Did You Fail To Ask The Question?

At Y Street Capital, we have several projects across several states. We currently have two storage projects in construction and we have more in the pipeline. If you would like to learn more about our storage fund, click HERE find out more about our storage projects. If you don't have an account on our investor portal, you can register and we promise not to spam you with tons of email. These opportunities are only open to accredited investors residing in the United States and are in compliance with SEC regulations. 

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On today’s show we are talking about staffing projects with the best people possible. Yesterday I had an experience that quite frankly was humbling. I’ll come back to that later.

In the world of traditional HR, the emphasis is overwhelmingly on skills and experience. But when you hire for a key role you are always looking for a combination of both skills and attributes. Skills are those things that can be learned over a relatively short time period. Attributes are developed over a much longer period and reflect the makeup of the individual. 

We look for a set of attributes across several dimensions including their sphere of influence, their planning horizon, their ability to handle complex multi dimensional problems, their financial acumen, their character.

The humbling part is at the end. Enjoy....

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**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:**
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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Welcome to the Real Estate Espresso podcast, your morning
shot of what's new in the world of real estate investing.
I'm your host, Victor Minash. On today's show, we're talking
about staffing projects with thebest people possible.
But first, we at Y St. Capital, my development company,
are extremely active in the development of multiple projects
across several states. We currently have two storage

(00:22):
projects in construction and more in the pipeline.
If you'd like to learn more about our storage fund, click
the link in the show notes to find more about our storage
projects. These opportunities are open to
investors residing in the UnitedStates who are accredited only,
and they're in compliance with SEC regulations.
On today's show, we're talking about staffing projects with the
best people possible, and yesterday I hadn't experienced

(00:45):
that, frankly, was rather humbling.
I'll come back to that later. In the world of traditional HR,
the elements of a good hire tendto focus on skills.
But when you read someone's resume, the emphasis is
overwhelmingly on experience andskills.
When you hire for a key role, you're always looking for a
combination of attributes and skills.
See, skills are those things that can be learned over a

(01:05):
relatively short time period. Attributes are developed over a
much longer time period. They reflect the makeup of the
individual. We look for a very specific set
of attributes across several dimensions, including for things
like, for example, their sphere of influence, their planning
horizon, their ability to handlecomplex multi dimensional
problems, their financial acumen, their character.

(01:28):
Conversely, a bad hire is usually the result of a mismatch
in personal attributes. Jeff Smart wrote in his book
called Who about this very thing.
His father was Brad Smart who was a senior HR executive in
General Electric under CEO Jack Welsh.
He says in his book, when you have a bad hire on your hands,
there might be a mismatch in culture or chemistry.

(01:50):
Perhaps the person's not coach able, some might not be
competent, which goes to the skills component, and then some
people might let their ego get in the way.
I'm sure you can all think of examples of each of those.
When we hire for a role in our company, we need people that
have a high degree of initiative.
We need people who can not only accept that work needs to be
done, but they actually assume responsibility for an entire

(02:13):
functional area within the company.
People also have a desire to go both personally and
professionally. They might have the skills to do
the job, but that doesn't necessarily mean they want to do
the job. Maybe they've done that job for
a long time and maybe they can do it with their eyes closed,
but they want to grow. When a project moves from one
phase to another, the staffing requirements often do change.

(02:36):
This is no different than in sports.
There are starting pitchers and closing pitchers in baseball.
There's no stigma associated with that.
Player substitutions happen throughout the game in many
different sports. Yet in business we often attach
a stigma to making changes in a project structure.
Nobody considers the starting pitcher a failure when the coach
goes to the bullpen and calls inthe reliever in the 7th inning.

(02:57):
Making a player substitution in business is often associated
with someone getting fired, but that doesn't have to be the
case. Most organizations have multiple
projects. If you have multiple projects,
you should be moving people from1 project to another to play to
their strengths, rather than hanging on in a roll long beyond
the optimal duration. Now here's the part that's
humbling. We have a project that's just

(03:19):
entering construction. We don't need an asset manager
on board just yet, and maybe won't need them for a little
while. Asset management's far more
involved than just property management.
It requires a longer planning horizon.
There's many more disciplines involved.
The complexity of decision making is far greater because
you're planning through the entire life cycle of an asset.

(03:39):
And one of my partners suggesteda name who I've known for 15
years. It's someone who is immersed in
managing assets for his family on the same St. as our project.
He's someone who clearly knows how to do the job.
He truly gets it. I naturally assumed that since
he was managing other commercialassets for his family's
business, that he would not be interested in bringing another

(04:01):
large mixed-use commercial assetinto their management.
I never even thought to ask. He was there, hidden in plain
sight. He's someone who is not
desperate to do business with you.
His demeanor is one of a trustedadvisor and a friend.
As soon as the name was suggested, the answer was an
immediate yes. Now, we're not about to make any
public announcements yet, so I can't name any names, but the

(04:23):
point of today's story is to share the revelation that
resulted from the suggestion. I realized that I had made an
assumption about whether someonewould want to work with us on a
project rather than simply asking the question.
How often do we not have a conversation?
Do we fail to ask a question? Do we think we know the answer?

(04:43):
How often do we remain closed instead of curious?
How often do we make assumptionsthat remain untested?
As you think about that, have anawesome rest of your day.
Go make some great things happenand we'll talk to you again
tomorrow.