Apartment Trends Magazine March 2015 | Page 14

MISS MANAGEMENT carol levey | levey enterprises Tips for building a portfolio from the ground up I have recently been hired by a start-up Property Management Company that is going to go from 0 to 2,500 apartment homes in the next 3 months. My task is to efficiently transfer this portfolio and bring these communities into a normal operating region. Obviously, this was presented to me as a unique career opportunity. I’m excited and prepared. However, any help you could provide is appreciated. A I’m pleased for you. This is definitely a challenge that will test your leadership and management skill set. Let’s break it down. Your ability to plan needs a complete inventory of resources and challenges. This means that each community has a thorough review of the financials, a detailed property walk and conversations with key people. From these inputs you will get a sense of the resources and challenges you can count on for an initial 90-day plan. Now organize the initial 90 days with an experiential checklist that you can utilize for orientation, communicating expectations, and evaluating results. Since I don’t know the people or resources available to you I can’t predict how much hiring will be needed but I can predict that well designed job descriptions and performance standards for all your key employees at each community level is an important initial priority. These documents will give structure to your expectations. If you utilize these consistently in your initial conversations with existing staff at each community you can discover the culture that is in place and how to respond to people and circumstances. In your hiring interviews you can design and ask experience based questions that reveal your needs as well as the skills and attitudes of each candidate. Your orientation and ongoing coaching communication will be direct and your intentions will be transparent. Quality verbal and written communication gets you a quick start to realistic goals and objectives for the initial 90-day program and becomes the basis for goal selection and performance review for each 90 days thereafter. You need to build a defined reputation for your region to insure your leadership is followed. Hope this helps and enjoy this unique opportunity to excel. 52 Ways to Create a Customer Centric Business March 18, 2015 | 11:15am Renaissance Hotel Denver Register Online at www.aamdhq.org Don Gallegos Customer Service Expert POWER PARTNER Customer service expert Don Gallegos has 52 Rules that will help you create a company that is focused on giving the best customer service ever. What you will discover: »» The Customer is Not Always Right, but They Are Always The Customer »» Customer Service is not a Department »» Don’t Make You Problems, The Customers Problem »» Don’t Hide Behind Mr. Policy »» Empower Your Employees »» Don’t Judge People, Help People 12 | TRENDS • MARCH 2015 www.aamdhq.org