Experience is useful, but it can also get in the way – especially in a fast-changing world where the old solutions don’t necessarily work anymore.
Think about situations in your business where you might be acting on auto-pilot because you’re just responding to familiar patterns. For example:
- When you make a management listing presentation to a new client, do you just make a standard presentation every time, or do you really listen to what this specific owner needs for their property and the way they deal with you?
- If a tenant causes a minor problem, do you automatically react based on other tenants you have known, or do you take the time to discover their unique situation before you respond?
- If your most junior team member suggests an idea in a team meeting, do you reject it because “We tried that before and it didn’t work”, or treat it (and her!) with respect and consider it seriously?
- When somebody posts a negative comment about you on your Facebook page, do you hit back immediately because it raises long-held personal beliefs and emotions, or do you stop and take the time to push those patterns aside so you can respond more appropriately?
- Do you lump all your agency’s salespeople into the same group because “They are in Sales, and don’t understand Property Management”, or do you treat each of them as skilled, talented, and motivated individuals who can help you build your business as well?
- Do your processes, systems, policies, and procedures force everybody (tenants, owners, and your team) to fit into one way of doing things, or are they flexible enough to accommodate individual needs?
I wrote about this in an article “Is your own brain your number one threat?” for Elite Property Manager magazine. If you would like to read more about the dangers of operating on auto-pilot, you can download and read the full article here.
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