Archive for Team building
Are You a ‘Change’ Leader?
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.
Leadership: It’s REALLY Big for 2012
According to authors Ian Morris and Steve Murray, leadership is one of the big trends of 2012 and beyond. In fact, to read their take on 10 big trends, grab Game Plan: How Real Estate Professionals Can Thrive in Uncertain Times . In fact, I think leadership is in such a crisis state (think companies, politics, families, etc.) that I created a 12-part subscription series for real estate owners, managers, and team builders. In 365 Leadership, I provide one new leadership strategy per month, with everything subscribers need to put that strategy right to work (low or no cost and workable for the 5 person or the 500 person office). I know how difficult it is to go from maintenance to leadership (and especially so, because the majority of managers and owners now also sell!). So, I want to make it as easy as possible to step into effective leadership.
Needed today: A Special Kind of Leader
I think we would all agree that leadership is desperately needed in the real estate industry. I read a book several years ago titled Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers (I also highly recommend it). In it, authors Kriegel and Brandt show why people resist change, and the kind of leadership it takes to move people off dead-center into new actions. Isn’t that what’s needed in business today? Not ‘maintenance management’ but leadership. (I’ll write more about the differences in another blog). The authors introduced the concept of a ‘change leader’. So, what’s a ‘change leader’?
An individual who leads initiatives that influence others to perform differently–and better.
If you’re an owner or general manager, you need this ‘change manager’ in your organization. If you’re an agent, you’ll want to look for a ‘change leader’ to help you adjust to the rapidly changing real estate industry. How would you identify one? Find a leader who leads the way great leaders of businesses internationally today are leading.
Change Leader Attributes
Commitment to a better way
Personal initiative to go beyond defined boundaries
Stay undercover (stay close to the everyday business)
Sense of humor
Courage to challenge existing power bases
Motivate themselves and others
Care about how people are treated and enabled to perform
Change leaders believe in:
Tough standards of performance
Joint accountability
Democratic principles to tap creative power
Even though the real estate industry cries for ingenuity and creativity, compared to other businesses, it has been slow to change the way it does business. Allowing ‘change leaders’ to come forward and thrive is vital for the very existence of our industry–and, of course, vital for a bright future.
In my next blogs, I’ll be talking about how to implement these attributes of change leadership.
Do you have the attributes and actions of a ‘change leader’? Take the questionnaire I created for you. Click 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
Three Strategies to Get Your Agents to Create Business Plans
Posted by: | CommentsIn November and December, I’m focusing on business planning, to help you and your agents get a great business plan for next year. Look for checklists, processes, and systems ready to use, too.
I know it’s a lot of work to get your agents to commit to paper on anything. And, from working with thousands of agents on business planning over the years, I know the challenges. But, for us managers, the huge pay-off comes not from what’s on paper, what, what’s in the head. When we use a good business planning process we literally teach agents how to think through their businesses.
Three Huge Stealth Strategies
1. Take Away Commitment Phobia
It’s estimated we are told ‘no’ 148,000 times prior to age eighteen. No wonder we don’t want to commit to try anything! I know from teaching adults to play the piano, that adults are conditioned not to try anything new for fear of not being perfect. To many, writing a business plan means planning to fail—and then getting punished for it.
So, the first time you introduce business planning, take away the old downside of goal setting (not reaching it and getting punished), and help your agents move in incremental steps forward—a step at a time, with lots of positive reinforcement along the way. You have to create a safe haven for first-time planners.
2. Eat the Elephant a Bite at a Time
One of the agents in an office where I just did a small group coaching series told me he put a picture of an elephant on the wall, and then literally divided the elephant into bite-sized pieces, with an action step listed on each bite. What a wonderful visual! For many of your agents, planning is just the most overwhelming process they could envision. So, simply start with one or two areas. Personally, I start with 2-3 areas in the Review. See my next blog for an example of this.
3. Make it Really Easy to Start
Have a great business planning system to provide your agents. (Never just ask them to make a business plan without a system to follow, because you’ll get all kinds of formats). Don’t overwhelm your agents with too many planning pages to start. Customize your package with each agent. If you can get each agent to look at 1-3 areas of his business, and plan change strategies for a better year in that area, you’ll have started the process—a process that will continue, grow, and reap big benefits by year three.
