive edge. Are to consider: Uniqueness-what do I have that my comps do not? Advantages-what do the comps also has – BUT ours is better? Similar-What do I have that is the same as my competitors but is still important to prospects? Disadvantages-What does my comp have that I do not?

Our occupancy is very low.  How can I keep from getting discouraged and remain focused on our goal?

Team Motivator #1:  Appreciation Zero cost with HUGE impact. Who doesn’t want to be recognized and appreciated for their contributions to the community & company? Appreciation is the fuel that can keep colleagues motivated in the toughest of times.

No one likes to be taken for granted however we forget to highlight positive behaviors and folks that are setting the best examples! Make it part of your daily To-Do-List to thank to thank at LEAST one team mate for job well done via email, write a note, send a card or make a call.

Team Motivator #2:  Autonomy Give the team freedom to determine how to accomplish goals and outcomes will provide learning moments and challenge them spread their wings to find new ways to be successful. A confidence booster too!

Are team and individuals goals set in a challenging but realistic manner? Just by setting goals will relive stress and give direction. Are incentives in place? How about some fun visual goal boards and/or contests to create a friendly competition to exceed objectives?

January 2010    Drive

Your “drive” will make you highly successful and will directly affect the level of success in your market. Driven people are full of ambition, initiative, ‘get-up-&-go’, hustle and motivation. This same level of ‘drive’ will serve as fuel to power you forward no matter the challenge or obstacle that lies in front of you.

Driven people have passion for what they do which is one of the highest forms of human motivation. Drive brings focus and commitment serving as momentum to move toward achieving the goals/objective.

Driven people are inspired to stick to their set goals with the thrill of the sale, the excitement of getting closer to the objective or the pure reward of the feeling of accomplishment.

Your drive or desire to challenge yourself to continue to strive to expand as a professional can fuel you to exceed your goals.

Determination to want to achieve more paired with the desire to improve performances will always put you on the top of your market. By channeling your enthusiasm and drive will keep you focused on your goal and the sky is the limit for success! Good luck!

December 2009 Attitude

By having a healthy expectation of yourself and believing that you deserve the best in life is an essential element to success. Also believing that your company or team can achieve and maintain its full potential in sales and service can all result in great ROI for all efforts.

Don’t you love being around people with great attitudes who are optimistic and have a “can-do” attitude?  Did you know that your customers pick up on your attitude as well. They sense your pride, pleasure and satisfaction that your have for your job. When you value yourself by your aspirations and goals not your limitations—it will surely increase your attitude. Have confidence in your talent, skills and contributions to your team and company with the goal to work hard at your craft is the only way to get better and increase performance.

As we all know there are many things that we cannot control in this world however you can control your attitude and how you response the challenges that are offered to you.

This commitment to “whatever-it-takes attitude” will assist you to take on tough challenges to survive & thrive. No Stress Only Success! Go Get'em!

February 2009    Shifting Change – Are You Ready?

It is no newsflash to anyone in American that we are living in recessionary times. The shaky financial market, sinking housing values and tightening credit is causing great changes in consumer behavior. Most are thinking twice prior to any purchases, cutting back on any splurges and holding on tight to spare cash.

 There are many products and services that are vulnerable in tough economic times. Now is the best time to reflect on what areas you may be vulnerable.

 Have changes or additions been made to reflect your customers concerns, frugal buying habits or buying behaviors?  Consider the dramatic increase in coupon clipping, more home cooked meals, board game playing and home entertainment to cut costs. Is there opportunity to strengthen your business relationships to go back to the basics referral connections to develop partnerships or take the time to support each other to become stronger survivor?

 Are you recession proof? Does your company see your personal worth and contributions to meet corporate goals and achieve results? Do your customers see the true value of what you provide without any question? Are they satisfied with the service they receive and the quality care extended?

 We are in a time of change and shifting priorities. Change is constant essence in life. As said by Charles Darwin, "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." Take the time to determine the best method to make the proper adjustments. Respond quickly. Today is the best time to begin – Good luck! 

January 2009   Finding and Living My Strengths

I began a course in early January that identified my strengths, natural abilities and talents. After participating in several group discussions on how to best utilize my gifts for a rewarding and fulfilling life, personally and professionally, I was surprise when my strength were revealed how accurate is was to show my top talents. The most interesting ah-a moment was that the top five strengths shown are what brings me the most happiness and what areas that comes so naturally to me. My personal and unique strength combination:

1. Relator- One who is pulled toward other people to develop connections and build strong relationships.

2. Input-One who is inquisitive and finds the world interesting searching to acquire new information or experiences.

3. Learner-One who love to learn and is drawn to the process of learning to build knowledge and confidence in multiple areas.

