Using the 7 Habits when hiring (part 1)

While we have many great employees, there always seems to be 1 that doesn't quite seem to fit our organization's culture. Our hiring practices have definitely improved over time, thanks to podcasts by manager-tools.com and the years of experience of all 3 business partners. However, there are still a few that seem to slide through the cracks. Granted, they're not lasting as long as they used to. We are recognizing when it's just not working out sooner and trying to figure out whether or not the problem can be fixed. If it can't, we're also learning it's best to just cut our losses so that the one doesn't affect the whole.

I've nearly finished The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People audio book thanks to my 1/2 hour daily commute to work. As I've worked my way through it, it's occurred to me that the people we are trying to hire, the people that fit into our culture best, should embody at least the first 3 habits, if not more. We're looking for another employee now, so I figure it's time to translate those 7 habits into something tangible to hold candidates up against.

Habit 1: Be Proactive

According to Stephen Covey, the definition of proactivity is "more than merely taking initiative. It means...we are responsible for our own lives...We have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen."

To our company culture, it compares to being a self-starter. We're looking for someone who looks at their job critically and asks "How can I improve this?" "What can I do to be more efficient?" "What can I do to serve the residents, the owners, my coworkers better?"

It also means looking at their job critically as it relates to the needs of the company. As a small company, we basically reorganize every time we hire a new person. (We're small. We're agile. We hire when the workload is too great, which means that someone passes off part of their work and takes on newer, more complicated responsibility. There's no 'this is my job and that's all I do' around these parts.) It means looking at all the tasks that need to be done and offering to do those tasks that best fit or complement the job already being done by that person as well as the skills that that employee brings to the table.

Being proactive also means not being reactive, not letting conditions affect you. Just because the weather is bad, or the person on the other end of the phone is having a bad day does not mean that you let it affect your mood or performance. As Covey says, "[Proactive people] are value driven; and if their value is to produce good quality work, it isn't a function of whether the weather is conducive to it or not." The other part of not being reactive is taking responsibility for your actions. I've seen too many employees whose attitude is "poor me, I can't help it. 'x' is the problem, not me." This victim mentality irritates me more than anything else. You may not be able to help the problem, but you have total control over your reaction - and that really is 98% of the issue.

Being proactive means having the ability to make and keep commitments as well as being conscious of areas of weakness and the need for growth (and the ability and willingness to act on that realization). Commitment keeping can sometimes be an issue, especially if the commitment is for something that takes a lot of time and energy over a long period of time. Generally, the issue has been the requirement of having a real estate license. If you break it down into smaller tasks to be accomplished, it's not that hard. If you look at the process over all, it can be overwhelming. Along with this, it's important that the employee be able to take a objective look at their performance and identify what areas need improvement. Oh, we'll do it for them, but it's much better when it's already been identified and brought to our attention during a weekly one-on-one or a casual conversation asking for help. At that point, the discussion then is about the solution - not the problem.

How do you find these characteristics when you are interviewing? Behavioral questions come to mind. Unfortunately, sometimes candidates can talk a good game and you can miss it. It definitely becomes apparent after they have been working for a little while, but that is an investment of time and money that I hope not to make when it's not going to work out. Sometimes it's a gut feeling and hard to explain.

Some questions I have or may look at adding to my interview set: (if they're already included, I definitely am looking for a different answer now!)

• Tell me about a time when you've noticed a shortcoming in your job performance. How have you handled it?
• You are responsible for x part of the leasing process. You notice that the rent ready process sometimes gets bogged down for x reasons. How would you handle it?

How would you integrate Habit 1: Be Proactive into your hiring process?

Disecting a Non-Profit

This will probably be a multi-part series. Following is part 1.

There is an organization that I belong to. For political reasons, the name will not be mentioned, however following are my thoughts regarding issues that are facing this organization that has been around now for quite a few years.

