Hiring for Success

Hiring successfully often is like completing a difficult puzzle: It requires managers to identify the right piece and then determine where it fits best. Following these important steps in the hiring process will help ensure that managers minimize their risks and improve their chances of creating the perfect office masterpiece.

Find Someone Who Fits

When hiring a leasing consultant, for example, managers probably realize the person needed is someone who is personable and can persuade others through effective salesmanship. While that is important, it’s also important to find someone that fits into the office culture and overall team. Leasing and selling apartments is only a portion of this position. The best candidate also is outgoing, knows how to handle unhappy residents or difficult prospects, has the right attitude about learning, is organized, can manage his or her time and communicates well both verbally and in writing. Managers too often think they know what they are looking for on the surface and do not take the time to determine which candidate meets the most—if not all—of the skill requirements.

Have Multiple People Conduct the Interview

The more staff involved in the interview process, the greater the chance of finding the best candidate. Including others in the process provides different perspectives of the candidates. With a variety of interviewing styles and questions, managers have a greater opportunity to learn about a candidate. Including other team members in the process improves the chances of overall buy-in when welcoming the new employee. Everyone wants to feel they are a part of operations, and involving others can be extremely rewarding.

Ask the Right Questions

Ask the same series of questions to all candidates. This provides for a comparison of answers and provides an equal playing field when interviewing. Never ask questions that can simply be answered “yes” or “no.” For example, when asking about a candidate’s ability to be a team player, try “Please share with me specifics as to why you believe you are a team player and provide examples.”

Also, have candidates validate their strengths through follow-up questions such as, “You say you are an excellent service person. What, in your mind, are the specific qualities that determine excellent service?”

Test the Candidate

This does not necessarily mean psychological profile tests, but the candidate’s ability to do the job. To be able to adequately test performance, the manager must be knowledgeable in the area being questioned or involve someone who is. For example, before hiring for a maintenance technician position, suggest that managers take classes on HVAC refrigerant certification and swimming pool operations certification. This will enable them to better understand the position’s responsibilities and ask relevant questions during the interview. In the case of HVAC, ask candidates to troubleshoot a problem. For example: An interior blower unit is working, but the outside condenser is not. What are you going to check first?

Candidates who say that they will check the refrigerant levels would indicate they are not fully knowledgeable about air-conditioning systems, because checking the electrical components comes first. Managers who are not confident in their knowledge of maintenance systems must find someone who is knowledgeable to conduct the interview. Another option is to have candidates accompany service technicians during onsite service calls.

Ask Difficult Questions

If managers ask easy or “softball” questions, they will probably get “softball” answers. Apartment employees do not work 9-to-5 jobs and don’t always deal with happy customers. The character of an employee shows not only when things are going well, but also when they are challenged. For maintenance technician candidates, try, “Accepting this position means you will have to be on-call after normal office hours. A very angry resident may contact you at 2 a.m. In addition to being a qualified service person, you also have to act as the property’s ambassador during times of need. Are you prepared for this? What do you believe is important when handling this type of delicate situation?” Answers to these types of questions also help define the manager’s expectations of candidates.  My experience has always been do not measure someone by when things are going well, but when it counts and in the heat of battle (so to speak).

Check References

Checking references is where being Sherlock Apartment Homes is important. Unless this function is outsourced, it is the manager’s responsibility to verify and confirm information provided by applicants.

In one case, a manager said she had called the candidate’s last two employers at least three times apiece, faxed the authorization for information and could not even get a return phone call. That’s a red flag. Within a few weeks upon hiring that candidate, it was very apparent that a poor hiring decision had been made.  Most employers today are in fear of litigious consequences and will  only provide hire information and in some cases salary.  Now I realize someone is only going to provide you with good references, but the questions you as related to specific performance may assist in determining if the reference is valid or not.