We Do What We See, Not What We are Told
Do you have a business plan? If not, why should your agents be interested ? Making your ‘stealth’ approach work means you must lead by example. Doing so creates a synergy between your plan and all the agents’ plans, and builds a strength that perseveres even in the toughest market.
What should be in an agent’s business planning system? Click here to see a ‘flow chart’.
Complimentary Webinar for Managers
If you’re stumped as to how to get your agents to create business plans, you need to attend this webinar. If you want more teamwork and loyalty, you need to tune in. I’ll show you how I got 100% of my agents to write good business plans, and how I used those plans to coach and consult all year, building my office to #1 in a 19 office company–the strongest company at that time in the Northwest.
Managers: Get Every Agent to Build a Business Plan–and Build a Great office Plan
When: Dec. 1
Time: 1-2 PM, Pacific Standard Time
Space is limited, so register now. Click here to register.
Are You Sure That Agent is Really your Best Producer?
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Are you sure he (or she) is really your best producer?
We managers are frequently asked to ‘quartile’ our team, or evaluate our team members–to somehow rate the salespeople with us. Usually, we just start with the highest producer and work downward. But, is your highest producer your best producer?
‘Weigh’ Your Team Members Using your Values
When I was teaching CRB (Council of Real Estate Brokerage Management) courses nationally, I frequently heard the comment, “My top agent is not a team player.” Brokers complained their top agent didn’t represent the best in the company. So, the question is, “Is that really your top agent? Maybe not.
Your mission should define your rating system. Bring out your vision or your mission statement. What values do you hold dear? Do you say that your salespeople are ‘team players’? Do they provide exceptional customer service? Have they committed to a long-term career? Is one of your values that each member is contributive?
Develop a Weighing System for Accurate Evaluation
Let’s say that your five top values are:
Production
Team player
Customer Service
Longevity
Company contribution
Assign a range of 1 to 4 points to each value (4 is the highest score). Finally, score each agent in each of the five areas. Now, list your agents, starting with the highest cumulative score.
Why Values-Based Ratings are Important
Your values define you and your company, both within and with your clients. When you tout the ‘highest producer’ you are inadvertently endorsing that set of values as the values most important to you. Unfortunately, what we wish for we frequently get! In this day in age where the consumer is wary of ‘salespeople’, it’s time to define, rate, and reward your salespeople with the values you treasure. You’ll change the culture of your company for the better, and start hiring to the profile you really want.
Question: What do you think are the reasons managers ‘elevate’ someone as a top producer, even though he/she doesn’t represent the stated vision and values of the company?
Do you know what your prioritized vision and values really are? It’s a very important component of your business plan. Find out more in Business Planning for the Owner, Manager, and Team Builder. This program is endorsed and recommended by the Council of Real Estate Brokers (CRB). Click here to find out more.
Four Strategies to Build Leadership on your Real Estate Team
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In my last blog, I talked about the importance of building teamwork in a real estate company. It’s back! But, how do we do it? One of the important ways to build teamwork is to build leadership in the team. Why? Because, a great team is more than the sum of its parts. It consists of leaders in practice.
For Owners, Managers, Trainers, and Agents
If you’re an owner, manager, trainer, or agent who wants to build a team, you need these strategies. Otherwise, you’ll only be supervising workers. Here are the truisms about how people work, and the strategies to developing leadership with the people who work with you:
Truism #1: People don’t know what’s expected of them. Just because people accept a position doesn’t mean they know how to proceed with the job.
Strategy: They need to have clear direction, a job description and a firm understanding of the responsibilities–prioritized. Do you have a job description for each of your team positions? Do you provide it prior to hiring? Do you coach to it? Do you help your team members get so good at it that they can start training new team members (move into leadership)?
Truism #2: People don’t know WHAT to do to get the job done. Even if you hire someone who has real estate experience, it doesn’t work to leave it to them to figure what exactly needs to be done—from your point of view. They don’t know your priorities. They don’t know how you work.
Strategy: Provide them the processes and systems they need to succeed. Do you have processes and systems in place to teach them exactly what needs to be done?
Truism #3: Most people will struggle with the ‘how’.
Strategy: It’s your job to teach them HOW. Some people think “leaders” are the “idea people” and aren’t supposed to get into implementation. But if you want your team to excel, you must show them how.
Having worked with assistants for over 15 years, I have found that assistants and team members need help in systemizing any process that you want done. They need help in developing dialogues to deal with affiliates and consumer in the way you expect. They are good at systemizing their own processes–but not good at all at systemizing ours! Help them.
