This article may come across as more of a “Kelley’s Life Lesson” piece but please in no way do I feel qualified to advise on life however, I simply enjoy sharing what I observe in our extraordinary industry.
Balance is a great aspect of life to have perfected but if I am speaking for myself, I will be reading this article back several times ensuring I start to practice what I preach. These days and especially after the year 2020 balance has become such an important part of our day-to-day living, but unfortunately in our industry, I feel it is not spoken or promoted about enough.
Have you ever noticed after going and doing something that “fills your cup up” you return to work a happier and more patient human? Things you may have snapped at previously you handle with care and events that may have rattled you manage calmly. This is the positive effect of having balance in your life. Management Rights is a career path where you literally live and work in the same four walls, day in day out. This is a wonderful facet of our industry but also a consuming one. Some of you will be sitting there thinking, “oh yes and when am I going to have the time to go out to lunch with my girlfriends or play golf with my buddies”. The answer is you make the time because in the end balance is going to lead to a happier you and a more successful business.
A very experienced Management Rights owner now consultant tells a story of when he and his wife use to work in a holiday building and the trouble they had taking a break. Always making excuses and thinking that the building would fall to the ground if they were not there to keep it up. Finally, they decided that it was time to have a night away, so they booked a room across the road, literally. They asked to be facing the other directions so they could not see their building but were close enough if anything were to happen, it didn’t. They continued to do this as well as take longer breaks after they realised that the building was still standing on their return.
Owners, committees, strata managers, tenants, holiday makers and possibly employees are all the different groups a manager must attend to (I wanted to say “deal with” but I restrained) on a daily basis. If you are not looking after yourself and filling that cup up how can you expect to tackle six different groups with a thousand personalities with all various problems.
When did working ourselves into the ground or being busy become the quota of our success?
Go see that movie or have that holiday because although the building may not run exactly the same while you are away, I promise you it will still be standing when you return.
“Kelley’s Life Lessons” – Just kidding.