Stress – not everything has to happen now!

Stress, the most common side effect of working in property management can be a tough hurdle to overcome. We are bombarded each day with mounting tasks, increasing expectations, and some weird and wacky demands from our dearly beloved clients.

Stress can make can you believe that everything has to happen right now and it really doesn’t have to feel that way! In our moments of complete stress it can be hard to decipher what is urgent, what is necessary, what can wait, what can be reallocated and what does not need to be done at all.

When we are running full tilt and it’s all building up, we often need to just stop, take time out to replan and reprioritise. Often, this can be the hardest thing to do as this isn’t seen as dollar productive activity.

By taking time out to re-write your to-do list, making sure you list each task that needs to be done even if it seems small and insignificant, you will be able to clearly see exactly what has to happen. The next step is to go through and prioritise. I like to use a simple common ‘A, B, C’ system that helps:

• Prioritise what has to happen today
• What would be nice to happen today and 
• What can wait until tomorrow
• I also use a fourth label which is ‘Q’ - Q stands for quick win and means I can knock that task over relatively quickly allowing you to cut your to-do list down.

The next step is to plan, out of your A’s, decide what you will do first, how long it will take, and plan the time into your diary. For those tasks that haven’t made it to your urgent A’s list, make sure you communicate any delays to your clients, so their expectations are met. I.e. a quick email to a client letting them know you won’t have a response to them today, redefining their expectation.

By taking time out to re-plan and re-prioritise you will often see that not everything has to be done immediately. Each task will fit into your daily/weekly plan at an allocated time, you will feel relieved that you know when it will be done and this in itself can alleviate some of the stress we go through!

For a free copy of my to-do list prioritisation checklist click here!

Don't just expect the unexpected... Plan for it!

I recently heard a trainer use the phrase “property management is a series of predictable surprises.” True, isn’t it? In property management, new business, leasing and life in general for that matter, we can often sense when things are going to go wrong, or can recognise the warning signs of issues you’ve seen before. Do you take the necessary steps to prepare or prevent the occurrence? Or do you simple hope it won’t get to that ‘dreaded point.'

When there’s a fire at hand, we put it out and rush on to the next problem without taking the time out to look at our internal processes and what we can learn and put in place to ensure the same issue doesn’t recur over and over. Taking the time out to review what went wrong and how to avoid it happening again is essential for business success as it ensures we minimise errors and conflict, whilst staying as efficient and productive as possible, and importantly, that our service to our clients is constantly improving.

When I am coaching and consulting with clients across the country, part of my role is help clients to review their systems and look for the tell tale signs of potential issues such as higher arrears, prolonged bond refunds, escalated complaints over lagging repairs, vacancy levels creeping up, loss of managements and more. So based on what I’ve learnt, what can you do within your business to ensure the same recurring issues don’t keep happening?

• Seek feedback – if you aren’t already surveying your clients, it is essential to ask them for both positive and negative feedback to work out how to improve what you do and avoid issues recurring.
• Complaint/Issue Log – Keep a complaint log detailing actions taken, errors paid out, if review of process is required (free template available here)
• Review – create a review process where your procedures (and complaints) are reviewed periodically (can be a team effort). Remember what worked 10 years ago may not work today.
• Scenario Planning & Contingency Training – from the above results decide what additional training can be provided to the team either internally or from a training provider to cover not just the hard skills but soft skills such as communication and conflict resolution.

As I’ve said before, always remember (as spoken by Catherine Devrye), the most “expensive words in business are, we’ve always done it that way”.