As a self storage owner or soon-to-be owner, you will need the right team assembled.
I discussed this in detail in Episode 331. We talked about the team members, the roles or spaces that we need to get covered, and the possible ways (hint: 3 different ways to assemble team members) to put the team together.
In this episode, I want to talk about it from the perspective of developing oneself as an effective Leader.
And make no mistake about it, if you are getting into the self storage business, you are a Leader. Even if you currently, or in the immediate future, don’t plan to have any employees. You are still a leader because it takes a team of people to bring the business you have in your head into reality.
Mindset of Assembling A Good Team
In my opinion, Elon Musk has a lot to offer here.
If you are not that enamored with him, that is fine. However, one can’t deny that he has defined at least two industries in many ways. In the electric car business, every car manufacturer entering the business is chasing Tesla. They have set the current standard for an electric car and have created the infrastructure that currently exists to support the industry.
And no other private space company has accomplished what Space X has. They brought the cost of space travel down with the creation of reusable rockets and almost single handily created what a relationship between NASA and private manufacturers of reusable space rockets looks like.
All created from the mind and vision of someone who knew very little or nothing about either industry.
He just had a vision.
Another example might be Steve Jobs and Steven Wozniak. Wozniak was the engineer, and Jobs knew very little if anything about how to make computers. But it was his vision that made Apple.
I especially like Musk as an example because I heard him say that in his mind, he always starts with the premise, “I am probably wrong….” Then, he assembles a team of the most knowledgeable people in their related fields to validate the idea in mind or validate that he was wrong.
Most leaders I know, often myself included, start from the premises of “I know what I am talking about, and as a Leader, you should listen to me.” I’ll call this “old-style Leadership.”
I like the idea of how Musk often starts from, “I am probably wrong, but here is my thinking at the moment. Now, I need a team to figure it out.”
Two totally different worlds.
Two totally different kinds of leaders can evolve in those worlds.
Two totally different companies emerge.
We all know the Leaders of the old style. I can’t help it, and if I lose half my audience, so be it, but think about the person in the white house from Jan. 2017 to Jan 2021. That is one style of Leader, old style if you will.
Now think of “I am probably wrong, but here is my thinking at the moment. Now, I need a team to figure it out.”
What types of teams will each create?
Which style will probably produce better results?
I think I have learned that as a self storage developer, I am only as good as the team I put together.
I have had good teams and weak teams. Good partners and weak partners. Good employees and weak employees.
Good, competent, and more knowledgeable than me is always better.
My wife will confirm, but in almost every case, it does not take much to have someone else in the room know more about virtually any given subject than me.
So, when putting your team together (as discussed in Episode 331), don’t just settle for the least expensive or easy option. Find the best you can locate for each space you need to be covered.
I have made almost every mistake one can make in the self storage business, including not having the right team assembled.
Don’t do that.
I firmly believe that the humility of realizing how limited we are in our knowledge is the true strength of a Great Leader.
As a Leader, what we bring to the table is the vision. The vision of what our self storage business can and will be. Then it is the team, informed through the vision we create, actually brings the business into manifestation.
At least today, that is the Leadership style that inspires me in team building. But remember, “I could be wrong.”
