The New Account (Redux)

By Julie Adamen

Whether you are new to the business or an experienced manager, you have, or have had, a new account. Maybe it’s new (meaning developer new), or maybe it’s new to your company, or you have recently become the on site manager of a property, new or old. The principles of managing a new property are pretty much the same. Below are just few of the challenges you will face, and some suggestions for dealing with them.

Don’t dread the process, embrace it! I see a lot of folks who are faced with one or more new Boards because they are contemplating or have accepted a new position. Being fearful of the process is not only counterproductive, it’s unnecessary. Sawy managers don’t dread this portion of the job because it IS the job. Embrace the experience and move forward with the confidence of the professional you are. Remember: The more experience you have, the more valuable you are to those who may hire you in the future. That said...

Speak with the Board President. He or she may give you valuable insight in to the Board’s and the owner’s perceptions of what has, or has not, gone on. For those working for management firms, this may be painful and can be embarrassing, especially if you work for the same company as the last manager (and the manager before that...). In this case, a lot of crummy things might be said about your firm. Resist the urge to go on the defensive (or worse, to agree). Whether you are on site and in house or work for a management company, maintain professional impartiality - be attentive yet non-committal – as you look worse “dissing” the last manager, management company or your firm than the Board does in complaining about them. Respond in a positive, “let’s move forward” fashion.

Meeting with the whole Board. If you are meeting with the Board as a whole, be careful to observe all the inner board communication --- verbal and non-verbal. How are they positioned? Who talks? Who simmers? Who looks at the floor? Who do they defer to? Who’s the gadfly? Maybe most importantly, what are their backgrounds? Each member of the Board will approach every aspect of their role differently based on their personal and professional experience. This knowledge will give you valuable insight in to the inner machinations of the politics that will become your life, especially if you are an on site manager. Pay attention to what is said, and sometimes more importantly, what isn’t said.

Read the Minutes. Although it can be like taking a pack of sleeping pills, reading the Minutes - from the most current set backwards - can give you a big insight in to the community. Those Minutes will not only tell what policies have or have not been set in motion (no pun intended), they very often can give you a “feel” for the development of the Board as well as the community over the last few years. Understanding where they have been will help you facilitate their journey to where they want to go.

…And all the Governing Documents. It is extremely important to familiarize yourself with each Association’s documents as well as the Minutes. It may sound boring (and is), but better to know the anomalies that lay within those documents than to be hit broadside with one or more of them when you least expect it. Pay particular attention to dues payments, annual meeting issues and descriptions of who owns what.

Owner Files. An old supervisor of mine gave me sage advice: If there are owner files, go through them. If the Association is on the smaller side, this task can be accomplished relatively easily. If you have taken on a larger community - pull a sampling of owner files (pay particular attention to the thick files) and go through those. Not only will it give you an idea on the culture of the community, it will give you insight in to how well it was managed in the past, how problems were resolved, and show you where improvement is needed so you can hit the ground running.

Dealing with paperwork - hard copies and electronic.  Chances are the paperwork is a disaster. Where to start? Evaluate and Prioritize! This is no small task, as this includes evaluating everything from the association files to the piles of paper left in boxes, on file cabinets, your in and out box, diskettes, email, CDs and the hard drive. Take care of potential liability issues first, such as insurance issues, tax returns, overdue invoices and legal papers.

Employees. If you have employees for whom you are responsible, where are their files, performance evaluations, and job descriptions? Do not expect to have this entire task of employee review accomplished in a short amount of time – a full review may take a month or two to see everything.

Terminating Employees in the first days... In the world of on site management, often the new manager must terminate one or more employees within the first few days or weeks of his or her arrival. As one on site manager recently told me, “My second day on the job I had to terminate an armed security officer. Needless to say, I did it with tact because he had a gun and I didn’t...” As to why he terminated the employee: “Regardless of position, I want every employee to know that their first and foremost duty is customer service to the homeowner. This individual neglected the “service first” attitude of his job and was never going to be of that mindset. If employees working at this community are not willing to embrace the attitude of service first they must find other employment.”

The best part of this example is, the “service first” attitude is exactly why this manager was hired, and the Board President (who received a call at work immediately by the terminated employee) supported the manager’s decision 100%. The point is, if you must terminate employees within the first few days (or hours) of being hired, make sure the reasons are in sync with not only what your professional standards are, but with what the Board would perceive as appropriate and / or desirable service for their community.

Communicate! New management for any organization naturally creates questions, suspicions and expectations (defined and undefined) for all those affected by that new management. Failing to communicate regularly and positively with your Board members, homeowners, employees and vendors from the get-go will exacerbate any existing issues or suspicions, even though you or your firm may be doing a stellar job of managing the community. An information vacuum is not in your, or your firm’s best interest in the long run. Remember, vacuums long to be filled. Make sure it’s with the positive communication you provide, and not the gossip heard at cocktail time around the swimming pool.

Homeowners: Perform pre-emptive strikes on the squeakiest wheels. If you haven’t been told by the board who your “problem children” are, you’ll figure it out through contractors, employees or by looking at the last week’s phone messages. Don’t wait - you contact them. This sounds odd, but contacting your squeaky wheels first opens a line of communication you can bet they feel wasn’t there in the past. You appear empathetic, and that is 50% of the battle. The good news is, you may be able to deal with the issue fairly easily! Phone calls or visits to your office by your problem children will decrease because you are viewed as a problem solver. You have managed their problems, and your time, effectively by dealing with them up front.

Resist the urge to implement immediate change. If you are a competent, Type A manager, this is a very hard thing to do but can be crucial in your longevity with the association — especially if you are an on site. Unless it involves a threat to life, limb or property, unless the issue is blatantly unethical, illegal or way out of industry standard or a serious liability, do not propose or implement sweeping changes in policy during the first thirty days you manage an account.

The managing professional should observe the association as a whole going through its paces for a period of time. Why? Because even though you may see immediately what the problems are and know how to fix them, you may not know how to fix them in the context of community development and politics. There are many people (homeowners, board members, contractors, employees) who were there before you and most likely will be there long after you are gone. They were doing just fine, thank you, without your professional butt-insky ideas. Implementing changes that directly affect them without giving them the courtesy of observing their practices, will only send them the message that what they have been doing is wrong or unimportant. By instituting a waiting period and getting to know the inner workings of the association, you will not only appear to respect what has been done in the past, but you may see more clearly how to effectively implement the changes you know must be made.

A few tools in your belt. When you take over an account, whether it has been neglected by previous management or not, you can manage them effectively and immediately by getting a handle on the politics, reading the Minutes and the governing documents, taking care of crucial paperwork issues, handling your problem owners up front and pro-actively, communicate regularly and positively – and resisting the urge to make sweeping changes overnight. Realize that it is not your job to “fix them” right away - indeed, they may be unfixable. You job is to get them out of the ditch and on the road again. Whether they stay there or not is another story.