WorkPuzzle

The Spark of Greatness in Everyone: Part 2

As I mentioned earlier this week, I spend roughly half of my work life practicing as a Clinical Psychologist (my first love, really).  I enjoy that, on occasion, I get a new and inspiring glimpse into the resiliency and brilliance of the human condition...I love seeing undiscovered treasures that are hidden within each of us, begin to surface.
 
I went into some detail about one of my clients who is a very successful businessman, and who was also, unfortunately, exposed to many years of significant and continuous childhood trauma.  I described how his sanity remained intact due to the fact that he had a very special gift...a gift of being able to boil complex business problems down into simple, core solutions.  He took solace in his goal to see this gift used for good in the world.

I had also mentioned that because of his gift, he was drawn to find others who were compelled to exercise their gifts in the world and "find ways to do what others think is impossible."  He was motivated to recognize gifts in others and developed some fundamental beliefs about people.  To recap, here are three of his beliefs that I mentioned last time:

1. There is a Spark of Greatness in everyone...
2. Very few leaders are looking to find or develop that spark...
3. And, if they are, they never know when they'll run into someone with a special gift to match the needs of their organization.

I also asked these questions of managers:

1. Do you look for that Spark of Greatness in others?
2. And, when you find it-- Do you look to develop it?
3. Do you make snap judgements that may lead you to miss potential talent?

I asked my client, "How do you interview to find people who want to develop to their full potential?"

He replied:

"The questions I ask help me figure out whether a person wants to be developed to their fullest.  I ask questions that get at whether they can see the difference between bosses who did this previously (mentored them to be their best), and those who didn't, and what their response was to each of them.  If they can't resonate with the power of tapping their strengths for the good of the organization and for their own satisfaction, I seriously doubt their ability to find their own spark and attempt the impossible."

He goes onto say:

“I have a firm belief that anyone who is willing to ride out market highs and lows, ups and downs...and be satisfied, isn’t the type of individual who will achieve something special.  Instead, I believe it is possible and preferable to be surrounded by people who want to exceed market expectations.”

As I think about his comments, what comes to me is this:  You need to be looking for people who hunger for Autonomy (a healthy need to be self-directed), for Mastery (a desire to tackle new learning and new goals), and for Purpose (a higher principle that will fuel their motivation).

Conversely, I asked him what he would recommend to those savvy candidates looking for jobs...What should they ask their prospective managers in order to successfully detect those who want to develop people well?  He offered this:

"Candidates should ask a hiring manager, 'What in your career are you most proud of?'  The next questions would be, 'Is there an employee (agent) you've worked with that you are most proud of?  Why?  Tell me about the situation?  How is your relationship now?  Could I talk with that person?'"

Another line of questioning would seek to uncover how many and what types of people have followed the leader.  Good leaders bring their teams with them as they move from company to company.  My client explains:

"Ask the hiring manager, 'How many people work for you now, who worked for you in the past?  Why did they follow you?  Who, if you had a spot, would you recruit right now?  Why?'  People who naturally think this way will have a bunch of stories off the top of their heads."

How would you, as a manager, answer these questions?  Would the most savvy candidates be attracted to you?  Would you have powerful and numerous examples of bringing out the best in people?  As an owner of a company, how many of your managers would fare well with the most skilled, less desperate candidates?

My guess is that many of you continue to interview as if you only expect the most desperate and time-wasting candidates to request an interview.  If that is your default recruiting mindset, then your system of recruiting agents is terribly broken, and you will miss out on the best and the brightest....because the best and the brightest are watching you.  You will, by the very nature of recruiting well, have to go through many duds to get to the stars -- And the stars don't respond well to arrogance.  Let me be clear:  The very best candidates will detect disrespect a mile away...and possibly, before the interview ever begins.

Sure, it takes enormous amounts of your effort and energy to make these discoveries, but so does mining for gold or sifting for diamonds...

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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. 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.

The Spark of Greatness in Everyone

As many of you know, I spend about half of my work life practicing as a Clinical Psychologist.  This is not only my first love, professionally, but it occasionally gives me new and inspiring glimpses into the resiliency and brilliance of the human condition, and allows me to uncover some of the undiscovered treasures that are hidden within each of us. 

One of my clients is a very successful businessman, who was also, unfortunately, exposed to many years of significant and continuous childhood trauma.  No one under those circumstances escapes unscathed, and many get stuck in a world full of hopelessness.  What kept him going?