They are resistant to change. There are a number of reasons for this, and quite a few results. Keep in mind, I am not for change for change's sake. However, there is a time when you have to realize that what you are doing is not working, even if it may have worked in the past. Members complain about the lack of marketing, the fact that the education portion of the organization is not being utilized to its fullest potential, that some of the annual events detract from the real purpose of the organization, and that it's the same faces in all the committees with no new people stepping in to take on leadership roles.

Being of a generation X persuasion, I do not mind change. Perhaps I am unusual in the fact that I love to sit down with a group and brainstorm new ideas and new ways of doing things. On the other hand, if I am going to expend the effort, I also want to see that they are taking advantage of all the new ideas. If nothing is implemented and nothing changes, what is the point? I'd rather know that I am making a difference rather than just spinning my wheels. I'll take my energy and enthusiasm elsewhere. Now imagine there are 10-15 people of my generation that feel this way. And they wonder why they have no new blood?

I do realize that part of the reason they are resistant to change is because their funds, and therefore their staff, is limited. I also realize that there are quite a few people in this world who get all excited about an idea, volunteer, and then never follow through. I know that the staff is already over-extended. But, if it's an idea that a volunteer is willing to initiate, be responsible for, and see through (and the ramifications if it falls by the wayside are not that great) - why not let them give it a go? I suppose working in a small company has made me a bit more adventurous. I'm the software designer who works in iterations. I don't have to see the end result to get going. I make a prototype. It has some imperfections. I make changes. I make another prototype. You get the picture. Education. Let's do podcasts. Find someone to make a podcast. Test market it with a few people. It doesn't work. So? Take a look at webinars. Again. You get the picture.

Let's be frank. Their marketing sucks. Ok. Let me rephrase. What marketing? Education has no attendees. Education is being marketed by one flyer at a a once-a-quarter meeting and by a calendar online. An email if you're lucky, but it looks like junk mail.

With all the information overload these days, you really have to be in people's faces. You have to push the information to them. Keep in touch. You can't count on people to go and pull information from you. What you send out does not have to have the whole enchilada included. Why do you think t.v. teasers work so well? Give them enough so they know the basics, to make them want to know more and send them someplace to find out (website, phone number).

If you have professional-looking marketing, people infer that the offered item is going to be professional as well. If your marketing looks cheap and like it was done in Word by someone in the 90's, well (yes, it probably was)...there's your problem right there. Again, you don't have to spend a lot of money, you just have to look like you did. This is where tapping into your volunteer resources comes in handy. There are people out there who love design and are good at it, even if it's not their primary profession. (Heck, I was a web designer/coder at one point, and now I do accounting.) That's what the volunteers are for! Even if you don't have a volunteer who is good at design, you can pay a small amount of money and use a service with the design done for you already and just plug in the information. Which leads me to -

Nothing is easy with them. You can't give them a simple idea and have them run with it. The simple idea mushrooms into the year-long effort that suddenly seems insurmountable, and then the idea gets nixed. There's a difference between adapting an idea to work in your situation and having the idea get out of control. Case in point:

Suggestion: Let's pick a handful of people from each of our market sectors, serve donuts or pizza and pick their brains about what they want from the organization and how they think we're doing. (Cost: donuts/pizza and drinks and a small door prize if you need an incentive.)
--mushrooms into--
Idea: Let's hire a consultant and spend big $$$$ to have them come up with a survey that we'll mail out to all of our members. (Cost: around $30,000 or so, might or might not include 4-color copying and postage)

Get my drift? And now you know why the idea was met with such resistance. Realistically, the flow for this organization should probably be from the former to the latter. The organization should continually be asking its members how it is doing, for suggestions, for feedback. If you only do it once every 5-10 years, yes, it's a larger undertaking to get their attention. If you do it gradually, it may take you a bit longer to ramp up useful information, but the members also begin to see that their opinion counts (especially if you are using their ideas and letting them know you're using their ideas!) and feel they are getting more value from the organization.

