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Published by: Effency Publishing for the State of Florida Property Management Association
Tags: Florida Rising Magazine, Management News, SFPMA Social Media
What does it take to run a successful business? Some people tell you it’s the art of identifying and seizing an opportunity—the union of preparation and luck. Some say preparation and education best prepare people for the rigours of the business world. Still others claim it’s all about connections. But none of them offer the whole story.
There’s one major element that’s essential: effective communication. Indeed, strong communication, more than any other factor, may be the leading predictor of business success. In some way or another, communication contributes to all those other factors. Communication helps us learn about new opportunities, manage our education, and ultimately maintain and cultivate important connections. But it also helps within a business; with employees, customers, and shareholders; and in virtually every other aspect of business.
It’s nothing short of frustrating when people pretend to listen when they really are just waiting for their chance to speak. An unfocused gaze, interruptions, and listening only for the bottom line are all poor listening habits. Here’s some unwelcome news: You probably exhibit poor listening on occasion too—and people notice it.
This ties to nonverbal communication. So much of the information we exchange with other people isn’t verbalized. If you manage to be a good listener, worlds will open up to you. People love being listened to. It’s probably the easiest way to put someone at ease: Just listen to what they have to say, and actually be present for the conversation.
Paradoxically, bosses especially need to master great listening skills. Even though it’s ostensibly the boss’s job to tell people what to do, if the boss wants to be appreciated and valued by his or her subordinates, he or she will genuinely listen to concerns and try to understand. It’s this careful attention that separates good bosses from great.
Nonverbal communication is best used to supplement your understanding or experience of the interaction, not be a substitute for basic communication (especially when discussing important matters). For this reason, always interpret signals you see as a group. Don’t take your cues from one signal alone, but rather as a whole, and for the general mood of the situation.
By the same token, it’s important to control the nonverbal cues you project to your colleagues. Chances are you’re giving away clues and extra information all the time, even when you’re not aware of it. Slowly and carefully consider how gestures and expressions may be interpreted, both to help you understand people, but also to help people understand you.
People are raised in a variety of ways and are comfortable and uncomfortable with different things. Despite our differences, we should all employ good manners. “There is a reason for manners and courtesy and it is not just to be nice. The purpose of manners is to give us a practical structure to deal with each other… It is the glue of civilization and a utilitarian road map for dealing in everyday business.”
Social graces are necessary in face-to-face interactions and emails. Now they also apply to customer relations on social media, where increased visibility makes it all the more important to respond promptly and politely to customer concerns. Having good manners and social graces make every interaction, business or otherwise, smoother. Go out of your way to be polite.
Being in tune with others’ feelings and emotions. It can be as simple as noticing and taking extra care when someone is having a rough week, or as complex as understanding the historical or social issues that may personally affect someone.
At work, high emotional intelligence guides social interactions and helps people work together more effectively. It improves communication and allows teams to tactfully discuss differing opinions. Leaders in a company who actively pay attention to others’ emotions have happier employees because they are more socially aware, are respectful of diversity, and know how to handle conflict. This further translates to more positive interactions with vendors and customers.
Even though a number of studies place the importance of nonverbal communication equal to or surpassing that of verbal communication, it continues to be misunderstood and underestimated. Businesspeople who have mastered the ability to communicate nonverbally have several distinct advantages in the business sphere, from exuding confidence to reinforcing authority.
Facial expressions, posture, eye contact, voice, and hand gestures all fall into this category. Mastering the art of nonverbal communication for business relations is not easy, but can provide a new dimension in your communications with colleagues, as well as friends.
Nonverbal communication is best used to supplement your understanding or experience of the interaction, not be a substitute for basic communication (especially when discussing important matters). For this reason, always interpret signals you see. Don’t take your cues from one signal alone, but rather as a whole, and for the general mood of the situation.
By the same token, it’s important to control the nonverbal cues you project to your colleagues. Chances are you’re giving away clues and extra information all the time, even when you’re not aware of it. Slowly and carefully consider how gestures and expressions may be interpreted, both to help you understand people, but also to help people understand you. The bottom line: It’s best to master nonverbal communication before testing out gestures and expressions that are outside of your comfort zone during an important meeting.
