A virtual hug for my team

[This was a letter to my team after a recent company-wide event (the first in a while due to Covid). Given the stress we are all experiencing, I thought it may be helpful to this community to publish here as well.]

Hi Team - I just wanted?to say how great it was to see everyone on the our company Harbor Cruise! Finally being able to bring the whole team together for some fun makes me especially grateful for the incredible company we're building here at CHARLESGATE, together as a team.

Thank you

I want to let everyone at CHARLESGATE know how much I appreciate all the hard work you've been putting in, all the new clients you are onboarding and services you are adding, and all the successful results you have created!?

Our?growth has been and will continue to be incredible because?of you! There have?been and will be so many exciting wins to celebrate (including 2 brand new development project Grand Openings this week alone!). That's a testament to all of your incredible work.

The best part? We've only just begun!??

It is truly awe inspiring! THANK YOU, thank you.

Important work

We are truly delivering on our vision?to inspire and empower our clients, our team, and our communities through comprehensive real estate solutions.

We do very hard, very important work. Advising people and taking care of a person's most important personal need (and oftentimes?largest investment) - housing - is critical work.

Know this - what we do as a company and what you do in your role is one of the most important things any of us could be doing for others in our community. Ever. Be proud of that.

A challenging year

That said, I completely understand that the past year plus has not been easy.?

Covid brought an incredible amount of stress. We are all sooo sick of Covid.

Psychologically, any time a person has unmet?needs for a primary human requirement like housing, their stress levels can rise anyway, and now compound?that with the covid crisis, it can reach a boiling point pretty?fast (even creating a few unreasonable clients and situations at times).?

Whether working with clients/residents to manage and maintain properties, or to help them buy, sell or invest; you have been on the front lines since the begining of Covid. That's added a lot of extra stress just from what you do every single day.

And it can also be stressful to not see and be able to build relationships with colleagues as much as you can in person. It can be harder to work as a team.

Growth can be exciting of course, but it also can bring its own stress as well, from adding new clients and new services to onboarding new team members and learning new ways to do things.

It's not easy to say the least!?:)

But I'm so incredibly proud of how you have handled all the stress and worked through all the difficult challenges as we've grown.?

There will always be challenges of course, but what makes me so grateful is the way you have taken the challenges we face with a relentless positive attitude and an insatiable curiosity to learn new systems and constantly improve the way we do things as a team.

Take care of yourself

I love you all and care deeply about each one of you.?

I want to make sure you are taking care of yourself too and finding ways to de-stress as?much as possible.?

I want to make sure you're planning to use and actually using your vacation time for a chance to recharge. I want to make sure you're being kind to yourself. Have empathy for yourself first. I want to make sure you're eating your vegetables and drinking?enough water and getting enough sleep. All the simple stuff! :)

We'll be looking for more ways to de-stress and have more fun company-wide and in small teams as well.

Employees first

We have fantastic clients and residents that we serve every day - and we do a fantastic job for them. But it is not possible to serve clients well without you, our team members.

We are committed to being an Employee First?organization. Employees (and agents) come first before clients, before communities, before vendors, and before stakeholders.

If you ever need to chat or have an idea how the company can do more cool work, or make your life less stressful, or how we can help?you open up more career opportunities, or just want to talk about anything at all, I am here to listen.

I'm looking forward to working with you all to continue to scale up our growth, our culture, and our opportunities for all of you in your careers.

You, as our employees (and agents), are our most vital resource.?

And better yet, a friend.

Consider this a virtual?hug!???

-Mike