Mentorship in the Workplace for Property Management Companies
What’s the difference between mentoring and coaching? Although both fields draw on similar underlying skills, which can be applied to staffing and career development, their aims are ultimately different.
Mentoring is typically free. It is usually the product of a bond between individuals that is rooted in kinship, friendship, or common enterprise. Given that both areas involve things such as deep listening and guidance why is one free and the other one costly?
Coaching is tailored to a specific individual, it’s based around a person’s goals and preferences. Whereas mentoring–in the context of the workplace–helps people to better thrive in a business environment and more skillfully advance their company’s goals.
Mentoring in the Workplace to create highly productive teams
Directors, VP’s and C-level executives often mentor other members of their respective teams to cultivate skills and tease out latent abilities. They are mindful that money is not the only form of compensation that leaders can bestow on those working for them. By instilling within their employees a vision or methodology, executives can set clear-cut standards and promote maximum productivity in the workplace. For those who value such a hands-on approach, it may be counterproductive to outsource work overseas because distance can, in some situations, make it harder to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
Generally speaking, if a boss doesn’t try to help their employees to develop professionally or if they aren’t investing in training programs, their employees will become less engaged because they sense their company’s apathy. Worst of all, a careless boss will establish an ego-driven work environment rife with competition. Under such circumstances, a workplace may grow less productive over time because there is no incentive for teamwork. When everyone is out to better themselves and step on others to do so, employees can feel frustrated or angry.
In my discussions with leaders at property management companies, I’ve repeatedly heard that it’s better to hire people who are humble rather than conceited. Even if the latter type of individual is, from the outset, slightly more technically proficient. In the long run, it’s usually in a company’s best interest to hire people without big egos because their aptitude for learning and collaboration is greater.
Leaders given to a new-school approach understand that the best way to motivate others is to display care and concern for them. This includes putting the time into understanding a topic before teaching it to others and looking to develop an individual’s or a team’s performance with tools and training instead of a more punitive approach. When leaders display genuine care their employees are likely to grow more, rather than less, productive over time.
Let’s talk about mentorship in the context of modern-day business:
Property management companies stand to gain by encouraging mentoring practices because it can help with employee retention. Why? Companies that promote a culture of mentorship show that they care about their workers’ career paths which, in turn, can make their employees more loyal.
The revolving door approach to hiring new employees is an expensive loss for property management companies. It decreases efficiency and increases onboarding and preparation costs to train the next employee. For those reasons, it’s demonstrably better to actively invest in employees to make them feel more comfortable and involved in the workplace.
Does your property management company have a system for mentorship in place to retain top talent? If it doesn’t you could lose some of your best people to companies that do.
WholePersonStaffing provides both staffing and coaching solutions for property management companies.
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