It turns out that he was one of the few people who, on his own and by the grace of God, became aware that he possessed a very special gift.  The gift first began to reveal itself when he was just eight years old -- At this young age, he was compelled to read almost anything he could get his hands on, if it had to do with great wars and leaders of the past.  He was especially enamored by leaders who could see things (solutions) that no one else could see, and through that "seeing" could convince others to attempt "the impossible."

This special interest, he would learn, didn't exist in a vacuum or appear out of the blue.  To the contrary, he began to see that the very existence of the interest in reading (what most of us would ignore) was because it was an extension and sign of his gift.  It was later, in his work life as an adolescent, that he began to see clearly that he had a knack for finding efficiencies that no one else could see, and implementing the changes necessary, much to the amazement of his employers.  And even later in college, graduate school, and beyond...he clearly grasped that he had a knack for boiling complicated political, financial, or business ideas and images down to single page descriptions that would get to the heart of the business solution that seemed to elude everyone else.

Because of this gift and his history, both at home and in business, he has developed many foundational ideas that have successfully guided his hiring and his expectations of others.  Here are just three of his beliefs:

1. There is a Spark of Greatness in everyone...
2. Very few leaders are looking to find or develop that spark...
3. And, if they are, they never know when they'll run into someone with that special gift to match the needs of their organization.

If you are a manager of people, ask yourself these questions:

1. Do you look for that Spark of Greatness in others?
2. And when you find it-- Do you look to develop it?
3. Do you make snap judgements that may lead you to miss potential talent?

In the next issue, I'll further this discussion with comments (as described by this client) regarding how to interview in a way that uncovers people who want to develop their talents, and how to elicit those cross interview questions that I'm hoping agents will be asking you.

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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. 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.

Nine Steps That Will Help Your New Agents Get Up and Running Quickly

I had a conversation with a real estate executive yesterday, and a common theme again surfaced:  It is very difficult to bring new talent into the real estate industry and help those individuals attain a sustainable level of productivity.

There is no doubt that market conditions have made the process more difficult, but I don’t believe that this is the core problem.  There is still a tremendous amount of opportunity in the real estate industry.  I’ve watched hundreds of agents (through the performance statistics our company tracks) become productive in the last few years.  

How did they do it?  That’s an important question, but an even more important question is…How did their manager, trainer, or mentor help them find this success?  This is the primary value a real estate company offers a person who is starting a real estate career.  Make this your passion, and I believe you’ll find both success and meaning in your leadership role.

How can you become more successful in this role?  This is a complex question.  Here’s one idea that I ran across this week that resonated with me:

Help the new agent understand they are in an execution business.

The concept came from a outstanding blog written by Jim Estill.  Jim is entrepreneur who started a company out of the trunk of his car in 1979, called EMJ Data.  In 2004, he sold EMJ to SYNNEX for $350M.  He now runs a venture capital firm called Canrock Ventures.  Here is Jim’s advice on helping a new entrepreneur (agent) find success in an industry that has low barriers to entry (like real estate): 

"Some businesses have such barriers to entry and such competitive advantage that they can still thrive even with poor execution.  Companies that have patents, government regulation, rocket science (very tough intellectual property to copy), massive development costs to get into the business, high capital cost, high market share etc.

EMJ was an execution business.  It was simply not that hard for anyone to get a product line to distribute.  Over time we were able to grow to create barriers to entry with things like size, having the 'good' lines, and having market share within a niche, but in the end, it was always still an execution business.

It can be fatal for an entrepreneur not to realize that their business is an execution business.  Ask - Is it really that tough for someone to copy what we do?  If the answer is no then follow these steps for success:

