By Lydia Pelliccia and Matthew Green, CAE
A smart, skilled and well-rounded community association manager is critical to a community’s success. The profession is known for its daily variety as each day brings new opportunities, challenges and rewards. A key component of a managers’ job is the ability to collaborate and solve problems.
According to Opportunities Knock: Opening the Door to Careers in Community Association Management, published by Community Associations Institute (CAI), the Foundation for Community Association Research (FCAR), and Community Association Managers International Certification Board (CAMICB) having multiple responsibilities, among other factors, is significant in community association managers’ overall sense of satisfaction.
According to an FCAR manager survey, cited in the January 2022 publication noted above, “Solving problems is listed as the main contributor to job satisfaction by 84% of community managers, followed by variety in their tasks each day (73%), and helping people (72%).”
“A community manager’s job is multi-faceted and being a moderator/conflict resolution specialist is an important role,” said Kayte Comes, MBA, MNML, who is the Executive Director of the CAI-Arizona Chapter. “Any time you have to deal with someone’s most valued possession and money, people become uneasy. If a community manager wants to be successful in their job, they must learn to not shy away from conflict but embrace it as a challenge. Comes went on to explain that understanding human nature and body language goes a long way. “Being aware of your own triggers and behaviors when confronted – and how to control your emotions – helps a manager gain strong conflict resolution skills.”
Comes notes, situations that require these skills can arise when a manager is communicating with their Board – or homeowner – on a variety of topics. For example, questions about assessments, potentially fines or collections, architectural designs and the proper way to submit information, as well as neighbor to neighbor issues that have been brought to the manager’s attention.
Finetuning Emotional intelligence (EI) Skills
The CAI-Arizona chapter provides community managers the opportunity to participate in emotional intelligence courses. Joelle Hadley, the founder and president of The Culture Coaches, and the co-founder of The Southwest Institute for Emotional Intelligence, describes emotional intelligence in the following way: Balanced emotions are contagious. Emotional Intelligence is a professional and personal skill-set using the self and social awareness of emotions and understanding their impact on those around us. It’s the ability to manage the negative emotions of ourselves and others while motivating positive and effective emotions needed for performance. EI is rooted in the neuroscience of how our brain interacts with outside influences and with our neo cortex, otherwise known as the thinking brain.
Comes has been participating in these types of classes since she began supervising staff nearly 35 years ago. “This is the best way to understand your communication style and to recognize the many different styles of personalities that a community manager might interact with on a daily basis,” said Comes. “Understanding how you react in certain situations will ensure you are always prepared and professional,” Comes added. She also notes that developing these skills is not something that happens overnight and one can never get enough EI training.
Comes observed that her managers continually express how much they get out of these courses and how it helps them grow both personally and professionally. Afterall, EI skills are needed every day in the community association management industry. A manager who has strong EI skills will succeed.
Resource Corner
Making use of the wide variety of professional development resources available to managers is critical to staying on top of industry news, trends, best practices and any changes arising in the profession. Below is a sampling of industry resources.
Chapter Mediation Services – CAI chapters often offer mediation services. For example, the CAI AZ Chapter offers these services, for a fee https://www.cai-az.org/Mediation.
The Culture Coaches – Master certified and accredited trainers and coaches who deliver effective and impactful speeches, workshops, and individual coaching in the EI arena. Visit www.theculturecoaches.comto view the different options in emotional intelligence.
CAI Publications – CAI offers a number of publications covering the topic of conflict resolution, including Perfect Phrases for Conflict Resolution: Phrases for Encouraging a More Productive and Efficient Work Environment and Conflict Resolution: How ADR Helps Community Associations, which can be found here: https://cai.caionline.org/eWeb/DynamicPage.aspx?site=CAI&WebCode=storeCatList&catKey=bcfed0fd-1ce2-4ecd-8cd2-42507b8c36bd&catName=Conflict+Management. CAI also offers webinars on the topic, https://cai.mycrowdwisdom.com/diweb/catalog?q=conflict+resolution
Management Company Websites – Many management companies have blogs, case studies and other articles available to the public that cover conflict resolution strategies.
CAI Exchange – An online forum that allows members to collaborate and connect with colleagues. Topics range from emergency notification systems to budgeting for insurance in the coming year to managing board member actions, neighbor disputes and everything in between.
Emotional Intelligence Enables Community Managers To Swiftly Address And Resolve Conflicts is the fourth in a series of articles, produced by CAMICB staff, that delve into the important issues and topics affecting community association managers.
Lydia Pelliccia is a freelance writer. Matthew Green is executive director of Community Associations Managers International Certification Board.