This article originally appeared on catjohnson.co.
Coworking has a problem.
We’re asking a lot of community managers and, in return, many of them are a few steps from burnout, if they’re not there already.
And if your community manager is not feeling it, your members aren’t either.
As coworking pioneer Iris Kavanagh says, “Your community manager is your most important hire.”
As a longtime coworking member, I wholeheartedly agree.
Your community manager is the face of your coworking space, your coworking community, and your coworking brand.
And as such, they’re asked to task-switch all day long, demonstrate a high emotional intelligence, deal with challenging members, fill offices, give tours, attend to member needs, handle programming and participants, fix the coffee machine, market the space, deal with tech and network issues, kick the meeting room squatter out so the next person can use the room, hit monthly sales targets, communicate with the team, etc. etc. etc.
It’s no surprise they burn out.
The last data I heard was that community managers last about 18 months. Which, in the long game of building community, is not long at all.
And, here’s where things get serious for your brand and business: If you have a revolving door of community managers, it’s hard (read: impossible) to create a great coworking community.
Your community managers are the heart and soul of your coworking space. You may think that members don’t notice or care about people coming and going, but we do.
Plus, a revolving door of people in and out of your team signals that there is something wrong. Which is not the signal you want to be putting out.
Yes, all the ops, software, analytics, lead gen, AI, sales, and reporting need to happen behind the scenes. But the only thing members and prospective members care about is the experience in your space.
And it can’t be overstated how important the vibe of your community manager is.
If you need to elevate your community manager strategy and situation, here’s a tip:
Support your community managers like your coworking brand and business depend on them. Because they do.
