Chapter One of “The Champion Way™”

By Champion in : Chapter One, The Champion Way™ // Apr 28 2010

Chapter 1

In one of our for sale condominium projects, we were all sold out with the exception of one five-thousand-foot building. We were looking for the user that would both enhance the traffic for the benefit of other users of the condominium office project as well as draw more people to our adjacent shopping center. Billy, who is one of the most prolific sellers of condominiums for our company, called and indicated that he had a user, a pre-school user, and wondered whether or not they would be a good use. Answer yes. But there were time-consuming municipal concerns that had to be addressed. The group itself loved their business, had energy, were passionate about their business, knowledgeable about their business and, were audacious enough to move forward and believed that they could accomplish what was needed to be accomplished to be in business eight months later.

Together we completed the contract for purchase and sale, laid out the program for getting the approvals, met with municipality and in record time obtained approval from the municipality so as to allow the purchaser to be opened as desired. How was that done? We presented the package to the municipality in a fully-complete fashion, caught staff’s attention by noticing immediately that we answered the questions they raised in the pre-application meeting, obtained their cooperation for the needs of the preschool. We created a coalition. We pride ourselves on delivering The Champion Experience™ throughout the system. This may have been our best case to date of proving to ourselves that not only can we do it, but we know how to do it and we do it well. In the middle of the process, a gift was delivered to our office by our buyer. We had done what we had set out to in The Champion Experience™.

So what is The Champion Experience™? We recognize that as a real estate developer we will never be the biggest in our industry. Our passion is to deliver the best experience in the world to everyone with whom we deal. Will we do it every time? Perfection is only on the horizon and can never be achieved. We do it better every day.

We will not be successful unless everyone of the people with whom we deal (whether they be our partners in advocacy, our partners in communication, or our partners in transactions, our team members, our tenants, our buyers, our land sellers, our communities, our brokers and our investors) are all successful – one at a time all of the time.

The Champion Experience™ expresses our commitment to a spirit of cooperation and teamwork, to a coalition, attention to detail (but not over attention to detail), and open communication, transparency and candor with all. The Champion Experience™ allows us to be a company that puts the success of its partners first and, therefore, accounts for the needs, concerns and aspirations of everyone involved in our business. This is not a statement. This is not a matter which is written but not practiced, it is a promise. It is part of the culture.

In essence The Champion Way™ is a culture. It is placing every single partner in advocacy in a position of leadership. Their role is to lead, relate and create. Their role is to learn with each person with whom we deal, what works well and what needs work and then, to do it as necessary to be sure that that which needs work is done.

The question will be asked where did this come from, how did it arise? Answer: in a journey over the last seven years since I was fortunate enough to start Champion as a business. It is ever evolving and it changes. One thing that is absolutely consistent within Champion is change. It occurs weekly. Yes we change how we develop, the kind of product, and the like, but the most important change is our learning on a never-ending basis how to improve our relationships and how to insure that we lead people through their issues, we provide confidence to them through our relationships and we provide capability to them through our creativity. (Credit The Strategic Coach.) Recently I was fortunate to read a book by Steve Farber called The Radical Edge. In that book he asks the question, who are you. I suppose I have been different people at different times throughout my career from practicing law to developer to the founder and conductor of Champion. I also know that who I am today is very different than who I would have said I was five years or ten years into my law practice. But today I believe that I am someone who (a) craves the freedom (and at this point is accomplishing that freedom) to live in a culture that delivers to each person with whom we have contact, the best experience in the world; and (b) in doing so, not only allows my capabilities to come to the fore, but almost requires that we learn the capabilities of each of our partners and then do what is necessary to insure that their capabilities are allowed to flourish.

One thing is clear, Champion will not become beaurocratic. Leadership takes place at every level. Recently, our senior staff member noted to me that I would be surprised at the amount of decision-making that is occurring in the company that I do not see on a day-to-day basis. He referred to it as leadership at a 360 degree level. That is not how I would have previously expressed the manner in which Champion was to operate, but, it is a good operating statement as we have clearly achieved the goal that everyone “owns their jobs”. We have been successful in driving the concept of ownership to everyone directly employed by Champion. Each leads in their own areas and all are accountable.

