1. business and industrial

How to Be a More Successful
Community Manager
Thursday, May 15
8 – 9 AM
Presenter(s):
T. Peter Kristian, CMCA, LSM, PCAM
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ISBN 978-1-59681-073-4
Conference Resource Guide 2014
© 2014
Community Associations Institute
6402 Arlington Blvd., Ste 500
Falls Church, VA 22042
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All rights reserved.
5/5/2014
Keys to Being a More
Successful Manager
T. Peter Kristian
CMCA, LSM, PCAM
May 2014
Keys to Being a More
Successful Manager

Control/ Influence your Environment and Expectations

Embrace the Future - What do I do well and how can I create value
in my job?

Have a Plan or a Strategy - Find someone who is more successful
than you. Surround yourself with successful people.
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Keys to Being a More
Successful Manager

Always Execute - Do what you say you are going to do, when you
said you were going to do it. Communicate!

Be impeccable with your word to others and to yourself.

Be bold and audacious - Lead.

Do you have “Grit”?
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Keys to Being a More
Successful Manager

Create value - Three elements that intersect - Demand for what
you do, Ability to do the job, and Difficulty in replacing you.

Constant improvement of what you are offering – Continuing
Education - Invest in yourself

People don’t buy What you do they buy Why you do it. What, How
and Why proposition

Give back to the community and your profession
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Organizational Values

Respect Each Other

Provide Exceptional Customer Service

Constantly Strive for Excellence
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Always Look Ahead –
but Learn from the Past

If you feel your organization is successful today, think back five
years and ask yourself what was done then to make your
organization successful today.
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Shared Purpose
 Do you and all of your employees understand and
believe in your Brand? Why you do it.
 What is your promise to your residents? How do we
deliver on that promise?
Does your Organization
have a Culture of Trust?
Kinds of Trust

Reciprocal Trust - Trust that each member of the staff will do
their job

Representation Trust – Our advisors will give us sound advice Lawyers, CPAs, Engineers, Vendors, etc.

Trust the members have in you and the Board

Counterfeit Trust - Mob Bosses
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Traits of a Quality
Organization

Integrity of the Leader - both personal and private – Leadership

Mutual Respect - The individual is more important - How do you
treat the powerless (receptionist, custodial staff)?

Are Employees empowered?

Power aligned with responsibility

Your organizational vision is communicated

There is shared sacrifice
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Traits of a Quality
Organization (cont’d.)

Tells the truth about the status of the organization (good news
and bad)

Budgets are shared

Conflict - Do we accept criticism for what can we do better?