4. Intellection-One who likes to think and exercise the “brain” to expand horizon of intelligence.

5. Discipline-One who strives for order and planned activities with predictability,  

Summary observations from the experience: With a deeper self-awareness and understanding of why I do certain things or areas that I find the most satisfaction, I found that I will be successful because of who I am -- not because of who I am not.

By changing my focus to maximize my strengths instead of misusing energy on fixing or improving what I called my “weaknesses” took attention away from using my true gifts and talents to soar to higher achievements. My awareness of strengths others can allow me to bring out the best in others as well as build strong teams with vary talents and diversity of skills and interests. Question to you: How well do you know YOU? What are your strengths? What is your true calling? Are you leveraging your greatest talents?  Go For It!

December 2008 Chaos of the Economy = Return of Order

The federal government just announced that we are “officially” in a recession. The overall public reaction was, “Really?” being this was no big surprise. The downturn of our economy is the headline on every newscast, internet blogs and main topic of water cooler conversation. Everyone can feel the sense panic, dread and tighten of purse strings.

While observing the effects from the slump this holiday season, I have noticed that some folks have decided that scaling back does not have to be negative. On the contrary it actually can be the best thing that ever happened to some households or businesses. People are actually focused more on the true meaning and essentials of the holiday season: quality time with family and friends. The spotlight is back on giving gifts such as homemade craft or letter reflections not the hottest gizmo or gadget. What material object do you really need anyway?

From a recent informal survey – most people have come to agreement with their inner circle to forgo exchanging gifts  but to rather to spend quality time together baking cookies, playing a few rounds of Pictionary or catching up with good friends over a cup of coffee.

Also consider how the economy has affected your work life. One can choose to stick their head in the sand and hide with hopes that this all shall pass quickly. OR one can turn these challenging times into a chance which can lead to amazing levels of creativity and innovations. Yes the budget is tight – how can you achieve the same goals without investing loads of cash? How can you work smarter with sharp focus on big payoff activity? How can you make the most of every opportunity? Are you maximizing every lead or source to build business? Can you take time to step back and review the strategy and plan for your business? You may find that a realignment may be needed or an opening for large amount of business. Why not ‘invest’ time and energy with training and appreciating your team so when business increases again morale will be strong and skills will be sharp?

I agree with the phrase, “You become the product of your environment”. Move away from negativity and surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you then challenge and believe in you. Make the most of this time to gain the true meaning of your business. Refine it. Better It. Invest the quality time where it matters most for you personally and professionally. Good luck!

If You Change Your Thinking—You Can Change Your Life October 2008

Have you ever heard of the term, “vision board’? I came across this idea on Oprah Winfrey show which focused on “The Secret” and the “Law of Attraction”. The general concept is that you can improve the quality of life through the power of positive thinking. Louise, the author of ‘Heal Your Life’, along with other guest’s comments had a profound effect on me. She stated that “If you change your thinking— you can change your life”. Louise also went on to say that whatever statements, wishes, energy or feelings that you put out into the universe – whether it is good or bad – will come back to you.

I agree and believe that we determine our success in all areas of life. One of the show’s example on how to remain focused on what matters to achieve “your best life” or goals that you have set for yourself is to create a vision board. It is simply a board, or if you are like me a refrigerator surface, which you place items, desires or aspirations. The theory is by taking the time to determine your ideal course to achieve a higher quality of life creates a direct connection with firm focus and energy to reach the desired goals.

After much thought and time, I developed my own board full of objectives, trips and objects that would mean the most to me on my life journey. I place in center of my board a photo of the Eifel Tower which represented a long time dream to visit the City of Lights to celebrate my 40th birthday.  As time went on and other goals were achieved – I remained focused on making my Paris trip become a reality.  The day that I arrived in Paris a few days before my birthday was life changing not only because the city is breathtaking in art, beauty and history but of pride and gratitude that I remained committed to my personal wish.

Upon my return from Paris, I have made adjustments to my Vision Board to change my energy and focus to achieve my next aim to achieve my own personal greatest life possible. I challenge you to pay attention to what you are “energies” or wishes into the world. I also challenge you to create your own vision board. Where will you start? What is your vision for your life? What will be included? What will be in heart of the vision board? Good Luck!

