As budget season looms over us and we're all making plans for how we'll stay motivated, maintain fun with our teams and just how many candy bars and stress balls will it take to survive- I want to throw a suggestion into the ring.

Instead of creating a property or portfolio budget based on "because of" situations, create your budget "in order to" achieve set goals and and growth expectations.  I know everyone read that and thought "But that's what I'm already doing - this isn't new"!  Hear me out.  

When you create something "because of", you're in a reactionary mode, restricted and constrained by the situations and impacts of the past.  It tends to be a dictated, self-limiting belief system that is a symptom of a fixed mindset.  When you're creating a budget, sure - you want lanes to work within, but do you really want it to just be reactive and representative of where you don't want to go?

Instead, create it "in order to" flow, direct forward movement, represent goals and projected gains. It changes the tone of everything from the mindset to the planning, structure, collaboration and enthusiasm.   Assign an overarching goal to the project such as improving resident satisfaction and use that guideline to illuminate ways to structure your budget's income and expenses for achievement and success.  Or set a portfolio goal for creative ancillary revenue generation that increases resident interaction and let that lead the budgetary planning, contract negotiations with vendors and renovation platform.  Anticipate.  "In order to" achieve, we will do... and away you go!

I love this concept in application to concrete activities but also in application to asset and property management styles of leadership.  As an industry, asset and property management is all about limiting liabilities while improving performance. We operate as the crossing guard- direct the flow, blow the whistle when something goes sideways and get really good at holding up our hands to "stop".  We truly ride the middle line between "because of" and "in order to".  We all know exactly what the headaches of a negative review, unplanned Capex and vacancy loss feel like and we tend to move forward keeping those painful experiences front and center in our minds... it's avoidance theory.  But, if we lead and challenge our teams and ourselves to focus on the goal ahead, instead of just staying clear of the prior pain points, we are changing a team's outlook, which has a direct impact on our mapping, our leadership potential and our stress level.  We're creating something to look forward to, not steer away from.  We're opening a door, showing the projected future ahead and asking our team to build the bridge with us.  It inherently feels more positive, more inclusive and purpose driven, which is exactly what our teams want and need to maintain their own workplace happiness and sanity.  Which increases our retention, favorable variances and provides for a stronger team.  All good stuff.

Challenge issued - not because of a need, but in order to expand our potential.