Nick Jekogian's Monday Morning Message - Rewarding Great Efforts

Rewarding Great Efforts

A business consultant (who works with Billionaires) was discussing what drives his clients to come in everyday prepared to win and how they stay motivated, when some days it just doesn't seem worth the fight.  His main piece of advice that these billionaires followed was to quickly reward themselves and others when good things happened.

One entrepreneur would buy a nice watch at the conclusion of a deal, another a bigger boat, other rewards were as simple as a nice dinner at their favorite restaurant.  The point was to make sure that the effort was rewarded.

This past quarter at Signature Community we initiated our greatest change effort ever.  Almost 75% of the company's team members took part in the SI3 (Signature - Ideas, Innovation, Implementation!) and they have produced ideas and initiatives that will allow Signature Community to once again be a leader in the industry.  Ideas as simple as using 2 liter coke bottles in toilet tanks to reduce water usage (estimated to save 35 Million gallons of water companywide this year) to the Team Member Experience initiative which has more than 100 new initiatives being rolled out in 2011 to increase the engagement of our team members (formally known as employees (I owe $20 for that - "idea #64)).  Our Resident Experience Team worked out plans to revamp our resident communications (which will now include email notices, electronic newsletters, office bulletin boards (with job postings), Signature Cares charity drives and the Stars of the Community signage boards.  Our tech and training teams worked together has done an amazing job of creating what I believe will one day become a standard in corporate educational tools (The Signature Community Star Center).  In that space we have all the training material and resources a property management professional will ever need.  Everyday that space is growing with more material produced internally by the Signature Community team members.

The accounting and budgeting team has come up some ingenious ways for our entire company to stay ahead of the numbers and created ways for us to quickly see where properties are performing. This group took the maxim "you can't manage what you can't measure" and made it simple for us as a company to measure and benchmark just about anything.  Now we have tools to see where that is happening or not.

The marketing team is preparing to implement this leasing season what will likely be seen as the greatest social media living experience ever. We are on the verge of redefining how residents find, lease and move in apartments in the United States.

All in all, the effort put forth by the Signature Team to change the way we do things at Signature during these past few months has been nothing short of Industry changing. I look forward to next year and the opportunity these initiatives will create not just in making our existing residents and team member experience the best possible, but also in the growth opportunities available to Signature because of these radical initiatives.

My reward to everyone that worked on a Signature Ideas team is having the week between Christmas and New Years off, with full pay. Please take that time to spend with your family and friends, relax, recharge and be ready to come back in the New Year for some exciting times at Signature Community.

Thanks for Making It Happen at Signature Community you are the best team ever!!

 

Nick

Re: Nick Jekogian's Monday Morning Message - Aiming for Perfection!

The article below was written by Jim Tunney
Check out his website at http://www.jimtunney.com/

 After Further Review ... "'Cause I'm the hall monitor," said 9-year old Lin Hao, the Chinese schoolboy who marched in the Opening Ceremonies of the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing, with China's Flag Bearer, 7"6' Yao Ming.  Yao Ming, of course, you know as the Houston Rockets NBA star, who played in the Olympic Games for his native country China.
 
            Lin Hao, perhaps, is a name you don't know - yet.  When an earthquake hit Chengdu's Sichuan Province, China, killing 70,000+ people, Lin Hao was among those buried beneath the rubble, yet survived.  Lin Hao had pulled a classmate out of the rubble, then ran back in to rescue another, when he was caught in the tumbling walls.  Alive when the rescuers got to him, Lin Hao was asked "Why did you go back into that building that was crumbling?"  Here was 9-year old Lin Hao's response:  "'CAUSE I'M THE HALL MONITOR!"  You may call it responsibility, or leadership or determination.  Whatever you call it please put "HERO" next to Lin Hao's name!  Extraordinary!
 
            There is no question that the spectacular opening of the 29th Olympic Games was the finest I have ever witnessed.  The precision and splendor of that opening was exceeded only by the people who directed and performed in it.  It was easy to be convinced that the light show, the drumming sequence and especially the 'cube' happening was controlled solely by electronics.  I was delightfully surprised when it was not, as the performers beneath those cubes popped their heads up at the conclusion.  Extraordinary!
 
            Zhang Yimou, who directed the opening ceremonies, said "We (meaning every 'cube' performer) worked for 4 months - 8 hours a day - and we never got it perfect - until that opening night performance."  Personal responsibility and a "never-give-up" attitude, coupled with TEAMWORK, gave the world China's extraordinary best.
 
            Critics knocked the Chinese performers as "sterile" and lacking passion (they missed the fact that there are 1.3 billion Chinese!).  I disagree.  When you witness perfection, it may appear "sterile" and "passionless,"   but what often is missed is the extraordinary effort given to achieve perfection.  Extraordinary performances are given by ordinary people giving extra effort to perform the extraordinary!
 
