Maintaining a property is as much about good leadership and effective decision-making as it is about technical know-how. Being responsible for multiple operational teams across the country, you will need to make sure that your management skills are contributing to effective and optimal performance from everyone involved.
If that’s something you feel you could use a little help with, look no further - we've got you covered. You don’t have to have all the answers yet. You only have to be interested in a more positive, structured and efficient workflow to start applying management skills that can make a big difference to you and your team.
Key management skills to improve on for effective team performance:
1. Positivity
When it comes to leadership, how often do you take anything that a Negative Nancy says seriously? If your answer is ‘too often’, then you should probably choose more carefully who you listen to. If your answer is ‘never’, then that’s a good sign that you’re skilled at choosing which type of leadership works for you and which doesn’t.
Being aware that people carry certain ‘vibes’ is important here. Generally, negative attitudes aren’t the most attractive force for bringing team members together. A team requires a cohesive working relationship to get the job done. Positivity, on the other hand, is that magnetic energy that can magically rally a team and inspire them to contribute to constructive working relationships.
2. Communication
Now that you’ve had the opportunity to be introspective and decided it’s time to apply some fresh doses of positivity to the workforce. What you will have to understand is that your positivity needs to be channeled and the best way to channel your newfound positivity is to find ways to effectively communicate it. One of the first steps to take in achieving better levels of communication is learning to listen before you speak.
According to this Forbes blog, successful and respected entrepreneur Richard Branson puts listening at #1 on his list of the top 3 leadership skills. He likes to think about communication as more of an art than a science, and says that mastering the art of communication (listening in particular) will lead to drastic improvements in business functions.
Sure, people will appreciate you checking in with them once-in-awhile, but that’s not going to be enough. You will need to be actively involved in hearing what they have to communicate. And you’ll have to understand that communication flows both ways in a team if you are truly interested in optimising performance.
The nice part is that you get to be creative with this. For example, you could host open team-forums and surveys on project challenges (you could do this online, via email or over lunch with the team) and find out where people need help. You could also spread an opinion poll amongst the team to find out what they think is the biggest thing holding them back from completing a task.
These are some ideas, but being creative involves doing your own research and being inventive in your approach:
- People also like to be included in conversations concerning their jobs and the projects they’re involved in. So make a point of sending a weekly update to the team on what’s happening in the world of upper management.
- Remember to embrace the policy of ‘there’s no such thing as too much communication’. Your staff will let you know how you’re going with this, but they can’t fault you for trying if you do. So, start practicing your communication skills and being aware of improvements in the work ethic of your team.
4. Emotional awareness
Your job description doesn’t require you to be a Freud or a Jung, but you are dealing with people, so there will be complexities and sensitivities that arise. If you’re at all interested in optimising team performance, then seeing to the emotional needs of your individual personnel should be a priority management skill that you learn to improve on.
Luckily, once you’ve improved on your communication skills and established a flowing channel, your team is more likely to trust you – an important first step to seeing to their work-related emotional needs. But your starting point should always be making employees feel like their emotions are welcome in the workplace.
5. Passion
Having a leader that does not fully represent the interests of the team and the company is an insult to the professional integrity of the workforce. The team needs a passionate leader to drive results-oriented workflow forward with vigour. To achieve that, the late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple and one of the most pioneering entrepreneurs of all time, suggests the following:
“You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you're not passionate enough from the start, you'll never stick it out.”
It’s simple: the only way for your team to truly accept you as their leader is by you being passionate and exuding passion in what you do. It’s not enough to say that you’re passionate – you have to show and live it.
Sharpening your management skills in the ways above will help you to get the necessary feedback from your property maintenance team for you to consistently make the best decisions.
Download our guide for more advice on how to maintain your painted property.
