WorkPuzzle

Be Happy: Become a Real Estate Agent

I had the opportunity to spend some time with the executive team and managers of Ruhl &Ruhl Realtors in Davenport, Iowa late last month.  Caroline Ruhl and her team lead a highly productive company that is full of optimism and contagious energy.

Caroline’s company is very successful at attracting talented young professionals to the real estate industry.  They are far ahead of most of their industry peers and have a bright future emerging. 

By chance, I happened to arrive for a pre-planned speaking engagement on the day when the company surpassed a very aggressive recruiting goal they’ve been working on for several years.   

The impromptu celebration (which started at 9am) included cake, sparklers, candy, champagne, and balloons.  And not just any balloons, the meeting room was filled with balloons that each had the individual name of one agent in the company written on it.  It was quite impactful to look around the room and recognize the lives that have been impacted by the recruiting process.

Doesn’t this sound like a fun place to work?  Darcy Holle and Sally Atwell planned the surprise celebration.  Both of these ladies are great recruiters and lots of fun at a 9am party too!

I relayed this experience to you as a way of introducing some new research that was recently published in Forbes Magazine.  Not surprisingly, Caroline pointed me to this article during my visit.  It only makes sense that a fun place like Ruhl & Ruhl would discover this research!

The research was done by an online career community called CareerBliss, and it involved collecting surveys from more than 65,000 employees.  Forbes magazine reported:

“Employees all over the country were asked to evaluate ten factors that affect workplace happiness. Those include one’s relationship with the boss and co-workers, work environment, job resources, compensation, growth opportunities, company culture, company reputation, daily tasks, and control over the work one does on a daily basis.

They evaluated each factor on a five-point scale and also indicated how important it was to their overall happiness. The numbers were combined to find an average rating of overall employee happiness for each respondent, and then sorted by job title to find which occupations had the happiest workers. A minimum of 50 employee reviews was required to be considered for CareerBliss’ 10 Happiest Jobs in America, and executive level jobs, like chief executive, were excluded from the study. “

And the results…

"The happiest employees of all aren’t kindergarten teachers or veterinarians. They’re real estate agents. Professionals with this job title are typically responsible for renting, buying, or selling property for clients. According to the BLS, they study property listings, interview prospective clients, accompany clients to property site, discuss conditions of sale, and draw up real estate contracts. They make about $51,170 per year, on average—but top earning real estate agents rake in over $92,000.

With an index score of 4.26, real estate agents said they are more than satisfied with the control they have over the work they do on a daily basis. They’re also fairly content with their bosses.

Real estate agents have definitely weathered quite a financial storm over the past few years but right now [mortgage] rates are between 2% and 3% and inventory is low, making it a real estate agent’s dream as new homes hit the market and are getting multiple offers in the first week….  Happy times.”

This is great information to have in your back pocket during your next interview.  If you’re interviewing a “new to real estate” candidate, a high percentage of these individuals are leaving jobs/careers that make them unhappy. 

As we’ve discussed many times in the past, make sure you listen to their story first and address the unique points of pain that you uncover during the interview.  As a side point, after the groundwork is laid, it may be helpful offer this independent research as a way of driving your point home.

During our next discussion, we’ll spend some time learning about the most “unhappy jobs” in America and how this information can also improve your recruiting results.

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Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

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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. 

Asking and Listening: The Magic Bullet of Interviewing and Hiring

I recently had the pleasure of visiting our long time clients at Prudential Carolinas, Prudential York Simpson Underwood, and Prudential Yost-Little Realty, all under the same roof in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I had spoken to this executive team and group of managers on at least two previous occasions and have always enjoyed our interactions. 

Part of my presentation involved a refresher course on the psychology of a good interview. Most of this section emphasizes the vital importance of listening to the candidate and eliciting as much information as possible during the first interview.  The process involves asking a lot of open-ended questions about who they are, what’s their story, what’s causing them to make a career change now, what they hope to gain from working, etc.

