What Self Storage Acquisitions Teach Us About Leading Through Change

Leading a team is a big undertaking with plenty of responsibilities as it is, but leading teams through change brings new challenges that can be hard to anticipate. Extra Space Storage manages onboarding and offboarding for 300+ stores per year—a sizable task on its own—but the acquisitions of Storage Express in 2022 and Life Storage in 2023 took it to a new level. As Vice President of Operations Support, Bill Mottram played a key role in both acquisitions and led the operational onboarding of the newly acquired stores. Through those experiences, he gained valuable insights into leading through change, even without having all the answers. Here’s what he learned.

Let Go of the Pressure to Know Everything

When entering a massive transition like a self storage merger in a leadership situation, the first instinct is often to feel like you need to have every answer and be the most informed person in the room. However, this mindset is more likely to freeze you in place than help you functionally lead, as it leaves no room for flexible problem-solving.

Mottram came to this realization as well,

"When you're told you're going to play a big role in this, I think the lesson learned is, I didn't have to have all the answers."

This creates room for distributed problem-solving, allowing teams to scale when needed and explore alternative solutions.

Know Your Resources, Then Delegate

Understanding the resources at your disposal—the people and tools that can answer questions and solve problems—gives you a clear path forward even when you don't have the answers yourself. When a question comes up, you can send your team to the right place rather than trying to solve it alone.

As Mottram states,

"When you work for a company like ours with so many exceptional people, you just need to know who to direct the questions to sometimes.

This also means you don't need intimate knowledge of every team's workflow—you'll have experts at your disposal who can take on that task for you.

Outline Your Steps Even if You're Uncertain

Creating an outline for your team should start as soon as possible, even if everything isn't set in stone. When leading through a major transition, outlining the steps early is more valuable than waiting for clarity, because the gaps in your process will show you exactly where improvements are needed. This in turn helps you craft a straightforward list of problems to tackle first and questions that need answers.

Mottram came to this conclusion during the Storage Express and Life Storage acquisitions:

"You have to start somewhere. Start outlining what this might look like, then you have your long list of 'we don't know, we need to solve this.'"

Solve Problems As a Team

Taking on a major transition means promoting teamwork, especially during M&A operations and large-scale self storage mergers. One person stretched too thin can't solve everything alone—and a team working separately, without collaboration, ends up with a disjointed integration.

As Mottram put it,

"Collectively bringing those minds together—that's how you get there."

Bringing together the expertise of your whole team helps create consistency—plus, it's usually more efficient than trying to own and organize all the answers yourself.

Build Communication Into Your Process

Clear, consistent communication is an operational necessity during a major transition. Unexpected issues will arise, especially when onboarding hundreds of properties, but communication helps teams identify and resolve those issues before they grow.

As Mottram explains,

"Communication is probably the key ingredient or the secret sauce that makes everything go well. The unexpected happens, but when communication is really flowing both ways, we can usually solve for anything."

Communication must also flow in both directions. Mottram's team partners with division vice presidents and district managers to understand what is happening in each market. That field-level feedback can reveal issues or considerations that may not be visible from the Store Support Center.

Create Systems With the Future in Mind

For Extra Space Storage's transitions team, systems must account for even the smallest operational details. A missed bank account setup or an overlooked payment processing token can stall an entire store opening. Multiply that risk across hundreds of properties, and the margin for error shrinks quickly.

Documenting the process, building checklists, and establishing clear ownership for each step helps the team create a repeatable approach. It also gives the team a foundation to refine as new challenges emerge, making each future transition more consistent and manageable.

For more advice from experts like Bill Mottram and the rest of the Extra Space Storage team, tune in to the Inside Extra Space podcast or contact Extra Space Storage's third-party management team by calling 866-447-6522!