I attended an industry brainstorming session several years ago, and at the brainstorming sessions anyone who shot down ideas or made negative comments was passed a rubber duck (Don't Use Conversation Killers). Sitting in a meeting at the organization, that duck would be flying between people like a hot potato.

It's so frustrating to be involved in an organization where you can see great things for them just over the horizon. Sure there's a mountain between you and that horizon, but if you look closely there's a nice switchback path just to the left that is a heck of a lot easier than that sheer cliff next to it that everyone keeps eyeing.

looking back at the first year

and what an absolutely wild, thrilling ride it has been!

we're hired a few, fired a few, had one quit. (both property owners and employees, if i think about it!)

we've taken over the whole house that we started our office in.

we've survived a summer and lived to tell the tale.

we're managing 200+ units, and are looking at growing another 120 in the next few months.

we've learned that our friends, family and the people in our extended network believe in us and the excellent job that we do. because of this, they refer their friends, family, and the people in *their* extended network to us for management.

the president has survived the year also as president of the san diego county apartment association and was asked to consider the presidency track for the california apartment association.

in addition to the new business, we've survived personal side stuff - 6 moves (between 3 people) and a family death that required unexpected foreign travel, plus all the vacations and travel that left the company with one or two less hands on deck than normal.

we've officially started our maintenance division aimed at the general public (and had it used!)

we've set a schedule for reviewing various aspects of our business on a regular schedule. (4 weeks = 4 aspects. leasing, financials, maintenance, owner/resident relations. each gets touched at least once a month.)

we've learned that we've got a lot to learn!

we've learned that we're doing a lot of things right!

this is one decision that i do not for a moment regret making. we're free to try new things and discard them if they don't work. i still get a thrill out of writing 'cambridge management group, inc.' on any form that asks for my company name. it's definitely been a challenge learning as i go - especially when it comes to managerial-type stuff like delegating, hiring, trying to manage people when i barely have enough time to keep track of my own items...

there are a couple tools that i have found immensely useful and completely worth the money that the paid memberships cost:
manager tools
gtd connect

i honestly don't know how i would survive without the getting things done methodology. granted, i'm still working on being consistent about using the task list and weekly review, but life is so much better when i am staying organized. when the above-mentioned family death took place at the end of june, i simply dropped everything and was unable to get back to cruise control until this week. in fact, yesterday was my first weekly review in two months. thankfully, i wasn't as bad off as i had imagined. normally i have at least 2-3 pages of open loops when i relieve my brain of everything that it is trying to track for me. this time - 1/2 a page. i did have to clear a lot of paper and email, however, before my brain dump. i think a lot of it was being controlled by holding on to the paper/email that triggered the item and keeping it in my inbox. (that makes for a very tall/long, very messy inbox!)

looking forward, we're getting ready to find an assistant for me to help out with the financial aspects of the company. we're holding our first owner meeting in september on 1031 exchanges, with future ones to be also given by our industry partners to educate our owners on growing their wealth. we're getting into a system of reviewing our company's progress on a weekly basis. (we're growing so fast, this is a must. things like job duties, forms and new policies change on a weekly, even daily basis as we grow by 1, 12, and sometimes even 64 units at a time.)

it's amazing how much things have changed from that day a year ago when we walked out of the office of our previous jobs for the last time. each of us were working from home, and had no idea how this was going to happen. all we had was our industry experience and our huge dreams and ambitions.

and now for year 2!

cambridge management group, inc.

high standards. higher returns.

surfacing...

between two full-time jobs, i haven't had much time to pay attention to much else besides the old job and the new job. august 15 is the target date for the end of the old and 100% attention to the new.

i'm happy to say we're ahead of schedule. we've got over 40 units already, but we're not resting on our laurels. there is another owner we've already spoken with who has a 300 unit portfolio. we're keeping our fingers crossed.

some of the things we didn't anticipate:

