Married to the Solutions

I recently heard some interesting insights from a best-selling leadership author, John Maxwell. He said sometimes we are married to the solution and not the problem, so when our solution fails, we give up. Or worse, we are so focused on solutions that we misdiagnose the problems, therefore missing the mark completely.

The daily work of property management is full of problem-solving. Unexpected maintenance issues, staffing problems, late payments, constant interruptions, the list of little fires goes on and on. Then there are days with bigger issues. Days when the accountant calls with bad news, or your owners drop in without warning and you haven’t had a chance to take care of your daily to-do’s. It’s true, property management is riddled with challenges of every caliber. But how do you solve these issues, both big and small?

A Better Way to Find Solutions

I started to think about how to apply the logic of being “married to the problem” to the world of property management. Are there problems we could be using better solutions for? Have tired procedures become outdated? Are there systems in place that are causing more work instead of building efficiency?

In any business, it’s important to keep a clear head and look at situations critically. I’m not sure what that looks like for every property, but what I do know is that in my own life, personal and professional, there always seems to be a better way of doing things.

So this begs the question, are you married to the solution? Are you so focused on running through the fix-it checklist that you forget to stop and think about how this problem might be approached differently?

It might be time to shift your loyalty; to be married to the problem. Because when the problem is your focus, its true solutions are easier to find.