Operational Leverage: What Lara Hamilton Learned About Building Teams That Own the Work

1. Opening Scaling Tension

The work that leaves a leader’s plate first is the work that was easiest to finish. A help desk call, a password reset, an email that needs a reply: each resolves quickly, and each can be handed to someone else. What remains does not resolve by the end of the day. A server due for replacement needs quotes and approval from a board or committee. A team member is out sick and someone has to step in. Leadership bandwidth does not open up when execution moves to the team. It gets spent on harder problems.

Lara Hamilton has spent sixteen years in property management IT, moving from answering help desk calls to managing the department. Her view is that the handoff only holds when the people receiving the work own the outcome, not just the instructions.

2. The Hidden Constraint

The constraint is not a reluctance to delegate. It is what happens to a leader’s role afterward. When Hamilton became a manager, the first things she stopped doing were answering the phones and responding to emails at the help desk. It was difficult. She had built relationships with the people in the field, and they kept calling and asking for her. Stepping away meant changing nearly everything she did, and teaching others what she knew so they could succeed.

That change moved her problems rather than removing them. Issues she could leave at the door at the end of the day were replaced by ones that stay open: approvals, replacements, coverage. She describes the job as calm on the surface and paddling hard underneath. Host Adrienne Green names the consequence for founders. Many hesitate to add support because it trades a solved problem for new, bigger ones, such as growth, sales, and the work only they can do.

3. The Operating Shift

Hamilton’s operating principle is ownership over instruction-following. In her department, work falls into two groups. Some of it is standard: a printer that will not print, an email account that needs a password reset. The rest is not, because a software update can change what happens to a computer and what the fix looks like. A team member who can troubleshoot and find answers covers both groups. A team member who works only from written steps covers the first.

She has a term for the second pattern. When someone answers an unscripted problem with “this wasn’t written down” or “this isn’t how I do it every day,” she calls it malicious compliance. The person will do exactly steps A through D and stop there. In an environment where tickets arrive daily and issues need to be resolved the day they happen, she calls that unproductive, says it shows up quickly, and says her team does not keep those people.

The shift is from documenting every scenario to selecting for people who can work past the documentation. Basic instructions still exist. The rest takes judgment.

4. Execution in Practice

Three insights from the conversation turn the principle into decision-making frameworks and execution systems.

Separate asking questions from owning the answer. Hamilton is not against questions. She wants work measured twice and cut once before anything changes in the software her clients depend on. Her objection is to the same question asked repeatedly by someone who has not taken ownership of what they learned. The format she wants is a problem, a set of possible solutions, and a request to pick the best one. Green describes the same standard as bringing two to three options rather than asking what to do. Ownership shows up as a problem that arrives with options attached, which cuts the number of decisions routed back to the leader.

Treat software friction as a systems problem, and keep the human conversation human. “Software should not create friction,” Hamilton says. When a team keeps working around a tool, she starts by looking for the pain points, which sometimes come down to a few check boxes. Her example is people who pull two reports and spend time merging them in Excel when one report could be built to their specification and emailed to them automatically. The same logic applies to posting late fees, monthly posting, and sending letters. The boundary she holds is the phone line. Her company puts a live person on the call, because communication is the most important thing it does and nobody likes an automated menu. Automation removes the busywork so people can do the human part well.

Prepare for what the plan does not cover. Before property management, Hamilton worked in banking, where a business continuity plan can run three hundred pages and cover every scenario. When Hurricane Katrina reached New Orleans, she says, the banks’ contingency plans went to the wayside, and tellers’ husbands carried cash from one bank to another to keep the supply moving. Her conclusion is that preparation is what prepares you for what you did not expect. Today her team structures client systems in the cloud or with co-location and internet backup, so the goal is redundancy rather than failure. When a hurricane hit North Carolina, her team in Memphis stayed up and supported those properties remotely. That is risk management that assumes the plan has gaps.

5. Leverage Outcome

Operational leverage here means expanded capacity, not longer hours. When ownership sits with the team, a leader’s time moves to a different class of work. Hamilton’s path shows both sides. First-line work is handled by people she trained, and her attention goes to approvals, quotes, and covering gaps when someone is out. The work is more stressful, and she says it developed gradually over several years, which gave her time to grow into it. She also hires people who are smarter than she is, so they bring ideas she does not have.