            Will you practice responsibility when it comes your way?

At Signature Community everyone is responsible for making our properties the best they can be.  I see how determined our team members are in aiming for perfection at Signature Community.  It is this discipline and commitment that with time we too will show the world the power of Signature Community.
                            

Nick

Nick Jekogian's Monday Morning Message - Aiming for Perfection!

 After Further Review ... "'Cause I'm the hall monitor," said 9-year old Lin Hao, the Chinese schoolboy who marched in the Opening Ceremonies of the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing, with China's Flag Bearer, 7"6' Yao Ming.  Yao Ming, of course, you know as the Houston Rockets NBA star, who played in the Olympic Games for his native country China.
 
            Lin Hao, perhaps, is a name you don't know - yet.  When an earthquake hit Chengdu's Sichuan Province, China, killing 70,000+ people, Lin Hao was among those buried beneath the rubble, yet survived.  Lin Hao had pulled a classmate out of the rubble, then ran back in to rescue another, when he was caught in the tumbling walls.  Alive when the rescuers got to him, Lin Hao was asked "Why did you go back into that building that was crumbling?"  Here was 9-year old Lin Hao's response:  "'CAUSE I'M THE HALL MONITOR!"  You may call it responsibility, or leadership or determination.  Whatever you call it please put "HERO" next to Lin Hao's name!  Extraordinary!
 
            There is no question that the spectacular opening of the 29th Olympic Games was the finest I have ever witnessed.  The precision and splendor of that opening was exceeded only by the people who directed and performed in it.  It was easy to be convinced that the light show, the drumming sequence and especially the 'cube' happening was controlled solely by electronics.  I was delightfully surprised when it was not, as the performers beneath those cubes popped their heads up at the conclusion.  Extraordinary!
 
            Zhang Yimou, who directed the opening ceremonies, said "We (meaning every 'cube' performer) worked for 4 months - 8 hours a day - and we never got it perfect - until that opening night performance."  Personal responsibility and a "never-give-up" attitude, coupled with TEAMWORK, gave the world China's extraordinary best.
 
            Critics knocked the Chinese performers as "sterile" and lacking passion (they missed the fact that there are 1.3 billion Chinese!).  I disagree.  When you witness perfection, it may appear "sterile" and "passionless,"   but what often is missed is the extraordinary effort given to achieve perfection.  Extraordinary performances are given by ordinary people giving extra effort to perform the extraordinary!
 
            Will you practice responsibility when it comes your way?

At Signature Community everyone is responsible for making our properties the best they can be.  I see how determined our team members are in aiming for perfection at Signature Community.  It is this discipline and commitment that with time we too will show the world the power of Signature Community.
                            

Nick

Nick Jekogian's Monday Morning Message - What Makes an Athlete?

What Makes an Athlete?

Below is an interesting article on what makes an athlete, by Robin Quivers (Howard Stern's sidekick).  I would say that the same philosophy makes a great manager or team member; an intense focus on a short or interim term goal.  I hear it every day around Signature Community when our team members tell me what they are focused for the week or the month.  It is that focus and persistence that makes a great athlete or a great team member.  Thanks for your continued commitment!

Nick

What Makes an Athlete?
- By: Robin Quivers

I just completed the NYC Marathon in a not-too-respectable 6 hours and 9 minutes. Throughout the six months of training leading up to the event I've been having the same argument with my coach, Joshua Gold. Josh is a triathlete and I have no problem assigning him that title. But does training for and finishing a marathon make me an athlete?

It's funny, people automatically assume you're a good runner if they hear you've entered a marathon, but the beauty of the NYC marathon is that anyone can enter and there is no unacceptable time. In fact, the very last person to cross the finish line did it in 35 hours and 27 minutes. Of course, that woman suffers from Multiple Sclerosis and, if not an athlete, she is definitely a hero and to be admired. The best marathoners in the world finish the race within a two and a half hour window. They, I am sure, are athletes. But what about me?

Josh says I'm an athlete if I say I'm one, but that's ridiculous. I looked up the definition of the word and there's room for arguments for and against. Webster's says an athlete is a "person trained or skilled in exercise, sports or games requiring physical strength, agility or stamina". There may be room for me in that definition. I've trained in an exercise that requires strength and stamina. But dictionary.com adds "gifted in exercise" to the definition. Is there a level of quality of performance implied in that?

