I have a team that does 86% of things right all the time. How do you avoid micromanaging to get them to 99%?

Managing employees is so exhausting!! I have a team that does 86% of things right all the time. My perfectionist personality doesn’t understand why they can’t be 99% perfect! For instance, I have a great leasing girl. She gets TONS of leases and wants to become promoted. Residents LOVE HER. She gives fantastic service. However, her skills with file completion and paperwork are lacking. I also catch her texting a lot. The other day was her day off. One of her soon-to-come move ins called and they had zero information. Come to find out they had applied months ago. It was a mess. This is very, very unusual. More than often, this leasing agent’s work is good. However they know they’re good at selling. I believe they feel that, because they’re so good at leasing and soooooo well liked by residents, they can slide by otherwise. I am NOT a manager who likes to write people up. I am pretty close with my people and I feel write ups are very off-putting and offensive to staff members (over small matters). I want to see this person promoted, as I know they can be. However, their time management and care for paperwork and such tasks must improve. I have made comments in the past in passing about how they need to improve and how they really should not be on their phone as much during the day. This person agrees in the moment and says they’ll do better and give their all……but that is just lip-service in the moment. How do you handle things like this??? How do you conduct yourself as a strong manager while still being likeable and friendly with your team?? I absolutely hate micromanaging and don’t have the time for it. I don’t want to be that person.

It’s not just you, we are having whole teams go this way. Doesn’t matter if we incentivize, give tons of resources, give extra hands to help, ask, demand, or plead. People don’t care anymore in general. It’s a society saturated by apathy now.

I’d have one last conversation before write ups. Something along the lines of:
First, I want to express how much I appreciate your enthusiasm and the positive relationships you’ve built with our residents. Your ability to secure leases and the rapport you have with residents is truly commendable. You’ve shown incredible potential, and I can see you moving up in the company.
However, I need to address some areas where improvement is crucial. We’ve had discussions before about the importance of completing paperwork and managing your time more effectively. I know these tasks aren’t as exciting as interacting with residents, but they are essential to ensure our operations run smoothly and our residents have a seamless experience.
Moving forward, I need to see consistent improvements in these areas. Specifically, I expect you to complete all paperwork related to leases and move-ins without relying on others to finish it for you. To emphasize this, if paperwork is left incomplete, I’ll need to split your commission with whoever completes the work.
I will also be auditing your files to ensure everything is in order, as it’s crucial for us to maintain thorough and accurate records. My job, as well as yours, is on the line if our regional manager needs the files for legal purposes, and they must be complete in order to protect us from any potential negative legal ramifications.
Additionally, please limit your phone use to your breaks and lunch. It’s important that we stay focused during work hours to maintain our high standards.
I’m confident in your abilities and believe you can excel in all aspects of your role. Let’s work together to get you to where you want to be in your career. If you have any concerns or need support to meet these expectations, I’m here to help.
Something along the line of that. It emphasizes your appreciation for her and her potential for growth while setting clear expectations and consequences. It also maintains a supportive and professional tone that going for as a likeable manager.
Hope that helps! And if this conversation doesn’t sort her out, as much as you like her, be sure to follow through and write her up. You’ll need a paper trail if things get worse and you eventually need to fire her.

Do a review with her. Present it as an opportunity to get her to where she wants to be in her career and how you can help her get there. When the opportunity for a promotion comes, you want to be able to move her up without hesitation, but she’s not there quite yet based on this move in experience. Essentially, with a promotion, she’s the best of the best and would be training the new person coming in.
“Let’s get you there! What do you need from me?”

The paperwork part is the easiest if your leases are paid via commission. The leasing agent submit a move in commission sheet every first of the month with last months move ins that lists all documents/paperwork that needs to be complete and uploaded to the residents file as a column for them to initial. You as the manager checks paperwork and if it’s missing give them x days to fix, if they fix it but after the x days then deduct $25 from the commission after that date or forfeit commission completely if they don’t fix it by the second deadline.

Team members should learn how to give and receive feedback within a “safe space”. Use this as an opportunity to sit and have open communication. Performance issues shouldn’t be “comments in passing”. You need to clearly set the expectation and have them help create a performance improvement SMART goal.

