Archive for Team building
Managers: What’s your ‘Inspiration’ Quotient?
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What’s your “Inspiration Quotient”? Often, we managers/trainers/coaches completely underestimate our power to inspire. Recently, I read an article in our local newspaper that demonstrates just how strong that power can be.
How a Homeless Girl Got to Harvard
Khadijah Williams’s mother was last spotted living in a storage unit in Los Angeles. But, Khadijah isn’t living there. She’s on her way to Harvard. What an improbable—yet inspiring—story. For as long as she can remember, she and her family, consisting of her mother, and her sister, have drifted from one homeless shelter to another. Yet, she’s still not drifting. And, she’s not just graduating from high school, or getting an entry-level job, or going to a community college, she’s actually enrolled in Harvard. (Don’t get me wrong. It’s a terrific feat to go from homeless to a job, or to graduate from anything. But, Harvard?…..)
What aspects of Khadijah Williams’s life caused her to veer off the homeless, dependent path and toward higher education? What role did her mentors play?
Inspiration, Tenacity, Belief: A Homeless Girl’s Lessons
Here are the powerful motivators that greatly and positively influenced this future Harvard grad’s life.
1. Be aware of the power of your words
Someone told Khadijah she was smart. In the third grade, she scored in the 99th percentile on a state exam. Her teachers told her she was gifted, and put her in special programs—even though her schooling was intermittent—and she moved schools constantly. What do you tell people? Do you pick out their strengths and help them accentuate them?
2. Help them believe in their unique talents and skills
Khadijah believed in herself because she believed what her teachers told her about herself—the positive. Can you think of someone in your life that believed in you more than you believed in yourself at the time?
3. Give them the encouragement/inspiration from mentors
Khadijah realized she couldn’t do it herself, and sought out organizations and mentors. When is the last time you encouraged someone to take a risk?
4. Help them keep on keeping on. Never give up
Fueled by her belief in herself and the faith others had in her, Khadijah developed unbelievable tenacity to put herself into programs, stay in school, and ignored the taunts of the other students (you’re homeless, you can’t do this, etc., etc., etc.)
5. Help them create a better environment
Even though her mother and sister continue to live the homeless lifestyle, Khadijah has never blamed her relatives or her environment.
Yes. It’s a challenging business. But, you have skills the agents are hungry for. From these five points above, you can see the absolute power of the mentor. You have the ability to change people’s lives for the better!
Who/what inspires you? Let me know who and what inspires you and why by putting a comment on either of my blogs on this subject (1-2 paragraphs, please). Simply write a comment on the blog, telling me who and/or what inspires you.
Managers’ tip: Why not do this as an exercise with your agents? You’ll inspire them and re-light the fires of desire so they’ll be eager and enthusiastic to do what needs to be done to get back into the action.
How to Discover the ‘Red Flags’ in the Interview
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Do you use a planned, consistent interview process? If you do, you will easily discover those ‘red flag’ areas–those areas you must double-check to assure that candidate is qualified to work with you. If you don’t use a consistent interview process–when every interview is a ‘wing-it’ experience—you’re constantly thinking about what to do next. We can’t pay attention to those red flags which pop up and wave themselves in our faces. We’re seduced, too, by what we perceive as the candidate’s attractiveness for us, and we tend to ignore those red flags. If you’ve ever hired someone, and then discovered, that person had a ‘secret’ he kept from you in the interview, you know what I mean!
Methods to Discover those Very Important ‘Red Flags’
Here are some methods you can build into your interview process to avoid those costly hiring mistakes:
- Use an application consistently, or at least ask the candidate to answer some questions in writing (have all questionnaires approved by an attorney to assure they consist of legal questions)
- Ask the prospective candidate to complete some tasks prior to the interview, so you know if the are willing to make you ‘leader’ and learn from you
- Create a professional interview process you follow consistently*
- Create ‘behavioral predictor’ questions (questions based on their past) and practice those questions until you are a master at them
- Use a behavioral profile (like the DISC) to check your observations and learn more about the candidate. Learn how to ‘validate’ the behavioral profile with the candidate.
- Quit being in a hurry to hire every candidate, and choose those candidates more carefully. After all, they reflect your vision and values.
For a copy of my 8-step interview process, click here.