Some assumptions can be downright dangerous to relationships, business transactions, or both, and it’s your job to question them when you see them.
We aren’t mind readers. Rather than make assumptions about why a colleague hasn’t responded to an email, if a client is satisfied with your work, or if an innovative product will be profitable, ask questions. Stick to the facts you do know, and let the other person fill in the rest. There are many examples of businesses missing out on real opportunities because they failed to challenge their assumptions about new products or technologies until it was too late. Subtly and deftly attempt to understand the context of the assumption to gauge its value. When you take the time to challenge assumptions, you may learn more information about the subject and improve your business as a result.
This may seem similar to drawing conclusions and assumptions, but it’s actually different. Somewhat counter-intuitively, when you ask people questions, getting information is actually a secondary goal. The goal is to get them to talk and relax, and give you the opportunity to practice those listening skills. In business, the more information the better—but you need to remember this – if you don’t ask questions or if you assume this can bring up resentments, so follow up with a call or a reminder of your meeting them. Asking the right questions takes effort, but it can have immense rewards. If you know the right questions to ask, you can find out the information you want. in some cases you need.
When you communicate with people in your organization or new clients more effectively, you’re more aware of potential problems and better able to implement solutions. Focus improving your communication: You’ll be more informed about every aspect of the business and you’ll understand the concerns of your coworkers and clients alike. If you communicate with your customers well, you can catch potential pitfalls and other issues early on. Appraise the communication system at your business and see how these tips work for you.
This isn’t about telling people what they want to hear, though that’s a part of equation. Really, it’s about knowing how to talk to people. In other words, organize your communication so you reveal the information that’s most important to your audience first.
AJ Michaels – Operations Manager of SFPMA
We are State of Florida Property Management Association; Dedicated to advocacy and promoting professionalism in the property management, condo and Hoa industries. Through information, educational opportunities, our members are enabled and encouraged to reach their full potential in our industry. Becoming a member can lead to new relationships and increased oppertunities for you and your company.
Tags: Business Articles, Education & Licensing, Management News
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Plan to Evacuate
A wide variety of emergencies may cause an evacuation. In some instances you may have a day or two to prepare, while other situations might call for an immediate evacuation. Planning ahead is vital to ensuring that you can evacuate quickly and safely, no matter what the circumstances.
If you evacuated for the storm, check with local officials both where you’re staying and back home before you travel.
https://www.fema.gov/mobile-app
Floods are the most common natural disaster in the United States. As we are approaching Hurricane Season we want you to be safe!Know what disasters and hazards could affect your area, how to get emergency alerts, and where you would go if you and your family need to evacuate. Check out the related links to learn what to do before, during and after each type of emergency.
Make a plan today. Your family may not be together if a disaster strikes, so it is important to know which types of disasters could affect your area. Know how you’ll contact one another and reconnect if separated. Establish a family meeting place that’s familiar and easy to find.
As you prepare your plan tailor your plans and supplies to your specific daily living needs and responsibilities. Discuss your needs and responsibilities and how people in the network can assist each other with communication, care of children, business, pets, or specific needs like the operation of durable medical equipment. Create your own personal network for specific areas where you need assistance. Keep in mind some these factors when developing your plan:
Download and fill out a family emergency plan or use them as a guide to create your own.
SOUTH FLORIDA – Leading Florida association law firm Kaye Bender Rembaum, with offices in Pompano Beach and Palm Beach Gardens, has opened an office in Tampa and named Shawn Brown, Esq. as Managing Attorney.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for us to expand our footprint on the west coast,” said Robert Kaye, Esq., managing Firm member of Kaye Bender Rembaum. “Shawn shares our commitment for delivering exceptional service to our clients. His knowledge and experience will be an asset as we continue to build our presence in the Tampa market.”
Prior to joining Kaye Bender Rembaum, Brown was a partner in the law firm of Frazier & Brown and the law firm of Redding & Brown, both in Tampa.