July, 2008   The Eternal Torch: Celebrating the Olympic Spirit    8.8.08 Beijing

In researching the history of the Olympics, I found that the first competition was recorded in 776BC appropriately held in Olympia, Greece . The Greek games occurred until AD 393 when the Olympics declined in importance with the rise of the Roman Empire . The Olympic revival began in 1859 and continues to this day bridging the gap of culture and languages with a competitive spirit. Another interesting research fact is that 203 countries currently participate in the Olympics compared to 193 countries aligned with the Untied Nations.

The torch originated in 1928 always being lit from the Olympic flame in Greece prior to the games and relayed to the host city. I also discovered that in the opening ceremony -- Greece leads the march into the stadium with the hosting city last with all other participating countries entering in alphabetical order.

One cannot keep from being amazed and inspired by the level of preparation and time of that goes into the training for the Games. How the players must be dedication with a strong attitude to get up every morning to build on their skills and talents no matter the obstacles, physical endurance or challenges ahead.

I know when watching the Games, I become filled with such national pride and spirit cheering on the underdog or praying that the unachievable is achieved.

It is remarkable that competitors who are currently at war or who would possibly never communicate due to cultural ideologies are side-by-side on the medal stand. How promising and encouraging for our world that for a few weeks a competition event can “even” the playing field.

The transition from an individual competing against another to becoming a team representing their country as united “one”.

It is my wish that we all celebrate the Olympics for the tradition and history that it upholds and the whisper promise of a better day for all of us in the world. If we with our global neighbors can join forces to achieve great feats—Just think what else we can accomplish.

Be inspired by the Olympic Motto: "Swifter, Higher, Stronger” and the Creed, "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

What is your training prepping you for? What will it take you and your team to reach the finish line? How strong is your pride and spirit for your company or community? How can you in your role strive and triumph? Let’s get started! –ak
www.beijing2008.com

June, 2008   Check Out to Check In: Time Off To Refocus

It is amazing what happens when you take some well deserved time off to refocus and relax. April 2008 was the month that I declared my self-assessment evaluation period to focus on the direction of my life, my business and overall journey to achieve true joy.

I have on been on an aggressive career path for nearly 18 years in which my occupation was the center of my life so much that my profession also became my identity. I knew that I had to reconnect with my inner being to determine the best value on my skill in the market along with the value to myself and create the perfect fit in a work-life balance.

After my declaration, I felt free as a bird and excited to know that I had the power to make the change in any direction that I determine will be the best. During this self-assessment time, I enjoyed doing only what I wanted to do like walk my dog, read, exercise, garden and have long lunches with my dearest friends. I spent many hours walking outside feeling the sun on my face and the wind in my hair. During this time, I discovered that writing in a journal was a good way to capture ideas for the future and stories that were dying to be told.

I found time spent in pure quiet was the blissfully rewarding. Amidst the sounds of silence it allowed me to hear my own voice crystal clear without clutter and distraction. In that time of clarity, I knew the direction that I was to take.

Once this Type-A personality decided to take this time to redirect – the ideas began to flow at astounding speed. I also found a new redirection to simplify my company’s offerings and services to ensure that it all aligns with my personal passions and skills. With all the creative juices flowing -- it was a challenge at first to decipher where to concentrate my energy and what opportunities need to lay dormant. I devised early on that I would consider ideas that would make me the truly happy in the long run not just those that would be found on the easy road to travel.

When my new niche was established, I had a radiant like beam focus generating my energy toward that goal. I realized that my motivation and efforts attracted others who want to jump on your wagon to be a part of your excellence and drive. This new awareness allowed me to be more efficient in all my efforts. I uncovered strength in a streamlined approach and saying, “no” frequently to personal and professional projects or events that do not support my new direction.

Life truly is a journey of many ups and downs. It is a process of discovering who you are and what motivates you. Maybe it is wisdom or reaching a certain level of maturity - - I trust myself now more and know what I want to achieve. I can also be honest with myself in knowing what steps it will take in addition to all other action that it will take to create the true greatness in me to happen. I now have courage to achieve pure joy in my life maximizing all the gifts and skills in which I have been blessed. In the future, I will be the first to raise the time-off flag once again to rest, reflect and recharge so I can keep achieving the best possible life. -ak