"... my perfectionist personality doesn't understand why they can't be 99% perfect" tells me you lack empathy and leadership capability to manage different personality types. If my team is doing 86% right, then I only have to manage the struggling 14% making my position relatively easy.
You also suggest that you've "made comments in passing". To me, it doesn't sound like you've micromanaged which you worry about, it sounds like you haven't set clear expectations and managed those expectations.
Work on coaching and perhaps format it as a review. Indicate a few areas of improvement (don't overwhelm, just pick maybe 3 specifics). Give a time frame (e.g., 90 days) at which time you two will sit down together to evaluate her progress. Be clear about what she's doing well, where she isn't executing, and what needs to change. Offer suggestions on "how" she can improve. Not everyone does well with the high overview, some need the logistics explained. If you don't know how she receives and processes information, ask her.
Then, be sure to check in periodically to applaud her improvements and continue coaching on her areas of struggle. Genuine compliments provide dopamine hits that encourage people to keep striving for better, and checking in helps keep you both accountable - she'll be improving herself in operations abs and you'll be improving yourself in leadership.
If you don't know how to coach your subordinates or it's uncomfortable, role play with your regional or even HR. If you don't have those, find an objective third party you trust who can help coach you.
P.S.,
It's great that you want to promote her, but do your longterm goals for her match her longterm goals? I've found not everyone wants to be promoted and will fizzle out when pushed on a path they don't want. Again, ask her.
It doesn't sound like you're anywhere near a write-up yet, it sounds like you're in the coaching phase. This can still be documented with a coaching form so that you still maintain a paper trail.
Put aside your mindset of placing blame on your team and instead improve yourself as a leader so that you can manage your team and its success.

They don’t have to be EXACTLY like you but Renting apartments and the residents liking them is not enough to be promoted .
If they plan to be a manager one day renting is not their only task and they will not do well as a manager , managing someone else .
If paperwork , follow up and reports are apart of their job and just simply providing move ins info then you need to require it . Great
Leasing or not they need to do their full job . It’s not fair to you to do two jobs because your leaser thinks once they get a lease their job is done .
Would they feel that way if you did the lease and didn’t do anything else to help them get their bonuses and such . I would explain it like that . What you’re asking is a requirement it’s not an option and I would hold them accountable and do a write up if it’s now followed through .
I would explain their are standards and if you don’t do such paperwork they don’t get bonuses so if you can’t slack they can’t slack

ocus on PROCESS and quality and it will improve.
Reality is different people have different strengths and it is almost never about carelessness or laziness. They care and are energized to do X, and avoid Y. It is almost always about confidence and prioritization within a process.
One other factor native to personality is Task oriented (paperwork) vs Relationship (selling persuading).
All that said as reference people are not complete packages.
You have to coach encourage persuade them to balance their comfortable Tasks and their uncomfortable Tasks to COMPLETE the process.

I'm going through the exact same thing. I'm on a lease up to boot, so it's been a mess to say the least.

Sounds like that person needs to move over to the vendor side and be a sales rep. The best sales people I know are generally terrible at paperwork/data entry but nobody cares because they can sell!

I have always been told to pick and choose my battles. People are not perfect and never will be. Just teach them and be thankful!

It sounds like she has some fantastic skills and things she does well. Just a suggestion, but maybe try positive reinforcement and compliment her when she completes the challenging part of her job correctly. Usually great sales people thrive on positive reinforcement and you will likely see an improvement all the way around. Great team members need us to see their potential way ahead of what they see. ?

I hate to be the one to say this but…
So, in other words, you’re doing 86% of your job by not holding them accountable and not doing what you should be doing as their manager??? You aren’t supposed to be their friend, you’re their boss, what are you supposed to be doing as their boss???
No manager/ owner likes or wants to write up their employee but if having a casual conversation about things that are IMPORTANT doesn’t result in a change then it is your responsibility to do more… whether that is a formal conversation or a write up or whatever, the point is you can’t always be their friend, at some point you have to be their boss!

Seems like shes a real assett except paperwork, that everybody hates. Simplest is to take her to general district court and have listen to cases where judge asks for paperwork
Weve lost cases for incomplete papework

I’ve learned to show grace bc expecting someone to be like us is just not realistic. I’ve pretty much given up on anyone to be like myself or my maintenance supervisor… it is hard for them to understand how we view things bc they’re not responsible for literally everything but - if paperwork is not done properly, we’re not supposed to pay the bonus so you could use that for that issue.

Tag team: one person leases, another does the paperwork prep. Split the commission.