Ownership is easier to hire for when the work has a purpose. Hamilton tells her hardware team that fixing a printer means a lease can be printed and signed, and someone can move into an apartment. She also sees that some decisions cannot be fully explained and require trust, and that leading means giving up an easy friendship with the people who report to you.

Connect With the Guest

To learn more about Lara Hamilton and her work:
Website: helpdeskrealty.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larahamilton-multifamilyit
Email:

The Immediate Move

Leadership bandwidth is the real constraint on a scaling business, and handing off execution only protects it when the people receiving the work own the outcome. Structure matters more than effort here. Hire for troubleshooting, expect problems to arrive with options attached, remove friction from your team’s tools, and prepare for the problems the plan does not name.

Start with one decision. Pick recurring work you still touch that someone else could own, and define what ownership looks like: the problem, the options, the recommendation. Each handoff done this way reduces cognitive load and returns time to the work only you can do.

Watch this before you hire your next support role.

Book a discovery call to see how the right executive support helps you scale with clarity, alignment, and control without burnout or chaos. Click here to subscribe.

Full Podcast Transcript

Laura, thank you so much for joining me today.

It’s so great to be here. Thank you.

I’m excited for you to share your wisdom with our listeners. And to kick it off, I’d like to hear what first drew you into property management IT? it’s a very specific industry. And what did the early years in the t industry teach you?

Well, the first thing that drew me into it was hunger. I needed a job and I was not experienced in property management or IT. I had some IT experience, it was more operational and so the opportunity came for me to work at a company that supported property management companies and I took it. I didn’t have a lot of support in that company, but I am just stubborn enough that I took policies for all of our clients.

retyped them, rescreenshot all their procedures and did then then saved it all, did it again until I learned all the pro policies and procedures for for the company.

Wow. And so I I think there’s a few big takeaways for our listeners already there. And the first is that life gets to lifing, right? And we sometimes end up places not because of some huge plan, but because that that’s where the opportunity presented itself. And yet in any industry, even if it’s not one we have experience with, there is a way for us to master that industry.

Definitely. And it was it was a tough first five years I’d say, learning everything and then also, navigating the environment that I was in at the time.

I the first thing that strikes me about that answer is it was a tough first five years. Not like five months or anything like that. And I think

Mm.

so often in our I mean, in w to give listeners an idea, like what time frame, what years were this when you were s th those first five years, what when was that?

Well, I’ve been doing this for sixteen years now. And so it was you know, twenty ten to twenty fifteen maybe. And it was it was tough. It wasn’t tough because of the job, and I think that’s what kept me there. The job itself was fulfilling. I really enjoyed working with the properties on site, talking to them, helping them through issues. Everything I did was very positive. It was the atmosphere I was surrounded by that was not

And I had to trade off a little bit for that. And a lot of people might have walked away. But I didn’t because I just felt like I was in the right place to help people.

Mm-hmm. Right. And we can we can that’s just a lot. There’s a lot that we can see right away with your resilience there that you were willing to put up with something for a tough five years and why, you know, that you were service driven, that you realized you could help people within that. And I think that’s a very altruistic mindset versus other people may have had the mindset of I’m not going to deal with this and I’m gonna put myself first and things like that.

Yeah, I’ve always said, do the right thing. And that that’s why what I’ve always told my children, do the right thing. If things aren’t going your way, it’s okay. If somebody’s criticizing you or whatever it is, do what’s the right thing to do and then everything else will fall into place. Whether you’re you’re moving into a different location, whether you change jobs, whatever it is, things will happen the way they’re supposed to happen, not always the way you want them to.

Right. Yes. And that can be so natural maybe for you, Laura, for some other people, and and yet I run into a lot of people where that’s not their mindset and that would be a very new idea. So I’m glad you’re here, Laura, and that maybe some of our listeners who have a haven’t experienced or thought about that worldview can maybe start to think about what that would look like for them. So now moving on, Laura,

Mm.

in the in in this space.

Was there a moment when there was a systems failure that made you realize the way you were handling things wasn’t gonna hold up?

glad you asked this because no is the answer but that’s the short answer. we actually really structure our clients databases and things to where they’re either in the cloud or they have what we call a co-location or a redundancy, whether it’s an internet backup or it’s something that’s got the s the data in it of backups of their data to where they really don’t have failure they have redundancy.

