All posts by Multifamily Leadership

Marcus & Millichap Hires Jay Lybik as Vice President, Research Services (1)

07/182016

Trust and Safety Promote Workplace Productivity

Industry Partners by Multifamily Leadership

I managed an apartment complex. The community that I worked at was a great community, we had great residents, everything was really easy and normal. I had a resident who I was evicting. He came into my office and he threw a note on my desk that said, “Close all the blinds, give me your car keys and your wallet, get on your hands and knees.”

And he pulled a gun out of his jacket. It’s a Monday, I’m at work by myself, and we start struggling and fighting and then the gun went off. He ran out one way, I ran out the other.

The focus of “employee well-being” is not a new idea and over the recent months, challenges in our world have people inside and outside the workplace facing growing concerns. This is a story that employees should not have to tell.

Given the natural challenges within our industry of touring apartments, employees working shifts after sunset, and individual maneuvers through resident apartment homes it is understandable that these employees would be concerned about their personal safety.

Multifamily in the News

It seems like the media only talks about apartment developers when they make the news or broadcast live about a suspect who has caused great harm to communities. Not only is this a challenge in marketing new apartment homes, but this is also a growing concern with companies looking to attract top talent to the industry. As the program participants experienced in the 2016 Best Places to Work in Multifamily, those that are ranking nationally as the Best Places to Work have a strong response with employees and how they feel regarding their personal safety in their work environment.

Ryan Antrim, CEO of Apartment Guardian, is innovating safety in Multifamily and making it easier than ever to keep employees safe in the workplace. The company was founded in 2012 by two Multifamily veterans looking to make the industry safer for all employees, but especially leasing agents and those individuals who could potentially be in harms way. Their inspiration came from friends and peers in the industry who took the lead and spoke candidly about their own experiences with violence at work, having faced frightening circumstances themselves while on the job.

Between the isolation of being a leasing agent while on tour, a property manager being the end-of-the-line for any angry resident, or a maintenance worker getting injured during a work order, there are many reasons why ready-to-use emergency response tools are an essential step that should be taken by Multifamily owners.

“We have been using the Apartment Guardian for a couple of years now and in all reality, you hope that no one ever has to use the device, but we actually had an instance where it was utilized and it worked as designed and local emergency personnel responded.” – Bob Kohlman, VP, BRG Apartments

Let’s Get to Work

It seems like we’re heading in the right direction with the focus on employee engagement and data that supports the concept of trust and safety promoting workplace productivity. Perhaps this is why Steve Bonaventure, the company’s COO says that 20,000 on site workers in North America are fitted with the Apartment Guardian Safety Technology. The company has made strategic moves to meet the demand of some of the largest Multifamily operators in North America.

Multifamily Owners and Executives are beginning to realize that small investments in employee engagement will yield higher cash flows for property owners. In a recent study, increasing employee engagement investments by 10% can increase profits by $2,400 per employee, per year. (Source: Workplace Research Foundation)

For a company like Apartment Guardian, this is a big value play for management company executives looking for the ROI answer. Behind every development, lease up, re-position and day to day happenings are people. Company executives are making the move to protect the most important capital, our people.

So What Next?

Download the Apartment Guardian FREE safety guide to learn how to maximize safety for your on-site staff.

About the Author: Patrick Antrim leverages a deep insight in leadership to inspire high-impact results. He is an author, speaker, entrepreneur and producer of the Multifamily Leadership Summit, and his leadership & coaching firm, Multifamily Leadership, LLC , is focused on preparing Multifamily Leaders for the FUTURE of WORK.

07/172016

Marcus & Millichap Hires Jay Lybik as Vice President, Research Services

Multifamily Leadership Series by Multifamily Leadership

Marcus & Millichap (NYSE: MMI), a leading commercial real estate investment services firm with offices throughout the United States and Canada, today announced the addition of Jay Lybik as vice president, research services, according to Gregory LaBerge, chief administrative officer of Marcus & Millichap. Lybik joins Marcus & Millichap with over 20 years of real estate research experience and most recently served as vice president, market research, at Equity Residential (EQR). He will be based in the firm’s Phoenix office and will report to first vice president, John Chang, who heads Marcus & Millichap’s Research Services unit.

“We are excited to welcome Jay to Marcus & Millichap’s Research Services team,” said Chang. “He will be responsible for enriching the firm’s research and advisory services and guiding the preparation of the firm’s more than 900 annual research products, which include forecasts, reports, and outlooks.”

“Jay’s experience and track record will help elevate our research capabilities, agent support, and client services,” stated LaBerge. “It will also enable us to leverage John Chang’s role in supporting our agents’ business development, client presentations and branding Marcus & Millichap.”