Do you have foundational systems in place from which to improvise? Do you have a solid training program to bring a new team member on board? Do you a method to ‘clone’ yourself to develop someone who can take over your job?
Truism #4: When accountability factors aren’t built in, things don’t get done. 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”.
Strategy: Hold your team members accountable for each step along the way to completion of a task as well as the end result.
The pay-off for developing competency and leadership skills in all of your team members is a business that is ‘owned’ by all those involved, with empowerment assured.
Vince Lombardi, one of the greatest football coaches of all time, said of teamwork, “Teamwork is the primary ingredient of success.”
Your goals is to develop processes, systems, and training for your team members to bring them into a leadership mentality with you, so you can delegate more responsibilities and finally replace yourself!
Want leadership actions you can put immediately into practice with confidence? Take a look at my subscription series for anyone who wants to step further into leadership: 365 Leadership. You’ll get one leadership action per month that you can put to work in your real estate office. Read what attendees are saying about the program at 365 Leadership. Join us. It’s profitable and it’s fun–and it’s very affordable!
TEAM is No Longer a Four-Letter Word in Real Estate
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TEAM is no longer a four-letter word. The importance and implementation of leadership through teamwork and synergy is back in style in the real estate industry.
You may be a real estate manager, an owner or a team builder—an agent with assistants, buyers’ agents, and sellers’ agents. You may have heard, or believed, in the past, that real estate is an independent business. You don’t need to work with anyone. You’re on your own. Guess again.
In the past few years, the concept of TEAM has come back into vogue. Why? Because we’ve gotten more sophisticated in business. We realize that no one succeeds alone. We understand now that people working together create something more substantial than a sum of the parts.
TEAM Trend in Business and in Real Estate
In addition, with the challenges in the business, we finally get that many minds focused on the same task can accomplish much more than each person working as his own little island. Supporting this trend, strong company cultures have emerged which encourage and reward teamwork instead of solely independent achievement.
Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “People acting together as a group can accomplish things which no individual acting alone could ever hope to bring about.”
Do You Have a Team–or Just a Group?
If you’ve ever played on a sports team, you know the chaos that ensues when every player tries to be the star—to go her own way. That’s not a team. That’s a group. You may also know the joy of playing on a team that shares a common focus and commitment to excellence. What a difference!
Talking About It is a Slam-Dunk
It’s much easier to talk about teamwork than to create a team. One of the reasons is that most of us have never worked as a team before. I certainly can’t say I worked in real estate sales as a team. Rather, my first experiences in great teams, and then leading teams–comes from the world of music. I’ve created and led teams as a jazz musician. I’ve played in exceptional orchestras (I’m a flutist). I’ve seen conductors pull together one hundred disparate, temperamental, independent musicians as an inspiring team. (It’s a lot like managing a real estate office!).
It’s Not Just About Developing YOU as a Leader
You may think that, as a leader, your job is to find team members that will work well together. That’s true, as far as it goes. But, your ultimate job is to train and coach those team members to start doing some of the leadership jobs you’ve done. That way, you can keep moving to higher levels of leadership. You can expand and sell your business.
One of the Differences Between Group and Team
One of the differences between leading a group and leading a team is that, in a successful team, team members also become leaders, and think like leaders, looking out for the good of the team, not just for themselves, In other words,
leaders develop leadership on their team.
Otherwise, leaders are not really leading. They’re managing—or micro-managing. From developing leadership over a couple of decades, I’ve found four major truisms for developing your team with strong internal leadership. In the next blog, we’ll investigate each of these four major truisms. Identifying these helps you create dynamic teams that can operate without our micro-managing them. What freedom!
My question to you now: Do you believe you’re creating and managing a group, or a team? How do you know?
Want leadership actions you can put immediately into practice with confidence? Take a look at my subscription series for anyone who wants to step further into leadership: 365 Leadership. You’ll get one leadership action per month that you can put to work in your real estate office. Read what attendees are saying about the program at 365 Leadership. Join us. It’s profitable and it’s fun–and it’s very affordable!
Three Leadership Principles Orchestra Conductors Taught Me
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In my previous blog, I introduced the idea that leading an orchestra is very much like leading a group of real esetate agents. In fact, it’s fascinating to me, as a life-long flutist, how much dissension, individuality, and insistence on ‘going their own way’ orchestral players exhibit. They are often portrayed in the press as we managers think of leading agents. Getting them to all agree, in both groups, is like herding cats!
