“True Leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not to enrich the leader.” John C Maxwell

“Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge”

Community Scheme living comes with its own challenges. When buying into a community scheme, there are so many different people all with different personalities and tolerances stemming from their life experiences thrust together into a boiling pot of a community lifestyle. Residents who choose to live in community schemes do so for a variety of different reasons, where despite disparate backgrounds, ideas, expectations and prejudices they are required to accommodate their fellow residents and temper their ways of living to abide by the decided rules of the scheme where they have chosen to live. The daily lifestyle choices of all residents in a community scheme should always be to seek the common good, and to live in harmony with one’s fellow residents.

With all the business and societal stresses of everyday living today that we experience, we just don’t have the time or need to be faced with toxic people and toxic relationship in and around our homes, which should be a safe haven of rest and relaxation.

Scheme executives who don’t seem to have the best interests of the scheme at heart, but who act in their own self-interest often create a huge problem for the smooth running of a scheme. This often leads to the creation of an unhealthy environment amongst the scheme executive leadership, with dominant personalities unwilling to accommodate other points of view or a different way of doing things in the way the community scheme is managed and rules are enforced, and who are unyielding in their demand to have things done their way, often without the backing of the legislation that governs community scheme living.

With a lot of Community Schemes due to hold their AGMs over the next few months it is time for owners to take hold of their scheme’s destiny and to protect the value of what is often one’s greatest asset by financial value, by electing the right kind of leaders to run their scheme. This can be achieved by either making oneself available to fulfil the role of a scheme executive if one has the best interest of the scheme at heart, or at the very least to find like-minded owners who have the necessary skills, knowledge of the legislation governing the community scheme, and more importantly who are willing to take on the mantle of servant leadership. This is the type of leadership that is required for community schemes where decisions are made for the good of the scheme.

Last month I mentioned the need for owners to vote in strong leadership to ensure the financial and social wellbeing of the community scheme, but this should not be at the expenses of allowing the voices of the owners to be over-ridden and ignored. While I said that sometimes hard decisions must be made, any decision made must be done within the precepts of fairness and justice, as is allowed by the governing legislation, and through a consultative process amongst the members. Social community cohesion and allowing others to voice their ideas in a consultative forum, is essential to achieve harmonious living among residents.

There are compromises and sacrifices that must often be made for the common good, and especially the acceptance of the societal differences between neighbours, which can be a daunting prospect. Solutions to disputes and common ground must be found for the greater good of the community scheme as whole.

At Whitfields we endeavour to listen, care, and deliver, through serving the members of the community schemes we manage. We undertake that we will by our best endeavours and best practise, provide relevant and updated information to the scheme executives on the applicable governing scheme legislation and how such impacts the scheme where they are appointed, and to give them the necessary direction and advice as to how they can best manage their schemes.

We hope we will always be able to meet your expectations as we endeavour to do every day! At times we may fail, but we will always try our very best to do better and to improve in the service we provide. We have done so for the past 25 plus years and look forward to doing so into the future!