Focused Goals

Focused Goals

"Goals are dreams with deadlines". - Diana Scharf Hunt

"If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse." - Walt Disney

 

There was a study done on the 1969 Harvard MBA class, which reviewed the success of graduates who had written goals at the time of graduation and compared them to their peers that either had no specific goals or had goals but did not put them into writing. The results are really astounding.  First, only 3% of the class had written goals, but the small group that did have goals, made more money than the other 97% of the class.  To put that into perspective that means that a student with very focused long term goals was making almost 30 times as much as his average peer without a focused goal.

I have always been a huge believer in stated goals (not just putting it in writing and hiding it under the mattress, but put it out there for the world to know about).  The motivation of crowds is a powerful thing. Setting and publishing both short and long term goals in my eyes is the only way a company or individual can reach its full potential.   How can you get to a place that you didn't even know to aim for?

At Signature Community we are hyper focused on our commitment to goals and making them happen. Every week each member of the Signature team states a key weekly goal to their peers and gives an update on last week's accomplishments.  Sometimes they miss their goals, but in many cases they hit their goals or exceed and interestedly enough in just about all cases our subsequent goals have been more challenging than the past one.    What this public goal setting has shown me is that when good people are given the opportunity to pick their goals they will strive to reach and even exceed them.

Early this year I set a huge stretch goal for our company --- 100% occupancy by mid-July. Every manager, leasing agent and maintenance manager then adjusted their market goals to tie in with that goal. As of now all but a few markets have hit the 100% occupancy challenge and those markets that didn't are very close to hitting it.  It has been pretty amazing to witness the intense focus that Signature Community operated under during these past few months in order to hit this goal.   Many people questioned me and asked why the mid-July focus?  Why not September which is the typical end of season? Why push everyone so hard?  Why not push rents and increase resident turnover?  Well my thought process is pretty simple -- I want the Signature Community team to be the best in the industry and in order to do that they need to set and reach goals that others only dream of.  We did that at Signature this year and that shows the world that we don't just make lofty goals we make them happen!!

Thanks for Making It Happen at Signature Community.

Nick

 

Reaching New Heights

Reaching New Heights

This past weekend, I completed my first ultra-marathon, which is a foot race of 50 miles or more. The format of this race was 24 hrs of running, to see who can go the furthest. Sleep is optional but not recommended. The race was in Philadelphia and the route is an 8.5 mile loop on the banks of the river. When the race started at 10am the temperature was 90 and high humidity!

My original goal for the run was to complete 100 miles in 24 hrs, but within hours of running in the hot sun, I knew that even with all my extensive training and preparation, 100 miles was not in the cards for that day. I realigned my goals to keep within safe limits, of success yet still a big accomplishment (this was my first official foot race longer than 26.2 miles). I pushed all thru the day and night and finished at 76 miles in 23hrs and 35 minutes.

I am happy with my achievement and know that someday I will be back to accomplish the original 100 mile goal that I set for myself.

My thanks go out to everyone that gave me support before and during the event, especially my parents, grandparents, my wife Yael, and daughters Becca and Bryna. At 4am, when it was still 80 degrees (after 19 hrs of continuous running) you really can't focus on much, but I do remember that all the thoughts going through my head, was a replay of all the words of encouragement shared before the race. Thanks for bringing me across the finish line.

At Signature Community we had our own ultra-marathon going on the past few months. We set an obscene goal of 100% occupancy by mid-July. Sitting here today, we are in view of the finish line. In the next few days we will cross the line. So far Albuquerque, Kansas City both Plaza and Ambassador districts, El Paso and New York have reached the goal. We anticipate announcing more early this week, but I want to mention that we really did do an amazing accomplishment in such difficult economic times. When a market reaches 100 percent occupancy, we have a party for the entire Signature Community team in that market. We are also planning to have a resident appreciation party every month that the community or market maintains the 100% occupancy.

Hitting 100% occupancy is an incredible feat and every market that hit it should be proud! We really did show our competitor’s who is the leader in customer service is, which is why our residents love the place they live.
Thanks for making it happen with Signature Community and for your personal support in getting me over both the goals I set for myself this summer.
Thanks for making it happen!!
Nick