Of course, we expect professional athletes to be really good at whatever their particular sport, game or contest is, but what about the rest of us? As the race began I watched people running by me and I felt that they were athletes and I was not. They looked as if running was effortless and they were faster than me. As I tired and my legs began to ache I noticed that the people passing me also seemed to be more tired and in pain, but they could still run faster. They had an ability to keep up the quality of their performance even with the pain, while the quality of my performance suffered.

It occurs to me that being an athlete is a state of mind. It's setting a goal and measuring your performance against it. It means making the outcome and how you got there matter. It's about pushing the edges of the envelope. Looking at it this way, I took the first steps to becoming an athlete this weekend. I set the bar very low. When people asked me my goal, I answered, "To finish." I ran a very respectable half marathon. Josh actually called it awesome. Before training for the marathon I was unable to run longer than three and a half miles. I recognized the only way I was ever going to increase my mileage was to set a goal and train to reach it.

I achieved the goal I set for myself: I finished the marathon. I'm able to run much farther and faster than when I started training, and by completing 26.2 miles I pushed the edges of the envelope. What is most amazing to me is that I want to keep running. I want to get stronger and faster and I want to test the results of continued training by running another marathon. I can't believe I just said that. Must be the athlete in me.

 

Abandon Ownership! Join the Rentership Society!

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/st_essay_ownership/

In the American mind, renters are regarded as an unsavory lot, willful dissidents from the American dream. They do things like put cars up on cinder blocks in their front yard or, worse, live in your basement. The vision of an Ownership Society was about more than just houses, but the promotion of homeownership was, for a time at least, its most successful element. You know the story by now: The rate of homeownership climbed to almost 70 percent, sellers walked out of closings trundling wheelbarrows full of cash, and the phrase "granite countertops" seemed to hold as much promise as "plastics" did in The Graduate. Then it all fell apart. We woke up in a Rentership Society, and it's starting to look permanent. And you know what? Thank goodness. Ownership, it turns out, is for suckers.

For renters today, finding a new apartment on craigslist is almost as easy as streaming a movie. (OK, not quite, but you get the point.) Homeowners don't reside in this frictionless economy: They're stuck in one place, unable to quickly downgrade to a cheaper residence when times are lean (or upgrade when times are flush). And it costs thousands of dollars in renovations to beat the depreciation curve.

I speak from experience. My wife and I bought and sold two condos during the latter stages of the real-estate boom, escaping both as break-even propositions (after transaction costs). When we moved into a rental apartment a couple of years ago, we realized that ownership had been a burden, a time sink, and a money pit. Now we ask the landlord to fix things when they break, and we don't mind that the floor is not the one we would have chosen. We pay less each month than we would on a mortgage, and we bank money that once would have gone into installing central air.

We discovered that this emancipating, and remunerative, mindset applies to a lot of things that in the pre-Internet age you had to accumulate in order to enjoy. We sold our car and now use Zipcar or Avis when we need one — my somewhat technophobic wife refers to Zipcar as "Netflixing a car."

Granted, I live in Manhattan, where you don't need a car to get around every day. But no matter where you live, you've probably begun to embrace the Rentership Society without even realizing it. When was the last time you bought a DVD? Sales have plummeted because we all stream our video or get discs by mail. Amazon reportedly wants to get into the rental business, too, by creating a streaming service — their current (failed) model sells TV shows by the episode. I get my music from Microsoft's Zune Pass service these days — $15 a month buys me flexibility, mobility, and freedom from having to upgrade when a new standard replaces MP3s (which it inevitably will).

I'm no freegan, mind you. I don't dig through dumpsters for my dinner, and I believe in the virtues of property rights. The Rentership Society doesn't have to mean the Tragedy of the Commons — the stuff I rent isn't owned by the government or by everyone. It's owned by someone — someone else. I just pay for use. Those of you with a profit instinct (and storage space) can even become landlords: Websites like SnapGoods and Zilok let people rent out their stuff — lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners, tools — to the tenant class (as discussed by Clive Thompson in issue 18.09).

For the rest of us, we'll always own some things. There's stuff we use all the time, like furniture and clothing, and objects with sentimental value (take your stinking paws off my Yoda figure with plastic snake). But the Internet is creating markets that enable us to own much less. The winner of the ebook sweepstakes will be the bookseller who becomes a bookrenter. I don't want to own hundreds of books on a Kindle at $10 a pop. I want to Netflix them — pay for access to every book ever published. I'd rather be a renter in Borges' library than the owner of my own.

Everything, everywhere, all the time. That's the dream of the Rentership Society. And we're almost there. If you want to be able to possess some things, in some places, some of the time, well, keep on buying. But I vote for infinite abundance, on demand. Doesn't that sound like the new century's American dream?

