Question: “If you could live forever, would you, and why?”
Answer: “I would not live forever, because we should not live forever; because if we were supposed to love forever, then we could live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever.”
-A 1994 Miss Universe Pageant Contestant
Photo Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Isn’t it funny that in this age of being able to communicate to someone halfway around the world that we still find it hard to communicate effectively with the people who are halfway around the office?
The multifamily industry is a people-driven business isn’t it? I mean, even if you wanted to get away from the people, you couldn’t . . . because they will find you!
In our people-driven work environments, how many times have you heard a co-worker sound like the Miss USA contestant above? How many times have you sounded like the Miss USA contestant?
The truth is, communicating is easy. Communicating effectively is not. In other words, you can say anything you want and feel like you’re “communicating” right? But are the people you’re communicating to really understanding what you are trying to say?
When the answer is “no,” my experience has shown that it is often directly tied to the fact that we are all different and we all speak different communication “languages.”
Let me give you an example:
Could you speak any louder?
Many years ago I was a supervisor at a men’s clothing store in Honolulu. Many of our clientele spoke Japanese, yet most of the staff spoke little or none at all. There was a cashier named ‘Mike’ who decided that whenever he ran into the language barrier problem that his solution would be to say the same thing (in English) over and over again . . . and to say it LOUDER!!
Of course, you and I know that if someone can’t understand English when it’s said softly, s/he probably won’t understand it when it’s said louder! As you can imagine, all Mike did was create more frustration (and sometimes anger) between he and his customers.
I once asked him why he chose not to use the little Japanese he did know to help customers understand a little better, and he responded that he felt that they should have taken the time to know the language before coming to visit. So, his choosing not to speak their language was his way of ‘protesting’ their not learning his language.
We all face these types of decisions everyday don’t we?
When I was offered the opportunity to manage a high-volume retail boutique whose clientele was 90% Japanese, I had to make the choice of how I would approach the language barrier. I would either have to learn the language so that I could understand and communicate with my customers (and some of my staff), or I could use Mike’s method and just speak really loudly all day.
I chose to learn the language and after managing that store for almost five years, I’m glad I made that choice. It made my job easier. It helped me sell more products. It gave me more credibility with the people I managed.
I also found that many of our customers learned English before arriving in the U.S. Some of them were just shy or embarrassed to use it until they heard me fumbling around with their language!
So what is the application in your communities? Learning to speak and understand each other’s spoken languages is no different than learning to speak each other’s personality, emotional and communication languages.
Ultimately, we all want the same thing don’t we?
Everyone who walks into your leasing offices, or sends you an email, or who works for you or with you, wants to be understood, loved, valued and respected regardless of the languages they speak.
Remember, in multifamily housing, while the apartments and communities are what you’re selling, in many cases it’s you that people are buying.
And when you make it easier for people to “buy into” you, you make it easier to succeed; whether in sales, leasing, resident retention or in your career.