My emphasis on the power of listening comes from volumes of research on how people make decisions concerning any important topic in their lives. To emphasize this point I used several non-hiring examples such as dating or making an important purchase.

Think back to when you were dating—would you rather hear your dates drone on about themselves or ask some thoughtful questions along the way? When you buy a computer, do you want the tech-sales-geek to expound on all the details of each machine, or would you rather he ask a few questions first and then focus on your needs?

Here is a counter-intuitive principle that is true of all human interactions:  As people talk about themselves, they will learn more about themselves and feel more attached to you (the listener) in the process. 

No matter how many times I deliver this presentation, managers continue to report how difficult it is to put this into practice.  But, the group in North Carolina is starting to crack the code and seeing some incredible results.

During the presentation, one of the managers (Player Murray) gave the group some feedback on how this technique was working during his recent interviews.

"I'm not sure that I said much of anything in my last interview, and the candidate decided to come work for us!”

He went on to say that when he finally began to trust the process of first asking questions and listening, many interviews proceed with little need to describe much of what differentiates his company from others in the first interview.

"I am convinced that this is the number one principle to practice in the first meeting, and without it, I would not have hired many of the high quality candidates who came through HiringCenter.  They feel valued and connected when I listen to them first and foremost."

Player has learned the magic of asking and listening. He has seen first-hand how people become attached to those who are interested in them. He doesn't do this to be manipulative, he does it because it’s the right thing to do—that’s why it works. 

This story has been repeated with other managers across the country. Savvy, early-in-the- pipeline candidates who know little about the real estate industry will ask questions when they are ready. Even if they do ask some questions intially, don't be sucked into talking about yourself and your company too much.  Instead, answer briefly and get back to asking and listening.

In fact, here is a good rule of thumb:  Always assume you are not listening enough. At this point, you’ll probably be at the right level, and the magic will soon start happening in your interviews.

Question:  How have you learned to become a more effective listener (in interviews or other situations)? When using these techiques, how have you noticed your relationships change?    

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

How to Stop Wasting Time--Starting Right Now

I'm writing about this topic because I just started a new exercise designed to help me avoid wasting time. I started this exercise earlier today, so I can't tell if it works well long-term. But I can tell you that I’ve already pinpointed a couple of activities that I hope to permanently discard!

I didn't wake up this morning planning to do a time study. I simply felt frustrated when I realized that I had already wasted about two hours of my day. I didn’t mean to waste the time, but combining an unscheduled time slot with a lack of purpose and ‘time-wasting” sprouted like a weed.

I know that I must act purposefully for my time and effort to contribute to my long-term goals.  It’s frustrating to realize that I’ve fallen short of this objective. 

Fortunately I turned this frustration into some positive action and discovered an article that shed some light on this common struggle.   The article I found was written by Bruce Kasanoff and I immediately set out to follow its contents.  I think you’ll benefit from this as well.

A Highly Effective Way to Avoid Wasting Your Time

"Here's a simple way to potentially save hours of your time each week, by investing a total of about five minutes.

First thing in the morning, take a piece of paper and write a column of numbers representing each hour from the time you wake up until you go to sleep. For me, the list would start 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1 and go all the way back to 12. (So far, you have invested about fifteen seconds.)

For this single day, at the top of every hour stop for 20 seconds and consider how happy you are with the way you spent your time. Did you invest it wisely? If the answer is yes, don't write anything.

But if you wouldn't repeat the way you spent the last hour, next to the number representing that hour write a few words that describes what you did. On one of my lists, for example, at 3 o’clock I wrote "pointless to talk with Ralph; doesn't listen," meaning that it was a waste of my time to meet with him.

Stick with this exercise all day; it takes very little time, just the discipline to stop every hour for a few seconds. But at the end of the day, you'll have a list of activities you wish you avoided. If the list has more than one or two items, you might want to continue the practice for a while.

If you make this a habit, you'll soon start to spot patterns. It will be easier to recognize ways in which you are wasting time and effort, and you'll do a better job of avoiding these.

