Positive Attitudes

Positive Attitudes

Recently, my thoughtful and charming niece, Heather, sent me a story that she liked about “how attitudes can affect the lives of others”. She suggested that I post it or write something similar. Interestingly, I have also made that observation and I have also written about the concept in my book, Instant Experience for Real Estate Agents. In both cases I employed an analogy using lemons and cookies.

A couple of years ago, I was thinking about selling one of my apartment buildings, so I met with several potential brokers. They all told me that my building was underperforming based on similar buildings and I could get more money out of it if I improved the cash flow.

Their news perplexed me because my property had better street appeal than the competing properties. My rents were lower and I was doing more promotions than any other owners in the area. I was certain we were doing the correct things, but still I had a higher vacancy rate than any of them. That night, I thought and thought about what the problem might be.

The next day I visited the property early to figure it out. As I was investigating the possibilities the phone rang and I realized the answer was right in front of me. It was my receptionist.

The woman had worked for me for 10 years and her attitude had been steadily slipping. The building mostly catered to entry-level tenants who need a little more supervision from time to time and she resented that. Once in a while the police would get called in and that would anger her. Other times the tenant’s visitors would make noise and when she encouraged them to quiet down they would rudely yell at her. Over time, she came to perceive the tenants as a bunch of misbehaving children rather than as her customers. From then on she handled their maintenance requests as if they were interfering in her day rather than with the seriousness they deserved.

Naturally, I had noticed all of this before, but I never really figured it would play such a prominent role in the operation of the building. Once I realized what the problem was, we had a talk and determined she just did not have the temperament for the property any longer. A change was in order.

The next week we had a new manager and I called all of the staff into a meeting. At the entrance to the room I placed a large plate of gourmet cookies and another large plate of fresh plump lemons. As the maintenance people, the management team and the resident mangers walked in, nearly all of them grabbed a cookie and said things like, “Oh boy, cookies!”

To begin the meeting I asked how many enjoyed a cookie. Nearly all of them raised their hands. Then I asked how many had a lemon. No hands went up. “The point is” I said, “is that everybody prefers cookies to lemons and that include our tenants. When they come in the door does your attitude reflect the sweetness of a cookie or the sour lemon?” I went on to say, “Our tenants are not an inconvenience, they are the reason we are here. They are our customers; the reason you have a job. When they misbehave, do not get drawn into drama. Solve the problem with a good spirit and they will be more likely to respond the way you would wish.”

The message was clear: Everybody prefers dealing with people who have a Positive Attitude.

We decided to keep a tray of cookies and a plate full of lemons in the office until further notice. I told them that anybody who came into the office could have a cookie or a lemon if they wanted and that included them. I went on to explain that whenever they noticed somebody taking a cookie it was to serve as a reminder that our customers prefer cookies to lemons…just like they do. They all got the point. Several of them grabbed another cookie on their way out the door. Scott grabbed a lemon just to be different.

Within 10 weeks we went from 20 vacancies down to 6. Tenants came in and told us how happy they were to meet the new managers and we went through a lot of cookies. To this day we still have refreshments in our office for our friends, staff and customers. Oddly, I never did sell that building after all.

Positive Attitudes can be very powerful. They can affect weight loss, motivation and sales figures.

Here are a few great quotes regarding positive attitude.

Russ Dalbey will tell you how a Positive Attitude will help you make a lot of money

One of my favorite motivators is Zig Ziglar A couple of his excellent quotes regarding attitude are 1) Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street (2 If you go looking for a friend, you're going to find they're very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you'll find them everywhere. Here are a whole bunch more of Zig’s quotes.

I want to thank Heather for introducing the idea. We can all benefit by adopting a Positive Attitude.

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