By Julie Adamen

Communication. It’s what managers are supposed to do best and the best of them do very, very well. When I started my management career, lo these 20 years ago, communicating well with your clients meant you returned their phone call within one business day, or responded with a (real, typed) letter within 30 days (yes, 30 days!) for non-emergencies. If the communication was something that needed a more immediate response: We’d fax the letter. That is if the recipient had a fax machine and it would be of that slick, curly, thermal paper. Our voicemail consisted of a real person who answered the phone and took a message if we were unavailable.  The old days seem so quaint now, and, well, S-L-O-W.  

Today’s community managers come armed with all the modern tools and devices for instant communication: Computer, email, Palm Pilots, Blackberrys, cell phones, insta-pagers and those camera / cell / radio phones. These tools and others have been a boon to the industry and great tool for managers by allowing them to work on several issues at any one time, respond quickly and return a communication in a very short time from the client’s original contact.  The good thing is a manager is always available. The bad thing is a manager is always available. The good thing is a manager can respond to any problem, big or small, immediately, the bad thing is, a manager can... well, you get the picture. The same issues we responded to 20 years ago with a snail mail letter 25 days after the complaint was filed are now expected to generate an instant response and remedy from the manager. The clients want instant gratification. The managers want to give it.

Herein lies a problem that is growing disproportionately to the industry:

- Managers are readily available – sometimes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In today’s management environment, not only is the job never ending, now, communication about the job, is never ending and instant. Managers are continually pressured to solve problems faster than ever before, and sometimes faster than is humanly possible. Many managers are feeling so bombarded with instant communications, information requests, and requests for service, they are unable to process them professionally and emotionally, thus leaving them depressed, stressed – and likely to find another industry in which to apply their talents.

So, what can be done? Managers, it is time to manage this problem like you would anything else! Break it down to its components (triage), evaluate your options, and move forward. Manage your incoming communication the same way.

Setting communication boundaries

The telephone.  You walk in the office and pick up your voicemail and find 20 messages. Ask yourself: How many must I respond to directly, immediately? More likely than not, the answer is maybe two out of 20. The rest can be sent to vendors or dealt with later in the day. Try this: when retrieving your messages, think of them fitting in to three categories:

1. Immediate Response – Calls from the Board President, your employer, some potential hazard or threat to life, limb or property that you aren’t sure has been handled by the appropriate entity.
2. Delegated Response – Broken sprinklers, pool too cold, light bulb burned out, etc. These are issues you delegate to either your assistant (if you are lucky enough to have or share one) or send on the appropriate vendor or employee to handle.
3. Later Direct Response – Answering general questions, imparting information, are sending out forms or paperwork, requests for committee reviews, etc. These are the calls you can return later in the day – or at the most the next business day.

Manage how and when you return phone calls.  Block out 45 minutes or so at the end of your workday specifically for returning all phone calls that did not need an immediate response. Often times you will get the caller’s voicemail – and that’s a good thing: you are able to give that person information they need (“I have contacted the pool service company and asked them to check the pool heater. If it’s not warm by tomorrow afternoon, please call me again.”) without getting stuck on the phone listening to an additional 10 minutes on why they think the tree outside their window should be cut down.

Remember, homeowners and others are notorious for trying to make their perceived emergency your immediate priority. Setting communication priorities is not a way to keep homeowners from you – it’s a way of keeping you fit and sane enough to do the best job for your communities, and yourself, in the long run.

Cell phones. Do you make a call on your cell phone the minute you get in the car? Is your cell phone on while you are in a meeting, at a property or even while you are in your office? Do you always feel compelled to answer every call on your cell phone regardless of what you are doing at the time? Before you take another call, ask yourself exactly what would happen if you didn’t take that call? Chances are – you would handle it in your office if it’s business or from home if it’s personal. What would happen if you turned the phone OFF? Callers would get your voicemail – and you can return those calls at the time you have set for doing just that. This is managing incoming communication. Don’t get me wrong; I couldn’t do my job without a cell phone, especially when I am traveling.  But if I am in my office, it’s off. When I am in a meeting, it’s off and when I need a moment to collect my thoughts on an issue, it’s off. Thinking an issue through without interruption is a productive thing and the always-on cell can be counterproductive. Give yourself time when you need it. It’s ok, really.  

Email. As far as I am concerned email is probably the most wonderful thing in the business world that has happened in the last 10 years. Lengthy phone calls can now be trimmed to one or two lines electronically. Unfortunately, email communication does have its downsides, which can add an even more stressful and harried aspect to our day if we allow it.