It came to mind in early 2007 that (with only one or two exceptions) everyone who has become a Champion within our organization came to us with little or no real estate experience. I have come to the conclusion that the only important principle in the hiring of staff, is that they fit into the culture – a living, growing, and evolving concept. Each of our partners in advocacy has grown in their areas of capablism and are thriving. They thrive because of a basic concept that applies throughout the company. Each has permission to do what is right and if necessary to seek forgiveness. Processes are important so that given the overriding structure, everyone does operate under a set of understandings that, while not eminently measurable, can be used as a yardstick. A process has been developed in Champion called The Team Champion Experience™. A corner stone is that each partner in advocacy and each partner in communication is to act as an owner. Acting as an owner is not just saying I want to do something, it is taking the few minutes on decisions where there are issues and determining if all of the facts are then known to that person, determining how one would proceed with those facts, then asking one further question. Is there anyone else who can be reached who knows more about the subject than does she who was making the decision? If so, that person should be talked to, learned from and then with all of the facts in mind a decision is made. Once a decision is made under those circumstances, if it did not turn out to be the best decision, so be it so long as it was truly considered the right decision with all facts possible known on the table. Permission is granted. In fact, forgiveness will be given without the permission being sought. The key is the responsibility and accountability each partner in advocacy holds to ask the key questions up front to determine what the facts are and, therefore, to allow a decision to “fall off the table”. This process occurs daily.

One might ask, “How do the partners in advocacy and partners in communication have the strength and courage to make those decisions?” It is unusual. Yes we are a small company and a close one, but this can happen in any company. The strength and the courage comes because there is a constant (not weekly or monthly or annually) but constant daily emphasis on ensuring that each of our partners acts within their unique ability* and within their strength. We ask everybody regularly whether they are doing what makes them feel strong. We quickly move to insure that each partner is spending the vast majority of their day doing those items which give them a greater strength, and therefore, the greatest appreciation, the greatest comfort and happiness. It is not a euphoria. There are days and moments which are not as happy as we would like them to be. We are running a business and it has a goal to make money.

The trick is to continue what we are doing and to enhance it. The trick is always to do our best and every week or so do something that is remarkable (credit Seth Godin). The trick is easy to accomplish if everyone accepts that we need to continue to learn, read, discuss, and yes, respectfully debate, and that we are truly “partners” in continuing its development and implementation.

About a year ago, Jay, a person upon whom I have grown to rely as a key partner in advocacy, “made the mistake” of going on a two-week vacation. He left behind a memorandum of everything that needed to be done in that two-week period and assigned those responsibilities largely to a new partner in advocacy that had only been with us about a month. The new partner took on the role of insuring that everything that was supposed to be done was done and accomplished it. I realized in those two weeks that the new partner had capabilities beyond that which we had originally expected. So I decided to increase the “pay grade” of the new partner and lift her responsibilities well beyond that which was originally expected (or at least expected within that time frame) and “fired” Jay from his existing responsibilities and offered him far greater responsibilities within the company. It worked. It had its moments of strain but it worked. At the time of writing, Jay has taken the responsibilities well beyond that which I would have expected him to take, has become a person of the company who is truly the soul of the company. If we even look like we are veering off culture he fixes it or brings it to my attention.

Culture and the continual discussion of culture is critical. Culture and the continual discussion of culture breeds success.

One last thought is this Chapter. I hear continually in the business world that” business is business”. That is not true. Business is very personal. I personally take the operation of Champion very personally. It has significant financial implications to all the partners in advocacy, all of the partners in communication and to my family and myself. More important, beyond the financial implications, is the reality that what happens in Champion reflects personally on each one of us. It is personal and must be considered personal, at all times.