Evaluate, Plan, Execute
By Julie Adamen

If you have been perusing the Jobs Section for managers either on our website or in the newsletter, you have seen a number of positions paying $100k per year or more are available. As you can imagine, we had a quite a response to those ads. Some of the responders weren’t (knowingly or unknowingly) fully qualified for the positions posted, but must have figured, “What the heck!” and sent in their resume. Although I admire the spirit (nothing ventured, nothing gained!), it made me want to reach out to those folks and give them some words about a more effective method for career advancement.

Evaluate Yourself and Your Current Position

Am I satisfied with where I am?  I’ll ask a candidate why they want to leave their current employer. As often as not, the answer is, “I don’t know…I’m not really unhappy, it’s a great company, I just, uh… well…” and the conversation trails off. Before you begin to look at other opportunities (or not) – ask yourself honestly: Am I satisfied with where I am? If the answer is yes, stay put and do your level best for your employer. If the answer is an honest “no,” acknowledge that fact to yourself and be ready for what that answer will set in motion for you. A good rule of thumb: If you can’t articulate why you are dissatisfied with your current position, then you aren’t ready to make a change – and if you do make a change, it may be for the wrong reasons.

Changing jobs for the wrong or for a dinky reason(s) doesn’t advance your career because more often than not you just traded in those same wrong or dinky reasons for more of the same somewhere else. Changing jobs because you need to advance your professional development is not a dinky reason, but changing jobs because the people in accounting look at you funny is.

So you want a change, but, to what? So you’ve decided you are dissatisfied in your current position for reasons that you can specifically articulate. Here comes the hard part: What do you WANT to do, what CAN you do and HOW will you get there?  My experience tells me that many of you out there feel stuck, like there is nowhere beyond where you are today. In reality, there are a lot of avenues for professional variety and advancement within our industry.  The real question is – which one is right for you? Here are just a few:

• Simple job change. Many folks find they simply need a change of scenery and working conditions at their current level of employment. This happens a lot to portfolio managers, and may be the right decision for some.
• Portfolio management. Maybe you are an assistant manager and want to move up to portfolio management. Maybe you are on site, and find you would prefer to be “one removed” from your Board. Portfolio management is almost always open to everyone everywhere.
• On-Site management. Here’s the big one for most folks in our business. If you want to go in to on site management, especially the large-scale properties, or the high end high rises (which is the up-and-coming market for managers in urban areas), you must have your act together and be ready to compete with the big boys and girls. 
• Residential/commercial management. Although it can be hard to break into, the residential/commercial management side can be somewhat less stressful and often more lucrative.
• Management company executive. If this is the road you wish to take, find a company to work for that has a few middle and upper middle management positions. Management company owner. It’s an option for almost anyone in our industry. Just one bit of advice: Just because you can manage a homeowners association doesn’t mean you can manage a business that provides the service of managing homeowners associations.
• Vendor/Affiliate (marketing or other position). Many people in our business want to go this route. If marketing is not your game look for more of a technical position within an affiliate’s office.
• Non-profit executive director. Many CAI Executive Directors come from the ranks of managers. It’s really not all that different from managing an HOA, though many find that it’s an adjustment: Working with a Board comprised of people from within the industry acting just like a homeowner’s Board – when they should know better!
• Entrepreneur. To be a successful entrepreneur, you must have a few key personality elements, some of which are courage, no fear of rejection, an ability to spot a niche or need, an ability to see what’s not working and change it right away (this is usually the biggest stumbling block to success), and a certain amount of hard headedness.  Being an entrepreneur is open to all of us, but we are not all cut out to be one.

So, how will you get there from here?

Identify what will you need to get to where you want to go. Chances are you can’t easily get where you want to be from where you are or you’d be there already. So, you need to make a realistic evaluation of what you need to have in your professional arsenal to get where you want to go. I counsel many people about what they will need so they can realize their professional goals. I find that seldom are people able to move upward professionally without obtaining new skills or honing old ones to a razor’s edge.

Make “The Plan”

I am continually amazed by outstanding managers who are befuddled by the “How to’s” when it comes to their careers. Approach “The Plan” just as you would any problem that would be brought to you to solve. Yes, it’s that simple.  There is a timeframe, there are financial considerations, there are certain achievements that must be made, and a step-by-step path to get there. You may not have all the answers on how to do what when right now, but you start anyway, because as any good manager knows, procrastination is the friend of the status quo and the enemy of achievement.  DIG IN, and chart a Plan.

Make You List and Prioritize. What do you need more than anything to get where you want to be?  It may be as simple as industry involvement, or it may be as difficult as getting your advanced degree and having to move your family to another state. Whatever it is, it’s at the top of your list; you start it with a phone call, a class, calling the mover, or whatever. The journey begins here.

Maintain Flexibility.  I find people get discouraged when things don’t go “according to plan.” As community managers, a little thing like that wouldn’t stop you from carrying out an assignment from the Board, in fact as a manager you expect plans to jump the rails. Expect it with your Plan for your career. Things change. People change. Stuff happens. When it does, you may need to regroup and change portions of your Plan – but you then must move forward. Think of your Plan as a dynamic document, not written on stone tablets.

… And Stick to It. Nothing to this really. Most of you have the skills to evaluate yourself, check your development goals, your salary goals, the type of positions available, then make the plan and execute it; however, much like that darned South Beach diet, or that New Year’s Resolution, people are great when it comes to deciding that they are going to do something, but have hard time following through with it, especially if it takes months or years to complete. Your dream job will not be realized if you don’t have the discipline to carry out your Plan.

I don’t really know what it is that makes some follow through while others are seemingly unable to do so; my only observation is that most folks become very caught up in their own personal dramas which in turn suck up every extra bit of energy they may have used for taking classes, or making inquiries, or volunteering. To succeed in your Plan, you must be willing and able to give up the large role personal drama has in your life and maintain focus on truly important, larger issues. If you need some perspective on life, volunteer at a senior center, hospice or soup kitchen. Suddenly your personal dramas may seem very, very small, and suddenly easier to let go. 

I have written and lectured about this subject many times, under many guises, but it really all boils down to this: Careers are seldom advanced by the “shot in the dark” approach. Careers are advanced through thought, planning, dedication, release of personal drama and occasionally helped along by the fates. Bottom line, you just gotta Get Real about where you are, where you want to go, and how you are going to get there. Then, DIG IN.