Don’t Rush

One big mistake managers make is not taking the appropriate amount of time to ensure they are finding and selecting the best candidates for positions. Being short-staffed, many managers wear blinders and focus on filling the position immediately. Working smarter has a lasting benefit and makes up for challenges brought on by short-staffed teams. Consider that if the wrong candidate is hired, the process to find their replacement sets the community back even further. Take the time now to hire the right person, for the right job, and for the right reasons.

Wizard - Dirty Secrets

Below is a synopsis of the novel I just completed, hopefully to be released soon.

Magician Jonathan Barrow has more secrets than being a world renowned stage magician.   He is also an agent for a government organization known as the Military Assisted Global Intelligence Command, also known as M.A.G.I.C.    This organization is only known to the President and a select number of high level intelligence and military officials, and is used to challenge high level threats to our national security.  Jonathan assisted by a team of illusionists, technology experts, intelligence specialists, and special effects masters who are the best in the world. 

Jonathan is on stage before a packed house in Atlanta, Georgia performing some of his greatest illusions.  He is known throughout the world as the foremost illusionist, having made one of the great pyramids in Egypt disappear in front of a live audience.  While performing one of his death defying tricks called “swing blade,” he sees a familiar face in the front row of the huge auditorium.  Jonathan knows, this man is a courier for a message that means the M.A.G.I.C. team is about to be activated for a mission as directed by the President.  After escaping death to the audience’s amazement, Jonathan magically appears in the audience having vanished from the illusion and stage.  As he returns he shakes hands with many of the audience members.  He approaches the courier and is secretly handed a message.  Ending the show, Jonathan returns with his personal assistant Alexander Reed.  Alex is not just is trusted confident, he is also a former CIA operative and part of the M.A.G.I.C. team.  Back in his elaborate motor coach, Jonathan and Alex contact the M.A.G.I.C. central command unit under the direction of Major General Marcus Thompson.  General Thompson only has person he reports to, that being the President of the United States.  General Thompson informs Jonathan intelligence has discovered the incident in Russia and inside information pointing to a group responsible called Rising Sun, an Islamic group associated with ISIS and al-Qaeda.  General Thompson also reveals the discovery of a freighter bound for the United States was found adrift off the Georgia/Florida coast with all members assassinated.  Jonathan and his team are given the task of finding the plutonium, taking care of the terrorist threat, and doing it without anyone in the press or general public ever knowing of the threat.   Basically their job is to make the threat simply disappear.

Go back two weeks from the receipt of Jonathan’s assignment to the Northern Russian border.  The border along the Barents Sea is an extremely cold environment.  Russia has been decommissioning lighthouses along its northern border with the final three under the supervision of Colonel Andreas Tyransky.  These lighthouses were run for decades by using Plutonium 238 as their energy source.  Plutonium 238 has a half- life of eighty-eight years, can be easily disbursed because of its composition, and makes an excellent material for making a dirty bomb.  These sites are now highly radioactive locations and the threat of further contamination,  or use for illicit purposes has put pressure on the Russian government to complete the project.   What no one knows is Colonel Tyransky has fallen to greed after being offered a large sum of money to hand the material over to what he believes to be a Russian para-military group.  

After containing the material, the caravan of vehicles leaves the Mys Teriberskiy lighthouse site.  Along the road they meet a stranded woman whose car appears to have been broken down.  Against orders, the Colonel asks the convoy to stop and assist the young woman.  Shasha is Colonel Tyransky’s contact, with everything pre-planned for the turnover of the material and delivery of his funds.  A brutal killer for hire, she wastes little time in killing the soldiers in the vehicle assisted by the Colonel.  Because of the near white-out conditions, no one in the following vehicles has any idea as to what is about to happen.  The Colonel and Shasha go down the line of the four vehicles, killing the occupants one by one.  After dispatching all of the Russian soldiers guarding and transporting the three plutonium containers, Shasha and the Colonel return to the lead vehicle to settle up.  The Colonel believes he is about to receive his money and passports in an alias name so he can exit the country.  Shasha has other plans as after showing him a briefcase full of cash shoots the Colonel to insure there are no witnesses to the event. 