You can also use this technique across an entire department to help all involved make better use of their time. To avoid offending people, I wouldn't suggest pooling the results. You can simply introduce the test and allow people to draw their own conclusions."

If you decide to implement this personally or within your office, be sure and let me know the results. And, I certainly hope that reading this WorkPuzzle edition won't turn up on your list of things to avoid! 

Question:  Have you developed any personal tactics for keeping "time-wasting" under control in your life? If so, let us know what you've learned.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

"New to Real Estate" Candidate Sourcing Reaches New Highs

As many of you know, our company’s core business is helping our clients source high-quality candidates for difficult-to-fill positions.  While we assist companies in several different industries, much of our focus has been on the hiring difficulties real estate companies experienced over the last five years.

This has not been an easy task.  It is difficult to get talented individuals to consider changing careers during a recession and during the subsequent recovery.

Employment Stagnation

This may seem counter-intuitive, but pervasive high unemployment and lousy job prospects in the economy  create stagnation in sourcing and hiring for real estate companies. 

On the surface, you might surmise that if there is a large number of people who are unemployed (some of whom are talented individuals), a fair number of them might be willing to give real estate a try. Our sourcing data doesn’t support this hypothesis. 

In reality, most people who find themselves unemployed are not in a strong enough financial position to start a real estate career. Instead, they pursue the quickest path to a steady paycheck.

But, what about the people who are in low-paying, dead-end jobs?  Certainly, some of those individuals would be willing to look at the real estate industry as a way of “upgrading” their career…right?  Our sourcing data doesn’t support this hypothesis either. 

Many people who are underemployed are thankful just to have a job.  They don’t feel comfortable taking a risk that would put their current financial situation in jeopardy.  The proverbial “bird in the hand” is good enough for them.

What’s Changing?

So, what’s changing?  Why are candidate sourcing metrics starting to improve so dramatically in the last 3 months?  

I believe there are two reasons for this change.  First, the real estate market has improved in many areas of the country.  The national media has picked up on these changes and started to report positive news.  Candidates perceive this change and are now more open to considering real estate as a career option.

While positive reports help, most of the momentum is being created outside the real estate industry.   It is related to how average employees in non-real estate companies feel about voluntarily leaving their jobs.

The data for this theory is buried in the metrics that are tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It was recently highlighted in an article written by Vivian Giang at Business Insider:

“People are voluntarily quitting their jobs at the highest rate since the pre-recession era, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey — known as JOLTS — published by The Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The report says that 2.16 million people quit their jobs in the latest data, which represents 53 percent of all job separations — this includes quits, layoffs and discharges — when accounting for retirees. 

The graph below, published by Gluskin Sheff Research, illustrates the trend in the quitting rate and the number of people who have quit as a percentage compared to the total number of people employed in the past decade:

 

So what does this mean about our labor market? In short, it's an indication that people are confident that they can find other opportunities elsewhere and is a sign of sustained improvement in the labor markets…. This confidence happens when the economy grows fast enough…and people have [enough] faith in their own skills to make a living some other way rather than stay in a job they're not satisfied with.

So who are these workers? There's a good possibility that people are leaving their jobs to pursue freelancing, consulting or the entrepreneur route. This need to work for yourself is predicted to reach 40 percent of the American workforce by 2020, and is most common in sectors of the economy that are growing.”

As you can tell, much of what goes on in the labor market is out of our control.  When a positive trend happens (and in this case, two positive trends), it is important to take advantage of the rising tide. 

When engaging “new to real estate” candidates, now is not the time be on the sidelines.  Develop and deploy strategies for engaging the millions of individuals who are finally starting to feel less risk-averse about their careers.

Question: What strategies are you deploying to engage the 40% of the American workforce who lean towards working independently?

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Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

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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. 

Recruiting Performance Management ™ -- The Birth of the RPM

Can you remember the last time you experienced an”aha” moment? I'm happy to say that I've had quite a few of those lately, and I've come to learn that they seem to come in bunches. A few of  my realizations would probably bore you to death, but a couple around recruiting might just be up your alley. 