Transferable Leadership Lessons Learned
There are three important lessons we can learn from the great orchestral conductors about leading for a prodctive, focused atmosphere with common values:
1. To get into the orchestra is a privilege; you must audition. Each player must meet certain standards if the orchestra is to succeed as a whole. So, selection is key to top performance. That means, to the real estate manager, that we must be selective and set standards for hiring, so that the person hired will fit well into our common focus. If we hire Bill, Sally, and George, and them segregate them, we fracture our focus, and create a negative atmosphere that makes it extremely difficult for our new associate to perform well.
2. Before the conductor allows the orchestra to play the piece together, each person and then each section must practice to perfect their parts. Musicians know perfect practice insures perfect performance. When we finally put all the parts and sections together, we also experience
the whole as greater than the sum of the parts.
In the business world, we call the results of this practice method ‘teamwork’ and ‘synergy’. How does a real estate manager accomplish this in his office? By establishing a strong, comprehensive new agent training program, focused on practice and performance, not focused on knowledge. The training program is the ‘music’, complete with the values and concepts that are endorsed in that real estate office. Each member agrees to and is trained that way.
3. The ‘first chair’ leader (the best player) has great responsibility for the teamwork and focus of his section. He is charged with assuring his section plays as one and that each player plays well so all players benefit. On solo parts, he can shine, but he still needs to play within the framework of his section and of the whole orchestra. This creates a win-win for all in the ensemble.
The first chair must be a consummate leader. There are actually many wonderful virtuosos who can’t play in orchestras, because they aren’t team players. They want to ‘play it their way’—and their way is not the orchestra’s way. Kind of like a real estate office, except, brokers, unlike conductors, many times allow solo performers in their offices even if they aren’t team players!
What’s Wrong with ‘Doing Their Own Thing?’
Brokers tell me that their top agent ‘does her own thing’. I hear them say that she is ‘not a team player’, but she does make them lots of money. Oh, really? So, in what orchestra is that top agent playing? Obviously, not yours! The lack of common focus and endorsement of maverick behavior by top producers only shatters any teamwork and shared values the broker is attempting to instill in his group.
Make Up Your Mind
If you want a team, create one with an all-winner group. Banish your maverick player to someone else’s orchestra. The result: More production from your ‘section’ players, more teamwork, more common focus, and a more pleasant job for you!
The Clues: How to Teamify your Office for More Profits
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You’ve decided you want to move into the world of participative management, and create a real team. How do you start? Here are some great resources.
Start reading books on visionary leadership and team building. One the best is Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, Porras and Collins, Harper Business. For a quick read, choose Ken Blanchard’s High Five: The Magic of Working Together. Author Jon R. Katzenbach has several recent books on teams, too. Pay attention when successful leaders in other industries talk about how they “teamified” their associates using vision, values, participation through advisory groups and rewards for common focusing such as profit sharing.
Lots of Clues on the Sports Pages
Read the sports pages. Ask yourself, “Why is that person considered a good coach? Why did that person fail? How did that person get a bunch of highly gifted, undisciplined athletes to stop playing as individual stars and start playing like a team? Why do some “teams” fail with more gifted athletes than the team who wins with less individual gifts and more team play?
Leaders Build True Teams
I don’t believe that teams fail. I believe that leaders fail to build true teams. The main reason leaders fail is because they don’t know how to be team leaders. They have never experienced being on an effective team of any kind or being led by an effective leader. So when they call it a “team,” it’s merely a group. They say they want team play, but instead they reward individual play. They ask for cooperation and fair play, but when a dispute arises, those values fly out the door so that the higher producer is “protected” by management. They say they manage by a value system, but what is it—and where is it? In reality, they manage by expediency.
How to Recognize a Team
To recognize a real estate team, you will see evidence that:
- Individuals give up some self-interest for the good of everyone, e.g., no one steals leads or bad-mouths team members to sales associates or the community to get the upper hand.
- Your leadership council makes win-win decisions, not win-lose ones. An example of win-lose would be a decision in which sales associates win, management loses.
- Team members are accountable to a common goal, e.g., each team member agrees to sell a certain number of homes to support team goals.
- New team members are highly supported and encouraged to set goals and achieve them. For example, no team member joins an office where they must “prove themselves” alone to get any attention.
