Dollars & Sense

Dollars & Sense - the Profitability of a Thriving Culture

When individuals feel safe to thrive, they perform better. With credentials in both HR and mental health, Rachel Atkin shares how she rebuilt her team around mental wellness principles and the business performance benefits that came from driving cultural change.

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Sadhana Smiles:

We are going to have a little bit of a shift in gear, and we are going to focus on property management, probably a part of our business that you know everything that we've been talking about this morning requires a conversation, Rachel. Welcome, thank you for being here. You work for Harcourts, Victoria and I will let you do your elevator pitch in terms of what you do.

Rachel Atkin:

Oh, thank you, thanks, Sadhana, great to be here, and my role at Harcourts is within the Victorian corporate office. I'm the property management operations manager, and I also look after our Academy side of the business, so doing. Some of that training with our teams from induction right through to PM, sales and admin.

Sadhana Smiles:

So I'm going to pick up on some of the things that Milo spoke about this morning. The area of psychological safety, particularly the flight, freely or freeze the 3 ifs, and how prevalent, that is, in property management, because a lot of property managers between 2 parties being the owner and the tenant. I don't think many of us in the room who are leaders will hear a lot of property managers come to work and say, I really love my job.

We've had a lot of them leave the industry in more recent times, and if you're from Victoria, the legislation that has been put through makes it even harder to be a property manager and enjoy your job with the work that you do with property managers.

What are some of the things that you're helping leaders do in their businesses that help build the psychological safety in their offices for their property management teams?

Rachel Atkin:

I love that question. I think, probably for me, one of the Aha moments in my role was speaking to a business owner who said, depending on the day I stick my head around the corner into the PM. Department, I have a look at what's in there, how the mood is, and I either back the hell away or I go in if they're having a great day. So for me. That was the moment when I realized that we need to get better leadership around the psychological safety PMs are really in the firing line, and their mental health issues are real. So being there to support from a psychological safety and wellbeing perspective, it's a really huge challenge I have on my hands to re-educate some of our business leaders but there is an appetite for that, learning to understand how they can firstly put their own oxygen mask on, but then authentically show up to be there for their property management teams, not just in the good times when things are going well, but, more importantly, when things start to break down. 

Sadhana Smiles:

Belonging is a big part of that. And again, something that Milo talked about this morning and talk to me about how you've seen really great businesses do this because part of the belonging piece is, I love my sales team. I do the rah-rah with them. I ring a bell when there's a sale. You know, we go out and we have amazing functions. Blah, blah blah. And then we only do this much for property management. And there's a lot of businesses that are still stuck in that mode.

How do you, or how have you seen businesses who've brought the belonging piece together by bringing these 2 departments together really, really well?

Rachel Atkin:

I think we've touched on today about that silo mentality. And I think that sort of style of leadership and thinking is well gone in the industry. The successful businesses certainly within our network are the ones that are thriving that see the whole human. First.st Those leaders that turn up, you know, particularly with a servant style of leadership. I'm no different. That's my natural state is that I want to be a People First leader. Those people that understand, support, and help their people to have success, firstly, in their personal lives, but secondly, by default in their business life, they're the ones that are having the great business outcomes, too, and there's no surprise that there's a linkage between all of that.

Sadhana Smiles:

Trust was the other thing we talked about today.

Rachel Atkin:

Trust, yes.

Sadhana Smiles:

You can see we've kind of curated these questions from the conversations that we've had this morning. But one of the things I'm fascinated by around the trust piece is your property managers in the middle of tenants and owners and suppliers, and quite often the tenant wants a repair done. The owner doesn't want to do it. The tenant hasn't paid their rent. The owner needs to pay their mortgage and property. Managers are stuck in this world of being the meat in the sandwich, the person in the middle and it often relates back to how we treat the customers and the consumer, and I think you know that if we could build more trust in those relationships, there may be better outcomes.

What are some of the things that you've seen that've worked really well in this space?

Rachel Atkin:

I think you're right. I think if we can get off the emails where possible. Certainly there's a need for that after a conversation. But you know whether it's within the business or with our clients? It's important to have honest conversations, and if we can't come back to them with the answer, then you need to make an appointment, you know. Go and find out what you need, whether it's help for yourself or help around the problem to come back with the right information. I think that's a really good vulnerability.

Secondly, I think people who really look at themselves and step away from the problem sometimes when you're in the heat of the problem or the situation, you're not making clear decisions, you're not thinking logically. So to take that breath either pull a leader aside, or a friend or a colleague and work through it. I think if we could remove that negative thinking and headspace, we'd remove half of the problems in property management. You know, there's an issue. There's resolution. It's the journey we make between that and not often is that linear we often go from, you know, instead of A to Z. It'll be messy right through to Z. So it's really important to stay focused, and you know, talk it through. I think my style of leadership is really in collaboration with partners, our business owners, but also with their teams.