Having taken identities as part of the ship’s crew, members of Rising Sun put their plan of getting the Plutonium 238 from decommissioned lighthouses in Russia into the United States.  Their plan is to set off dirty bombs in three locations within the United States.  The group is led by Akmad Hassan, a terrorist known to have affiliation with several Muslim groups.  The plutonium is aboard the freighter Sea Avenger destined for the United States port of Savannah, Georgia.  Akmad and his primary associate Mohammad El Jazar along with other Rising Sun members terminate the ship’s crew, killing the captain first.   After the ship is cleaned of all of its crew, contact is made with a fishing vessel which is scheduled to rendezvous with the freighter to offload the material before it enters the United States port.  Their mission is to arrive in the United States undetected and deliver the material to a Muslim Cleric near Jacksonville, Florida named Hassan Hammad.  Hassan was thought to be associated with the events in the United States on September 11^th, 2001, however, nothing was ever proven by intelligence officials.  After offloading the material onto the fishing vessel, the ship is sent adrift in the Atlantic ocean and the fishing vessel returns to its home port of Jacksonville, Florida with nothing apparent except it returning with a bountiful catch. 

Jonathan meets one of the lead members of his M.A.G.I.C team in an unusual location, Sea World in Orlando, Florida.  What appears to be an elderly gentleman sweeping the seating area where whales perform for the delight of the crowd sits down next to Jonathan as the whale trainers go through their practice session.  Ollie Rodriguez is not only great at disguise, he is also a well- known magician and special agent for M.A.G.I.C.  Ollie is also a former Navy Seal, and pretty handy with weapons and special tactics.  The combination of agent, illusionist, and military knowledge make him a great asset to the team.  Jonathan slips Ollie a computer disk shaped like a coin, as they briefly discuss the intelligence that has been given to Jonathan.  After Ollie makes the coin vanish, he returns to his clandestine job of sweeping the area before going to an office to download the data off the coin. 

The M.A.G.I.C. team is pulled together with orders from the President of the United States to track down the material, prevent a radioactive disaster from happening, and simply make the terrorists and their plot disappear.  To have the American public find out about the intentions or to have the bomb threat executed would cause mass chaos within the country impacting personal health for hundreds of thousands of citizens, financial instability world-wide, and possible contamination of thousands of acres of territory within the United States.  The team is also made up of Megan Turner known for being one of televisions greatest stunt doubles and movie special effects artists, Ferguson Nicholas a member of MI6 and a well- known physicist, and Jason Lang who is not only a technology expert but also a special effects master and stunt person within the motion picture industry. Gaining additional intelligence is of primary importance if they are going to be successful, and in the garage of a home near Jacksonville makes a great local command center for the team.  Here they will work together to assess the situation with the aid of highly complex tools along with misdirection and some movie magic.

After the radioactive material has been smuggled into the United States, Hassan Hammad provides them safe haven for Akmad and his associates.   Preparations are made in a secure compound owned by Hassan in Orange Park, Florida near Jacksonville which has highly sophisticated surveillance systems and armed guards at every entry point.  The large compound owned by this Islamic Cleric had multiple buildings and covers almost two acres.  Large garage facilities house the trucks used for delivery of the devices, and special contamination rooms were secretly built underground when the location was developed almost fifteen years ago.  The plan is to place the containers at raised elevation locations near Ft. Bragg Army base in North Carolina, the Daytona 500 during the race in Daytona, Florida, and from a mobile platform above Walt Disney World in Orlando.    From there, the terrorists will deploy their teams to the three locations for detonation at the same time, on the same day.  Nasseif and Saleim will deliver the device and detonate it in North Carolina, two of the Rising Sun members who came on the ship, Naseiff and Saleim are to detonate the device in Daytona, and Mohammad is to going to set the device over Disney World.  Three devices capable of releasing a large quantity of radioactive material into the air and contaminating people, crops, and assets for many years are ready for delivery. 

