5 ways to help you find an answer to almost anything!

Tessa Author

It’s impossible to know or get everything done by yourself - a fact of life. However, there are plenty of ways to find a solution to your problem.

Last week I wrote a post about using templates in your lease admin practice to save time.  They are an excellent timesaver, yet let’s explore beyond the obvious templates & checklists strategies to save time. 

In this post, we're digging deeper and talking about experience versus education. 

It’s a cause close to my heart because I've always been the youngest in the group. It's irrelevant now that I have two kids and an established career, but it wasn't in my early days. Although I had the education, I was passed up for promotions because I didn't have enough experience. (Not capacity, experience! ... topic for a whole different post).

Now, I can’t disagree that hands-on experience is critical and education is certainly not a substitute. Yet, the quality matters much more. In a focused manner, even a small amount of exposure is beneficial. 

In today’s world, where we have practically unlimited access to the information (and people) to help us narrow down the options for potential solutions and next steps, it’s even easier. You don’t need to spend 20 years in a role or six-plus years in college to have all the answers. You just need to know where to look. 

Nothing beats action, yet here are five shortcuts to get you ready for it:

1. Embrace the World Wide Web
2. Find a mentor
3. Join a group
4. Take a course
5. Track your lessons learned

1. Embrace the World Wide Web

“Google it!” is the go-to phrase that puts an end to any doubt-creating statement in our home. You can find answers to many, many questions and for any part of your life on the internet, including in the lease admin process. 

I look up lease terms, excel formulas, and a lot more. As a foreigner, I may not know all the English words, but I can read a dictionary or a blog post explaining the “legal speak.” 

Actually, I've abstracted leases in foreign languages where I only knew about 0.5% of what it said (it was validated later, of course).  Not knowing what every word in the lease means didn’t make me a lousy lease analyst; it just forced me to become a more resourceful one. 

You can find “how-to’s” for almost anything in blogs, YouTube videos, and even podcasts. So, when in doubt, “Google it!” They can’t ban you for asking. Can they?

2. Find a mentor

If sifting through hours of research isn’t your idea of fun and you want a quick solution, consider borrowing someone else’s diploma. Usually, there’s someone who’s already gone before you, and it’s OK to follow them to expedite your success. 

Not only is that OK, learning from others and modeling their strategies is encouraged, especially when you’re just starting. Starting from scratch time-consuming, and there’s no reason to recreate the wheel. Remember to tailor to your needs and give credit where the credit is due. 

Mentors are all around and, if you ask nicely, people are eager to share their knowledge and experience. It’s great for bouncing ideas or hearing a different perspective on your situation. Find someone passionate about their topic, and they’ll never shut up. 

However, with this strategy, you’re likely trading your time for money. So, to get the most out of the experience, it’s best to come prepared with a few specific questions (and maybe even several ideas for solutions) that you’d like your mentor to address. 

3. Take a course

Personal coaching is well worth it but can get pricey. A great compromise between doing it all by yourself and hiring a mentor is taking a course. Here, a teacher guides you through the experience and gives you the tools to resolve a problem. Yet, you still have to do all the work.

A perpetual student at heart, I’m partial to the courses. It’s a controlled environment to fail, but you also connect with people going through the experience with you and who may tackle the problem from a different perspective. Even in the online course without a group, you still get to see the teacher’s take on it all. 

Yet, my favorite part is the stories from the field that a teacher tells or the classmates share. The course work is carefully curated to solve your problem or teach you the skill, yet there’s only so much a book can teach you. The “war” stories are the meat on the bones, the icing on the cake, or the race t-shirt -  essential to the process.

The unfortunate part about the courses is that you rarely have input on the curriculum, and not ALL your questions are answered. Luckily, most teachers offer office hours to cover student’s questions. Don’t be afraid to ask! A lot of times, you get “brownie points” for that as instructors see you trying.

4. Find a group

School is not everyone; sometimes, it takes too long to find a solution for a particular problem. And in situations where there is no information online about the topic, and you’re too broke to pay someone for advice, consider joining a group or forum for like-minded individuals. 

You can’t know everything - that’s a fact. And, most of us need to feel a sense of belonging and camaraderie as we move through our days. Fortunately, the World Wide Web made connecting much more effortless. There are online forums and groups for any topic.

Instant messaging at work allows one to access colleagues to ask questions and validate the information quickly. Of course, it helps to talk to somebody who understands the context of lease administration because it’s such an assortment of different disciplines. 

However, professional associations groups and social media create another medium for professionals from different companies and locations to connect, validate ideas or offer different perspectives. Remember, people are happy to help if you ask nicely.

5. Track your lessons learned

Finally, your best teacher is you and your own experience. However, we all know the saying, “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me!” There’s another one about insanity, yet the point is to avoid repeating your mistakes. 

I take notes.  Extensively. They are all over the place, on tiny sticky notes, in composition books, legal pads, blacks of the envelopes, and so on. Over the years, I've figured out that writing down helps me to remember and takes the pressure off to remember, knowing that I can always look in later when needed. 

I’ve used many tools and formats to keep notes for reference, yet the objective is always the same - evaluate experience to simplify life in the future. It takes a little practice and patience, but in no time, you’ll build a reference guide for yourself that will streamline your entire process. 

Reflecting on our experience helps to improve it. It doesn't have to be a drawn-out process. Just spend 10 min after the call with the landlord writing out your thoughts about what worked, what didn’t, what you would have said or done differently, and how you feel, for example. 

Then, decide and write down what you’re going to do next time this happens. When the time comes, look it up in your notes so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.  (Tip: reference the lease ID in the notes, so you have an example to look up later, as well).

Apply what you’ve learned 

You can read, hear, or talk about it, the theory is excellent, yet you must apply and test the knowledge learned via these shortcuts to resolve your problem at hand. And, by doing so, you’ll gain even more experience. 

To wrap up, remember, just because you don’t know how to do something or haven’t done it before doesn't mean you can’t do it. Above are five easy ways to get you started. Also, instead of borrowing someone else’s diploma, consider hiring to outsource the task outright. 

These are just my thoughts, and I would love to hear what you think. Please share your comments on the topic and shortcut ideas below.