If you're a regional manager in multifamily, there's a good chance you're feeling ... tired, with a side of pressure and stress. 

I have a ton of respect for regionals like you. You occupy the messy middle space between corporate (ownership) and the onsite teams. 

The regionals I've worked with over the years have told me that they feel like their jobs are less about strategy, or more about how to just make things work. 

• How to translate that directive from ownership to your managers, without making your managers feel defeated. 
  
• How to translate what the managers are saying to corporate without them losing their minds at the raw honesty from the onsite teams. 
  
• How to speak "ownership" to the onsite teams and vice versa. 
• How to make things happen, even when you don't have what you need to make it happen.
• How to make people okay. 
• How to make the numbers make sense to people who don't deal with numbers. 
• How to make people make sense to people who don't deal with people. 

Can YOU relate? If so, here are a few do's and don'ts that might help you breathe a little and lead a little better.

DON'T believe your job is to hold everything together.

The regionals who believe this usually do so out of the caring and competence. You know how to do it, so you do. You're great with upset residents so you just have your onsite teams forward calls to you. You know what "done and handled" looks like, so you step in and do their work. 

The problem is being reliable turns into "being responsible for everything" and that is when you burn out. 

DO see your job as building people who can hold things with you.

Here is the reframe that will make your life easier...

Instead of seeing your VALUE as how many problems you can personally solve (fires you put out, angry people you calmed down, tough decisions you made etc.), see how many problems are solved (that you didn't have to solve) because you've led people into effective leadership, and they're the ones that solved the problem. 

If you're always the answer, you're also the ceiling. 

DON'T say you don't have time to develop people.

You knew this was coming, right? Look, I know you are buried in stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. But, if you don't develop others to handle the stuff (they need to handle) you will never be free to do what you need to do. The HUGE mistake many leaders (and quite frankly many companies make) is that they view training and development as a luxury.

Trained people aren't a luxury ... it's a necessity. 

DO recognize that you're already developing people, just not always on your terms.

You are training people now, just not always when you want it or on your terms. Like, on your days off or on vacation, or when you need to do everything else but help someone. So...what if taking an extra 15 minutes today to coach and mentor someone (even if you feel you are too busy) saved you dozens of hours in the future? Wouldn't that be worth it? If staying late today to do your work (because you took a little time to help one of your managers) meant no more calls on the weekend, wouldn't that be ah-mazing??

Coaching now is better than cleanup later. 

DON'T assume your people don't want ownership.

Let's start with some honesty ... some of them don't! But, more often, their experience has taught them that when they try to own things (by suggesting new ideas, taking risks, trying a different approach) they just get told to stop. They eventually learn that ownership is dangerous and compliance is safer. 

DO create an environment for thinking, not just "following orders."

Questions like "Tell me what went into your making that decision" or  "What would you try next time?" do more to develop leaders than just lecturing them will. 

DON'T blur your personal boundaries 

As a leader I used to wrestle with the thought that I ALWAYS needed to be available to my people, no matter what. The problem is, it might feel like you're being supportive, but you might just be creating dependence in them. Instead of seeking the answers they desire, they just seek you out. And that thinking limits everyone. (And, irritates the heck out of you right? Right?)

DO let people wrestle a little.

I'm not talking about completely abandoning your people. I am saying to allow them to get uncomfortable, to get nervous, to start to feel tension. Growth so often happens in that tension, and when you constantly rescue you're actually denying your people opportunities to grow. In other words, rescuing feels loving, but it often is NOT!

Here are some closing words to you...

Thank you. You play a crucial role in the story, and I know you don't get told it often, either by your bosses or the people who you lead. 

AND-if you're feeling "all the feels" about your job, this might be your invitation to lead differently. Times change. People change. The industry is changing. You'll need to keep changing too. (We all do!) That's not failure. It's just the way things are.

Being tired all the time doesn't have to be your destiny. 

If you have the courage to do something difference. 

Spoiler Alert: You do.