At Rent & Retain Magazine, we love companies that spend time on training and professional development, but we also know that some companies just don’t have those resources quite yet. We’d like to help you with that – here are three books, one for each month in the quarter, which we think are great professional development reads for people in the property management industry. We invite you to join us in reading these books, and tell us what you think of them on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/rentandretain during our book post each month. We want to know what was useful to you, what good ideas you found, or what behaviors that month’s book inspired you to change or begin. Did you agree with the author or not? Was it a good read? We want to hear from you!

January – Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi
This book is one of the best resources available for those of you who want to become relationship artists. The mastery of relationship management that Keith talks about, along with the techniques that he freely shares, will impact your ability to not only retain more residents, but to become a more valuable employee to your company by building an enviable social network.

February – The 5 Love Languages by Gary D. Chapman
It might be billed as a book about how to have a great marriage, but what it’s really talking about is how to have AMAZING communication! Chapman’s discussion of how we all speak different languages is poignant, insightful, and will help you not only communicate with and lead the people who you work with on a day to day basis, but will also teach you how to make your residents feel more valued – in their own language.

March – The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership by Steven B. Sample
Some people fit in to that corporate suit like it was tailored just for them. For the rest of us, there’s this book – a perspective on that is counter-intuitive to a lot of current leadership thoughts in a style that undeniably works! With great tips like, “Know what hill you’re willing
to die on, and keep its location a secret,” Sample offers down to earth, easily implementable advice that anyone can use to make your career better.