And I think that’s like a I I love that. And I think that that comes with that IT or let’s say computer engineering mindset of we want to have redundancies and eliminate any single point of failure.

Yeah, so I came from a banking background before I was in property management IT. And in a banking background, you’re very it’s very regulated. It’s very you have to do things within this certain box. You have to have a ba a b business continuity plan that’s three hundred pages and you have to plan for every scenario. a good example is, Hurricane Katrina came through New Orleans and we had contingency plans but

all the banks in New Orleans, those contingency plans went to the wayside and they had husbands of of tellers carrying cash from one bank to another to keep their cash supply going. And so sometimes you can make the best plans and it’s the preparation that prepares you for what not to expect. You know, the what the things that happen that you didn’t plan for.

Right. that’s that’s very true. So we do sh I love the idea of like we’re we want to have redundancy, we want to have backup plans, we want to make things safe, and yet we know that there can be these once in a generation events happen that can throw things for a loop, let’s say.

Right, exactly. So the hurricane that came through New Orle North Carolina not too long ago, those properties might have been down. But here I I am in Memphis, Tennessee, and everything was up for us. So we were able to help them, even though they’re not here, we can do things remotely for them to get them s keep that cup that pr that movement going, keep the consistency of what’s happening. And they deal with the situations that they’ve got physically at the properties.

Well, and I love that point you made because of course I love when we can talk about the power or the benefits of being remote or being virtual, right? Because that’s that’s what we do with workogenics. That’s how I live my life, you know, traveling full time. And you bring up a really good point. When we don’t have all of our support systems in one physical location, we ha when that area might be struggling with, you know, a natural disaster or something like that, we’ve got people located elsewhere who are able to help.

It’s a really good point.

Yeah, and I even had someone locally here in Memphis that was a manager at a property. It was in a not a great area of town. Memphis has already got a reputation for not being great. So it it you

Mm-hmm.

know, she had a shooting going on in her parking lot and we were on the phone trying to resolve a software issue. And she said, Laura, is it okay if I call you back? I’ve got a shooting going on in my parking lot. And I’m like, you know what? I’ll deal with the software issue. You deal with a shooting.

There’s so many other things going on in their lives every day that those are just one little little things that we can help and and not have them have that pressure of that as well.

Yes, I love when we can outsource something to someone else who can do it as as well or better than I could do it myself as the property owner or the investor or whatever the case may be.

Right, exactly.

Now, speaking of that, actually that leads us into the next question I had. What was one of the first things you stopped doing yourself as you’ve, you know, grown in this position, as you have a team of people you’re working with? And how did that feel to maybe stop doing something yourself?

So the first I think the first things that I stopped doing myself when I became a manager in the department was answering the phones at the help desk and answering the emails and responding back. And it was very difficult because I’ve developed relationships with all the people out in the field. they had a tendency to call and ask for me. And so it was a change in everything that I did, allowing my other the people around me to succeed.

And teaching them the things that I knew and and stepping away from the do it all the time and and letting other people succeed as well.

Mm-hmm. I I think that’s a really good point. It can be tough because we’re used to serving in a certain way. and yet it’s giving other people the opportunity to serve and help and freeing us up to help in a new way, right?

That’s right.

now within your role, can you talk about maybe a system that you built that cuts errors and gives your team more ownership at the same time?

Well, as we support real page and YARTI software. changing from other softwares into one of those has given more automation to clients, giving them more free time to do the things that they are paid to do. AI is another thing that’s just up and coming, and it’s one of those things that the software companies are doing right right now. the ones that we work with. I’m really excited about.

what they’ve developed and things. And then we also use AI a lot in our industry, in our own company that we’ve developed things that will assist the clients. We can automate reports, things that they were having to do manually, and those things just really free up time and eliminate busy work.

Mm. That’s one of my favorite things. Eliminate busy work. When we can use a team or tech to eliminate busy work and keep people in their top twenty percent, we’re just gonna make the world a better place, right? ‘Cause then people can do what they do best and and be more impactful.

for sure. And here’s my thing. Software should not c create friction. So if your software is creating friction, then someone needs to evaluate it and see what where are those pain points? What can be done to streamline the processes? Because it could just be a few check boxes in the software that can help you. if you have a lot of manual processes, what can we do to make those manual processes automated for you so you’re not having to spend all that busy time doing those things?