9 Ways to Thrive in an Execution Business

1 - Be frugal.  Frugal does not mean cheap, it means getting appropriate value for money spent.  Spend on function, not on show. 
2 - Focus on process.  The key is to create replicable steps that can be repeated time after time.  As an early entrepreneur, often this means trying it yourself.  Time how long it takes to make 10 calls.  Track which message gets the most meetings.  Refine and learn.
3 - Test everything.  Fail Often, Fail Fast, Fail Cheap.  This is a continuation of Focus on Process. 
4 - Look for areas of minor competitive advantage.  Really that is what execution businesses are all about.  Although they may lack the monopoly or defacto monopoly characteristics of other businesses, they can have minor advantages in many different small areas.  If I look at why EMJ was a success, it was not one thing, it was a number of tiny things.
5 - Know your numbers.  By nature, execution businesses have small margins for error.  Competition ensures that there are few 'high profit' opportunities.  So knowing what areas make and lose money and knowing true costs is essential. 
6 - Look for niches.  Often execution businesses can develop competencies within a specific expertise.  Within a niche, it is easier to be the expert - less to study, less people with your focus.  It is also easier to figure out ways to thrive and customize your company to address only those specific things the niche needs.
7 - Work hard.  We worked long and hard year after year.  My work ethic was a competitive advantage.
8 - Take full responsibility.  It does not matter if the economy is good or bad, if China is selling for X, if the US$ is trading at Y, or 'the VP sales cannot sell well enough' or any other 'condition.'  Those are just conditions.  We live with them and figure out how to be profitable.  There are no excuses - If we fail, we are the ones that did not execute well so we need to change our product, our approach, our tactics and anything else. 
9 - Study and practice time management.  I think that is why I ended up writing a book on time management.  This is really an extension of Be Frugal.  Time is the biggest cost so get the best value from it possible.

If you can teach your new agents to exectute well, they will be successful.  And at that point, you'll be exectuing well also. 

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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.  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.

Relationships or Objects: How Do You Treat Your Candidates?

The most common recruiting questions that I get from real estate owners and general managers usually involve the topic of interviewing.  More specifically, everyone wants to know if their hiring managers are interviewing effectively...and if not, how improvements can be made.

As you know, effective interviewing is critical to the hiring process.  While our company encourages the use of assessment technology early in the hiring process, many factors important for assessing a candidate can only begin to be captured by sitting down with a person in a face-to-face meeting.

At this point, there are many great practices and research-based methodologies for making the most of an interview.  However, even the best techniques will produce poor results if they are not built upon an appropriate understanding of people.

John Sumser, a recruiting consultant that I’ve referenced several times in WorkPuzzle, wrote a very insightful article on this topic.  He makes the simple point that if you treat candidates like objects or transactions, you’ve short-circuited the recruiting process before it has even begun.

“At the heart of good recruiting...is the mastery of relationship management.  Relationships are hard to develop in volume and many people take statistical shortcuts in processes that develop relationships based on the luck of the draw.

The reason that direct marketing techniques generally have a bad name is that they tend to treat people like objects as a precursor to a deeper form of relationship.  The message in this approach is 'If I can figure out what value you bring to me, I will invest in a deeper relationship.'

No good relationship begins with the proposition that it will depend on my understanding of the value I’ll get.  They begin with the question 'What value can I give?'  They start with the notion that the 'objects of our desire' are people first.  When they are 'objects' first, the very beginning of the relationship is sowed with the seeds of its ultimate failure.

In situations that require people to sift through volumes of potential relationships, the tendency to objectify feels like a quick shortcut to successful completion of the task… Remembering that each resume represents the desires, hopes and aspirations (and sometimes desperation) of a person is a nearly superhuman task that requires the constant availability of forgiveness, a sense of humor and a willingness to see beyond the data.  It is tremendously hard to keep this perspective fresh and foremost, particularly in a reactive environment.

But, it is the process of evolving and maturing relationships, that characterizes real sales or recruiting effectiveness.  It’s a process that can be supported but never automated because it involves the feelings of the person doing the recruiting or selling.

...All of the sourcing and record keeping programs in the world won’t begin to compensate for a recruiting process that treats potential candidates as objects.  To the extent that current systems perpetuate the myth that data constitutes a relationship, they are major contributors to the problem.”

Treating candidates with a “relationship-based” framework is a high calling—it is not an easy thing to do.  Seeing the candidates you interview as human beings first requires patience, compassion, and a sincere desire to want the best for those you engage.  Self-interest is a powerful motivator for all of us, but it can be crippling if you’re a short-term thinker or have a transactional mindset.

Please understand, I’m not suggesting that you run a charity or abandon your focus on results.  Quite the opposite.  Our highest performing clients understand and build upon this principle of sincerity much better than those who struggle to meet their recruiting and performance goals.  There is really no way to be successful (in the long-term) if you build upon a deficient foundation. 

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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.  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.

