Contributed by Matthew Green, CAE, and Lydia Pelliccia
A smart, skilled, and well-rounded community association manager is critical to a community’s success. The profession is known for its variety, as each day brings new opportunities, challenges, and rewards. A key component of a manager’s job is the ability to collaborate and solve problems.
According to Opportunities Knock: Opening the Door to Careers in Community Association Management, published by CAI, the Foundation for Community Association Research, and Community Association Managers International Certification Board, having multiple responsibilities, among other factors, is significant in community association managers’ overall sense of satisfaction.
According to the Foundation’s manager survey, “Solving problems is listed as the main contributor to job satisfaction by 84% of community managers, followed by variety in their daily tasks (73%), and helping people (72%).”
“A community manager’s job is multifaceted and being a moderator or conflict resolution specialist is an important role,” says Kayte Comes, 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. Being aware of your own triggers and behaviors when confronted — and (learning) how to control your emotions — helps a manager gain strong conflict resolution skills.”
CAI Arizona provides community managers with 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 skillset 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.”
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,” says Comes.
She observes that her managers continually express how much they get out of these courses and how it helps them grow both personally and professionally. After all, emotional intelligence skills are needed every day in the community association management industry. A manager who has strong emotional intelligence skills will succeed.
Lydia Pelliccia is a freelance writer. Matthew Green is executive director of Community Association Managers International Certification Board.