- Systems exist that support teamwork such as advisory councils, task forces, and a business plan that mirrors the vision and values of the team.
- Team rewards exist such as like profit sharing.
Why Bother?
Why bother to learn the leadership skills required to create a team? Because, it’s more rewarding—both financially and emotionally. I’m a flutist, and I can tell you there’s a much greater synergy in playing a flute concerto with an orchestra than in playing a flute solo—alone—or even with a piano accompaniment. Learn the skills of teamwork, for, in the next decade, trend watchers tell us that teamwork in the workplace is critical to profitability. It’s even true in real estate.
Want to get specific strategies, that you can immediately implement, to build your team with confidence, take a look at 365 Leadership. It’s a small-group coaching program ONLY for owners and managers. Each month, you’ll get a new leadership strategy to recruit, coach, train, and motivate your associates. You’ll build new structures to get out of that old ‘top down’ management that agents hate! Take a look at 365 Leadership and see what others think of the first program. Our next program starts in September.
You deserve the kind of coaching and support to take your management career to the next level!
Building your Team: Start with the End in Mind
Posted by: | CommentsWhy bother to re-structure your leadership style to build a true team? Because you’ll recruit more and retain better
. Bottom line: more profits.
To build a team: Start with the end in mind. Today, teamwork will exist only when there is a common vision in the office—a vision created by leadership.
Is That Vision Strong?
Ask yourself: Do you have stated values and a vision of where you want to be at the end? Is that vision inspiring? Has the team adopted the vision, is the team energized about it, and is the team working together toward it? This is one of the things we work on in 365 Leadership, our small-group coaching program with a new leadership strategy every month.
Ensure the Team Is in Tune
Are you sure your team is a ‘team’? Or, is it just a group that you work into a frenzy once in awhile? It’s difficult for us to tell, if we’ve never been in a real team. Let me use a musical analogy to try to explain how a team sounds and feels.
I play piano in a jazz group. I’m the leader. So, before I call a tune, I have to start with a vision—a clear idea of how I want a particular tune to sound. I have to pick the tune, hear the rhythm in my head, get the feel, review the structure and decide on the parts I want the members to play—all before I call the tune to my jazz members. Then I’d better be sure everyone in that group agrees to the terms and conditions of that vision before we start—or it’s going to sound like a mess! I’ve actually called tunes and had band members say they couldn’t play the tune in that rhythm. I’ve hired jazz members who wanted to play their own version of the tune–rather than our version! Better to know it before beginning, or else the band doesn’t sound like one band—it sounds like three players each choosing a different tune.
Building a Team is Easier if you Have a Model
Great and profitable companies (outside of real estate) today have visions that fire up their associates to have a sense of meaning and accomplishment. This creates a teamwork atmosphere. Think England’s The Body Shop, which sells personal care products. Soap doesn’t fire up those employees, their environmental causes do.
Recommended reading: Read the best business book of all time (my opinion): Build to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, by Porras and Collins. There are dozens of stories and quotes about visionary companies.
Commit to a Common Focus
So you have enlisted your team members in a common vision. Now, how do you get everyone’s commitment? By helping team members determine what’s in it for them. You will hear a sports star say, “It didn’t matter if I scored 50 points. We lost the game.” If that person were not a team player, it wouldn’t matter if the team won or lost.
Accountability is Key
First, build in accountability. Each team member must have a defined role, with responsibility to perform that role well. We in the real estate industry have really fallen down on that one. We don’t require much of anything from our team members. Still, we call them a “team.” What if the Los Angeles Lakers had no defined roles and no accountability for players to master their roles? They wouldn’t have won a championship!
What would be examples of accountability?
- Being accountable for your goals to a “peer partner.”
- Being accountable for your goals to your manager.
- Being accountable for some training for your associates.
Reward Team Play
Second, reward team play. Behavior that’s rewarded is repeated. What do we reward in real estate? Individual sales achievements. If we want team play, we must devise systems to reward team play. What would team play rewards look like? They could be commission or profit sharing for recruiting, peer coaching for retention, etc. This is an area that real estate companies must build, otherwise sales associate have no reason to play on the team. Other reward systems might be rewards for a team in a contest, rewards for coaches in a coaching/mentoring system and rewards for participation in sales associate advisory councils.