What a Systematized Interview Process Does for You
You will not only hire better candidates, you will avoid those awful ‘surprises’ after committing to that agent (and I’ve had some doozies, as you probably have had, too). You will gain the respect of your team, because you aren’t giving them a problem, but a solution. You will find hiring winners easier, because that candidate is judging your competency as an interviewer and leader at the same time you are judging that candidate’s appropriateness for your team.
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Another Leadership ‘Whack: Quit Calling your Agents your ‘Customers’
Posted by: | CommentsWhack: Toss the mantra ‘our agents are our customers’. The real customer is demanding we pay attention to them—or else.
Many brokers call their agents their ‘customers’. We thought that, by calling our agents our customers, we would please them, create loyalty and forge recruiting tools. This trend of calling agents ‘customers’ was a reaction to the old-style ‘father knows best’ management. Not a bad thought, but, unfortunately, too limiting. We assumed that, if we provided the services agents wanted, everything would be wonderful.
That thought process has sure gotten us into trouble. Why? Because we forgot that the person who actually pays commissions is called a ‘buyer’ or a ‘seller’—the end user. If the end user is unhappy, they vote with their feet. The result of our lack of focusing on the end user is plummeting commissions and alternative ‘agent-lite’ companies, relying much more on technology than personal service.
The bigger business world got it long ago. When is the last time you were asked about the level of service in a business you were using? I’ll bet you are asked at least once a week. The bigger world of business discovered long ago that they had to satisfy the needs of the consumer-and that those needs were escalating by the minute.
How do we put the real consumer first, providing the services that make them so happy they would never leave us?
Recommendations:
- Quit hiring non-committed agents. They simply will not do the work, create a business, and serve consumer needs to warrant a ‘generous’ commission
- Establish standards of production for your agents. What do you expect of them—and when?
- Accept that a low-producing agent cannot and does not provide excellent service—and the consumer knows that
- Pretend you are a consumer. Which of your agents would you want to work with? Which of your agents wouldn’t you want to buy a home from?
If your agents aren’t your customers, what are they? Perhaps partners, as one very successful franchise has termed them. You decide.
Get Real Leadership Strategies
Do you want to step into a better leadership style? Be more effective? Recruit more and better? I’ve created a very special, unique program for managers and owners: Once a month I share a specific leadershp strategy to recruit, choose, train, coach, and retain winners. These are proven strategies to get you out of a rut, take you past crisis management, and energize and inspire your team. See more at 365 Leadership. This new series closes for enrollment March 15. Find out more here.
Another ‘Whack’: The Market Won’t Motivate–You Must
Posted by: | CommentsIn this series, I’m sharing some ‘whacks up the side of the head’ for managers.
Whack: The market won’t as motivator anymore. You must provide an atmosphere to motivate.
Fear and greed are terrific short-term motivators, and the on-fire market furnished those generously. Fear of loss pushed buyers to make that buying decision or they would be left out. The market generously provided appreciation to sellers, so they could see the advantage of more money to sell now. (greed). The market provided the fear and greed motivators to agents, too. Now, the market isn’t pushing buying decisions. The market isn’t providing easy deals to agents. Guess what? The motivation finger has just been pointed to you! You must provide an atmosphere that motivates your agents to go to work. You are appreciating your agents. You are already encouraging them. If you’re not seeing changes in their production, you are leaving out the motivator the market used so effectively: fear.
A different way to use ‘fear’ as a short-term motivator. Don’t stop reading now. You don’t have to use that stern parent/dictator style of management. You don’t have to threaten. Instead, you must get skilled at creating, explaining, and implementing standards of production. Why? It’s a business. The market won’t motivate now. Consumers expect much better performance from agents than they are getting.
Standards as Motivators
Standards of production (minimum expectations) let your agents know what is expected of them to have the privilege of staying with you. They also create accountability for management. You must have programs that leap agents over your standards. If you don’t do this one, you are forever dependent on the whims of the market or the whims of your quasi-committed agents. Can you afford to let your business rely on those whims?
Recommendations:
a. Decide whether you’re a business or a baby-sitter. (harsh words, but, remember, these are ‘whacks’.)
b. Decide what is reasonable for you to expect—production-wise—from each of your agents (minimums).
c. Decide whether you deserve a certain level of excellence for all the hard work you do each day.
d. Implement production standards.
e. Look at your ‘agent development system’ and see where the holes are. For example: When do you expect them to start lead generating? If you expect that the first week in the business, when are you engaging them in a start-up plan? When do you start your coaching with them? One of the biggest mistakes managers make is letting agents sit around waiting for something good to happen to them—and it’s not going to happen as an accident in a transitioning or normal market.