Hmm. I think that is real two really good points that, you know, business owners and team members need to hear. Cause I know for myself, like to your first point, sometimes I’m just like, it doesn’t work perfectly, but I know that I can do this tweak and this tweak and erase this part, and then it gives me what I need. Where if I just once took the time to actually look at the underlying settings or maybe like message, you know, the div the the support or you know my rep or something like that.

There’s a chance that it could be the correct way the first time and I don’t have to do those tweaks every time.

That’s right. I I tell you a perfect example is I’ve seen people that wanted reports a certain way and it’s not the way that comes out of the software. And instead of saying, hey, can you help me create this report? They create, they pull two different reports and then they spend a lot of time merging those together in Excel where we could maybe help them out. Let’s get one report created the way you want it to be. So you’ve j all you’ve got to do is have that emailed to you automatically and you don’t even have to worry about going and doing that.

Yes,

exactly. I love that. And I know for myself and maybe for others, I feel like I’ve been trained by let’s say lackluster experiences with support in the past from websites or, you know, different tools or things. And I’m like, they’re never gonna help, right? They’re just gonna like open a ticket, nothing’s ever gonna come. And the truth is that and I’ve had to learn this, that there are that support can actually help, right? That it can make a difference instead of just wasting time.

so I think it’s gotten better. I think maybe I’m better at ans at t saying what I need. but it’s great to hear, Laura, that you can help your clients in that manner like we discussed.

Yeah, I think part of it is technology changes every day and we’re we’re constantly moving with it. But there’s some things that we like to keep in our company old school. phones. We want you to we want to pick up a phone and talk to a person. Nobody likes getting an automated system and then

Right.

press one, press two and all the things. So we like to keep it real and you get a person, a person helps you when you need it and that’s

then your issue’s resolved. And if it’s not, if it’s something that has to go deeper, where we stand. This is what’s happening. This is what has to be done. We’re gonna get this taken care of for you. So it’s it’s communication is the most important thing that we do.

Mm-hmm. And while you’re using technology, while you’re using AI, it sounds like you’re keeping that communication human to human instead of

That’s correct.

and you’re using the tech and the AI so that the humans can do a better job.

That’s right. It’s all about the people because this is a people industry. the people out in the field, they’re talking to people with real issues every day. I tell my guys that are in the hardware department, when you’re fixing a printer, you’re not just fixing a printer in IT. We do IT with a purpose. You’re fixing a printer so a lease can be printed so someone can sign it and live in a in a apartment that may make the difference in whether they’re homeless or not. And that’s a real situation out in the world today.

And w and and always, it always has been a situation. And so we wanna be part of the solution for that. We don’t wanna be a roadblock that stops that from happening.

Right. And for every experience, you know, whether somebody, like you said, is getting that apartment to move out of a homeless situation or an you know, a an unsafe situation, or it’s let’s say somebody moving into their college apartment, right? It might be a little less drastic. Regardless, everybody is is in a better place when they have a positive experience with the companies and the services that they’re having to work for. I mean, maybe I feel like this is just me right now, but you know, we just had a hotel stay.

not too long ago where I feel like hotels don’t have very much it’s like you clean the room every day and you like maybe there’s other amenities right but the basics is like clean the room every day and the hotel wasn’t doing that like we’d have to call at the end of the and be like hey our room never got cleaned and then even when they came it wasn’t done properly and it’s just a negative experience when companies don’t do their job well. And so it really just makes everybody happier, everybody able to be their best.

when

the companies that they’re interacting with are doing a job with a purpose like that. I love that, Laura.

Yeah, we’re not gonna we’re not free of mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, but it’s how do you learn from those mistakes? Are you doing the little things right? Make sure that you’re keeping up with the little things. Like you said, cleaning the room for a hotel room, that’s a little thing that needs to be done. Now, if, you know, something major happens, then you you can ask for forgiveness and you might get it. But if you’re not keeping up with the little things, it’s those little irritants that really on a day to day basis,

Wear it out.

Really hurt you. Mm-hmm.

