Douglas Stirling recently joined our Board of Directors as a Member-At-Large! He also serves as a Co-Chair of our Community Service Committee! Please check out his leadership spotlight below:
Q: Congratulations Douglas and welcome to your first official task as a newly appointed Board of Director! Tell the people what they want to know - what’s your title, who’s the company you work for, how long you’ve been there, what does your day to day look like, and how big is the team that you manage?
I’m Douglas Stirling, Director of Operations for San Diego Self Storage. I’ve been with SDSS since 2013! We have 18 locations in San Diego County. I directly oversee a team of 5 on the operations side, and indirectly between 50-60 employees among all the sites. The properties are open from 6AM to 7PM.
I monitor all of our financial performances and push for rental increases. I’m looking at property performance and adjusting budgets based on performance. Specifically, square footage occupancy and rental velocity, not unit occupancy.
Q: 13 years at one company is tremendous! What does the future look like for you?
SDSS is my home. They can bury me in my office! The level of ownership that I’ve specifically been given from the time that I started to what the company is now…I’ve been able to form it into the company that I hoped it could be. It would be tough to walk away from. I’ve got a great team that I invest in, and I take pride in the fact that the lowest person on the org chart is better than our competitors highest performers.
Q: How has the market been for self storage?
In 2022, self storage was thriving. We had the highest historical rents and high occupancy. I believe that housing was the biggest driver here. The change from in office to a home office lent itself to an uptick in storage use. People were cleaning out their extra rooms to set up their remote workspace. In addition, refinancing led to an economic burst of buying new things and storing old things.
Since then, there was a pretty significant deflation. Asking rates continue to drop and as inflation gets higher, people use discretionary income differently.
Q: What are you doing to set yourself apart from competitors? If you will, to thrive, not just survive.
We’re embracing our technology minded demographic. Things like access control, bill pay, apps, website development, and an e-commerce CRM - all of those features are things that we are learning about, embracing, and trying to dial into to understand our consumers’ preferences.
Q: What are your core values as a leader?
- Be accountable - I hold leaders accountable for what they say they’re going to do and I expect the same from myself.
- Practice what you preach and have a certain level of humility. When your team is successful, make sure to honor and recognize the team that got you there.
- Stay in that student mindset - continue to learn, continue to grow. I try to lead by example. I never saw myself as a finished product. I work towards it every single day. Be humble enough to know how little we know and be open enough to continue to learn from others.
- Be authentic. There needs to be authenticity to your leadership. You’re not just playing a role. Understand your own strengths, and your own weaknesses.
Q: I love that student mindset value! What education tracks do you advocate for?
Never stop learning. I finished getting my MBA a couple of years ago. Learning is a lifelong journey that we should all embrace.
Q: I’ve told you before, everyone I’ve met on your team is awesome. You’re definitely putting something in the water. What leadership lessons have you learned from your own team?
Give your team the power. My area managers have a responsibility to push professional development and manage their own talent pipeline. If they own it, they are that much more invested in its success.
Q: I also want to do a quick plug for all of your amazing efforts staying active and involved with several nonprofit organizations that aid our local community. As this year’s Chair of Community Service, why is it important to you?
I come from nothing. I grew up in a house next to a landfill. I know the value of opportunity and what it looks like when there are none. Now that I’m in a position to facilitate or give those opportunities, I think it’s my responsibility. It comes from a place of gratitude. I’m grateful for what I’ve gotten, but I had to claw and kick my way through the mud. So if I can provide some hope for people, I’m going to do everything I can to help people out.
Q: What is it about leadership that speaks to you?
I enjoy the opportunity to make a positive impact, and it’s facilitated much easier from a leadership position. The impact of good leadership on an organization is everything, whether it be modeling what it looks like or whatever they do. I enjoy the responsibility of leadership, I enjoy seeing what you’ve done and how positively you can push your team. As far as me personally, I maintain an attitude that I’m gonna go out and conquer the world. As long as I have breath in my body, I will continue to push forward.
Q: What’s your favorite book for professional growth:
Extreme Ownership, True North and the True North Fieldbook.
Thank you so much for sharing, Douglas!
Interviewed by Melanie Milinkevich, President of BOMA San Diego