An individual I know, who is well-versed in the world of business consulting, was recently describing a major shift in company language around systems used to track and manage key performance indicators and metrics.

It was once in vogue to call these systems "dashboards". Dashboards included gauges, meters, interactive charts and virtually anything that needed to be monitored and improved. Six-sigma principles fit nicely into the idea of dashboards because it was much easier to design, measure, analyze, verify and improve processes. 

Apparently someone, I'm not sure who, came up with the bright idea to rename these dashboards to describe what they truly aim to do. So, instead of ”dashboards” they became ...."Enterprise Performance Management" or EPM's for short. When you think about it, the idea wasn't all that novel--Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have been named appropriately for quite some time. 

So, during this conversation, an obvious close-to-home parallel came to mind. Why not re-name our HiringCenter dashboard "Recruiting Performance Management" system? Or RPM for short? After all, the whole idea of a name is to describe what it does. And, for most of you who execute the RPM as designed, it works.

Here is the interesting part. We have observed, since our inception in late 2004, an interesting “black hole” in real estate industry.  Despite "recruiting" being one of the most important goals of almost every company, it seemed to be the only area where performance systems were rarely developed and practiced.

There are multiple reasons for this fact. One reason, which we learned through the early days of our development, was that it is extremely complicated and time consuming to invent a system to source, build, track and hire a pipeline of quality people. We fortunately learned that it could be done and, if executed properly, can be measured and improved. 

What I love about our clients is that they are usually the companies dedicated to developing, analyzing, and improving systems and were first in line when we went through (and continue) the development of such a system for recruiting. In the words of one of our clients:

"Yes, it can be time consuming…but if we weren’t doing this, how would we have added new people consistently?  And since every broker understands that recruiting is the lifeblood of a growing real estate company…it is certainly not something to be left to chance.  The [Recruiting Performance Management] system" takes away most of the uncertainty."

Question:  Does your company treat recruiting as a critial business system?  If so, what systems have you developed to measure its performance?

The name Recruiting Performance Management™ and Recruiting Performance Management (RPM)™ are trademarks of Tidemark, Inc.

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Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Attracting New Agents: What do Working Parents Want in a Job?

Over the past year, I've written frequently about the need for the real estate industry to hire young, tech-savvy new agents to replace the aging workforce.  

In many one-on-one discussions with owners and managers, the aging demographic of their agents is quickly becoming the “elephant in the room.” If it is not addressed within the next five years, attrition rates will rise to an unsustainable level for many companies.

There is only one way to ultimately solve this problem—recruit “new to real estate” agents from outside the industry.  While it may be tempting to think hiring from competitors can solve the demographic problems, they have older agents too!  In most markets, there are simply not enough experienced young agents to make that strategy viable.

The companies that become proficient in attracting a constant flow of talented “new to real estate” agents to their organizations will have a distinct competitive advantage in the years ahead.

How do you become proficient at this task?  That’s a complex question we’ve sought to answer in WorkPuzzle over the past several years.   If you’re a new WorkPuzzle reader, you may have some catch-up to do.   Each piece to the puzzle adds new understanding to the realities of hiring.

I discovered another new piece to the puzzle last week that I thought you might find interesting.  It comes from a study recently competed by the Pew Research Center on the nature of modern parenthood. 

The study addressed many different aspects of parenthood, but the most relevant part was how young parents (ie. parents with children under 18 living in the household) interact with work.  More specifically, what is it that working moms and dads find most important in a job:

 

Many of the young, talented candidates who have the capacity to become high-performing agents in your organization will be young parents.   It only makes sense that you understand their priorities when considering a new job.

If you’re interviewing a candidate that’s a parent (by the way, it is technically illegal to directly ask a candidate about their family status, but most candidates will volunteer this information during the interview) be cognizant of these issues.

During the investigative part of the interview, be ready to ask open-ended questions around the topics that are most important to them, such as:

“Do you feel like you’re current job (or previous job) is secure?  Does that bother you?”