Now we’ve kind of switched from talking about, you know, some of the systems in the tech to the people. And along the lines of, you know, as build out and manage a team, right? Because like I told you, you know, a lot of our listeners here on this podcast, they are business owners, entrepreneurs, and managing people is tough, right? So when you have people on your team and you are eyeing them for

Promotion, right? Fulfilling higher level roles, for taking on more responsibility. What signals tell you that someone on your team will take ownership and really, we just talked about, have that sense of purpose and not just follow instructions or check the box?

those things show up really quickly in my industry because we do a lot of things that are the same for e every company. w especially when you’re talking about fixing a computer or a hardware issue. Those hardware issues are pretty standard across the board, right? A printer doesn’t work, you try these things. I can’t get into my email, I need my password reset. These are basic things that, every it but

Also, there’s also this level of things change every day. And so an update for Microsoft happens, what happens to the computer. Now you can’t get into things, you can’t do this, you can’t do that. So it’s not just about knowing how to fix everything, but it’s also knowing how to troubleshoot things, how to find the answers. And if I have someone that’s able to do that, I see it pretty quickly. and the other the other way, you know, just following instructions or asking

Well, this wasn’t written down. This isn’t how I do it every day. Well, that’s more of I consider malicious compliance. They’re gonna do exactly A B C D and this is what they’re gonna do

Right.

and they’re not gonna think outside the box. And that’s not really what we do in our department, in in our industry, at our company, because it’s unproductive. And so those those show up pretty fast and we don’t we don’t keep those people.

Right. So you focus on keeping let’s say A players and if somebody’s a B player who’s just gonna check the box, they’re gonna have a short tenure with you, it sounds like.

That’s

that’s correct. Because I we don’t have time. We have so many tickets. We have so many things that we’re doing every day. And it’s not just about volume of tickets coming in, it’s resolving the issues the day they happen. And so we don’t have time to, just let me write down every instruction on every possible scenario you might see and give it to you in on a piece of paper because those change

Right.

those change as

Printers change as software updates, all

Mm-hmm.

these things. Yeah, you can have basic instructions, but some things you’re gonna have to think through.

Right. And I think for all listeners, whether they’re in IT or not, this concept of everything is figure outable, right? And that’s what you’re looking for in hires. And honestly, I love that you this is what your answer was because that’s one of the things that I really have is focus on at workogenics. It’s not like and sometimes we have to teach, you know, clients that when they come in. It’s not if somebody has used, you know, follow-up boss or go high level or this exact CRM. It’s

If we’re gonna bring an executive assistant onto your team, I want them to have the concept of everything is figure outable, of knowing that they can use YouTube and AI and the tools at hand to solve any problem that you throw at them rather than just if they know how to use one piece of text.

Right. Well, for us, it’s very complicated because our software team, we have multiple softwares that we support and multiple companies with different policies and procedures. So we do have to ask questions sometimes. I’m not against asking questions and make sh making sure that you’ve measured twice and cut once before you change something in a software. That’s very important. But if you’re asking the same questions over and over and you’re not taking ownership of what you’ve learned.

That’s where I have a problem. if you have something, this is what I ha this is the problem I have. Here’s some possible solutions. Tell me what’s the best solution out of these. But if you’re not even trying, then that’s a completely different situation.

Right. That’s another thing we focus on. So I love you mentioned that is bring bring up, two to three possible solutions. Don’t just ask, What do you want to do? You know, so I love that. Now

Right, exactly. Yeah, I mean I

saw I saw one come through today that was an issue they were having an issue getting into the software, a piece of the software. And the tech that was working with them said, This is what I’ve done. I’ve done this, this, this, this and this. And so he was able to lay out I’ve already troubleshot it to where I’ve done everything I know to do, you know, and at that point it could be an issue with the software itself.

All right, yeah, I love that. Now, as you found these A players, you’ve added them to your team, right? And these people are owning more of the work that you used to do, right? We talked about how you stepped away from answering phones and things like that. What’s changed in your week to week as you’ve had this team and leverage them and and changed your own responsibilities?