So from that very 1st day at orientation through to my in-office visits. It's really important that I check in and see how they're doing 1st as a human. How's their role going? And what's the performance level like? And where are their training gaps? Quite often they're the human gaps I find in those conversations. So we do skip meetings where often I'll encourage some of the businesses to not just have a direct report. Kind of a style meeting but once every quarter have a skip meeting, so go one level up, find out what you can learn there. And I think creating that culture of collaboration without fear of judgment, actually brings the best person into work every day. They feel like they belong.

Sadhana Smiles:

Leads me into feedback. And one of the things that you talk a lot about is that the traditional method of giving feedback is probably long gone, and we need to move to, you know, a more modern way of doing it.

Firstly, tell me, what do you see? As a traditional way of giving feedback.

Rachel Atkin:

I think gone are the days of the feedback feeling like a performance review. Excuse me, I think when you think of feedback. It's really nice to look at the human 1st and just be authentic. And I know Brene Brown. Milo spoke of her earlier. I'm sure a lot of us have listened to her talks about clearly being kind, so I think, being very clear on the purpose of the conversation.

Sometimes it can feel hurtful to the person receiving that clear feedback or that clear constructive feedback. But ultimately it's the kindest feedback. So it almost acts like a circuit breaker, particularly in performance areas. Or you know, as we've spoken, some people are just square pegs in round holes, and we need to find a way to support them.

Let them play to their strengths in that feedback and find something to retain them within the business if they're the right cultural fit.

Sadhana Smiles:

If you were running a business today, and you had 5 property managers. How would you do a feedback session? Would you do it monthly? Just give me an example of you know if you're moving away from traditional models, what would you do instead?

Rachel Atkin:

So I used to do it. And I still think there's purpose in having a weekly formalised meeting. I think the All hands or the quick check in, you know the standing meeting at the start of the day to make sure we're all on track with the same priorities. It's very quick as a leader to identify if anybody in that group is not themselves that day. So 1st thing in the morning. It's just a good sense check temperature check, and then, in terms of being a business owner, I'd always recommend having once a week a 1-on-one conversation with each of those 5 property managers, just to see how their workload is. Ask how they can seek some support if needed, but also to celebrate, stop and celebrate the wins. Not just talk about the stuff that's hard.

Sadhana Smiles:

So talking about Harcourts congratulations you've taken on the RealCare app, which is now white labeled Harcourts. I don't know how many of you knew you could do that now, but you certainly can, and Harcourts has been the 1st brand in Australia and New Zealand to do that, and you're applying it across both countries. How are you going to roll it out with your property managers in particular, and get them engaged in having access, understanding it, knowing when to use it. How are you going to do that?

Rachel Atkin:

Yeah, absolutely. And it's very exciting for Harcourts, and being a Rise influencer. I've already been testing some of those strategies down in Victoria. So it's been everything from a business meeting in the office. It might be a property management meeting where we're talking about the RealCare app, and you know, just making it part of everyday conversation. It is a wellness coach that's available in your pocket 24/7 if you don't feel like talking to somebody, you can seek any help you need, and I think it's not just for property management. It's for all parts of our business, you know?

I think, for the BDMs in particular, and the sales people to be able to look at forecasting financial stability through the app is really important that they can actually plot their commissions and see where there's going to be peaks and troughs and we know that financial stress leads to a lot of mental health issues. So I'm already talking about that. But in terms of the rollout for our white label product which is so exciting. We'll be delivering that nationally at our PMX conferences in each State. Carmen Costigan, who's here today.

My leader has committed to doing that across Australia, which is very exciting, but I think it's also talking about it every day. It has to become part of our living, breathing conversation around the RealCare app. I'm a huge supporter and believer in the product only because I've seen it work in real life as a person with an Hr. Degree, and also as a mental health 1st aid. Or I'm qualified in that space. It's a really huge passion of mine. I think if we can get people to feel the best they are. We'll get the best outcomes, not only within the business, but with our clients in terms of relationships and profitability. Yeah.

Sadhana Smiles:

Last question, you're a Rise influencer. What does rise mean to you?

Rachel Atkin:

You know. Rise for me has helped me, and I'll say this publicly for the 1st time to actually embrace the vulnerability of the mistakes I've made over the years and really – sorry – getting that level of understanding of self.

Sadhana Smiles:

Thank you, Rachel. Thank you.

Rachel Atkin:

Thank you. It's been life changing. Needless to say, yeah. So thank you.

Sadhana Smiles:

Thank you very much for sharing that.

Rachel Atkin:

Thank you.