During Lybik’s tenure with EQR, he utilized research to help the company’s leadership team capitalize on emerging trends and evolve into one of largest publicly traded real estate investment trusts in the country. Lybik also served as a senior research analyst for another large commercial real estate company prior to joining EQR.

Lybik currently serves as chair of the National Multifamily Housing Council’s Research Committee. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

Marcus & Millichap’s research division is dedicated to providing clients with cutting edge market research and delivers real-time market intelligence. The firm’s market research is regularly quoted in media, including CNBC, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Real Estate Forum.

07/282015

Multifamily Culture as a Competitive Advantage

Company Culture, Leadership by Multifamily Leadership

A high-performing culture starts with a culture of learning and development. I know what you are thinking: culture is complex.

I am speaking of high-performing results.

A company that sets out to entice employees with flexibility, comfort, beverage bars and all that we have seen in new culture practices will struggle for long-term success. Be prepared to feed this type of culture some cash.

I believe culture is an outcome and, by the end of this article, I will show you where to start the process. But before we get into where to start, I would like to talk to you about performance.

A great culture is an outcome of the performance you create. Some culture requires companies to change and sometimes culture means that very little changes.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe talent acquisition and rewards to be an investment in our business. I also believe that with the right environment, people will grow and reach their full potential. Employees who reach their full potential have a better chance of fulfillment.

Love So Much That You Delay Gratification

I have two boys who are a constant source of delight in my life. Their curiosity inspires me to become more every day. I love them and have a long-term view on how they develop. I can spend my time trying to please them with gifts and comforts or I can prepare them to create lasting joy. The type of joy that will allow them to get through most of the many challenges youth experience today.

Preparing them for success is most likely the best way for me to create happy children. The more I try and make them happy, the more they become dependent on external things, less prepared and frustrated.

Most people want to succeed. Help them do that and happiness will be the outcome. When people are happy, they engage.

Every Company Has a Culture

As much as we try and create culture, the bottom line comes down to how we reward people, what we allow to creep in and what we tolerate in our corporate offices and onsite properties.

I believe people want to work on winning teams. I bet you want to be on a winning team. From my perspective, the best way to create a winning culture, a culture that creates a competitive advantage, is to win. Win for your three customers. Win for your property owners, employees and residents. The path to winning is preparing and developing people to reach their full potential.

Where Do We Start?

Confidence. How do you feel when you are winning? More motivated to take on bigger challenges? More confident? More secure? The more confident we become as a result of high performance, the more innovation we bring our teams. Think about that.

Less confident people will hold back solutions, feedback and candor because they don’t want to rock the boat.

When we build confidence in others we increase our chances of success. When you have a culture of learning within your organization, you create more confident employees as a result of continual learning. People feel more prepared and therefore take on more challenges.

How Do We Create Confidence?

At our leadership summit, our keynote speaker, Patrick Morin, simplified his years of research on confidence. Morin said, “Confidence comes from one of two things. Having a plan or having results.”

If having a plan or having results creates confidence, why do so many become reckless? When people follow their plan and begin to produce results, their confidence increases. Where things get scary is when they produce a high outcome of results over a period of time and begin to neglect the plan.

You see this in companies that have long-term employees who have become overly confident because they have completed a certain level of tasks over and over. Their results are high, and their confidence is high. The trouble is they become overconfident as they neglect their plan.

Airline Pilots Stick to the Plan

They follow their plan, and the checklists keep them focused on the plan as a requirement. In this case, you have a high focus on the plan and high results, which translates into a great performance.

When organizations create a culture of learning they can create high-performing outcomes by allowing people to continue to learn. A culture of learning becomes a culture of accountability, which leads to a culture of responsibility. The outcome is a culture of performance and a culture as a competitive advantage.

I would love to hear from you. What ways are you building confidence with your teams?

About the Author: Patrick Antrim leverages a deep insight in leadership to inspire high-impact results. He is an author, speaker, entrepreneur and producer of the Multifamily Leadership Summit, and his leadership & coaching firm, Multifamily Leadership, LLC , is focused on preparing Multifamily Leaders for the FUTURE of WORK.

07/282015

Building Legendary Teams

Company Culture, Leadership, Multifamily Leadership Summit by Multifamily Leadership

Leadership. A single word that carries many different beliefs. It’s intimidating for some and a journey for others. Another word that comes to mind is success. Next time you have a meeting, ask each person what success means to them. See how many different answers you receive. It’s no wonder companies zig zag on issues. A strong leader will define success and share the vision with a common goal, define roles and responsibilities, and communicate with the teams.

In baseball it goes like this. The common goal is winning the World Series. Each player clearly understands their role on the team. Pitchers don’t practice hitting, they practice pitching. Spring training is about getting the communication and chemistry right.