Get a Leadership Strategy Every Month
Do you want to step into a better leadership style? Be more effective? Recruit more and better? I’ve created a very special, unique program for managers and owners: Once a month I share a specific leadershp strategy to recruit, choose, train, coach, and retain winners. These are proven strategies to get you out of a rut, take you past crisis management, and energize and inspire your team. See more at 365 Leadership. This new series closes for enrollment March 15. Find out more here.
A Third ‘Whack’: Father Knows Best Management Style is Out
Posted by: | CommentsIn this series, I’m sharing some ‘whack up the side of the head’ for managers. Here’s today’s whack: ‘Father knows best’ is so fifties old-style management.
In the fifties, ‘father knows best’ was the preferred management style. The CEO made the decisions. The agents, the workers, sold real estate. Unfortunately, too, many managers took that top-down management style clear to the doting parent extreme. When you act like the parent, guess what the agents are supposed to act like? The kids. That management style caused a rebellion from agents in the seventies, when they decided they ‘didn’t need a manager’ (a parent) and left the traditional ‘parental style’ management real estate offices for offices promising more independence.
The Extreme ‘Father’
Many managers have taken that parental management style to the extreme in a challenging market. I call this the ‘loving parent’ manager. The ‘loving manager’ dialogue sounds like this: “If I just love them enough they will come back and go to work. I feel sorry for them. I just need to be there for them because times are so tough.”
Unexpected results. There are, unfortunately, negative outcomes from this management style:
1. This style appeals to the non-producer. Loving your agents bleeds clear into sympathy, and sympathy encourages victimization. And victimization encourages non-action.
2. This style treats adults like little kids. When a three year old skins her knee, we kiss the knee to make it better, and put a cute little band-aid on it to comfort that three-year old. Why are we treating our agents like three-year olds?
3. This style drives producers crazy, lowers their production, and they ultimately leave. A recent study from The Ripple Effect, a Washington , D. C. management training and research firm, asked over 70,000 executives, managers and employees in 116 organizations what kind of impact underperformers were having on their workplaces? Eighty-seven percent said working with a slacker actually made them want to change jobs (retention issues, anyone?). Ninety-three percent said it had hampered their development or decreased their productivity.
Poor producers cause producers to produce less.
Poor producers cause good producers to leave.
Recommendations:
- Respect each agent as a responsible adult. Have an adult conversation with each agent. Ask that agent if he/she intends to work in real estate? Ask for a commitment to a work plan. After all, this is a business, not a love-fest!
- Move your ‘love them into business’ actions toward ‘business love’. Ask yourself: Is it fair that they work in the business to enjoy those commissions they want to earn? Is it fair to expect that they work even half as had as you work? Is it fair to expect that they keep honing their skills, keep getting better? Is it fair for you to expect them to invest in their businesses?
The irony of the ‘adult-style’ manager, foundationed in standards, is that it actually is the kinder of the management styles—by far. Why would we want to keep agents in careers where they were failing? Why would we want to provide sympathy instead of helping them create and implement a plan of action?
Leadership by the Month
Do you want to step into a better leadership style? Be more effective? Recruit more and better? I’ve created a very special, unique program for managers and owners: Once a month I share a specific leadershp strategy to recruit, choose, train, coach, and retain winners. These are proven strategies to get you out of a rut, take you past crisis management, and energize and inspire your team. See more at 365 Leadership. This new series closes for enrollment March 15. Find out more here.
Do You Have a Group or a Team?
Posted by: | CommentsThis January and February, I’m featuring the topic ‘leadership’. Why? Because it’s one of the biggest real estate industry trends (and probably world trends) of 2012 and beyond. Look for leadership strategies and trends (not just in the real estate industry), plus ready-to-use documents to go from ‘maintenance management’ to leadership. And, check out my complimentary recorded webinar for leadership. See more below, too.
A Group is Not a Team
So, you’ve got a group of people together in an office. They’re a team, right? Wrong. Until the leader orchestrates teaming, the group is just a group. Can’t associates start teams without the support of the manager? Sure, but the leader (who, I assume thinks he/she is the leader) can’t be assured that the team is going in the direction that’s best for everyone. (Prima donnas, anyone?) Reminds me of the saying, “Where are they going? How many of them were there? I must find them. I’m their leader….”