Newsflash: The “E” in Email Does Not Stand for “Emergency”

Because we think we must answer e-mail right away, and because we can, email has a tendency to take on an unwarranted urgency. (Remember this tip the next time you drop the important project on which you are working to answer a question about Minutes from 1985). Try this: Even if you have high-speed Internet access, pretend like you’re on dial up. Set your computer to send/receive emails every hour or every ½ hour. Resist the urge to check email in between those times, and resist the urge to hit the “send” icon as soon as you are finished typing a new email or a response to one you just received.  If someone really has an “emergency” – they’ll call, they won’t email.

Use Auto-Reply as an e-voicemail. Auto-reply is a terribly underutilized tool for message management and it’s a great way to let people know you are in there and have received their message, but will get back to them as soon as you are able. Think of Auto-Reply the same way you think of voicemail. You can let folks know you are in the office after 2pm that day, have taken a personal day off, or are attending a training session but will be answering email the next day. 

Personal Appearances by homeowners or Board members. Not only are we answering an email while picking up the cell phone, we find out there is a homeowner in the front lobby waiting to see us without an appointment – the most personal form of instant communication.

This problem is far more endemic to the on site management world – but it does happen to portfolio managers as well. For on site managers, it’s probably one of the worst aspects of the job and one that can be very difficult to control if the Board / homeowners and / or the manager have already established a pattern. “Drop ins” can be very, very difficult for on site managers who are a one-person show as there is no buffer zone. For portfolio managers: Due to the nature of your business life, “drop ins” proportionally create more interruption than in an on site situation, so maybe it’s even more important to set boundaries.

Again, set boundaries on your availability by letting your Board(s) know of your need for uninterrupted, productive work time. Advise your Board(s) (notice I didn’t say “ask”) that you would like to establish specific times strictly for homeowners to come in and chat with you – say, from 3-4pm on Tuesdays. And to keep those meetings brief – try to use a conference room for the meeting instead of your desk, especially if you are in a cubicle. Take notes, give them a specific time you will follow up with them and use the universal symbol for “Get out!”: STAND UP; THANK THEM FOR COMING AND SHAKE HANDS.

Lastly, PUBLISH PUBLISH PUBLISH your “availability” hours to your Boards and your owners, in newsletters, on the billing statements, on the website, and in or near your office.

And now a word to management company owners and executives and Board members:

I don’t need to tell you how difficult it is to find and keep good staff. But I do need to tell you that we as an industry need to take our share of the responsibility in why managers leave our companies and our industry with alarming regularity. For the most part,

It’s NOT the money. It’s the working conditions.

Based on my experience, the average community manager works approx. 55 hours per week. Most of these managers feel overwhelmed and overworked – barely keeping their heads above water. They are putting in long hours and often many nights. Many managers are “on call” 24/7/365 for their properties. They see their family a lot less than they would like to and never have the satisfaction of “being done” at work.  Once they start the “manager death spiral” (the beginning of which can almost always be gauged by a sudden lack of returned phone calls and emails) you can start watching your dollar bills fly out the door. It’s often said that each position turnover costs the employer four months of that person’s salary. Putting that perspective on it, as an executive, wouldn’t you try just about anything to keep your employees longer? Let’s look at just one possibility.

Helping your manager(s) manage his/her (their) day.  At Xerox Corp., MIT researchers asked a group of engineers what aspects of their normal work prevented them from having enough free time outside of work (i.e., with their families). As a result of that study Xerox instituted a two-hour block of uninterrupted time in the mornings. Because of that simple change, those employees had more time with their families and produced their first on time product launch. [1]

What if we instituted the same policy in our companies? What if we held all calls (with certain, obvious exceptions) between the hours of 10 am and 12 noon? What if your employees knew that every day they were in the office they could be very productive, without the constant interruption of the telephone (and the email) for two solid hours? How do you think they would feel? Don’t you think your manager(s)would feel a valued member of your staff, knowing their employer knew the manager’s job(s) well enough to assist them in managing their time? Don’t you think they would be grateful for the buffer you have provided, allowing them a sense of accomplishment?

These ideas, and others like them, are a part of a movement in this country that addresses the serious lack of uninterrupted, productive working time we have, leading to intense job pressures, stressed out workers and overall burnout. Our industry is no exception and in fact may be a leader in overworked and overwhelmed employees. Our goal as community association management professionals should be to maximize productivity. Maximizing productivity should not be confused with treating every drop in, phone call, cell phone call, email or fax like it is an emergency. Maximizing productivity means managing the barrage of daily incoming communication that can keep us from having any time for clear, uninterrupted, fruitful work time.

As a nation, we are “time impoverished and nowhere is that more evident than in the life of a community manager. But by creating boundaries and setting aside significant, uninterrupted work time, where we can think and focus on the project or task at hand without the pressure of communication overload, we can do something about it.