One of the tricks is to get intelligence from inside the highly secure compound without being discovered.  This is where special effects, movie magic, science, and a few specialized toys the M.A.G.I.C. team have at their disposal come into play.  The team uses a flying platform to perform surveillance before attempting to physically enter the site, a special piece of equipment that has cloaking technology.  Using some movie makeup magic and hocus pocus, Jonathan enters the compound as one of the Rising Sun members.   After placing two guards into slumber land using chemicals found in the Far East which produce an amnesia effect, Jonathan enters a tunnel system and discovers detailed information about the sites and devices to be used. 

With plans laid out, the terrorist depart the compound for the three locations.  Ferguson and Ollie have their sites on the vehicle headed to North Carolina with intentions of using illusion and deception to stop the terrorists in their tracks.  Jason and Megan are assigned the task of preventing the device from detonation just north of the Daytona 500 site with the help of a street luge and Megan’s beauty, while Alex and Jonathan must take to the skies to insure Akmad is not successful in Orlando.  All of their efforts require timing, deception, and not allowing communication within the terrorist teams who have dead man devices in each of the vehicles in case any of them or their counterparts are caught. 

The exciting finale ends with Jonathan fighting for his life and attempting to board a hot air balloon while in flight.  The threat is neutralized with, magic, cunning, deception, and some very special effects.  The M.A.G.I.C teams averts a national catastrophe risking everything to insure the event appears to have never happened, and the devices and terrorists simply “disappear.”  Just when you think it has all ended  there is a hint of the next mission which is revealed to Jonathan as he performs another exciting show.

Don't focus on the past!

Called a headhunter after seeing a position posted for an RPM. The headhunter said, "The downside is I see you haven't been in the industry for a while." I replied, "Isn't great leadership about taking people forward and not focusing on the past, especially if you have a record of meeting goals and objectives at whatever position you have held." There was a long silence before she said, "Point well taken. Let me see what I can do." Sometimes you just have to show people the tunnel so they have a chance to see the light at the end of it.

How many times do we focus on the past, only to miss the opportunities we currently have or will have in the future?  Getting your finger on the pulse of a market or a property is something any good leader can do.  There is no magic wand to waive that makes a person the best leader they can be, especially in property management.  We have so many variables and areas of opportunity to understand for a property or a region to be successful.  We have markets to monitor, insuring we have an understanding of our competition and how to be position the asset.  We have marketing to provide the best possible campaigns in attracting new residents.  Our resident retention must be thought of as a process not an event.  Otherwise we have too many good residents leaving because of one event that made them consider moving to another location.  Our maintenance and service teams need to have the tools and training to insure they provide Class A service each and every time a request is made.  We have financials to monitor and budgets to prepare, insuring we are fiscally responsible through maximizing income and minimizing expenses.  We have an entire team that is depending on us to lead them to excellence, creating a motivational environment, and empowering them through support and education.  We have owners and shareholders that expect us to perform, holding us accountable for each and every action we take with their investments.  Our residents expect us to maintain their apartments and community, communicate with them, and provide service to just not meet their expectations...but to exceed them.  We are expected to be our best each and every day, developing those we work with so they some day can walk in our shoes. 

These are all things in the present tense, not in the past.  These are all leadership characteristics and things a great leader brings to a position, not something ever forgotten or something that changes with time.  Some of the best people I have ever worked with left the industry to return with more passion, additional training, and a thirst for what this industry brings and never leaves your blood.  In finishing my conversation with the recruiter I also let her know I had something others did not bring, the Disney difference. When it comes to service, very few companies can hold a match to how this organization develops leaders and understands what exceptional customer service is all about.  Having been selected for the Emerging Leader program and having "pixie dust" added to my veins, I bring an aspect of guest/customer service others pay tens of thousands of dollars to go to Disney University for.  I have never been one to look away from a challenge or opportunity, nor have I ever been willing to accept defeat knowing inside I am a good leader.  Circumstances are what they are and my focus is on the future, sometimes needing to remind others that is where their focus needs to be as well.