Well, it changed to more stressful things in a way, you know, ’cause when you’re helping people on the phone, you’re doing troubleshooting issues that you can answer and you can resolve pretty quickly, those problems you can leave at the door and go home and, you know, relax and all these things. But if you’ve got major issues, you know, a server’s about to go down and we need to replace it and we need to get quotes out for that. And do we get approval and is it too much, is it too little and all the things and they’ve gotta take it through a board.

or a committee to have it approved. And there’s a lot of other av avenues of this that are out there that people don’t think about that have to do not just with IT but with management, with leadership. you know,

Mm-hmm. Right.

someone’s sick, someone call calls in, someone’s on vacation, and then you have to step in and help. And there’s so many other things that are going on behind the scenes that we’re like ducks. We’re

We’re calm on the surface, but we’re paddling very hard.

Right.

Underneath the water.

Yep. Yep.

well, and I love your really honest answer to that, Laura, that you have more stressful problems. And I think honestly, I see that when people come to us at Workogenics, is sometimes people they’re hesitant to get an executive assistant to start growing out their team because that means they’re gonna have new bigger problems. They don’t get to just handle the problem of

coordinating a calendar or replying to an email that now the executive assistant’s handling. Now they’re gonna have to deal with growth, right? They’re gonna have to deal with solving these new problems that they haven’t done before. They have to deal with maybe putting themselves out there and doing more more sales, more marketing, more of these things. And it’s going to require them to evolve as as a business person. And that can be scary and sometimes people just want to stay in the box that they’re at. So

What prompted you in that situation to continue to grow and step into new positions, even though it is more stressful?

Well, I think it’s b it’s evolved over time. I learned so much and I was able to help people, my peers, and then I was moved into a management position and then I was able to help, multiple departments and then it it became what it is today over time. It didn’t just happen to me.

Uh-huh.

and it was a gr a slow growth over you know, over several years. But I think that what kept me going was again, my tenacity and stubbornness did not hurt, but also

Again, I’m gonna go back to what I’ve told my children. Sometimes you’re gonna have opportunities come up, but they’re gonna be scary. That doesn’t mean you don’t do them. You just do them scared. And eventually, over time, you won’t be scared anymore. And that’s really what you have to do. sometimes these things are not gonna feel comfortable. I’m not always gonna be the smartest person in the room. Sometimes I am, but a lot of times I’m not. And I try to hire people that are smarter than me so that they can do things and have ideas.

And that’s scary too, But you just do them anyway. And then that

Right.

feeling starts to go away.

Mm-hmm, right? Yes, lack of fear is not our our sign, our green light to go. We can do it with fear anyway, like that. Now, from your start, new to the industry, doing it because you were hungry, right? Because you gotta eat,

Yeah.

all the way to where you are now, where you’ve progressed and gone through leadership. I’m curious how your view of leadership has changed as you moved from that entry-level position to where you are now.

Well, I think when you first start out, you see things as them and us, we’re the workers and they’re the bosses and they do these things. I’ve learned that if you communicate with your employees, they’ll feel more part of the process. And I’ve also learned that leadership isn’t always fun. It’s not always popular. It sometimes isn’t at all. And there are times when you have answers that you can’t tell your employees for legal reasons or whatever, and they have to

be able to trust your decisions. And that’s not always easy. So, that transition was slow for me and so I was able to to learn into it. Some people are not given that opportunity. And so it is a a feeling of you can’t you can’t be best friends with people that work for you. And that’s tough because you do like them and you want to be friends with them. And so there’s that

Mm-hmm.

too. So it’s it’s a very different and weird dynamic for sure.

There’s a lot of wisdom, I think, in that answer. So for our listeners who are, you know, progressing in leadership and having people at work for you, I’d say go back a couple minutes and listen to what Laura shared there, because I think there’s there’s a lot of value in that. What I what I like what I like that you shared there among all the gems, Laura, was the idea of that you were blessed with the idea that y it’s not like you had to go from zero to a hundred and eighty overnight, right? You had time to progress and to evolve yourself as you went through this. And you know, a lot of us in the business world, we are big thinkers, big dreamers.

And once we decide we want something, we want it yesterday, right? Or I I don’t think that’s only me, although I might be speaking from my personal, you know, once I make a decision, I’m like, I want it, I want it yesterday. Let’s make it happen. And yet there is value to the evolutionary idea of like we’re going to go from step one to step two, step two to step three. We’re not gonna go from one to twenty overnight. and we see a lot of like let’s say when people win the lottery, right? And they tend to

spend it all very quickly because they went from step one to step twenty overnight, right? And they didn’t build the skills, the money management, the finance skills along the way in the same way as you progressed, you were able to build your leadership skills. I think that’s important.