- having to upgrate internet service to be able to have a static ip address for our software
- having our property management software company merge with another just a month after our puchasing the software
- finding out that the business version of the internet service is not as stable as the residential version (argh!)

anyway, mom, sis and i are struggling to maintain our sanity on very few hours of sleep a night. i managed to pass my real estate exam, but i have to take the trade portion of my contractor's exam again. august 11. and i still have one more real estate class to take the final exam for.

see you after august 15!

how not to approach a service organization for their help and cooperation

(the last few weeks have seen me cramming for license exams. they are next week, so you still won't see much of me for a bit)

last night before closing, a resident and his friend walked into the office. their issue: the cable wiring in their apartment needed to be redone.

instead of calmly asking for assistance or finding out what their options were, both came into the office in an agressive manner and immediately started screaming in an abusive manner at everyone they encountered.
lession 1: it goes back to the old adage - you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. working to enlist the help of the person you're dealing with goes a long way. when you start off abusive and angry, it will usually set the opposite party into a defensive mode.

the conversations escalated from there, up to the point where they threatened to sue the owners and the company. they refused to leave, and our efforts to get them behind closed doors to carry on a reasonable conversation were in vain as they could be heard throughout the office, including in rooms where two closed doors were between the angry resident and the other employees.
lesson 2: sometimes both parties need a cool down period. there comes a time when further discussions will go no where at that time. it makes sense for both parties to step apart and meet again at a later date. unfortunately, it's usually the less-upset person that needs to initiate this space, and the more-upset person is the one who wants to continue to focus on the problem instead of the solution.

in fact, the situation got to the point where an employee called the police as we all were starting to feel like the situation might escalate to physical violence in a few short minutes.
lesson 3: that is what the police are there for. if you dial 911, even if the person leaves, be sure to wait until the operator answers so that they can arrive and take care of the matter immediately.
lesson 4: document. document. document. let me say it one more time. document! the fact that most everyone in the office had already documented their version of the story in writing by the time that the police arrived said a lot for the company and the situation. for them to ask to hear our version, and then to be able to say, "here's my written statement" meant that we meant business. when the police interviewed the other parties who were asked to leave, there was no such professionalism. (in fact, the one who filed assault charges on us(?!) didn't even have a witness, while we had a whole office full of employees who watched the incident.)
lesson 5: listen to your gut. we almost didn't move these people in 2 weeks ago because the move-in process started off really rough. we should have listened to our instinct, told them this really wasn't going to work out, and decided not to move them in. you can fire your clients. if they're being a pain in the a** - save your sanity and do so. no one needs extra drama in their life!

welcome to the world, cambridge management group, inc.

now that it has been revealed to the rest of the company, i am able to reveal the until-now-censored item.

my mom, sister, and i have given notice at our current place of employment and are starting our own property management company. the business cards are nearly done. we're working on brochure copy and design. a website is in the works. referrals are rolling in. announcements are in the works. advertisements and marketing items are planned. larger possibilities for other, related ventures are looming in the not-so-distant future.

i've never been so excited in my entire life!

one step closer / update

well, we're one step closer. i'm one step closer to being able to reveal **censored**. it might be revealed a bit sooner than jun 1...maybe a bit later. but the powers that be at the company have now been told, and things are rolling.

i am stressing out about the end of june. professionally, this is what my month looks like. for those of you who have done licensing exams, you'll probably feel my pain:

jun 10-11: contractor's license exam prep course
jun 22: contractor's license exam
jun 24-25: real estate exam prep course
jun 26: real estate license exam

at least i will know how i did on the contractor's exam immediately after it is completed, which means that i won't have to even think about it while i'm cramming for my next exam. the real estate exam is not computer based, so i won't know the results of that for a week or two.

this at least brings me one step closer. well, this and moving my dentist appointment from jun 21 to jul 5. there's only so much a girl can handle in a week's time!