How to spot a Narcissistic Agent...and how they can poison your company

I have probably had more people ask me about narcissism than any other disorder in the Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders.  This doesn’t surprise me.  Unlike most other disorders, narcissistic individuals can be very successful, and almost always very charming (when they want to be).

Most questions about this topic come out of pure curiosity, but some inquiries about narcissism come from executives raising concerns over a common dilemma: "This successful person (client, agent, other executive etc) is causing me constant headaches!" 

In lay terms, "narcissism" means an almost total self-absorbtion. These individuals are focused on getting a continual stream of adulation on the one hand, and exhibit a complete lack of emotional vulnerability on the other.  Narcissistic individuals can appear very charming superficially, and are often times (but not always) the life of the party.

The primary focus for them is to be "perfect" in every way in order to be above criticism or critique of any kind.  They don't seek out any depth or attachment in relationships.  Their egos are extremely fragile and to protect themselves, they devalue any input that may reveal flaws.

After seven years of successful therapy with one particular man who had this condition, he told me that he remembers a cheerleader in high school telling him (the star football player), "You are the most conceited person I have ever known," to which he replied: "Conceited?  Me?  No!  Conceit is a flaw; I have no flaws!"

Unfortunately, when untreated, these individuals can ruin the overall reputation and character of a company or office.  Narcissists can behave in ways that may lead other agents to want to sever ties and leave a company to get away from the arrogance. They tend to increase conflict, and lead to political and counterproductive office competition.  Narcissists are likely to withhold information that could benefit everyone, including your customers, in order to get their needs met primarily.

So, regardless of how much market share a narcissist brings to your office, you need to seriously weigh the hidden costs:  How do they impact morale?  How many consumers do they turn off on their way to getting deals done?  How do they represent your company?  Do they act with the values that your company stands for?
 
I’m hesitant to give you a symptom list for Narcissists, but I will offer you just a few tips to consider when coaching, assessing, and training your agents to succeed in their attitudes towards others (From Bob Sutton's "17 things I Believe"):

• One of the best tests of a person's character is how he or she treats those with less power.  Train your agents to treat everyone equally. 
• Most agents are either novices or experts:  Encourage your experts to seek-out novices to help; and your novices to seek out experts whom they can learn from. 
• Encourage good questions rather than encouraging smart answers. 
• Find people who err on the side of optimism and positive energy with others. 
• Avoid pompous jerks whenever possible.  They not only make you feel bad about yourself, chances are that everyone in your office will eventually start acting like them.    

 

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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. 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.

Coaching For Confidence...Revisited

A few years back, I wrote a blog with the above title that became one of our most popular blog entries.  I reviewed it recently in order to address a manager's concern, and realized that a revisit to this important topic may be due.  Some of the information below is from the original blog, but included are new thoughts garnered along the way...

It's no secret that managing and coaching those around us can feel futile if those being coached lack confidence in their ability to succeed.  We've all witnessed talented people lose their spark and confidence, begin to wilt, and eventually begin to drop below performance standards.  Most of the time it feels like we can’t predict who will go which way.  And sometimes we can’t.  But, here are some clues and suggestions...
 
At the time I wrote the article, in 2009, I was watching "American Idol" (OK, I admitted I watched it- and still do) when one of the judges, Simon, who happened to be pretty candid and generally correct, asked a contestant, "Do you think that you can win this?"  Her answer, or lack thereof, proved that she clearly had serious doubts as to whether she could!  And you can guess what happened.  She was soon voted off the show.

Psychologist, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, expert on the subject of confidence explains:

"Confidence consists of positive expectations for favorable outcomes.  Confidence influences the willingness to invest - to commit money, time, reputation, emotional energy, or other resources - or to withhold or hedge investment.  This investment, or its absence, shapes the ability to perform.  In that sense, confidence lies at the heart of civilization.  Everything about an economy, a society, an organization, or a team depend on it.  Every step we take, every investment we make, is based on whether we feel we can count on ourselves and others to accomplish what has been promised.  Confidence determines whether our steps – individually or collectivity – are tiny and tentative or big and bold."  (Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Confidence: Leadership and the Psychology of Turnarounds, 2004)

Recruiting people is only the first stage of an ongoing process.  It's your job as a coach, manager, and/or mentor, to bring out the best in others, and that begins with assessing their confidence.  They have to believe that they can succeed in order to succeed.