Get The Strategies to Build that Team
Want to get specific strategies, that you can immediately implement, to build your team with confidence, take a look at 365 Leadership. It’s a small-group coaching program ONLY for owners and managers. Each month, you’ll get a new leadership strategy to recruit, coach, train, and motivate your associates. You’ll build new structures to get out of that old ‘top down’ management that agents hate! Take a look at 365 Leadership and see what others think of the first program. Our next program starts in September.
You deserve the kind of coaching and support to take your management career to the next level!
Team is No Longer a ‘Four-Letter Word
Posted by: | CommentsIn real estate, for years we said,
we don’t need to think of ourselves as a team. We’re independent contractors. We work alone.
That perspective has certainly changed in the last few years, and it’s a continuing trend. Why? Because the challenges are so much greater. The needs for specialists is so much greater. Both managers and agents are learning the benefits a synergystic team. And, for managers, it gives them an opportunity to stop that old ‘top-down’ management style and step into participative management (see the 365 Leadership coaching program for more on this).
Who Has Supported You in your Life?
Think of a time in your life when you accomplished something noteworthy. Were you completely alone? Or was someone with you? If someone was involved in your accomplishment, think of how that person was involved. Did he or she help you get that done? Taught you the skills to do that job? Encouraged you?
That exercise always elicits smiles, warm memories and enthusiasm. And no one with whom I’ve done that exercise has ever said that he or she accomplished something important alone.
Management tip: Try that in your real estate office. See what kind of response you get. Then hold a discussion using the points in this and my next blog.
No One Succeeds Alone
What about talented people? Can’t they master skills alone? The answer is—no. Since I have been a musician from age four, I thought about my musical experiences—and how much musicians can accomplish alone—or not. I concluded as I thought about my musician friends, that, no one could succeed without outside coaching.
As I grew up, I watched innately talented musicians get “stuck.” They could take themselves only so far without some coaching. (You would call that “playing by ear.”) For example, many found they had to learn to read music to achieve their goals. Why? It’s impossible to learn a Beethoven sonata “by ear”—it’s simply too long. I don’t know anyone who taught him- or herself to read music—alone. And that’s just the basics. We musicians know that we can’t hear ourselves play or sing well enough to correct all our mistakes. We need a coach with a great ear to help us refine our performances. And the need for coaching never ends, as long as we want to maintain levels of performance.
Who Is Supporting You to Master Real Estate Management?
It’s time to acknowledge that none of us can master real estate alone. How did we ever create the folklore that we had to work alone in our endeavors to achieve accomplishments in real estate? I can’t think of a skill that anyone can master where the “practitioner” had no teaching, coaching, mentoring or encouragement.
But by perpetuating this folklore, we have damaged the real estate industry. We did the easy, expedient and inexpensive thing: We told our sales associates that this was an “independent business”—that they were in business for themselves. We trashed our training programs. We forced our sales associates to seek outside coaching and consulting. What we got was a very uneven standard of performance, and we created adversarial relationships among sales associates—and between sales associates and managers. What we allowed were uncommon goals, more competition, less cooperation—and we did it with a bunch of people who already are highly competitive. We threw out leadership—and what we got was anarchy, in some cases.
Leadership Steps
Start coaching your sales associates again. Help them discover that no one achieves alone. Then start building a team atmosphere. What do I mean by “team”? Not what you might think. Don’t get up in front of your sales associates and say, “We will accomplish more together as a team. So now we’re a team.” That’s ludicrous. And yet, that’s exactly why so many teamwork concepts fail. Teamwork is not an announcement. It’s a process—a process that requires skills that many managers, and sports coaches, have not mastered.
What Exactly is a ‘Team’?
A team is not a rah-rah group of people drawn together in a power play. A team isn’t a social group. A team isn’t a group of people who agree to do things the manager’s way, or whoever is the “boss” such as the dominant sales associate. A team is two or more people working on a common task, focused on mutually agreed to and mutually beneficial results.
You can think of the team acronym, “Together Everyone Accomplishes More.”
Want to get specific strategies, that you can immediately implement, to build your team with confidence, take a look at 365 Leadership. It’s a small-group coaching program ONLY for owners and managers. Each month, you’ll get a new leadership strategy to recruit, coach, train, and motivate your associates. You’ll build new structures to get out of that old ‘top down’ management that agents hate! Take a look at 365 Leadership and see what others think of the first program. Our next program starts in September.
You deserve the kind of coaching and support to take your management career to the next level!