Contributed by Anthony Freda, CMCA, AMS
Throughout my 30-plus years of leadership in luxury hospitality and community association management, I’ve found that some of the biggest challenges and most fulfilling results have come from employee growth initiatives. It’s not always easy getting the team on board when they may be comfortable with the status quo.
Just as an organization’s culture must foster an open and eager desire to continuously learn and improve current processes, each employee must do the same. A leader’s goal is to change such a mindset, encourage calculated risk-taking, praise effort, and celebrate success. Here are 10 ways to inspire employee growth in community management.
1. Communicate expectations. Managers and team members must communicate expectations regularly, keep communication lines open, and allow all parties to respond and request clarification as needed.
2. Manage small improvements. Each team member must collaborate to initiate, monitor, and promote incremental improvements in tasks. Sudden and unnecessarily drastic changes will disrupt the flow. Incremental change supported by clear and regular communication has a higher success rate.
3. Give feedback. Offer feedback throughout the year. Assist with setting and pursuing milestones. Make year-end reviews summaries of achievements rather than critiques.
4. Unleash the potential of employees. The outstanding qualities and talents of your team will provide the organization with innovative or practical ideas for improving services and products.
5. Celebrate innovation. Empower your employees and let them explore. You must give employees a venue to experiment and test their ideas. Nurture calculated risks, foster individual thought, and embrace determination and effort. The innovative process is not linear; it has many twists and turns. Imperfections are common and not to be feared.
6. Promote a creative work environment. Encourage your team members to have fun in the workplace. Sometimes, a work environment that is too severe and strict hinders progress. Employ brief diversions that tap into personal emotions and evoke laughter. Camaraderie can be relaxing and is known to boost productivity and inspire new ideas.
7. Create teams for change. Establish cross-functional or continuous improvement teams. Task each team member with developing ideas on how to enhance work processes.
8. Reward improvement. Successfully implementing new ideas and refining existing systems should be rewarded. As people respond differently to praise, utilize a mix of informal and formal rewards and recognition. Customize them whenever possible to best suit the receiving party.
9. Make sure every employee matters. Appreciating staff is essential in building a culture of improvement. No task is too small to be considered valuable. Make a conscious effort to check in with people and thank them for their presence and contributions.
10. Encourage diversity among employees. An organization with a diverse team may produce more effective solutions. Everyone contributes their thinking, operating, problem-solving, and decision-making skills. Draw on the group’s cumulative past experiences, listen attentively, show empathy, and accept diverse ideas and approaches.
Anthony Freda is general manager at Soleil Management in Lahaina, Hawaii.
>>A version of this article was originally published in Community Manager September/October 2025.