Board Certified in Condominium and Planned Development Law by The Florida Bar, Brown is an active member of the Condominium and Planned Development Committee where he serves as chair of the Safe Harbor Subcommittee, is a member of the legislative review group and is tasked with reviewing and providing comments and edits to the legislation affecting community associations each legislative session. He also served as a member of the Auxiliary Committee, reviewing and editing different chapters in the 4th Edition of the Florida Condominium and Community Association Law published by The Florida Bar. Brown also sits on the Real Property Litigation Committee, where he is chair of the Judicial Litigation Support and Education Subcommittee, and the Problem Studies Committee of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of The Florida Bar.
“I am thrilled to join such a well-respected Firm with a proven track record of success in community association law,” said Brown. “I look forward to this opportunity and
growing our presence here with existing and new clients.”
Brown’s focus has been exclusively on the practice of all aspects of community association law and regularly practicing before the trial and appellate levels of state and federal courts, including arguing before the Florida Supreme Court and administrative agencies such as the Florida Division of Condominiums. He has extensive experience in all aspects of community association law and real estate law, representing condominium and homeowner associations and handling issues ranging from collection of assessments and foreclosures to covenant enforcement and litigation. He is routinely invited to provide both association boards of directors and community association managers with regular legislative and case law updates.
Brown also represents individuals in real estate transactions and litigation, devoting his practice to working with clients on a broad range of legal issues that community associations, property owners and buyers and sellers of real estate face on a regular basis.
A graduate of Stetson University and Stetson University College of Law, Brown was a recipient of the U.S. Senator Max Cleland scholarship and served as an intern to United States Senator Connie Mack in his Washington D.C. office while attending American University. He is a resident of Tampa.
The new Kaye Bender Rembaum office is located at 1211 N. Westshore Boulevard in Tampa.
Kaye Bender Rembaum is a full-service commercial law firm concentrating on the representation of more than 1,000 community associations throughout Florida. With offices in Broward, Hillsborough and Palm Beach counties, the Firm was recently presented with the 2019 Readers’ Choice Award for Legal Services by the Florida Community Association Journal, an award they’ve received annually since 2014. For more information, visit www.KBRLegal.com, call 954-928-0680 and follow the Firm on www.facebook.com/KayeBenderRembaum.
Members of SFPMA.Com – State of Florida Property Management Association Pompano Beach Office, Palm Beach Office,
EmmaJean Livingston | Pierson Grant PR
6451 North Federal Highway, Suite 1200 | Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308
T: 954.776.1999, ext. 242 | E: elivingston@piersongrant.com
Tags: Condo and HOA Laws, Law and Legal, Management News, Member Highlights
This question was asked of us from an association that had under 150 owner units, We informed them of some benefits that will help them with communication going forward for all owners.
Every resident & Board member will always be at every meeting when you post the minutes online in a secure HOA website. Time, convenience, and information are the keys to a happy and informed neighborhood. With a Board only area as well as a place for general meeting minutes, you’ll always get the right information to the right person, group, or committee in a way that’s secure and convenient for everyone.
The price of postage stamps has risen every year for over a decade, and the price of envelopes and mailers is always an unwelcoming addition to budgets of any size. Throw in the cost of gas to drive around the neighborhood placing it in boxes, or using snail mail to get out sometimes time sensitive information and before you know it, you’ve spent money, lost time, and everyone still isn’t informed. Email bulletins are quick, simple, and cost free to send 24 hours a day to residents who need to be in the know. Easily create and Email a monthly newsletter with a beautiful design, or send out individual announcements through your website.
Enjoy 24 hour access to a feature that allows Board/Committee members to vote on specific tasks, add notes or questions, and approve or deny processes online…at their convenience. How many times are communities held up on projects and important decisions because someone missed a meeting or is not in the loop? An AtHomeNet website can even facilitate live Board Only Chats and virtual meetings if need be; but the Task Manager feature can be a HOA Board’s best friend.
View, update, and handle resident accounts with the only authorized, fully supported, software integration with the nations leading Accounting software firm, TOPS. AtHomeNet websites are the only professional websites for HOAs that offer this two way integration. A major time and money saver.