--
Nairoby Otero
Administrative Assistant
Signature Community
www.ASignatureCommunity.com

212.202.1461
"Si³" Signature: Ideas, Innovation, Implementation!
Send ideas to: ideas@asignaturecommunity.com

Nick Jekogian's Monday Morning Message - Social networks (Community)

Social networks (Community)

I finally had a chance to see the hottest movie of the year (Social Network) and was amazed not just by the great acting, great screenplay but amazed at how valuable the Facebook company has become by doing the same thing we do everyday at Signature Community.  Give people at opportunity to be part of a community!

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog about the movie Wall Street 2 and how it sort of missed its marked and was really about a time that is now behind us (see below) whereas the original Wall Street movie from the 90s started an era.  Well Social Network seems to be the new Wall Street.  Although it overly glamorizes the start up business and uses a 1 in a billion example of success what it does show is that in today's world if you can create a product that everyone feels a deep desire to be part of (Sense of community is one of the principle needs of people, in some cases more important than food or sex) you can have millions of followers.  In less then 10 years Facebook has more that 500 million members and is one of the biggest success stories of our generation.

At Signature Community we understand people need/desire for community.  We do everything we can at Signature to make our residents feel part of the community not like a tenant.  We have programs that promote resident involvement, newsletters to keep our residents informed and even a helping hand program to give some of our less fortunate a leg up in this brutal economy.  We continue everyday to try to make Singnature a bigger and bigger part of our residents lives and their sense of community.  We hope that if you have any ideas that will promote the community aspects of life at Signature Community please share them with us at ideas@asignaturcommunity.com. 

 

Thanks for helping to make Signature Community the greatest living social network.
Nick

Nick Jekogian's Monday Morning Message - Never Give Up

Never Give Up


Last Sunday morning at 6AM I was running in the dark.  I was 4 miles into a 52 mile run that came on the heels of a 5 mile swim and 225 bike ride. I had been swimming, biking and now running for more than 24 hrs and was feeling it.  During mile 4 of 52, I was moving at a very slow pace and I couldn't keep focused on the road. I was wobbling side to side and physically done.  At that time, I thought the race was over for me.  This wasn't just any race this was a double Ironman event that I had trained for the past year.  I had been working on getting in the race for the year before that, but most importantly this was a personal goal that I committed myself to doing.  In that hour before sunrise on Sunday morning I was ready to give up.

I came around the bend and down the hill into the crew area and that's where the race began to turn around for me. My brother Michael joined me on the next lap, against doctor's orders due to his recently broken arm that had kept him out of the race.  While running I started downing some bananas and Gatorade. But what it really took were my brother's words of encouragement to change the type of race I was running.  At that point I was able to make the mental shift from this is a "running race" to this is a "mental race."  At this point, the pain in my legs, feet, arms, neck and head all somehow dissipated and the only thing that mattered was the thoughts in my head.  I continued to find the mental strength to push the next 12 hours through all the pain and exhaustion. I had turned the corner in the race and knew that it did not matter what condition I was physically in, this race was going to be won in my head.  This experience helped me see that one can never underestimate the power of teamwork and positive leadership. I would not have made it over the finish line 12 hours later, if it were not for the powerful encouragement and wise words of my brother Mike and the support and positive energy of the rest of my crew. They made this race happen for me.

In the week following the race I kept going back to those dark moments early Sunday morning and thought about what made my race different than the others that didn't finish or others that didn't make it to the starting line (more than 2/3 of the racers dropped out before the start).  The one key thing keeps jumping out to me is that I believed and was told repeatedly that I could do it, that I was going to make it happen.  I never thought "will I do it?, Can I make it?", I thought "I will do it!, I can Make it Happen!". Amazingly the difference between finishing a Double Ironman or any Endeavour for that matter, is do you think, "Can I do it? or "I can do it!"

In the 34 hrs and 45 minutes that I was out on the course swimming, biking and running I only questioned my ability to finish once for about a 30 min time period, which was when I was the most susceptible to failure. When I was encouraged to start thinking positively again, I changed the statement around to, " I WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN!"

At Signature Community over the past two years there have been many times that people have asked "Will we survive, Can we make it through these difficult economic times?".  Through all the problems that we have encountered I have continued to say, "We will Survive! We can make it happen!"

 

We may have had to shed some good assets, some good people, but in the end, we will come back stronger and thrive as a company.  The decisions will be painful, the cuts will be gut wrenching, the stories will be frightening, but just as I did for 52 miles (over 12 hours) last Sunday, we will continue to say "WE ARE MAKING IT HAPPEN" and we will "MAKE IT HAPPEN".

Thanks again for all your support on my crazy race (below is a short race report), but more importantly thanks for all your commitment and dedication to MAKING IT HAPPEN AT SIGNATURE COMMUNITY.

 

Nick