“Are you currently in a job that you enjoy?”  What parts of your current job do you find most irritating?”

“Is there flexibility in your current job?  If you had more flexibility in your job, how would your life change?”

By asking questions about these topics, you’ll uncover the unique pain the candidate is experiencing.  Until the candidate feels you understand their unique situation, he/she will not be open to listening to the possible solutions becoming a real estate agent may offer.

Also, notice that spending a lot of time on compensation issues has a low chance of impacting the candidate—especially if the candidate is female.  Don't avoid compensation issues to the point of being awkward, but steer the conversation back the issues that matter.

Finally, a real estate career has the capability of answering the needs that many young parents care about most.  Once you uncover the pain in a candidate’s previous job/career, be ready to articulate how working your organization can provide compelling alternatives to the status quo.

Question:  Would you rather hire a "new to real estate" agent who is already a parent, or hire someone who is not yet at this stage of life? 

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By joining TMOC, you'll get to see who else is in the group and your comments will only be seen by those whom you trust.   Joining TMOC is quick, easy, and free (no kidding…this takes less than 2 minutes).   To get started, click here.

Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

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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. 

Meaning at Work: How to Tap a New Level of Performance in Your Agents and Employees

Dr. Robert Emmons, a prolific researcher and professor at the University of California, recently wrote:

“As far as we know, humans are the only meaning-seeking species on the planet. ‘Meaning- making’ is an activity that is distinctively human, a function of how the human brain is organized. 

The many ways in which humans conceptualize, create, and search for meaning has become a recent focus of behavioral science on the quality of life and subjective well-being.” 

A tremendous amount of research and writing on the connection between human performance and the meaning people find in their work has started to emerge because of this focus.   And, some of the heavy-hitters in the business world were quick to take notice of these discoveries. 

Here are some examples of how much attention is being paid to “meaning-making” at work:

• Research at McKinsey and Company has led to actionable strategies and tasks that help infuse meaning in the work of individuals and organizations.  These findings were based on research done by social scientists. Their full perspective and recommendations can be found in Beyond Performance: How Great Organizations Build Ultimate Competitive Advantage
• Gary Hamel, ranked by the Wall Street Journal as the world’s most influential business thinker, and who Fortune magazine called “the world’s leading expert on business strategy" is encouraging managers to see themselves as “entrepreneurs of meaning.”
• One of my favorite psychological researchers, Mikel Csìkszentmihàlyi, writes extensively about “the making of meaning” in his book Good Business.

I want to emphasize that the research being done in this area is far from the touchy-feely anecdotes or inspirational speaker clichés that sometimes sound similar. I have little tolerance for methods and insights that are not based on research.   Once you push through the surface language, there is substance behind this topic that leads to real and measurable performance improvements.

There is far too much to share with you about this subject matter in one blog edition, but here are a few examples that will get you thinking about the importance of meaning at work.  These examples were compiled by Susie Cranston and Scott Keeler at McKinsey and Company:

1.  Emerson Electric

"David Farr, chairman and CEO of Emerson Electric.... is known for asking virtually everyone he encounters in the organization four questions:

(a) How do you make a difference? (testing for alignment with the company’s direction)

(b) What improvement idea are you working on? (emphasizing continuous improvement)

(c) When did you last get coaching from your boss? (emphasizing the importance of people development)

(d) Who is the enemy? (emphasizing the importance of 'One Emerson' and no silos, as well as directing the staff’s energy toward the external threat).

The motivational effect of this approach has been widely noted by Emerson employees."

2.  Wells Fargo

"The CEO of Wells Fargo, John Stumpf, marked the first anniversary of its change program by sending out personal thank-you notes to all the employees who had been involved, with specific messages related to the impact of their individual work."

3.  PepsiCo

"Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, sends the spouses of her top team handwritten thank-you letters. After seeing the impact of her own success on her mother during a visit to India, she began sending letters to the parents of her top team, too.

Some managers might dismiss these as token gestures—but employees often tell us that the resulting boost in motivation and in connection to the leader and the company can last for months if not years.

As Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart Stores, put it, 'Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They’re absolutely free—and worth a fortune.'”

Don't get me wrong, working hard and expecting everyone else match your level of effort can be a powerful motivator. However, that philosophy has limitations.

As human beings, we need more.  Science is telling us that the “more” we’re looking for is meaning in our work.  Make sure your agents and employees understand and buy-into the meaning behind their tasks.  If they don’t, they’ll not reach their maximum potential and your team will suffer.

Question:  How do you help infuse your organization with meaning?   What communication techniques have you tried and found effective?

 

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By joining TMOC, you'll get to see who else is in the group and your comments will only be seen by those whom you trust.   Joining TMOC is quick, easy, and free (no kidding…this takes less than 2 minutes).   To get started, click here.

Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

The Equation for Achievement

We all spend a great deal of time trying to figure out the best possible ways to predict potential success in those we recruit and interview.

And we aren't alone.

Where there exists a big question, you can usually find big research. Many people within the field of psychology spend ample time and research dollars trying to predict the same.

While reading Martin Seligman's most recent book, called "Flourish," I am, once again, struck by how far research has come in boiling down "achievement" to its primary components.

The following is an excerpt of an article summarizing the research on this topic.

 "Many people think that if you are smart and have enough talent, you will succeed in fields such as sports, music, education and business.  When we think of great people in history such as Mozart, Edison, Confucius, and Shakespeare we hear about their talent and intelligence.

But true genius is being shown to be as much a product of grit as intelligence or skill. 

A study of genius (By Dr Angela L. Duckworth and Christopher Peterson) in twenty-one fields, including astronomy, music, mathematics, Eastern and Western philosophy, painting and literature showed that only two or three giants stand way ahead in each of these fields, a few top performers outdistance the rest by a huge amount. 

For example, in the publication of scientific papers, very few people publish many papers, but the majority of scientists publish none or only one.  In golf, only three golfers have won sixty or more PGA tournaments (Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods). Greatness and high achievement are reserved for only a few. It is their grittiness, as well as their intelligence and skill that caused their success.

The equation that predicts success is: (Skill) x (Effort) = Achievement.  

Martin Seligman, a well known academic and psychologist, in his recent book “Flourish,” points to a a great deal of research that shows achievement can be understood and predicted by the following four factors.

SPEED: Seligman calls this ‘Fast’ and it is the sheer speed of your thought about a task.  This involves how much and how quickly you have access to relevant knowledge on the task. It is hard to develop this. You either have it or you don’t.

MINDFULNESS: He calls this ‘Slow’.  This is the ability to call up memories, plan, check, review and be creative in examining and exploring the task.  This can be learned through meditation and mindfulness practices such as walking, eating with attention, and breath awareness.

RATE OF LEARNING: The faster your rate of learning, the more knowledge you can accumulate about the area.  This is different from sheer speed of thought.  This occurs by being involved in new, challenging, and tight time-lined projects and through reviewing “lessons learned.”

EFFORT: Time on task.  This is the time spent on doing or practicing the task and multiplies the skill available in achieving the goal.  It also adds to speed since more time spent on a task results in more knowledge of it.

Research has shown that extraordinary achievement in sports, chess, music, writing and business is not just talent or IQ but the amount of hours you practice something.  If you want to be great at something practice it for 60 hours a week for 20 years!"

When reading the literature, I am left with questions I believe we all need to be asking if we expect to continue learning, growing, and getting better at what we do: 

1. Can you find both sides of this equation being lived out in those you know who have succeeded? 

2. Does it clearly differentiate workers who succeed from those who don't? 

3. Did the successful individuals come with one or both characteristics, or did they develop them?

4.  Do people lose either side of the equation with time? If so ,how and why?

5.  Can you teach this equation in a way where it will inspire people to develop a growth mindset and better pursue both sides of the equation?

