Bookmarks: 5 Interesting Articles That May Help You This Week

Each week, I select a few articles that rise above the fray and hopefully help you on your journey in the CRE world. They pull from one of four "corners": corporate real estate, technology, management science and anything positive. I welcome your comments on these articles.

1. The Stockdale Paradox: Prevailing in Crisis

Nearly 55 years ago on an exceedingly pretty day, Admiral (Commander at the time) Jim Stockdale jumped in his A4 Skyhawk. He was excited but confident, having flown nearly 200 missions thus far in the Vietnam War. He was highly decorated having earned numerous awards and medals.

Another day, another battle.

The plane lurched from the deck of the aircraft carrier The USS Oriskany and the mission was under way. The squad was headed back, yet again, to take on the enemy in the jungles of North Vietnam. As the fighter pilots got close to their assignment, Admiral Stockdale came in low at the top of the trees, hoping to avoid anti-aircraft fire. But luck wasn't headed his way today: there was a "flack trap" in the very top of one of the trees. The enemy fired and within seconds the A4 was on fire. Stockdale had to make the decision to bail out in about two seconds.

His parachute deployed, but the enemy started shooting at him from the ground. Stockdale later reported that a "thundering herd of men" ran towards him. The moment he landed, the crowd beat him to within an inch of his life.

2. Publicly-Traded REITs May Be Better Offer in This Recession Than the Last One

Although it might feel like the publicly-traded REIT sector as a whole is in the midst of a “sky is falling” crisis, real estate experts say the outlook for REITs is more sunny than cloudy. In fact, they maintain that REITs are better positioned financially today than they were during and after the Great Recession.

“While the coronavirus crisis is not yet over, it does appear that the REIT sector is likely to avoid the type of long-term, lingering pain that was felt by the sector during the financial crisis, when it took nearly eight years for the FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs Index to recover to pre-recession highs,” says Alex Pettee, president and director of research and ETFs at Rowayton, Conn.-based investment adviser Hoya Capital Real Estate LLC.

To be sure, the REIT landscape is uneven right now. As of Aug. 31, year-to-date total returns for three pandemic-battered subsectors sat in double-digit negative territory, according to Nareit: lodging (-47.7 percent), retail (-37.3 percent) and office (-25.6 percent). By contrast, the pandemic has lifted three key subsectors into double-digit positive territory: data centers (+32.5 percent), infrastructure (+14 percent) and industrial (+11.7 percent).

3. Becoming a More Patient Leader

eading effectively — especially during a crisis — takes patience. If you can’t retain your composure in the face of frustration or adversity, you won’t be able to keep others calm. When your direct reports show signs of strain, you need to support them, not get irritated. Solutions to new challenges usually take time to put into practice. However, in my work teaching and coaching high-potential leaders, I have seen that many just don’t have patience and don’t know how to find it. They want quick fixes and can’t wait for strategies to take hold. This tendency is only reinforced by our agile digital work world, which seems to prize hyperspeed.

To learn more about how patience affects a leader’s influence on direct reports during challenging times, I surveyed 578 full-time U.S. working professionals from a wide range of industries during the recent Covid-19 lockdown. Their average age was 39, most were college graduates, and more than half were in managerial roles themselves.

I asked about their immediate supervisor’s leadership behaviors and level of patience and had them self-report their own levels of creativity, productivity, and collaboration. Their responses revealed that patience had a powerful effect: When leaders demonstrated it (meaning their employees’ ratings put them in the highest quartile), their reports’ self-reported creativity and collaboration increased by an average of 16% and their productivity by 13%.

4. Interest In This Autonomous Construction Tech Has Doubled Since March

The construction industry was already suffering from a labor shortage when the coronavirus pandemic struck. Within one of the least-digitized industries in the U.S., many contractors have seen timelines extend as labor has become harder to find.

Over the past two years, San Francisco-based Built Robotics has deployed an artificial intelligence guidance system that may help insulate construction firms from further business disruption. The system can be retrofitted to existing machinery, such as excavators and bulldozers, and allows machines to work without a human operator.

Potential customer interest in the technology has doubled since March, Built Robotics Director of Communications Erol Ahmed told Bisnow. Prior to the pandemic, customer interest was more focused on researching the capabilities of that technology. Now they want to use it.

5. Here Are 14 Retailers That Are Still Expanding in a Pandemic

COVID-19’s toll on the retail sector has been drastic. But some retail chains have been uniquely well-positioned for a recession in which many people are spending a lot of time at home.

While some retailers are closing thousands of physical stores and cancelling expansion plans due to sharp increases in online shopping and widespread shutdowns to curb the spread of the coronavirus, other brands are still growing their bricks-and-mortar footprints.

In fact, some are planning to add dozens and even hundreds of stores in 2020 and beyond.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great a hugely impactful week!

Ken Ashley