This past weekend I caught the last two holes of the British Open.  I witnessed Darren Clarke, the least likely person to win the trophy, do it three strokes ahead of the runners up.  What struck me as I watched him on and off throughout various news stories the entire weekend, is that it appeared like he expected to win all along.

After the win, a commentator said that Clarke had consulted with his sports psychologist before the Open, who told him: “Don’t let your golf game determine your attitude, let your attitude determine your golf game.” 
 
So...what do you do if your agents begin to "lose," or rarely show a sense of confidence?

1. Ask them: "Do you believe that you will succeed?"  If they don't, or if they say yes in a tentative or not believable manner:
2. Then ask them what they believe the outcome will be if they don't really believe they can achieve their goals?  (Even though my graduate courses were over 25 years ago, I can tell you that those who believed they would finish and succeed, did!  Those who didn't have that confidence, failed!)
3. Once you have them talking openly about their uncertainty and its impact on their performance, ask them to remember a time when they did succeed - big time!  Get them to remember their attitude going into the situation.  What was their level of confidence?  Did they expect success?  How did they envision success?
4. And lastly, remind them that their best confidence comes when they aren't taking on important tasks and projects to bolster their ego, rather when they are doing it to contribute to clients, co-workers and society at large.  Only under these conditions can one sustain great performance.  Because when things don't go well, it's not about your ego, it's about your contribution!

And remind them…“Don’t let your sales so far this year determine your attitude, let your attitude determine your sales the remainder of the year!”

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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. 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.

New Research: Why Do People Leave Their Jobs in Today's Economy?

If you've read WorkPuzzle over the last few months, you probably remember several discussions (1, 2, 3) I've facilitated on the need for real estate companies to look beyond hiring just those agents who are already active/experienced in their industry.

If you're going to spend time and effort looking for candidates outside the industry (commonly called "new to real estate candidates"), it may be helpful to know what all those people  who "have normal jobs" are experiencing.  Thankfully, there are several researchers who study this topic.  

Mercer, a large global human resources firm, recently conducted surveys of more than 30,000 employees from various industries, and discovered that more than 50% of the workforce in the U.S is really unhappy with their employers.  Their findings were published in their What's Working? human resources industry report.  A similar survey was conducted in 2005.  The 2005 data serves as a benchmark for the findings this year.   

So, what's changed in the last six years?  There are four strong theme's that have emerged in the data.  These themes were recently identified and documented by recruiting expert Kevin Wheeler in a recent Electronic Recruiting Exchange forum.  Here are some of Kevin's observations:

"While money and benefits are not the primary reason people leave their employers in normal times, these times are very different.

This recession has lingered longer than most and is impacting a generation of workers who have not suffered much from recessions in the past.  Their tolerance is different, and so are their expectations.

Today I think there are four primary drivers of these rather frightening statistics.  And these same reasons will eventually drive away the new people you recruit as well, unless you are candid and realistic right up front with the candidates."

1.  It's About the Money.  

"For many employees it has been a long time since they have gotten much in the way of a pay increase.  The recession is often used as a reason for not granting reasonable increases, and managers have been more focused on performance — or lack of performance, as a way to hold down these increases.

Yet, employees see their organizations making good profits and in some cases even record profits.  Corporate coffers are flush with cash, yet this has not translated into significant pay increases.  At the same time, option grants have shrunk due to changes in how they are taxed, giving some employees even less reason to stay.  Employees perceive an unfairness in how they are paid compared to how firms are profiting."

2.  It's About Being Overworked.

"Second, and not completely separated from pay, is the amount of work that is being asked of employees.  Many people I speak with are really doing what two or more would have done prior to this recession.  Managers have asked for more and gotten it as employees fear there are few other jobs.

Yet the perception about jobs is changing, and many are starting to make a move if for no other reason than to lessen their workload or find a more flexible employer."

3.  It's About Flexibility and Respect.

"A third growing issue is the attitude younger workers, especially those in the Gen Y category, have about work.  They feel their personal freedom is threatened by restrictive social media polices.  And they are unhappy with the unwillingness of many firms to allow flexible working hours.

They are also inclined to want open, authentic cultures and this recession has caused firms to tighten up communications, keep more secrets, and allow much less open discussion.  This is all negative to the younger folks who will seek out more open and flexible environments."

4. It's About Lack of Training and Development.

"A fourth element is lack of development.  Many surveys have pointed out that Gen Y in particular, but all of us at some time, want to take on new responsibilities and learn new skills.  During the recession organizations cut back on training and limited development opportunities.