That’s right.

Yeah, I mean a lot of people do go straight into management and that’s totally fine if that’s their path. But don’t forget that there are people that below you that haven’t, you know, they’re they’re not in the same space as you. They’re not in in the sam same experiences. And so you know, they’re growing. There is something to be said for starting for the bottom and working your way up, which is what I had to do. But everybody doesn’t do that. A lot of people take a different path and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Just

Take care of your team.

Now,

if you were talking to somebody who’s starting out on the path that you were on, right? Starting out at that entry level and they’re gonna work their way up in a new industry. They’d love to be where you are, in sixteen years, right? managing the department, being in charge, helping people. What would you tell them as they are in their first year, let’s say?

the beginning years were very hard. It was work hard. You have to work hard and prove yourself. And you have to work hard harder than your job tells you to. You have to work into the job that you want. And so if you want the next level, then you have to do things without expectation and without pay that you are to show that you can do the job ahead of you. And those things are people think, well, I’ve I’m a good worker, I do this, this, I deserve this. No, you don’t.

Nobody deserves anything. You work your way into things. And just because you’re at this level doesn’t mean you’ll always be. It’s like the old adage, dress for the job you want, not for the job you have. It’s the same mentality with your work. Work for the job that you want.

So, all right. Now, Laura, in addition to

The idea of leveraging a team, having great people, something else I’m passionate about is systems, right? I never want to solve the same problem twice. Things can happen, things can break, and we can have that issue the first time, but then I want us to make a system so we don’t have that issue again. Now, if a business owner’s new to the idea of systems, they tend to just, you know, let’s say, you know, solve problems as they come up on a one-off situation. How would you explain turning ad hoc

fixes into something repeatable.

Well, there’s lots of things in the softwares that that nowadays, especially with with AI coming on board, it’s amazing what they can do. they can automate the tone of the voice of the text messages that you send out. And so these are things that can be done pretty simply, automated your late fees posting, automated your monthly posting, automated your automate your letters going out, your recertification letters if you’re affordable. So there’s tons and tons of things that we can do to automate.

That’s that’s a great point that we can use technology to build up those systems. We don’t have to do it manually anymore. I know, way in 2021 when I brought on my first virtual assistant, I would record videos of what I was doing on the computer or whatever, and then she would have to write the SOPs by hand. And now it’s like so much easier. You can record the video, use the transcript, have AI write that first draft of the SOP. It’s so much more efficient. So, like you, Laura, I think that’s a great way for people to

Get started with systems.

Yeah, utilize technology the best that you can and remember there are things that are people to people things and you want to keep those hands on. You wanna keep those face to face. But like I said, our phone system is one. We want to answer that phone. We want you to get a live person. But there’s a lot of things that we do that are technology driven that that are not those important things that are people driven.

Mm-hmm. Right. Well, Laura, I really appreciated this conversation. I think it’s been a great opportunity to discuss a coup one of my favorite ideas, which is this concept of, where do we leverage technology and then where do we keep things with people? Where, you know, where can each really play to their strengths? so I appreciate you coming on and sharing this along with some of your other wisdom on leadership and development. And as we wrap up, where should people go if they want to learn more or connect with you directly?

Well they can go to our website helpdeskrealty dot com or they can email me at L Hamilton at Team Tectonic dot com and I’m happy to answer any questions.

Perfect. And guys, all of that will be in the description below. And thank you so much, Laura. This has been a great conversation for our listeners. My big takeaway is that reliable operations, they don’t come from one heroic fix, right? You’re not just throughing the Hail Mary and saving the whole game. It’s really repeatable systems and a team that truly owns the work, that combination of tech and the team. And

There is this one thing though, knowing the strategy, that’s the easy part. Follow through is where most leaders lose steam. The calendar fills up, the inbox grows, and the system you’re meant to build gets pushed to next week, and then the week after that, and so on. And that’s where support can really make the difference for your business. Full time ultimate executive assistants from Workogenics take on the day to day execution so the systems you design actually get implemented and keep moving while you focus on leading.

If that sounds like what your business needs, we’d love to help you. You can learn more at workergenix.com. Thanks for tuning in and I’ll see you next time.