When a group of musicians gathers to play together, we first have to decide where we’re going–the tune we’ll play. We must decide what key it will be in, and what rhythm we’ll use. To make these decisions, we find ourselves starting to cooperate and compromise, to share the talents of each player. I’ve played in musical groups that obviously weren’t teaming–just getting through the tune. That’s no fun, and actually takes more energy than it’s worth. I’ve played in other groups that were so attuned to each other, that it the joy in creating became so infectious that we all played better than we knew we could. That’s when a team starts happening.
Creating Team Synergy
Without the synergy of the team feeling in an office, agents (and manager) spend too much energy just fighting to stay in business. Managers spend too much time with crisis management, constantly handling internal and external conflict. Working together toward common, inspiring goals, crisis management shrinks, while inspiring leadership blossoms. With teaming, agents and manager perform to higher standards than they thought they could. With consumer expectations so high today, it’s much safer, and a better way to reduce risk, to orchestrate methods where agents are working together for the best interests of the consumer. That takes teaming.
Taking another look at ‘teams’ in the real estate office. There are three reasons why the industry should redefine teams–and use them:
1. The public is pressuring real estate companies to be accountable to them. When they call a manager, they want to know “who is supervising that agent?” Risks could be reduced greatly by agents working more closely together for the good of the consumer–and much more return business, at low cost, could be generated.
2. The industry is changing too quickly for managers or agents to keep up ‘on their own’. Too much information too fast– on our own, we simply can’t process and prioritize this information sufficiently well to compete in the future. Agents who have been extremely independent are finding out that the isolation they thought they treasured is leaving them behind the learning curve.
3. The business world internationally is using new combinations of teams to manage their new work force–the values of Generation X and Y. With more workers staying home to work, or working in a ‘mobile office, the most successful businesses in the world are finding that innovative teams solve the problems of ‘culturizing’ and sharing vision. As real estate offices hire more of these people, they must change their management strategies to fit the style of the Generation X and Yers, who value education, information, and teamwork.
Translating teams to the real estate office. One of the biggest concerns of real estate companies today is raising the productivity of their agents. Those of us in performance fields know that raising performance comes from associating–working with–the best. Creatively orchestrating people working together is the best way to enhance performance.
What’s your take on teamwork and the real estate industry? Have you had success creating a team?
Teamwork: Is the Team Concept Up to Date or Obsolete?
Posted by: | CommentsThis January and February, I’m featuring the topic ‘leadership’. Why? Because it’s one of the biggest real estate industry trends (and probably world trends) of 2012 and beyond. Look for leadership strategies and trends (not just in the real estate industry), plus ready-to-use documents to go from ‘maintenance management’ to leadership. And, check out my complimentary recorded webinar for leadership. See more below, too.
Yes, we real estate professionals are independent. We go into real estate to “be our own bosses”. We love to be “on our own”. In fact, in some offices, it’s become fashionable to say “we don’t need a team. We’re all entirely independent.” This shift to ‘on your own’ correlates to a shift in management from the autocratic style of twenty years ago (I’m the boss–follow the rules here), to the “operations” manager of today–providing the physical needs to work, and leaving the responsibility for the emotional needs of associates to someone else.
Which Way is the Shift Going Now?
Is the shift continuing? Is it good for the industry? Is it good for you, the individual salesperson? Should you isolate yourself from others to get the job done? Or, are we, by rejecting the idea of teamwork, working ourselves toward extinction? Perhaps successful businesses internationally have some value to us when it comes to this question. They see innovative ‘teaming’ as critical to their success in the twenty-first century. Lest we real estate professionals miss what may be a critical strategy for us, let’s take another look at ‘teamwork’.
Owners Reject the ‘Team’ Concept
What do owners think about the ‘teamwork’ concept: When I was teaching a CRB (Certified Real Estate Broker) course on teamwork, I had some very interesting reactions and comments from students. About an hour into the course, a woman drew me aside, and told me that her company didn’t believe in teamwork. It was against the “culture”. She told me she hated teams. I was stunned at her vehemence, and found it hard to concentrate on the rest of the day’s curriculum. In addition, I had just rebuilt an office from “failing miserably” to spectacular, using teaming concepts.
What Did She Really Mean?
