New managers and those with long-standing credentials have the same end goal: to provide tangible value to their client boards.
Are you playing to WIN, or are you playing not to lose? There is a difference ...
The New England Patriots, in the second half of Superbowl 51, were playing to win. Never taking their eye off the prize. Never losing hope. Never getting discouraged. The individual efforts and successes in that game contributed to the winning formula that took them from being down 28-3 at half-time to winning the Super Bowl in overtime. Breaking individual and team records that weren’t meant to be broken. Simply being the BEST at their game….
As property managers are we playing to win or playing not to lose? Ok, so there’s no Vince Lombardi Trophy or diamond clustered Super Bowl rings for managers, but we are all players in a growing industry where we have the ability to make a difference in people’s lives.
As property managers are we ensuring that our properties are the best managed properties, or are we just blending in and accepting mere satisfaction? Are we taking care of our residents as we would like to be cared for? As CEOs, are we creating awesome cultures within our companies and providing our staff with the tools for success while allowing them to grow as individuals and professionals? As regional managers, are we providing the support and guidance to our staff so that our teams are successful? Are we all going above and beyond the call of duty to set ourselves apart from the mediocre? These individual successes help to provide that successful winning formula for ourselves and for our team. When we play like champs, everyone wins.
It’s easy to not lose. It’s easy to play it safe; to do the bare minimum and get by. Sure, management agreements will get renewed, but are our clients enthusiastically renewing them with increases beyond the Consumer Price Index? Playing to win on the other hand takes sincere effort, risk, loyalty, continuing education and dedication to our craft. The end goal is to make ourselves invaluable and irreplaceable by providing true and tangible value to our clients.
The property manager’s Vince Lombardi Trophy, in my opinion, is to make winning contagious. To be the best we can be while adhering to our core values. To be seen as the true professionals in our industry that we are. To command the management fees and salaries that we all aspire to earn, and compensate ourselves commensurately with the skilled work that we do. Six figure salaries for condo managers should be the norm, not the exception.
Licensing on the horizon means new beginnings – new beginnings for our profession, new beginnings for ourselves and new beginnings for our clients. Let’s pave the way for the future of condo management; allowing us to increase our worth as property managers in the eyes of our valued clients. Play to WIN. Don’t play ‘not to lose’!
Steven Christodoulou, RCM is president and CEO of ICC Property Management Ltd. an ACMO 2000 Certified corporation, and past president of ACMO. www.iccpropertymanagement.com
