In the 4th edition of my book, Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More, I list 12 potent management precepts that will imbed themselves permanently in one’s psyche once a “Systems Mindset” is attained.
Does this apply to your property management business? It sure does! In fact, a property management operation provides the perfect illustration of the systems mindset strategy.
The goal? Freedom. And, in slightly mercenary terms, I define freedom as having plenty of personal time and plenty of money.
One online dictionary describes a precept “as a general rule intended to regulate behavior or thought.” The great thing about that? As you internalize the systems mindset as a precept, you will automatically regulate your own thought process to precisely direct yourself to “making more and working less.”
So today, let’s talk about precept #3, one of the most important of the twelve that I cover in my book. It’s key.
Here it is, paraphrased slightly: “Your property management business is a collection of 1-2-3-4 step independent systems. Each system has a beginning and each one unfolds over time to, in the end, deliver you a result.“
And in your business, keep in mind that most of your systems – and you can also call them processes or protocols –are recurring. They execute over and over again.
Internalizing this fact makes it easy to consciously (and unconsciously), identify the recurring business (and personal) systems in your life. And from there, you will intensely manage each of them so you will get the results you desire from each.
You want to be a systems manager! You don’t want to be a fire-killer!
Seeing the processes of your operation as the independent entities they are, is key! If you can’t see them in that way, you can’t manage them. Too much chaos!
Yes, and in this new vision you will also create some new systems from scratch and other systems you will discard altogether.
My book, Work The System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More is germane to any business organization like yours that has lots of individual wheels spinning at once. Let’s hone my example down to property management tele-communications, specifically answering service. Using an answering service, let’s eliminate the hit-and-miss scenarios that are too-often prevalent in the typical property management operation:
- Dramatically improve customer service, using your answering service to provide a consistent and professional experience for owners and tenants.
- Document and analyze customer interactions and identify areas for improvement in various systems in order to enhance the customer experience.
- Never miss a call, after-hours or during busy daytime hours
- Give your after-hours callers the luxury of talking to a real human being instead of a machine
Keep your after-hours tele-communications routine, routine. Know that the after-hours call-handling protocol is always predictable for your staff and clients. No more hit-and-miss!
The above scenarios are the products of well thought-out answering service protocols: simple systems that are predictable and reliable.
Here’s where you jump ahead of the competition: Most of your competitors don’t focus on the internal systems of their businesses, but spend their days (and nights!) fighting fires.
And where do their fires come from? The come from random protocols that are not intensely managed.
Are you an excellent trouble-shooter? It’s very good to be able to quickly eliminate problems, but it’s better to not allow problems in the first place. That’s precisely what good system management via a high-quality answering service will do.
Here it is: No one is exempt from 1-2-3-4 step repeating processes that unfold over time to create the same recurring results. But very few people consciously manage their systems’ execution. This means that for too many people – your competitors included – internal processes are invisible and so they are unmanaged and, at the best, produce random results. At the worst? They quietly yet relentlessly produce horrible results. In both of these bad outcomes, the results are draining, dragging the whole organization backwards.
Ouch!
From my book, at the end of the Preface to the 4th Edition, here is my quick description of this third precept: “Your life is a collection of linear 1-2-3-4 systems. The scary and wonderful thing about that? In this moment—don’t argue with me—every single condition of your life was preceded by an assemblage of step-by-step processes.”
“To create the business – and for that matter, the personal life – you want, you must intensely manage your systems in the present moment! You must ceaselessly perform system improvement! Do this, and great future results will come along almost spontaneously.”
And never forget: first you must SEE the systems of your property management business if you are to manage those systems! You must attain the systems mindset!
So there you go. This isn’t about memorizing platitudes or playing mind-games with yourself. It’s about undergoing a startling, profound adjustment in your perception of life itself. It’s the key precept: Your world is not a swirling storm of sights, sounds and events. It’s an orderly collection of systems, each waiting to be managed.
-Sam Carpenter