Dodge the unwelcomed hassle that comes with paying a seemingly endless array of “processing fees” charged by any number of companies to handle your residents’ dues payments. Setting up online payments for your community is FREE, and an unprecedented convenience that once your residents have, they won’t want to live without.
Limited access to information can cause confusion, infractions, and dissention among residents. These situations not only are troubling for the resident, but also for the Board members who have to spend hours on the phone, or time on personal visits and sometimes costly legal battles. ARC violations are mostly caused by procedural issues or lack of resident information. Handle ARC committee request, post rules and forms, and resolve questions before they become issues using your website.
Email bulletins, Announcements, & Events Calendar are three features that come standard with your website. As soon as a resident logs in, they can view “What’s New” since the last time they logged in. Keeping your residents in the loop no longer takes the hours of time going door to door, posting fliers, making phone calls. Send out new information to thousands of residents in minutes through your website’s dynamic informative features set.
The ability to pick a facility such as a tennis court, a clubhouse, or the golf course…see instantly what times are available, and then sign out a time, or send a request for approval to reserve a time, can be a massive time saver and convenience for every community. The Reservations feature can be tailored to list the available hours for a specific resource. This exciting feature streamlines an amenity reservations process that normally could take forever to coordinate successfully; handling it in minutes, 24 hours a day in a secure online environment.
Residents can access needed business, real estate, and other documents through your website and get a hold of them quickly and without the hassle of going through a 3rd party. Security is never a concern, as your website has a public and private side, so only those who you grant access to, get access to certain areas, information, and privileges.
Your Board only area has a lot of great functionality. Your Board members can enjoy using the Task Manager to handle specific tasks on their schedule. Live Chat can bring to the forefront issues that need to be resolved or debated instantly in a secure venue, or facilitate virtual Board meetings. Board Only Message Board can facilitate communication and debate amongst the Board in a forum where everyone can follow an issue and everyone’s input from start to finish. A Board the communicates freely and easily, is a Board that gets things done!
You set the prices, you determine the website area, you collect the revenue. Local businesses and private advertisers are always looking for more exposure and to reach new customers. Your community website is a daily gathering place for hundreds to thousands of internal and external visitors and with unlimited page creation, your website can be as profitable as you want it to be.
A trip to Kinkos Fedex or for a college student at term paper time is a necessity! A trip to Kinkos or Fedex for an HOA is an unnecessary and costly inconvenience. Once your resident directory is printed, if someone leaves, someone moves in, or anyone changes their number, the directory has to be updated with possibly even more printing costs. Online resident directories let your residents share as much or as little about themselves and their contact information as they please…and updating them takes seconds of your valuable time.
If you only counted parties, socials, holiday events, and meetings, you would still spend hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars and hours of time designing eye catching fliers to post on overcrowded bulletin boards, or resident’s doors or mailboxes. Between the wind, the trashcan, and the guy who pulls it down and takes it home so he doesn’t forget, sadly many of these fliers will never be greeted by the eyes they are intended to catch. Online Announcements are yet another quick and easy solution that gets immediate results, doesn’t cost a nickel, and is totally immune to wind, rain, and snatchers.
Professional listings in real estate magazines can cost hundreds of dollars, some even charging outrageous fees in a per home basis. Otherwise your homes for sale and other items such as garage sales, babysitting services, etc. are free to get lost in a sea of craigslist ads that get thousands more every day. Your Homes for Sale and Classifieds areas are dedicated to showcasing your communities’ best to those in the community, and those outside the community. Most importantly, it’s another great feature that is standard in your website and won’t cost your Association a penny regardless of how much information is listed.
Most non-profit organizations spend valuable dollars that could go to their cause just on promotion, advertising, and volunteer coordination. Your Association need not be a victim of this. Easily disseminate information, coordinate live chats securely in the website, and get the word out about event times, donations, and other charitable acts from the convenience of your laptop.