In some cases when development was available no one could take advantage oif it because of high-demand work requirements that left no time available.  This has resulted in frustrated and bored employees who are looking for a change."

I would recommend that you work these four themes into every candidate interview you conduct.  Ask open-ended questions that are directed at uncovering the pain that the candidate is experiencing in their current employment situation.  The pain will not be hard to find if you poke around on the topics listed above.

Remember, until this pain is identified and felt by the candidate, they will not be able to "hear" how a career in the real estate industry could alleviate that pain.

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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.  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.

What Summer Camp Can Teach You About Coaching New Agents

Earlier this year, one of my teenage sons had the idea of hosting a “bluegrass music camp” for kids this summer.  His older brother had attended a high school debate camp the previous year, and the college kids hosting that camp made it look pretty easy.  A budding entrepreneur was starting to spread his wings.

As some of you know, several of my children are pretty good bluegrass musicians.  To staff the camp, he recruited his brothers and a couple of his bluegrass friends.  He quickly had the staff necessary to pull this off.

Next, we put his mind to building a website for the event and a registration process, and finally securing a location for the camp.  He even started to promote the website through other adults in his network.  In April, things were looking great and hopes were high.  I even saw an email or two between his buddys, regarding “how much money they were going to make.”

Then reality set in.  Although he generated more than 1,000 unique visits to his website, the registrations were slow in coming.  As the weeks ticked by, it became apparent that he was not going to have enough kids registered to hold the camp.  Last week, he had to notify his instructors that the camp was cancelled.

As I contemplated how to turn this event into a learning experience, I ran across an article in this week’s issue of BusinessWeek.  The article highlights the growth and success of businesses that offer summer camps to kids.  The author tells the story of Andy Wexler, a summer camp entrepreneur who started a successful camp business:

“Andy Wexler didn’t much enjoy his own childhood camp experience. The only part he liked was going on field trips.  That’s why, as a 19-year-old junior at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1990, he borrowed $1,000 to start his own camp based entirely on daily excursions to Disney Land, Magic Mountain, karate studios, and more.  'I thought it would be a fun thing to do, so I got a list of kids and called them up,' says Wexler.  'I probably did about 1,000 telephone calls and convinced 25 parents to send me their kids.'

Within five years, his Southern California-based enterprise grew to more than 500 campers, and had revenues of more than $1 million for an 11-week season.  Today, Wexler’s idea has evolved into Pali Overnight Adventures, a 74-acre camp complex offering 9-to-16-year-old attendees 16 areas of concentration ranging from Secret Agent sessions, where kids do things like soar down ziplines while firing paintball guns, to Hollywood Stunt Camp, where campers learn to jump from a two-story building, to a Culinary Institute where they receive instruction from professional chefs.  Wexler’s camps cost almost $1,700 per week, as compared to, say, Camp Marston, a 90-year-old YMCA camp near San Diego, which costs $535 for six days.  Pali’s revenue has averaged 10 percent growth annually over the past decade and rose 39 percent this year:  'If we have a day where we make under $25,000, we’re in trouble,' he says.”

This is a nice little business that Mr. Wexler has put together.  If my math is right, he’s generating over $3M in revenue during his 11-week season.  He’s also experiencing nearly 40% growth this year.  How many mature businesses (he’s been in business over 20 years) are experiencing this kind of growth in today’s economic environment?

Similarly, my son had a great idea and picked an industry experiencing exciting growth.  So, what went wrong?  I suspect it is the same thing that goes wrong with new agents who are starting their businesses in the real estate industry today:  He was unwilling to do a sufficient level of prospecting to get his new venture off the ground.

Notice what Andy Wexler had to do to get his first 25 campers:  He made 1,000 phone calls!  My son did not make 1,000 phone calls.  And, subsequently, he did not fill his camp with 25 students.  

What’s the lesson?  It takes a huge amount of focused effort, determination, perseverance, and tenacity to get something new off the ground.  Of course, the payoff for this effort can be quite substantial.  Notice that Andy Wexler’s company grew from 25 campers the first year, to more than 500 campers by the fifth year.  Once he made the huge effort of getting the ball rolling, growth likely came more quickly and easily than he originally expected.

This has been a great learning experience for my son...and it serves as good advice for the new young agents that you’re bringing into the real estate industry during these difficult times. 