6.  Are there components of the equation that are missing? (i.e. interests, signature strengths or innate wiring etc.)

Let me know your answers or other questions that I might be missing.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

How ObamaCare Mandates Could Help Real Estate Hiring

As you may know, most of the ObamaCare mandates will  “kick in” over the next two years.  Of course, it is appropriate for real estate owners and managers to focus their attention on the impact this law has on their own businesses.

But what about other industries?  Until recently, I had not put much thought into how businesses in other industry sectors are wrestling with these impending changes.   But these changes are weighing heavily on business leaders in retail, restaurants, and service industries. 

While I feel for those struggling with these new directives (one of my business partners owns a large retail establishment), some good news may emerge from these changes --especially if your focus is hiring “new to real estate” agents over the next few years.  As the old saying goes, one man’s curse is another man’s blessing.

This angle on the healthcare issue was brought to my attention by John Sumser.  John is editor-in-chief of the HRExaminer Online Magazine and writes about Human Resource issues and recruiting from a broad perspective.  As he studied and wrote about the nature of the employment relationship, he discovered the following principle:

Workers who pay for their own benefits are significantly more mobile that those who don't.

This statement may seem self-evident after you read it, but it is surprisingly profound. As we’ve worked with hundreds of real estate hiring managers and thousands of real estate candidates over the last few years, I’ve come to the conclusion that this is the number one reason that high quality people choose not to pursue real estate careers. 

That may be changing.  

Not because real estate will be in a position to suddenly offer medical benefits, but because the competition (other non-real estate companies) will soon stop offering benefits.   Here is an excerpt from an article that John recently wrote on this topic:

“I had a chance to catch up with some friends who are at the bottom of the system. Both work in retail. Both are part-time students. Both work hard and creatively. Both are noticing weird behavior from their employers.

They work in different cities in different parts of retail.

Since the first of the year, managers have been rotating and schedules have been shifting. As the noise settles down, the managers are slotting 50-hour weeks while the rest of the store works 27 to 30 hours.

In both cases, this amounted to a 20% cut in pay and a potential loss of benefits. (Their benefits are still intact but won’t remain so when the next ‘look back’ happens.) Very little is explained.

From their [point of view], it looks like management is lurching.

Their companies are maneuvering through the challenge of figuring out who does and doesn’t get benefits. Since it’s over their pay grade, they only understand the bluntest impacts of the story.

Ultimately, they will end up paying for their own health insurance.

It’s not really a surprise. While it is a momentary inconvenience, what happens next is pretty obvious. While their employers have figured out how to dodge this bullet, they only get a temporary reprieve.

Workers who pay for their own benefits are significantly more mobile that those who don’t. Up until last year, a worker who got sick (or had a family member who got sick) was bound to the current employer for a very long time. Pre-existing conditions made a whole range of people uninsurable if they left the current boss.

Now, after the first initial pinch, these low level workers are freer than they’ve ever been...

The employers who recognize this short-term windfall will end up paying for their employees healthcare in the long haul. Workers who get saddled with new bills seem to always want raises.

The interesting question is whether the employers who dodge this first bullet really understand that they are creating an attrition problem that will be accompanied by wage increases.

It doesn’t look like it. They are predictably going for the short money.”

I think there are two take-aways for the real estate industry from John’s insight:

1.  Learn how to talk about medical benefits.  Ask open-ended questions about the candidate’s medical benefit situation during the interview—especially if the candidate is from one of the industries being impacted by the ObamaCare changes.  In the past, this topic was often avoided because it opposed a short-term disadvantage of working as a real estate agent.  Now the playing field is more level and a real estate career still offers significantly more income potential than traditional jobs.

2. Develop transition programs.  Find ways to help people transition from the jobs where they recently lost their benefits to a real estate agent position.  We hear frequently from our clients…”We only want to hire full-time agents.”  That’s fine, but there is window opening in the employment world where a quick transition from part-time to full-time may look compelling to many talented individuals.  Rigidly hanging onto the full-time only model may cause you to miss engaging many talented individuals who will be looking at the real estate industry for the first time.

Question:  Have you recently interviewed someone who has brought up the issue of medical benefits?   What did you learn from the interaction? 

