by Ernest Oriente

Posted August 22, 2001

Influence - A Rainbow of Interaction

If you are an artist painting a picture, is the brush more important than the canvas? Is a bright red better than a cool blue? More importantly, as the creator of this painting, you must know how to blend the colors together…as this is the essence of a beautiful picture. Drawing on this analogy, as a leader within your property management company you have the same ability to blend the working behavioral styles of those on your team. This article will address how a person’s style of influence impacts performance and future articles will discuss drive, steadiness, and compliance…all key components of the behavioral styles of those on your team.

Defining influence: As a leader within your property management company, you have certainly recognized the diversity of behavioral styles of those on your team and you probably have considered how this impacts performance. Influence can best be described as the way a person relates to and persuades other people. For example, how a person participates in a group meeting, team environment or even one-on-one will be a good indicator of their style of influence. A person’s level of influence, whether it is lower or higher, can be an asset to your company. As a leader, your style of influence is a combination of your inherent nature, the nurturing of your upbringing and will not likely change during your lifetime.

Tip From The Coach: Time for you to be the coach! On a scale of 1-100, what level of influence does Oprah Winfrey have? Based on her level of influence, does it matter who she interviews? As a leader within your property management company, does it matter how you interact with others? Can a person with a lower influence work with a person who has high influence?

Looking for clues: When working with those on your team, a person’s style of influence can be easily determined by looking for some observable clues. For instance, a person with a higher level of influence will be outgoing, persuasive, enthusiastic and trusting. In addition, the physical clues of a person with a higher level of influence include animated, demonstrative, visibly optimistic and will be quick to shake your hand. By comparison, a person with a lower style of influence will tend to be objective, skeptical, reflective and logical. The physical clues of a person with a lower style of influence will be someone who is quieter in nature, has good listening skills, is attentive and will speak in a soft/even tone of voice.

Tip From The Coach: To quickly determine whether a person has a lower or higher style of influence ask yourself these two questions about each person on your team: “Is this person more introverted or extroverted?” “Is this person more people-oriented or task-oriented?”. Remember, a person’s level of influence will offer visual, verbal and non-verbal clues.

Coaching a person with higher/lower influence: Ready for the next step? Once you have determined whether a person on your team has a style of higher or lower influence…the rest is easy! When communicating with a person who has a style of higher influence, here are some specific ways to coach this person: connect on a personal level, before settling down to business • be generous with praise and critique in private • support their dreams/visions while asking for specific action steps • use a democratic process when making decisions. Here are some tips to coach a person with a style of lower influence: respect their need for more physical/psychological space • will need to see/hear more than just energy/enthusiasm to support new ideas • establish/maintain their trust in you • acknowledge their concerns and questions before making final decisions.

Tip From The Coach: As the leader within your property management company, your teams will deliver peak performance when you have carefully selected a team with a range of lower and higher influence styles. In addition, by carefully balancing the styles of influence within your teams, increased communication and improved team effectiveness will follow.

Telephone Profiling…It Works, Part Two! ©
by Ernest F. Oriente, The Coach

Last month, I had the pleasure of speaking with Kevin Grani of Archstone. Kevin is an operations manager, based in San Diego, California, responsible for guiding seven apartment communities with 2500 units. In article #52A Kevin shared how he and his company have been using the CallSource® {www.callsource.com} system to evaluate their marketing efforts. In addition, by using CallReview® Kevin asked his best leasing person, Patricia Buck, to spend one day a week listening to a recording of telephone conversations between his leasing team members and future residents. This article will focus on my interview with Patricia and two interviews with those who receive her E-mail coaching notes.

Listening to telephone profiles: During my interview with Patricia she told me about the use of a nine-point Archstone Telephone Prompter, used by every leasing consultant within her company. Patricia uses this Telephone Prompter as a checklist when she is listening to in-bound telephone calls from future residents. As a result of listening to thousands of these calls, here are some of her observations:

1. Patricia carefully compares the content of each telephone call with her Archstone Telephone Prompter.

2. Patricia makes certain the greeting and the closing steps are done correctly as these two areas have a direct impact on leasing success.

3. Patricia listens closely to the tone of every call and the enthusiasm being shared by each leasing consultant.

4. Patricia listens carefully to see how each leasing consultant connects with a future resident and listens to the needs of this prospect.

5. Whenever necessary, Patricia listens for a leasing consultant to suggest other Archstone communities.

6. After giving feedback to a leasing consultant, Patricia can measure their improvement on future calls.

7. When the on-site managers receive Patricia’s E-mail regarding the performance of his/her leasing consultants, they appreciate the support and coaching Patricia provides.

Recapping the on-site results: In addition to speaking with Patricia Buck as research for this article, I also spoke with Archstone assistant manager, Mariah Frizzel and leasing consultant, Misha Kahle. During our conversations this month, I asked them both to share with me the results of telephone profiling and how this coaching is improving their success. Here are their observations about the results of this program:

1. As an assistant manager, Mariah appreciates the coaching being given to her leasing consultants.

2. Mariah can see the rapid improvement of new leasing consultants, based on Patricia’s coaching.

3. Mariah has created a fun game to keep track of telephone performance by awarding best call of the week/month.

4. Telephone profiling helps Mariah’s team stay focused and continue to polish their telephone skills when working with future residents.

5. As a leasing consultant, Misha carefully follows the Archstone Telephone Prompter and appreciates the E-mail feedback/coaching from Patricia.

6. Misha continues to strengthen the way she works with each future resident and looks forward to impressing Patricia with her continued improvement.

7. If Misha receives feedback from Patricia with areas of improvement, this helps to remind her to re-visit the nine-point checklist used by Archstone.

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