When we look at companies and sports teams that are remembered as Legendary Teams, you will find one common characteristic among them, performance. The companies with the best people have the power to attract loyal customers and top employees. In some cases, people are your product. In the business of sports, people are why 50,000 people show up to watch a game of baseball. It’s the people, the players, the talent, their performance.

Results are outcomes, focus on performance

Great results are outcomes of great practice and preparation. Shareholder returns, a great customer experience, and the candidate experience are all outcomes. If you want better outcomes, focus on the internal strategies that drive results, people and performance. You’ve heard leaders say “People are our most important asset.” So why do businesses spend billions of dollars each year advertising to drive shareholder returns, customer experiences? It’s because most will focus on the results and not the internal strategies that create them.

All businesses have 3 customers – Shareholders, Teams, and Consumers

I believe the employee customer (team) is the single most important customer to understand. This is why attracting the top people is so important to your business. When companies get this right, they get it all. In other words, if you have the right employees and they are reaching their potential; the consumers are getting the experience they desire. This leads consumers to enjoy your company and tell their friends about your wonderful company.

When companies get aligned from the inside out, the owners get the best possible returns. How well do you think leaders understand their people? I bet you would agree that leaders can get caught up in chasing results, shareholder returns. If people are the company’s most important asset, this should be a focus. Results are outcomes. Just like sports teams. It’s all about the teams, that’s how they win games. The employees should be your most important customer and if you invest in them, you will improve your consumer experience and drive financial results to your shareholders. Everyone wins. The employee, shareholders and consumers.

Top talent is a result, not an acquisition

Getting top talent is not about acquisition or the pursuit of top people. It’s about becoming a great leader yourself and making your team better. Top talent is something you attract by the company you become. As a result, your company wins and people will want to be a part of that. The best people have choices. When they understand what you are about, how you lead and where you are going; you will have the best people available to you.

Get Clear

Get clear about the people you need. Think about what people like that would want in a company or leader, and become that. Simple as that. Top talent is an outcome of who you become as a business unit, team or company. When you become more, you are now attractive to the people you desire.

Focus on experience with team development

Baseball teams provide experience based learning in controlled environments. It’s okay to fail. In fact, it advances success when we do. We call it the minor leagues in pro baseball. And like the Yankees, we like 2,000 plate appearances before you reach the big leagues. If you ask Malcolm Gladwell, he says 10,000 hours. Either way, they take development very seriously. In the minor leagues, player development is important and winning comes second. Confidence comes after competence. We get competent by taking risk and learning through experience. As a result, we get confident.

Now that we understand that results are outcomes of great performance, shifting to a performance focus will allow us to create better results. As Ken Blanchard said, “You can’t hit the ball with your eye on the scoreboard.” When our teams are reaching their potential, we become a better company and more attractive to outside talent.

photo credit: Werner Kunz via photopin cc

07/282015

Stability is a Myth

Leadership, Multifamily Leadership Summit, Talent Acquisition by Multifamily Leadership

How many times have you hired someone because they seemed like the right person? They do well in some situations but they slip in situations they should otherwise succeed in. Now the Manager has to put things back together. We spend time recruiting, training, and re-training people over and over.

Does this happen often? Do you have people that have a tough time doing things on their own?

Think Long Term

As a business owner or leader, you have to take a long term view and understand that Steve Jobswas right: “A small team of A players can run circles around B and C players.” Hiring the best people is the single most important activity. If you have lenders or investors, they are operating on a shorter cycle. They are looking for returns based on their liquidity and capital event schedules. When we react to their needs, we rush our process of building great teams. This ultimately impacts the business outcomes.

As a leader, it’s your job to drive the business and not let operating from a position of weakness effect your decisions. If you need capital to grow your business, go get some. There is an abundance of capital circulating this country. If you have lenders that are calling notes, go sell more so you can be a debt free company. Often leaders get focused on these distractions and the real issue is they need to sell more product or service. If you sell or ship your product, you can solve all your issues with revenue.

We know that the cost to operate a business is increasing over time. If you are not growing your revenue in business and operating in a status quo stability mindset, you will eventually decay your business. Be prepared to feed it some cash.

Having a perfectly balanced staff is a myth in business

Just like in staffing, it’s never just right. You are either under staffed or over staffed. I have driven results in more cases with an understaffed team then an overstaffed team. When there are too many people in the office, things slip. When urgency is in place, there is no time to waste on office chatter.

Have you ever been to a restaurant when you are one of the only customers? You would think your service would be exceptional. I know this isn’t for all situations, but I find that servers begin to focus on other things, like their side work and forget about taking care of the customer. Operating lean is a good thing for business, people rise to the occasion and will reach their potential.

Photo Credit: kentoh via Envato