Staying Edgy To Keep The Edge In Management

It's another quiet day…..no phone calls from angry Board members, no homeowners emailing and telling you how horrible everything is……no pressing issues on the agenda for the next Board meeting…..it's another quiet day. Isn't life great!

Well…..maybe not! As I remind our management team, the daily challenges and obstacles that exist in our industry are “why they hired us.” If it was easy and there were no problems, homeowner associations would not need professional management. Therefore, we should expect, and yes, even embrace, the day to day challenges that exist within all of our communities. And, if those challenges, those hurried phone calls from the Board, those “we need to run this by you” emails stop…something is wrong.

When speaking with our property managers and when speaking with Board members, it is vitally important to hear their comments…but it is sometimes more important to hear their silence. How many times have we been told “well, we cancelled this month's meeting…there's not much going on” or “we met informally as a Board; no reason for you to have to stay late to attend the meeting”. Or, “we had some problems last week, but the Board took care of it”. These may be telltale signs that the Board feels that it no longer needs us and that the account relationship may be in trouble.

Approaching each and every day with an edge of paranoia and concern may take a slight toll on the mind and body, but it prevents complacency and nonchalance in the way we approach each community and each business relationship. We must wake up every day with a sense of urgency, a sense of making a difference, and we must ensure that we take action steps that make a positive impact on the Board and the community each and every day!! Creating a mind set amongst the team, at all levels of the operation, that sends a message of “we can lose this account at any moment” simply makes us that much better. Much like a professional athlete or performer, we cannot afford to rest on our laurels and feel that our accounts are secure and we therefore can coast. Approaching each day, each hour, each phone call, each email as though the retention of that account depends upon the timeliness, accuracy, professionalism and follow through by our staff may make for hard driving and “edgy” mind sets…..but it gives us the competitive edge with our clientele.