Humility - Share your weaknesses - Don’t sugarcoat everything

Look over the horizon for the next issue or innovation - Does it
make us the best?
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Some Things to Look for
in an Employee
 Competent in their job and gets the job completed in a timely
manner (ability to deliver)
 Provides Excellent Customer Service - Goes the extra mile for a
customer or a co-worker
 On Time, Gritty, Honest, and Truthful
 Is dressed for the tasks they are assigned
 Tells me like it is, not what I want to hear (broccoli feedback)
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Some Things to Look for
in an Employee (cont’d.)
 Fun to be around
 Does what is right because it is right and not because someone
is watching (Eddie Haskell syndrome)
 Looks for ideas that save money or improves efficiency
 Respects both customers and co-workers
 Problem Solver
 Is cool under pressure and looks you in the eye
 Provides a unique perspective
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Bill Gates - on Life Modified
 Rule 1: Life isn’t fair - get used to it
 Rule 2: Your Board, residents, and co-workers, for the most part,
don't care about your self-esteem. They expect you to
accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
 Rule 3: You will NOT make $100,000 in your first year as a
community manager. You won't be a vice-president with a
company car until you have earned both.
 Rule 4: If you think your boss is tough, wait until you get in front
of a group of angry residents at a board meeting.
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Bill Gates - on Life Modified
(cont’d.)
 Rule 5: Mundane tasks are not beneath your dignity. Those
above your pay grade had a different word for those activities –
they were called gaining experience, OJT, and paying your dues.
 Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not someone else’s fault, so don't
whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
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Bill Gates - on Life Modified
(cont’d.)
 Rule 7: Before you became a community manager, your
supervisor wasn’t as boring, uncaring, and unwilling to try every
idea that popped into the heads of the staff under their
supervision. They got that way from working with new
community managers who all felt they knew everything. So
before you pontificate on your philosophy of how to run the
company or the community you are privileged to manage, try
listening and learning for the first six months before you put your
foot in your mouth with your brilliant ideas.
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Bill Gates - on Life Modified
(cont’d.)
 Rule 8: In your mind, you may have done away with winners and
losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have even
abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as
you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest
resemblance to how a community association is expected to
operate.
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Bill Gates - on Life Modified
(cont’d.)
 Rule 9: Life is not divided into your vacation periods, your coffee
breaks, or revolve around your personal text messages, checking
your social media accounts, or tweets. You are being paid to do
actual work. You don't get time off until you have earned it and
few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF or
that your best GF has found new love. Do that on your own time.
 Rule 10: Reality Shows are NOT real life. In real life people
actually have to get up in the morning and go to jobs.
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Bill Gates - on Life Modified
(cont’d.)
 Rule 11: Be nice to your supervisor. If you are successful, you
will be one someday and expect your subordinates to respect,
take direction, and your advice just like your present supervisor
expects those things from you.
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Human Resources
 Hire for Value and Belief in what you do.
 Let individuals go for lack of congruence
with company values.
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Customer Service
 The member is the most important person in our business.
 The member is not dependent upon us; we depend on
him/her.
 The member is not an interruption of our work, but the
purpose of it. (Ten Foot Rule - If you are within ten feet of a
resident, greet them and ask how they are doing.)
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Customer Service
(cont’d.)
 The member does us an honor when he/she calls; we are
not doing him or her a favor by serving them.
 The member is part of our business, not an outsider; the
member is our guest.
 The member is a human being with feelings and emotions
like our own.
 The member is not someone with whom to argue or match
wits.
 The member deserves the most courteous and attentive
treatment we can provide.
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Customer Service
 We are Ladies
Gentlemen.
and
Gentlemen
(cont’d.)
serving
Ladies
and
 The value a member places on their community can be
measured in many ways. One of the easiest is to ask your
members this question: If a buyer were to offer fair market
value for your home right now, would you choose to move
or stay?
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Peter’s Tips
 Weekly Department Head Staff meetings - give all the
opportunity to speak
 Communicate with all Staff members
 Do performance reviews on time
 Walk the talk
 Greet the members at all meetings personally
 Answer mail and email promptly
 Compliment publically and discipline privately
 Control expectations
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Peter’s Tips
(cont’d.)
 Open a “positive bank account” with all of your staff
members.
 Back your staff when they are right.
 Do what you say, when you said you were going to do it.
 Be a coach - give your staff “broccoli feedback”.
 Visit with your co-workers and call them by name.
 Take responsibility when things fall short.
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Peter’s Tips
(cont’d.)
 Give everyone in your organization credit when you have a
success. Reward/recognize lateral service.
 Survey your members
 Interview potential Committee and Board members.
 Focus on building community. Your job is to make the
Board look good.
 People don’t buy what you do - they buy why you do it.
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Peter’s Tips









(cont’d.)
It’s not personal – “Road House”
Train your Board Members - 50 mile rule
Network with your colleagues
Be polite until it hurts and kill them with kindness
Communicate - newsletter, email, etc.
Decide to be successful
Take action
Delay gratification for long-term benefit
Incremental Improvement - just a little each day adds up
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Peter’s Tips
(cont’d.)
 Recognize Staff and Volunteers
 Take care of yourself health-wise, both physical and mental
 Get up early and read something that is going to improve or
enlighten you.
 After every telephone call or meeting, debrief yourself.
What did you do right?
 What would you do differently next time?
 Make a list and prioritize each item
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Peter’s Tips
(cont’d.)
 Website - three main objectives
- Timely information 24/7 to the residents
- Reduce the need to answer routine questions and provide
routine documents
- To market the community
 Community Bulletin Board - Must be topical and updated
frequently
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Peter’s Tips
(cont’d.)
 Board makes policy and the Community Manager
implements that policy.
 Keep your Board “out of the weeds” and keep them focused
on the BIG picture, not the kind of flowers to be planted at
the entrance feature.
 Establish clear lines of your spending authority as
Community Manager.
 Committees are advisory unless specifically authorized by
the Board to make certain determinations, or they are vested
with a responsibility through the association’s governing
documents.
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Peter’s Tips
(cont’d.)
 There are people in positions of leadership, and then there
are those that lead. Community Managers who are leaders
manage their communities. “Expect staff to provide you
with solutions.” - General Patton.
 People are inspired by “Why you Do It”, not “What you Do”.
They are inspired by “What you Believe” because it touches
something they also believe.
 Your Belief - We want your Community to be the “Best” in its
class.
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Peter’s Tips
(cont’d.)
 Live by your Code of Ethics
Recent issuesDisclose all conflicts - real and potential
Don’t bad mouth your competition
Be a good steward of other people’s assets
Don’t take sides on board elections
Correct any mistakes promptly
Records belong to the client
Do not display cronyism
When properly requested, provide appropriate association
records
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Grit in psychology is a positive, non-cognitive trait based on
an individual’s passion for a particular long-term goal or
end-state coupled with a powerful motivation to achieve
their respective objective.
This perseverance of effort promotes the overcoming of
obstacles or challenges that lie within a “gritty” individual’s
path to accomplishment and serves as a driving force in
achievement realization.
Questions ?
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