Q2 Goal: Empower and Inspire

Working in the apartment industry, the stresses of leasing season are unlike anything I have ever experienced. Leading a team in a newer company, leasing season is HUGE because we must do more than the experienced competitors. We must educate the public and increase brand awareness while also promoting current availabilities and increasing the number of leads flowing through our CRM. Talk about stress! 

This year, my team in Hyde Park understands that we have a large task at hand. Since Hyde Park Property Management acquired 28 buildings in the neighborhood, the company has been renovating the apartments to create desirable modern living spaces suited for students and the general public alike. In order to make these large changes, the apartment must be vacant. Once the apartment renovations have finished, the apartment is ready for rental.

What happens to that resident who was living in the apartment originally? We encourage them to transfer to a different apartment that has been renovated. In some cases, though, the resident moves out of our portfolio. Perhaps they are graduating from nearby University of Chicago and going back to their hometown, or maybe they have chosen to leave the neighborhood. Either way, this means that we need new prospects to come in, tour the renovated space, and move in. 

This year, our leasing team is highly motivated to fill each and every apartment with residents. With that tall order comes high stress levels. We want to do our best. We want to give 100%. We want to help prospects see that our apartments are the right home for them.

The passion and drive we have comes at a cost. We put pressure on ourselves and our team members. We run ourselves dry working overtime answering questions, putting up more listings, and analyzing data. We overwork. We sleep less. We feel the wear of that on ourselves.

This is something I have been noticing over the last 3 months. As a goals-oriented person, I have made it my goal this quarter to empower and inspire my team. Not only does this help me, but it creates a better working environment for my team.

Every person is hired for a reason. As a manager, I search for you, interview you, hire you, to train you, critique you, and if it gets to that point, I have to fire you. For all of that work, I'm not going to hire someone who I believe is incapable of doing the workload. To empower my team, I am giving them the reigns. You think we should do an e-blast? Awesome. Put something together, and send it to me for final review. You've seen a decrease in showings and want to figure out where the disconnect is? I'm happy to show you how to find that information and analyze. Experiment, try, fall flat on your face, or soar with flying colors–my team can do it! I'm here to guide and serve, but I don't need to hold your hand. Take the leap and see how far you go.

Empowering my team means that I trust them. When they feel they are trusted, they feel more self-motivation. They are working on what they enjoy, so they want to knock it out of the park. They see that their ideas are valuable, which encourages them to think outside the box and contribute more. They step into the office upbeat and ready to work, and the end results are great. 

I also want to inspire my team. Now that I have had the same employees for long enough to get to know them on a semi-personal level, I know what interests them and what aspects of marketing they want to contribute more to. From there, I am finding and/or creating learning experiences for them to enhance their skills. 

For example, my intern works full-time as a librarian. She chose to intern with us to learn more about marketing and the platforms you can use to increase brand awareness and build campaigns. My associate is interested in experimenting more with social media for business. Knowing this, we will be doing an Instagram 101 training I devised to teach both of them about what makes an Instagram account eye-catching and informative to prospects, tempting them to follow and engage.

For our leasing team, I want to empower and inspire them by showing them what great things they are doing. If a consultant gets a great review on Google, I'll send them the link and let them know I'm proud of the work they are doing. If we saw an uptick in applications this week, I want to point that out in our team meeting and congratulate them on a job well done.

Conversely, if we identify something that could help our leasing team, I'm there for them, too. For example, I created cheat sheets for anyone who may answer a leasing call with rental ranges, building specific amenities, apartment amenities, and other quick facts. Then, anyone who answers a prospect's call can feel confident they are helping the prospect with accurate information. 

I believe in the power of positivity. Make your employees feel great. They do great. You see their greatness, and you feel great. Your team sees growth, progress, and the positivity multiplies. The cycle goes on. Those large goals become smaller and smaller until finally, they are achieved. I look forward to the successes my team will experience this quarter.