MiniCo Insurance Agency LLC, a provider of self-storage insurance products and the publisher of Mini-Storage Messenger (MSM) magazine, has announced the winners of its 2010 Self-Storage Facility of the Year Awards. Winners were named in six categories:

• Overall: Extra Space Storage in Oakland, Calif., owned by Extra Space Storage Inc.
• New Facility: Daffodil Storage in Tacoma, Wash., owned by Daffodil Storage
• Construction: Northshore Pellissippi Storage in Knoxville, Tenn., owned by Walter Wise and Hugh Neil
• Conversion: LifeStorage in Chicago, owned by LifeStorage Centers LLC
• Specialty Storage: The Stor-House Self Storage in Bellevue, Wash., owned by Gilroy Family Bellefield LLC
• Renovation: Morningstar Mini-Storage in Summerville, S.C., owned by HSRE-MSTAR I LLC, a joint venture of Morningstar Properties and Harrison Street Real Estate Capital

The four runners-up are:

• Premier Storage in San Antonio, Texas (Overall)
• Cubes Self-Storage @ Brickyard in Salt Lake City (New Facility)
• Farmers Market Self Storage in Los Angeles (Construction)
• AAAA Chamberlayne Self Storage in Richmond, Va. (Conversion)

Full-length articles profiling the winning facilities will be published in the December 2010 issue of MSM. The runners-up will be profiled in future issues.

Established in 1974, MiniCo provides self-storage insurance programs, publications, and add-on products and services.

By Danita Johnson Hughes

Sometimes you might wonder if we truly live in a civilized society. It seems rude and discourteous behavior is on the rise, and the modern workplace can be an incubator for such incivility if left unchecked.

Inside and outside the workplace, we see a rash of disrespectful, discourteous and rude behavior. Angry commuters use their vehicles to take out their aggressions and deliberately cut off others in traffic. Customer service has diminished to the point where most would prefer to use the impersonal ATM machine than face an unhappy bank teller. Malicious political campaigns and tactics draw out the worst in even the most respected individuals. Children face tremendous fear and stress from bullies at school. The examples of an uncivilized society are too numerous to recount, and the workplace is a microcosm of society.

The impact of such destructive behavior can be more psychologically damaging than open forms of abuse, such as harassment and violence. From a business and leadership perspective, the negative behavior happening outside of the workplace is trickling in, affecting employee loyalty, organizational commitment and overall productivity. The pressures of everyday life can take its toll on employees who are already working under a great deal of stress. Consequently, tempers get frayed and patience and tolerance are thrown out the window.

Time for a Change

Understanding precedes change. What typically leads to uncivil behavior is a disagreement. Someone wants to be right, better or stronger. Someone wants to be heard. Sadly, that attitude often leads to a win-lose outcome.

As a leader, the best first step is to realize conflict is a vital and necessary part of organizational success. Properly facilitated, disagreements lead to healthy, constructive conversations that translate into creativity, innovation and a shared sense of accomplishment.

Encouraging civility in the workplace promotes a low-stress work environment and improved employee morale. It also helps to mitigate employee dissatisfaction that often results in such things as civil-rights complaints and lawsuits. The economic impact related to litigation, turnover, productivity and customer dissatisfaction can be devastating to an organization.

Some signs of an organization infected with incivility include:  

• Higher-than-normal employee turnover
• A large number of employee grievances and complaints
• Lost work time by employees calling in sick
• Increased consumer complaints
• Diminished productivity in terms of quality and quantity of work
• Cultural and communications barriers
• Lack of confidence in leadership
• Inability to adapt effectively to change
• Lack of individual accountability

Civility is essential to defining the culture and establishing a foundation of proper business behavior. Its a value that successful organizations strive to achieve.

To be able to build and maintain itself as a viable entity capable of reaching its full potential, an organization must be able to manage its interpersonal relationships in a manner that promotes positive interactions that are civil and respectful. This is not an easy task considering the myriad personalities and individual circumstance impacting workplace interactions. But it can be accomplished with leadership commitment to fostering positive and meaningful interactions among employees.

