Leadership Glow Up

“Who told you there was training for a Regional?”

Probably the most real, unfiltered response I’ve ever received when conducting field research on a day-in-the-life of Regional Managers! ?

Recently, I have been interviewing Regional Managers from across the country to learn about their experiences, discover what they love most about their work, and what their biggest frustrations are. One of the questions I like to ask is, “As you transitioned into the regional role, what was your training like?” Most Regionals chuckle and say things like, “Well, it was kind of on-the-job training,” “A sink-or-swim scenario,” or “I like to say I utilized my ‘phone-a-friend’ option regularly.” ?

Are you surprised? Probably not. But let’s step back from what we may consider, ‘amusing anecdotes,’ and look at the hard data.

Based on the 2024 Swift Bunny Index, 29% of rental housing employees who have been promoted into a new role do not agree the training provided helped them become effective in their new job. That’s nearly 1 in 3 promoted employees admitting they were unprepared for their new role.

The ramifications for these feelings of unpreparedness are far-reaching and only have a negative impact on our goal of retaining high-performing team members. Not only are companies at risk of losing a newly elevated employee who is feeling inadequate, they risk losing that new manager’s subordinates who are not receiving the support or direction they need! Every conversation I have with managers or leaders at any level tend to meander to a commiseration on the painfully obvious void of supervisory and leadership training.

There are beautiful exceptions, however. The Morgan Group, a 3-time Swift Bunny Employee Choice Award Winner, celebrates the Morgan LEAD program. This 6-month program, which team members must apply and be approved for, is designed to prepare the employee to take on the next role: ?Assistant Manager to Manager; Manager to Regional, etc.? Another of our Employee Choice Award winners, Legend Management Group, champions its formal mentoring program, so that up-and-coming leaders have a trusted source of insight and guidance.

In lieu of a company-based leadership development program, such as the exceptional ones described above, I was absolutely delighted to discover a resource that is not only a roadmap to success for any developing leader, it was born and raised in the rental housing industry and tells our story – literally – in an incredibly wise and practical way.

Journey to a Rainforest Team Culture: A Leadership Story about Fostering Employee Satisfaction and Engagement was written by Jason Kae, who has 25+ years of in-the-field industry experience. His story of Eliza Hawkins, the new property manager of a failing 800-unit community and its team of strong and colorful personalities, provides a framework to approach leading a team and building a positive and productive culture.

“Rainforest?” you may ask. I get it. I was kind of thrown off by that terminology at first, too. But then I read it, and it totally made sense. Totally and completely. Believe me, you want a Rainforest Team Culture. And this book provides the steps to creating and sustaining one. The chapter titles alone enticed me to dive right in and read, because they speak directly to some of the biggest challenges and tools that can either be motivating or demoralizing, depending on how they are handled with a team.

-????????? A New Opportunity

-????????? Tone

-????????? Enthusiasm

-????????? Motivation

-????????? Pay

-????????? Reason

-????????? Autonomy/Innovation

-????????? Nurture

-????????? Results

See what I mean? These are the chapter titles. I instantly wanted to know, “What do I need to know about tone? How can that help or hurt me? Am I using it incorrectly right now?”

A whole chapter on Pay? Yes! And it gets into the good stuff, the real stuff, the hard stuff that supervisors face in conversations with their teams every day.

So much of what I see in our research can be addressed in the specific ways laid out in the framework defined in this incredible book. I highly recommend reading it for yourself and then having all of your current and aspiring supervisors read it, too.

And guess what? I just found out the author himself, Jason Kae, will be at Apartmentalize in Philadelphia! Do yourself a favor and send him a message on LinkedIn. Meet up with him. Talk to him about developing your leaders.

This industry is primed for a Leadership Glow Up, and Jason’s got an incredible tool to lead the way.

If you’re wondering how your supervisors, both new and seasoned, are feeling about their own preparedness for leading a team, we can help you find out. Our Ingage by Swift Bunny solution includes surveys to evaluate overall employee engagement, as well as a Role Transition survey for those who have just stepped into a new position. It’s your safety net to see how they feel about the new role, if they have the tools, resources, or support needed, and the fun stuff, like what has gone really well during the process.

Let’s talk about your people leaders! Contact us HERE, or come and find me at Apartmentalize. I’ll be in Booth 1541 throughout the day on Thursday and Friday. And you can also attend my panel, Career Metamorphosis: Transforming Employee Ambitions into Realities on? Wednesday, June 19th at 2:05 in Room 114.

- Jen Piccotti

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