I asked myself, “Why did she have some an adverse reaction to that word?” Then, I remembered what she looked like, and had one of those ‘ahas’–those blinding flashes of the obvious. Remember when, in grade school, you picked sides for Red Rover Come Over? The good-looking athletic kids got picked first. The others shyly waited, anxiously hoping they wouldn’t be last, or worse yet, be the one the teacher ‘helped’: “Put Johnny on your side, please.” As I thought about those situations, all those depressive feelings came flooding back. No wonder that manager hated teams! In this time of lightning fast change, our emotions can stop us from investigating ideas that frighten us. Yet, it may be the very idea that you need for your business. As you continue reading, keep an open mind about this ‘team’ idea. It may be exactly what’s been missing in your moving from “just okay” to spectacular.
What a Team Isn’t
First, in the real estate industry, let’s clarify what we don’t mean today when we say ‘teams’. We don’t mean a bunch of people all being “pumped up”by a manager (or a salespeople, when you’re managing your own team), who resembles the cheerleader of the past. We don’t necessarily mean all the people in the office on one team at once. We don’t mean a lock-step mentality where one loses one’s independence. What we do mean is combining the talents of individuals so that we experience much more meaningful business lives.
A Definition of a Team 
A team is two or more people working on a meaningful task for a commonly shared goal, of common benefit to both or all members of the team. A team works well when the expertise of two or more people are more effective and efficient than each person working on his own. Because I’m a musician, I know the importance of teamwork in a musical ensemble. When I’m playing jazz piano with a bassist and a drummer, I must feel confident that we’re all together in this, that we’ll be sensitive to each other’s strengths and challenges, in harmony to produce the best version of that tune possible. There must be great interdependence on the talents of each of us, when such a goal is at stake. Yet, there’s great independence in the improvisations that we each bring to the tune. In the best team atmosphere, both interdependence and independence is nurtured and appreciated.
Do you have a team? Or, do you just have a group? In the next blog, we’ll explore the differences.
Leadership Strategies By the Month
Do you want to step into a better leadership style? Be more effecctive? Recruit more and better? I’ve created a very special, unique program for managers and owners: Once a month I share a specific leadershp strategy to recruit, choose, train, coach, and retain winners. These are proven strategies to get you out of a rut, take you past crisis management, and energize and inspire your team. See more at 365 Leadership. This new series closes for enrollment March 15. Find out more here.
Turning your Leadership Style Upside Down for more Effectiveness
Posted by: | CommentsThis January and February, I’m featuring the topic ‘leadership’. Why? Because it’s one of the biggest real estate industry trends (and probably world trends) of 2012 and beyond. Look for leadership strategies and trends (not just in the real estate industry), plus ready-to-use documents to go from ‘maintenance management’ to leadership. And, check out my complimentary recorded webinar for leadership. See more below, too.
Is your leadership style ‘tell them what to do and expect them to do it’? It seems so easy. You’re the chairperson or manager. Just take charge, tell people what to do, and they’ll do it. NOT. It’s just not that simple. At least, it’s not that simple unless systems are already in place and people on the committee know what their tasks are.
Seven Truisms about Effective Participative Leadership
It’s not enough today to be good at a traditional leadershp style. In fact, you have to really ‘turn your leadership style’ upside down to become effective. You must become a ‘participative’ leader. Here are seven truisms to help you flex your natural style toward more participation from your team members.
Truism #1: New chairpeople don’t know what’s expected of them
Just because people accept the title it doesn’t mean they know how to proceed with the job. Most people have never chaired a committee, so they don’t have the skills. It’s especially challenging when it’s a new task. They need to have clear direction, a job description, job responsibilities, and exactly who to go to when the job doesn’t get done.
Truism #2: People don’t know HOW to get it done
Even when people know what to do, they don’t usually have checklists, systems, deadlines, and assignments to get it done; it doesn’t work to leave it to a person (95% of the time, the other 5% will figure it out on their own) to decide how to get the job done.
Truism #3: Myth: “Leaders are the “idea people” and aren’t supposed to get into implementation (someone else will figure out how to get the work done)
When leaders say that, they immediately put others into the “secretary” mode. Their mentality is, someone else beneath them should be able to figure out how to get that done. That’s a secretarial or assistant’s job, isn’t it? But, your committee members don’t work for you. They work with you. You can’t expect someone to raise his hand and offer to be your assistant because you came up with the idea.
Truism #4: Verbal-type people resist processes and systems
There is a natural resistance in us (maybe especially in we verbal-type people) to organizing processes and systems. We love to talk about the idea. We don’t like to clarify exactly how that idea gets into process.
