At Asset Living, we empower each other to lead by example, collaborate, and evolve – inspired by our belief that we can always be improving, as individuals and as an organization. In this series, we dig into what it means to work at Asset Living where every voice is heard, every idea is valued, and every individual experiences opportunities to grow as our company grows.
Today we hear from Asset Living’s Division President of the Southeastern region Karen Key who shares what it means to be a part of an integral dynamic team that thrives on unity, leverages unique talents, and embraces a universal culture of winning.
When we say #TogetherWeLead, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
“I immediately think of servant leadership and leading by example. We recognize that it is best when we lead others by standing beside or behind them and not by keeping them behind us. This is the different in a boss and a leader.”
What are you most passionate about at work and how have you been able to feed into that passion while working at Asset Living?
“Two things immediately come to mind for me, I am passionate about cultivating teams and finding creative solutions to problems. Both of these "fill my bucket"! I am fortunate that Asset Living fosters an environment where I get to both. Upon joining Asset, one of my first goals was to create a culture within the Southeast division that promoted employee engagement while bringing connectivity to the larger Asset team. Watching this over the past 9 months has been tremendously rewarding!”
Reflecting on your career with Asset Living, what are some ways you have pushed yourself to grow or improve?
“I oversee a division where many leaders on the team have tenure with their legacy management company that exceeds 25 years. That speaks to the pride they take in their work and the company they represent! A weakness of mine is I can sometimes move too fast. Leading this team, I wanted to make sure I did not make changes too fast and limit the buy-in from the team or make them as though I didn't appreciate what they had always done. This has helped me continue to grow in managing teams, remembering to pause, breathe, and find out the existing why before just pushing out new directive.”
What is one of the most inspiring examples you’ve seen of successful leadership?
“I have been inspired by leadership in many ways. One I would like to highlight is where I worked closely with leaders reporting on how to handle a conversation with an associate that was not meeting performance expectations. The associate brought tremendous value to Asset but was not thriving in their existing role. This leader did not shy from having this challenging conversation and resulted in a great solution! It became clear this associate was an ideal candidate for a different position that was available. Now, the associate is thriving! Aligning an associate with the right position is an art and I love seeing when this happens!”
How does Asset Living’s culture inspire you to push yourself?
“I mentioned previously that finding creative solutions to problems is a passion of mine. Asset culture absolutely promotes this and constantly inspires me to always look for the best solution, not just the common solution. I love that Asset does not simply want to be the best in multifamily but wants to cultivate an environment that allows our team to define what it means to be the best. With an executive leadership team that comes from outside the industry, we have great insights from other large companies and industries that help us bring best practices to multifamily that have not been commonly adopted before.”
For any questions regarding our properties or services, please feel free to reach out to us via our contact form. To learn more about available career opportunities by visiting Asset Living’s careers page.
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