The Three Basic Principles

Creating a civil workplace boils down to three basic principles: respect, restraint and refinement. Heres a closer look at each.

Respect. Its inherent in the belief that although another persons beliefs may be different than yours, you should still honor his viewpoint and accord the other person due consideration. Taking someone's feelings, ideas and preferences into consideration indicates you take him seriously and his position has worth and value, even if contrary to your own. In so doing, you validate the other persons individuality and right to a differing opinion.  

Respect is the most important step in  building a relationship and reducing the potential for conflict. In an atmosphere of mutual respect, goals and concessions become easier to attain.

Restraint. This is simply a matter of exercising personal self-control at all times. Therefore, you should know your triggers. Be aware of how your words and actions affect other people. Being aware of the things that make you angry or upset helps you monitor and manage your reaction. Think before you act. Remember, you may not be able to control the things others say or do, but you can control your response.

Refinement. This is the quest for continual cultivation and improvement of relationships in the workplace. Just as the process of Continual Quality Improvement (CQI) has come to be known as a means to improve performance and increase efficiency in an organization, refinement of thought, ways of expressing those thoughts and the practice of continuously exercising appropriate decorum when relating to others can go a long way toward enhancing workplace civility. Improving and strengthening relationships requires effort and commitment.

Achieving civility in the workplace requires the involvement of every employee from the top down. Going to work in an environment free from the back-biting, rude employee behavior and the constant complaining many are subjected to every day is certainly not ideal. However, making the commitment to achieving and sustaining civility can be the key to a successful and thriving organization with high employee morale.

Your Role as a Leader

As a leader, you can and should make workplace civility a priority in your business by insisting all employees exercise these practical ideas:

• Pursue understanding first.
• Listen and respect other opinions.
• Seek common ground, even if it's to agree to disagree.
• Tune in to what's happening around you. Observe the climate
• Accept responsibility for your actions and the consequences of those actions.
• Offer and willingly accept constructive feedback.

Leaders are called to promote a safe and respectful workplace. That means insisting on the practice of civility and common courtesy. It starts with you. Take time to assess your own behaviors. Do you gossip or spread rumors? Have you ever raised your voice to make a point? Are you communicating important information to your team, or withholding information they need? Set an expectation of workplace civility by walking the talk and being the change you want to see.

Danita Johnson Hughes is a healthcare industry executive and public speaker and the author of Power From Within and the forthcoming Turnaround. For more information e-mail [email protected] ; visit www.danitajohnsonhughes.com .

Mini U Storage is now an official corporate partner of the Golden State Warriors basketball team.

As part of its sports promotion, the self-storage company will offer its customers a voucher for two tickets to a Warriors' 2010-11 home game at the Oracle Arena, a free truck to move-in, 99-cent boxes, and free use of storage shelves.

Mini U Storage is also an official partner and storage unit provider of sports teams in the National Football League, the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association, and Minor and Major League Baseball. More than 35,000 of its customers have already taken advantage of the company's sports promotion.

U-Store-It Trust reached a significant milestone in its "Plant a Tree" initiative, planting more than 5,000 trees for its customers.

Launched in April, the U-Store-It Plant a Tree initiative works through the American Forests' Global ReLEAF program. Customers can request that U-Store-It plants a tree on their behalf when they rent temporary storage units on the companys website or through the U-Store-It National Sales Center. For each self-storage customer who makes this selection, U-Store-It makes a donation to American Forests to plant a native tree at no cost to the customer.

The decision to launch the Plant a Tree initiative comes from U-Store-It's commitment to reducing its impact on the environment. In addition to the Plant a Tree initiative, U-Store-It has also launched an internal Green Team, which has implemented a number of programs to reduce waste and increase recycling at its corporate office and storage facilities nationwide.

"We are very excited about working with American Forests and reaching this milestone in the Plant a Tree program," said Steve Hartman, senior vice president of marketing. "It's been a success from the start and gives us a great opportunity to join with our customers in an effort to preserve our environment."