Truism #5: We ‘big idea’ people think we can delegate systemization to an assistant
Having worked with assistants for over 15 years, I have found that not true. Assistants need help in systemizing any process that YOU want done. They are good at systemizing their own processes–but not good at all at systemizing ours!
Truism #6: Leaders know committees take most of their time REPORTING to the larger group, not deciding on issues or processes
A mistake that committees make is to try to design processes within the large committee meeting. Instead, create task forces to report back quickly to you.
Truism #7: When accountability factors aren’t built in, things don’t get done.
This is a dicey issue, because you’re working with volunteers. Or, in the case of a real estate company, with independent contractors. At the same time, your association or business also expects the services and programs you promised. There’s a great difference between “do it the way you want” and expecting results and “do it the way you want” and let’s check how it’s going regularly.
Sharpening Your Participative Leadership Skills
What truisms do you want to add from your experiences in leadership? What do you see of yourself in these truisms? How can these help you lead? What needs to be done in your leadership position to gain greater skills? These skills are learned over time, and the pay-off is an association or business that is ‘owned’ by all those involved, with empowerment assured.
Leadership Strategies By the Month
Do you want to step into a better leadership style? Be more effecctive? Recruit more and better? I’ve created a very special, unique program for managers and owners: Once a month I share a specific leadershp strategy to recruit, choose, train, coach, and retain winners. These are proven strategies to get you out of a rut, take you past crisis management, and energize and inspire your team. See more at 365 Leadership. This new series closes for enrollment March 15. Find out more here.
What Leaders Do Differently from Managers
Posted by: | CommentsThis January, I’m featuring the topic ‘leadership’. Why? Because it’s one of the biggest real estate industry trends (and probably world trends) of 2012 and beyond. Look for leadership strategies and trends (not just in the real estate industry), plus ready-to-use documents to go from ‘maintenance management’ to leadership. And, check out my complimentary webinar on Jan. 30 on leadership, trends, and what you should do about it! See more at the end of this blog.
In my last post, we talked about the differences in management–specifically maintenance management–and leadership. Now, let’s look at the specific things leaders do to move offices ahead. After I list them, ask yourself, “Would I describe myself as a leader–or a manager?”
What Leaders Do
It’s easy to say you are a leader. But, how do you know you really are? Here are several actions leaders take. After all, we can’t judge people from what they say. We must judge them from what they do.
1. Leaders initiate new programs that move them closer to their vision.
2. Leaders enlist others prior to starting a new program, to assure the whole team has input, judgement, and ‘buy in’.
3. Leaders look at their planners, and evaluate whether they started something new that week or month. Did they start something that was innovative, creative, fun, and team-enlisting? Was it connected to their vision and goals?
4. Leaders do specific actions that solve problems. For example, in my new series, 365 Leadership, I will provide specific strategies, with all the guidance and documents to implement them–one strategy per month. One of these strategies is the Listing Presentation Play-offs. What problem does this solve? The problem of unskilled agents taking over-priced listings. It also changes the culture of the company from ‘we take anything’ to ‘we are professionals who act in the best interests of sellers’.
5. Leaders don’t rest on their laurels. They don’t believe they ever ‘have it made’.
Look at 365 Leadership to see the topics that we address. There’s still time to become a part of this group. I’m excited to provide 12 new, immediately doable strategies for you. It’s low-cost (both the series and the strategies) and it will move you into leadership and toward profitability.
What do you think the difference between management and leadership is? How do you know you’re a leader?
Complimentary Leadership/Management Webinar
Join me on Jan. 30, from 1-2 PM PST for Leverage the Top Trends for Profits in 2012. We will explore the top real estate business trends for 2012 and beyond–and I will provide you specific strategies to not only manage to those trends, but to thrive because of them. This is a complimentary webinar. Space is limited, so register today.
Jan. 30
Time: 1-2 PM PST
To register: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/306755846
The Changing Face of Real Estate Leadership
Posted by: | CommentsThis January, I’m featuring the topic ‘leadership’. Why? Because it’s one of the biggest real estate industry trends (and probably world trends) of 2012 and beyond. Look for leadership strategies and trends (not just in the real estate industry), plus ready-to-use documents to go from ‘maintenance management’ to leadership. And, check out my complimentary webinar on Jan. 30 on leadership, trends, and what you should do about it! See more at the end of this blog.
Check at the end of these blogs for those ready-to-use documents and checklists to put these ideas to work.