Residents, Board Members, and Committee members can review all of your community’s important documents whenever they need to. Set security levels so you can decide exactly who can see what, so unwanted eyes on your sensitive documents will never be an issue. Another major time and hassle saver.
Not sure if everyone is on board with the new procedure to replace gate cards? Perhaps you want to know if there is a holiday party at the clubhouse this year, will there even be enough residents still here to justify the costs? Using the “Surveys” feature to create and send a survey you can customize to ask exactly what you want is the best way to find out how everyone feels about any given topic or issue. Residents can only vote once, and they can answer via multiple choice or free form?.it’s totally up to you. Create a survey in minutes, and let your website do the work to tally the results so you can make the best decisions.
Email Bulletins are a quick way to alert everyone in the community about an issue without having to hold any special meetings or send out an individual email to hundreds of residents. We provide new designs and themes you can choose from every month for free, which allows us to offer an outstanding catalogue of pre-designed email bulletins for your unlimited use. You can also design your own in no time at all. Using Announcements and Email bulletins in tandem means that your residents will never be in the dark about important community issues.
Your Board only area has a lot of great functionality. Your Board members can enjoy using the Task Manager to handle specific tasks on their schedule. Live Chat can bring to the forefront issues that need to be resolved or debated instantly in a secure venue, or facilitate virtual Board meetings. Board Only Message Board can facilitate communication and debate amongst the Board in a forum where everyone can follow an issue and everyone’s input from start to finish. A Board the communicates freely and easily, is a Board that gets things done!
Residents are going to have questions, lots of questions…but you community does not have the time or resources available to place a live operator on a toll free hotline 24 hours a day. Many communities share a lot of the same issues, resources, and operating procedures; so it becomes quickly obvious that questions like ‘Where can I find a copy of the CCRs” or “What is the procedure for requesting Architectural changes on my property” will be asked repeatedly. The FAQ section can be as long or as short as you want it, and updating it can be done in a matter of minutes. The more you cut down on time spent answering the same questions from different people, the more time you can spend handling other important community business.
When jobs need to be completed in your community, compile them all in one easy to find 24 hour accessible online location; making it easy for those willing and able to do the work to find you, and avoiding paying for ads on various websites, newspapers, and employment services.
For Florida’s Property Management Industry. Keep up to date with what is new, Events, Members of SFPMA
Managers in June we have a new redesigned Directory > Clients can find Property Managers in Florida with ease.
Get your company listed! find out more inthe May Edition.
Share this with your Friends: Direct Link https://joom.ag/dxAa
Tags: Florida Rising Magazine, Management News, SFPMA Social Media
Members in the News:
“This upscale building was very unhappy with the local service provider, and wanted something special for its residents,” explained Bryan Rader, President of Upstream. “And that’s what we gave them.”
Hugh Moore, Property Manager of Hollywood Towers described the experience. “Very well done. The technical team was experienced, friendly, and responsive, and the products are amazing.” He continued “the picture quality is a huge upgrade and so are the internet speeds. My residents are thrilled with their performance.”
Upstream Network continues to add buildings to its network in key markets. “Our audience really enjoys using our platform. We’ve added several thousand new units recently, and just started construction on another large community in Miami,” Rader explained.
“I would absolutely recommend Upstream,” Moore concluded. “I wish they were in the building I live in.” Upstream Network’s recent customer satisfaction ratings are consistent with the experience at Hollywood Towers, with over a 94% satisfied rating. “Our growth is directly tied to our ability to perform,” Rader stated. “And we are performing.”
For more information about Upstream Network View our Membership Page on the State of Florida Property Management Association‘s, or direct by Email at mmalecki@upstream.network
Bryan Rader
President
341-540-1114
brader@upstream.network
Tags: Business Articles, Condo and HOA, Florida Rising Magazine, Management News, Member Highlights
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Tags: Asphalt and BlackTop Articles, Building Maintenance, Management News, Member Highlights
SFPMA works throughout the State of Florida, we are a multi-member organization for the Condo, HOA and Property Management industry. Through knowledge based Articles, Events and our Members Directory, Clients find the right information to make an informed decisions for their Florida properties.