Hopefully, over the last week you’ve had an opportunity to join the discussion (read part 1,2,3) we’ve been having regarding how the real estate industry has the opportunity to exploit the weaknesses of traditional employers to hire talented new agents for the future.
Last week, I made the following observation:
Many young people are willing to exchange a high income (or the potential at earning a high income) for job opportunities that offer flexibility, mental/social engagement, adventure, and a little bit of security.
Since the ability of real estate companies to offer high-income opportunities has been significantly reduced, it only makes sense to become proficient at focusing on the second half of this statement.
To help us understand this topic, I’d like to revisit the research compiled by Tony Schwarz in his recent book, The Way We’re Working Isn't Working. Schwarz does a great job of identifying three arenas where managers and owners can improve the engagement those on their team will experience.
1. Physical. If you’re a leader or manager, creating a new way of working begins with recognizing that physical renewal serves performance. You need to model physical renewal in your own behavior (discussed previously). At the same time, organizations must create policies, practices, and services that support and encourage people to eat right, work out regularly, renew intermittently, and get enough sleep.
For example, what if a part of your recruiting message just focused on commuting? Commuting can take a significant physical toll on peoples' productivity, draining their energy during the early-morning hours when they might otherwise be effective. This is an annoyance to thousands of people and something that you can easily solve by allowing off-hour commuting and work from home opportunities. As you know, this is not a big stretch for a real estate company. There are many more ideas like this, but it’s up to you to find, highlight, and live them out in your organization.
2. Emotional. Every organization has a distinct emotional climate, and typically it’s set from the top. A leader is effectively the “chief energy officer.” The core responsibility of great leaders is to mobilize, focus, inspire, and regularly renew the energy of those they lead.
Leaders who default to negative emotions to motivate others may get the short-term performance they’re seeking, but the costs over time are high. It is better to act like a doctor and propose to first “do no harm.” This means avoid devaluing emotions such a anger, intimidation, disparagement, and shame.
The antidote to negative emotion is showing recognition and appreciation for the real accomplishments of those on the team. It also helps to handle conflict correctly—keeping in mind the value of the other person. A balance must be maintained between honesty (you need to improve) and appreciation (you’re doing great in some areas).
As you might imagine, it is difficult to promote a healthy emotional environment in your recruiting message because it has to be felt and experienced to know it’s there. But, that doesn’t mean it’s not important. If your team operates in a negative emotional environment, you’ll be swimming upstream on everything else you’re doing to attract high quality individuals.
3. Mental. As human beings, our attention is under siege. There is an inverse relationship between the increasing volume of information available to us and our ability to prioritize and make sense of it.
Take email for example. How many emails do you get a day that don’t contribute to something meaningful you’re trying to accomplish? And, how often do you respond to the little “ding” letting you know that an email or text message has arrived? Each of those events is an interruption to your focused attention.
Here’s something you may not know: Most corporate environments promote distraction and fragmented thinking. This “status quo” is a major source of irritation and dissatisfaction among many people who work in traditional jobs. Is it possible for you to create a work environment where distractions are limited?
There are some small things that you can do on your team to change this dynamic. For example, clarify what timeframe people are expected to respond to email, ban email during meetings, encourage firm start and stop times for meetings, and encourage intermittent rest and renewal during the day.
If you can create a work environment where agents are allowed (and even expected) to work uninterrupted with focused attention on high-return tasks, you’ll be offering something that is valued by many talented people. And, it’s something that can be easily promoted in a recruiting message.
I know that much of what I’ve discussed above would require some cultural changes to your organizations. Changing ourselves in hard enough, and changing a company’s culture is even more difficult! With that said, I encourage you to not shy away from the difficult things. The challenges that the real estate industry faces are significant. Some drastic retooling may be needed to continue to compete.
Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.
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