The guidelines of effective leadership have changed dramatically in the last thirty years. Top-down decision-making is out; participative leadership is in. Having no standards is out; standards-driven leadership is in. Everyone doing their own thing is out; mutual accountability and teamwork is in. Yet, as I look at real estate offices nationally, I see most leaders still leading as though it was 1970—or earlier.
In fact, a new book by Morris and Murray, Game Plan: How Real Estate Professionals Can Thrive in Uncertain Times, names Need for Leadership as one of the trends for 2012 and beyond. Get this book. You’ll find some trends predictable–but some are not.
Compare and contrast. Let’s look at four principles of effective leadership today. These principles have been proven effective again and again by huge companies internationally. They should be embraced by the real estate industry, which badly needs effective leadership in this challenging time:
- Vision-lead: Few companies have an articulated vision that’s shared by all in the company. Fewer yet have leaders who have the fortitude to ‘do the right thing’ (as stated in their vision), even if it means turning down a deal.
Example: When is the last time you saw a manager fire a top producer who acted unethically? How do managers treat customer complaints—especially if it’s against a top producer? (Ask agents if they feel managers unfairly favor the top producers. Boy, will you get an earful!) In too many cases, the ‘leader’ isn’t leading. The big loser long term: The company, because agents are de-motivated when they feel there is not a level playing field, and consumers will seek out new companies if they feel their complaints are not handled seriously. (read Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, Porras and Collins, for stunning examples of vision-integrated companies.)
- Everyone is involved in the decisions: This is participative leadership, and it’s the leadership style that is best suited to our real estate industry. After all, with independent contractors, we need strong organizational structures to pull people together. What percent of real estate companies have effective leadership councils, one of the attributes of participative leadership? In my teaching, I’ve found about 2%. What this means it that the vast majority of agents don’t feel it’s ‘their company’, they don’t feel empowered, and they aren’t very loyal. I will be writing blogs about participative leadership in January, so watch for them.
Leaders will be those who empower others. Empowering leadership means
bringing out the energy and capabilities people have and getting them to work
together in a way they wouldn’t do otherwise.
—Bill Gates, fellow Washingtonian, founder of Microsoft
As you read articles and books on leadership, you will find every successful company today has turned its hierarchical leadership upside down and/or flattened it to become inclusive, participative, and as some people term it– ‘spiderweb’. (read The Female Advantage, Sally Helgesen).
3. Standards-driven: During my presentation at a recent National Association of Realtors’ Convention, I asked attendees if they had productivity standards (minimum expectations) in their companies. Out of 200 attendees, three raised their hands. No wonder agents don’t believe they must be ‘on the team’, pulling their own weight in production.
In a recent study by The Ripple Effective of Negativity Leadership IQ, 87% of the 70,305 executives, managers, and employees interviewed said working with a slacker actually made them want to change jobs; 93% said it hampered their development or decreased their productivity. So, without standards, real estate leaders are de-motivating their good performers!
Here’s what Roy Disney says about effective leadership, from the New Leadership Paradigm:
Leadership is the ability to establish standards and manage a creative climate where people are self-motivated toward the mastery of long-term constructive goals in a participatory environment of mutual respect compatible with personal values.
4. Mutual accountability: Creating a participative environment suggests that everyone must be accountable to their goals. It’s just amazing that managers are frustrated by agents’ lack of business plans and accountability. Yet, as I coach managers, I find that many in each organization don’t feel they need to be accountable to their recruiting goals. (In fact, only about 2% have written recruiting plans!). In addition, owners have not hired and coached them to standards, so the managers just want to ‘leave that part out’!
What is the result of this leadership paradigm switch? A real team, a team with a common goal. Why is it in the real estate industry’s best interests to adapt to this participative leadership style? To preserve the industry, maintain commissions, add ‘pride in belonging’ back to the real estate company, and, most important of all, put the consumer first, where he belongs!
Do you have the attributes of a ‘change leader’? Click here.
In an earlier post, I talked about the 3 things change leaders do to impact the industry. See how you stack up here.
Complimentary Leadership/Management Webinar
Join me on Jan. 30, from 1-2 PM PST for Leverage the Top Trends for Profits in 2012. We will explore the top real estate business trends for 2012 and beyond–and I will provide you specific strategies to not only manage to those trends, but to thrive because of them. This is a complimentary webinar. Space is limited, so register today.
Jan. 30
Time: 1-2 PM PST
To register: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/306755846
Leading with these 4 ‘change leadership’ attributes assures a future, thriving business.