Confidence in a team
I just came back from a two week vacation with my wife and two young daughters. I am proud of the fact that I spent very little time looking at my blackberry or laptop. It was a great trip! We spent 14 days traveling around the western part of the country exploring areas very different than New York. It is great looking at life, thru the eyes of a child. Any chance you get to take a trip with your kids, grand kids, friends kids, do it! The trick is to get on their level and experience what they are experiencing. The wild life of Yellowstone, mountains of Montana, white water rafting on the snake river, 50 million year old fossils, zip lining across the forest, rock climbing in the arches, the awesome scale of the Grand Canyon, relaxing in the spiritual vortex of the Sedona Mountains, and topped off by the over the top grandeur of Las Vegas. Check out my wife's blog for more detail. Jekogianfamilytrip.tumblr.com
The best thing about the trip was living in the moment the entire time just like a 7 year old. What allowed me to do this were not the beautiful skies of Montana or the open plains of Colorado, it was my trusting relationship with a great management team. At Signature Community we strive to put the best people in the right places and get out of their way. The great test of my success in this endeavor is how comfortable I could be hanging out with my kids staring into the Grand Canyon instead of chained to a Blackberry. I passed the test with flying colors.
The job of any great leader is to find people smarter than themselves, set them in the right direction and then get out of the way. At Signature Community we have been doing that not only at my level but also at the street level. The success we had this summer with our Signature Stars leasing team that started in May and leased more than 1000 apartments in 3 months time is a great example of empowering people to succeed. The same goes for our maintenance team this year, under the guidance of Dave McLain, who I suspect like me, could not replace a faucet let alone a full bathroom his team turned 250 down units and more than 700 apartment units at just fractions of the cost in the past. Dave will be the first to admit that these phenomenal results have much more to do with having an ambitious, energized and empowered group making this happen then it does his carpentry skills
We really made some great strides at Signature Community over the past few years and the best is yet to come.
Thanks for always making it happen!
Nick
