“Team” does not mean “you”. Not to butcher the obvious, but it’s also not just a group of “yous”. Like music, “Team” requires more than a single note – like happiness, more than a single laugh. The team is a group condition carefully nurtured over time through soft stuff like trust and responsibility, and hard stuff like, well, trust and responsibility. A great team results from the broad delegation, independent decision-making in coordination with a well understood and a cohesive plan.

And great property managers build great teams.

They encourage team members to collaborate, drive consistency, and pursue a long-term game plan. Knowing that small things add up, great property managers understand that consistency of quality is more important than a moment of perfection. Instead of focusing on a single note, great managers develop a campaign of integrated touchpoints and measures, all designed to engender and enhance a volume of value over the long-term.
Think of good ole George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Nothing about his life was remarkable, but a life’s worth of small kindnesses saved the town of Bedford Falls and its people from becoming the seedy town of Pottersville.

Satisfaction follows the same rule.

Like most human emotions, it’s subject to multiple influences – expectation, temperament, state of mind, sleep, timing, and even marital bliss. It is a long term emotion developed through trust and responsibility. While a bad moment can kill a great day, negative moments diffuse and disappear over a long term of quality days.

Remember in “It’s a Wonderful Life” when Uncle Billy carelessly left the Building & Loan’s money in the newspaper and Potter took it. That single act would have sunk the Bedford Falls without the long term goodwill built up by the Building and Loan’s President, George Bailey. So the best measure of satisfaction is not that single point-in-time metric, but a continuum of measures taken over a broad span of time and circumstance. It’s a feeling, not a result.

And great satisfaction comes through quality teamwork.

Teddy Roosevelt said, “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what needs to be done, and the self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”

Our best clients plan for success by focusing their property management teams on cohesiveness and consistency, knowing that long term exposure to a string of quality interactions results in satisfaction. They trust their people to plan moments and measures broadly across the organization, and the entire year – direct and indirect – all orchestrated to deliver a message of quality and consistency – promoting satisfaction.

So, maximize satisfaction by empowering your team. Encourage collaboration, broad delegation, and shared responsibility through a solid year-long plan. Demonstrate trust and your team will follow-suit, without just eh…..following the suit.