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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. 

Why "Career Seminars" Will Always Be Inferior to One-on-One Interviews

One of the questions we often get from hiring managers is:

“Are one-on-one interviews really necessary in the real estate hiring process?”

What’s implied in this question (and usually comes out later in the discussion) is that it might be more efficient to conduct group interviews with several candidates at once rather than one-on-one interviews.

The line of reason is that interviews take a lot of time, and many early stage candidates are not serious about making a career change.  The group interview is a great way to “weed-out” those who are not truly interested or unqualified.

In a real estate company, this “group interview” usually takes the form of a career seminar.  It typically is an informational meeting where the company describes the benefits of changing careers and becoming a real estate agent.  At the end of the meeting, there’s typically some call to action (sign-up for licensing school, schedule a follow-up meeting with a hiring manager, etc.) that encourages the candidate to move forward in the process.

For years, we’ve recommended not using this methodology for interfacing with the majority of candidates.  There is nothing wrong with running an occasional career seminar for those who truly want information about a real estate career.  However, using this tool as a replacement or precursor to one-on-one interviews has not proven to be a best practice for recruiting high quality individuals.

Outside of the empirical data that we collected on this topic (ie. most real estate companies consistently hire 40% to 60% “D” performers using traditional hiring techniques such as career seminars), I could not put my finger on the psychology of why the “group interview concept” was inferior until last week.  I found this insight in an odd place—a coaching article written by Ed Batista.

I’ve read Ed Batista’s blog for several years, but I usually gain insight from a coaching perspective, not a recruiting perspective.   Ed is a successful executive coach and an instructor and leadership coach at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.  His business is coaching, but in the process of explaining coaching concepts he reveals a lot about the psychology of people.

The particular blog that peaked my interest was titled:  Spending Attention.  In this discussion, Ed makes the point that focused attention is one of the most powerful forces made available to human beings—both from a giving and receiving perspective.

“Focused attention is our most precious resource, because 1) it's extremely taxing on our intellectual and emotional capabilities, 2) it can have a amazingly powerful effect on its object, and 3) it can't be subdivided. (We can pay continuous partial attention to multiple objects simultaneously, but we can truly focus on only one object at any given moment.)

Much of what I do as a coach and as an experiential educator at Stanford involves nothing more than devoting my full attention to another person. This is somewhat easier in a one-on-one coaching session with a client or student, and it's somewhat harder in a group setting, but under any circumstances it's a challenging task that's almost always worth the effort.”

So, what does this have to do with interviewing?  There’s something  powerful that happens to an individual when they receive another person’s full attention.  Ed puts it this way:

“… devoting our full attention to someone can be a novel experience for both of us that in and of itself stimulates something useful in the interaction. The other person feels seen, heard, recognized, validated, appreciated or challenged in ways that partial attention never generates. And as we momentarily quiet our inner voice, we suddenly become aware of so many things that we missed before--not only about the other person and our environment, but also about ourselves. The subtler, more elusive thoughts and feelings that are usually drowned out by the louder currents can now be heard.”

It’s obvious that humans crave focused attention.  In the hiring process, the best chance of making this happen is in a one-on-one interview. 

By the way, just because a person is sitting across the desk from you, doesn’t mean focused attention will happen (read the rest of Ed’s blog to learn more about how you can become effective at giving focused attention). 

But, focused attention is almost guaranteed NOT to happen in a group interview/career seminar setting.

A high quality candidate wants and deserves the focused attention of the hiring manager during the hiring process.  If this element is missing, the high quality candidates will exit the hiring process. 

When the high quality candidates leave the hiring process, all you’re left with are desperate candidates who believe they deserve no better than a career information session. 

Of course there are exceptions to this rule (I’m sure some of you will write me about how you hired your best agent ever through a career information session), but you won’t win the hiring game by betting on the exceptions.  In the long run, the time and effort you put into one-on-one interviews will pay off.

Question:  What techniques have you found effective in making candidates feel they have your focused attention during an interview?

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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.