Building Management Hawaii April/May 2014 - (Page 50)

On Site Self-Management 101 If we're not pulled together, neither are our buildings. At BMH magazine, we know that managing property in Hawaii isn't easy. For that reason, we've dedicated this page to you. We invite you and your peers to use it as a forum to address common problems and share insights that may help you in your profession. In this issue we call on the expertise of The Waipuna residential manager Ralph Shumway, ARM, an award-winning, 20-plus year veteran of residential management. His involvement in fundamentals education and community affairs has served him well in the challenging field of property management. L et's face it; we wear a lot of hats in the management game. From facility caretaking to psychological counseling to disaster preparations, the myriad of duties, tasks and responsibilities we shoulder seems endless. The longer one plays this role, the discoveries of new areas of attention and planning continue to grow. As we manage residents or clients, high-rises or townhomes, chillers or spalls, we find that at the core of greatest efficiency and mastery is in how we manage ourselves. To accomplish the goal of captaining our ship, we must lay down a foundation of operating procedures and professional persona. Far be it for anyone to be so presumptuous to tell another manager how to do his or her job. April-May 2014 Organization: Consider planning out your tasks, deadlines and events at least a month in advance. Keeping to an up-to-date, written monthly maintenance schedule is a must. Prioritize what you need to accomplish each day and do those tasks without delay. Phone calls, requests and emergencies often interfere with what we planned to get done. Documentation: Keep a daily log of your activities and a separate log for maintenance projects. Consider keeping a "harassment" log detailing resident or client threats, histrionics or unreasonable demands. Include dates and unemotional accounts of the events and histories behind the harassment. Standardized incident reports for resident violations and standardized letters sent to correct violations minimize perceptions of prejudice or favoritism. SOPs: Standard operating procedures (SOPs) for daily activities, resident and building situations, and emergencies are the key to a smooth-running facility and community. Don't wait for a situation to happen before figuring out what to do about it. Prepare for emergencies and document those protocols. Don't wing it! You need to have written procedures in place for your building systems, security, resident situations and staff. Attitude: A wise person once said that one's life consists of 20 percent reality and 80 percent attitude. A manager's unwritten primary responsibility is to foster a sense of community and to perpetuate the perception of control and confidence. Don't just do your job; expand the boundaries of what you can do. Never quit attempting to improve your property and personal performance. If problems or situations spur on anxiety, use that negative energy to your advantage in figuring out solutions. And be wary of stagnation, for this profession can be very unforgiving for even the best of managers. Ralph Shumway 50 We all need to develop our own style and skills through experience and dedication. But in the course of your daily adventure in building management, ponder these fundamentals in self-management: BMH www.buildingmanagementhawaii.com http://www.buildingmanagementhawaii.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Building Management Hawaii April/May 2014

Editor’s Note By Stacy Pope
Hawaiiana Hits The Big Five-0
CONCRETE Restoration and Repairs: Maintaining A Strong Foundation
Concrete Spalls, Cracks And Leaks
Should You Repair Or Replace?
Restoring Exposed Aggregate Surfaces
Preserving A Historic Treasure
ELEVATOR Modernization: Are You Losing Energy?
Greening Your Elevators
Upgrading On A Budget
INSURANCE: Locking Down The Leaks
Navigating Property Insurance
COOLING TOWERS: HVAC Chemical Feed Pumps
Waikiki’s Oldest Hotel Keeps It Cool
Industry News or Movers & Shakers
On Site: Self-Management 101

Building Management Hawaii April/May 2014