"Every tree makes a difference and we're proud to be working with U-Store-It in its positive steps toward creating a healthier planet, added Greg Meyer, vice president of marketing at American Forests.

U-Store-It Trust is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust. The company owns and manages 476 facilities across the United States, and operates the U-Store-It Network, which consists of approximately 725 additional self-storage facilities.

UPick Storage LLC, a provider of an online facility-comparison shopping tool for self-storage customers, recently joined OpenTech Alliance Inc.s real-time self-storage reservation, the INSOMNIAC Self Storage Network (ISSN). 

ISSN allows industry companies to electronically retrieve unit pricing and availability information in real-time from the most widely used property-management systems in the industry. In addition, this connection allows marketing luminaries to process reservations and rentals that reflect immediately in facility-management systems. 

"OpenTech's network is quickly becoming the electronic backbone of the self-storage industry for reservation processing. Their open architecture allows companies like ours to have real-time connectivity to today's leading property-management systems without having to invest several months and thousands of dollars in software development, said Brand Braud, president of sales and marketing for UPick. Now we can focus all our efforts on helping our customers rent more units and leave the backend software work to OpenTech.

OpenTechs products and services include seven INSOMNIAC kiosk models ranging in price from $5,500 to $18,000, INSOMNIAC Live! call-center services, and the INSOMNIAC Self Storage Network for online storage reservations.

Trophies and other memorabilia owned by tennis star Pete Sampras have been reportedly stolen from a self-storage facility in Los Angeles.

Sampras told The Los Angeles Times the theft, which included one of his Grand Slam trophies, happened about three weeks ago. Sampras was storing the items in self-storage while he moved residences.

Other items stolen include Sampras 1994 Australian Open trophy, two Davis Cups, an Olympic ring and six trophies for finishing No. 1 in world year-end rankings.

Sampras retired from tennis in 2003.

Plans for a new self-storage facility in Silver Spring Township, Pa., were put on hold last week at the request of the owner, William Kollas, and the developer, Jim Snyder of Snyder, Secary and Associates LLC. The two wish to submit redesigned plans to the commission for a subdivision and new land development of four parcels.

Kollas plans to consolidate the parcels and subdivide approximately 14 acres, zoned as commercial, into two lots. A 12-acre lot will contain the self-storage facility. The remaining lot will be reserved for future development.

Kollas Self Storage, originally proposed as a 100,000-square-foot facility, will be built at 59,000 square feet. The plans call for several standard storage buildings, two large climate-controlled structures, a sales office, a parking area, a controlled-access entrance and fencing.

The entire site is in a flood plain, according to Snyder. The plans request that the flood plain be revised, if also approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The plain would then be moved behind the parcel.

Questions were raised by a commissioner about a Sunoco gas pipeline that runs through the property. The storage buildings will not be built on top of the line, Snyder said, though some paving or fencing may be. Preliminary plans were discussed with Sunoco.

A huge combustion fire at a self-storage facility in Cutchogue, N.Y., Monday took several hours and dozens of firefighters to put out the blaze.

The fire behind North Fork Self Storage began early in the morning by spontaneous combustion inside a 25-foot-high industrial mulch pile behind the self-storage facility. Firefighters arrived on the scene around 5 a.m. when most of the pile was engulfed in heavy flames and smoke.

Fire investigators believe the pressure inside the pile combined with heavy winds to start the blaze. The facility didnt suffer any structural damage and there were no injuries. Cutchogue Materials and Recycling, another industrial business in the complex, owns the mulch pile.

A man sleeping inside a van inside a unit at a Dallas self-storage facility died Monday after a fire ignited.

Firefighters responded to the facility in the 11200 block of Goodnight Lane around 6:20 a.m. after a neighboring business saw smoke and called 911. The fire, which appears to have started inside the van, may have been accidental, according to fire investigators. It did not spread to the facilitys other units.

The mans name has not been released. The fire and cause of death are still under investigation.