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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.  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.

The Benefits of Discipline and Consistency

Do you hold yourself and your team to practicing discipline and consistency with regard to daily tasks?  Or, do you operate your work life passively and in a reactive manner, responding to whatever is thrown in front of you?  Over the last couple weeks, I have had reason to reflect on this question for myself, our company, and my marriage.

This reflection began when I read a blog titled "Why I Hope to Die Empty," by Todd Henry.  It got me thinking about the importance of not wasting our days on frivolous undertakings, but instead making use of our talents consistently and completely, until the day we die.

My initial reaction was one of exhaustion.  To many of us, this call to "empty ourselves," can sound like we're being asked to run a marathon, plus wind sprints, every day without any rest.  That sounds hard, doesn't it?  As a result, I attempted to ignore the content of this blog at first, however, it continued to relentlessly pester me.  I had several interactions throughout the last few weeks that forced me to consider this concept again and again.  The final straw came when the pastor of our church preached on the "Parable of the Ten Minas."  This parable centers around the importance of using our talents and resources for purposeful and responsible growth.

At that point, I realized that I could no longer ignore this important message.  I began to consider, once again, how I could be graded along the continuum when it comes to using my talents and resources well.  As usual, there were places I could be graded well, and other places...not so well.  However, what fascinated me much more than the tally of pluses and minuses were the reasons for my successes.  I demonstrated tremendous growth where my talents and resources were well invested.

As it turns out, and only upon weeks of reflection,  I realized that the  "A grades" in my life have not come from the home runs, the one time discoveries, or any presentation I've ever delivered.  Instead, they've consistently shown up as a result of getting on base every day...the bunts, the bloopers, and the infield singles.  Whether it has been in my education, my marriage, therapy with my patients, writing the blog, executing our business well, or interacting with others -- it's the small proactive activities, executed with discipline and consistency that have produced almost all of the growth in myself and others involved in those tasks.  Each activity, each day, in and of itself, never felt like I was doing anything that spectacular.  Most of it felt rather mundane and ho-hum.

I don't want you to get the idea that I have done anything heroic at all...or that I haven't made plenty of mistakes or wasted precious resources of talent, treasure, and time.  I have!  But, I'm beginning to see that the ho-hum, do-the-right-thing, plan-and-execute-tasks-proactively lifestyle... IS Heroic.  In looking at what has driven the truest, most sustainable impact, it's only been through years of doing what seems like the "mundane" right thing, that the lives of patients have changed, neighbors have confided in me, young couples have been mentored, companies have trusted us, and friendships have been built.

Not all of the above activities came with great willingness on my part either.  Ben Hess (Business Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, and now friend) ultimately had to convince me that jointly writing this blog twice weekly, would be time well spent for, not only our business partners, but for us and our own learning.  I resisted, thinking that it would be time we could be spending on other tasks (this is called lazy).  Ben couldn't have been more accurate in his recommendation.

So I urge you to ask your self these questions:

"What small steps am I taking consistently and proactively that have an impact on the growth of my business, the business of others, and the lives of others?"

"Am I spending the majority of my life reacting to circumstances of business and life without consistent, disciplined action?"  If so, "What talents am I ignoring by doing that?"

"What proactive tasks can I add to my schedule that will SLOWLY add value to the business, others, and my own learning?"

"What tasks are already right under my nose- right now- that I am actively avoiding?"

This should keep you busy for awhile...

 

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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. 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.

Waiting for Superman: Reinforces Principles of Management and Sales

If you haven’t already seen it, I want to highly recommend you watch the critically acclaimed documentary called Waiting for Superman.  Directed by Davis Guggenheim, Waiting for Superman, received the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, as well as Best Documentary Feature at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards.

Documentary filmmaker, Davis Guggenheim, explores the tragic ways in which the American public education system is failing our nation's children, and explores the principle differences between “dropout factory” public schools and some charter schools, many of which are in some of the worst neighborhoods.

On the public school side, dreadful statistics are presented in a series of animated episodes. He chronicles decades of diminishing national reading and math scores, America’s low standing when compared with other countries, the high dropout rate in urban public high schools, the tenure system (guaranteed by union contract), and the fact that it is against union rules to pay excellent teachers a higher wage than inferior ones.  Apparently, many public school principals rotate lousy teachers within a district, in pessimistic shuffles known as the Dance of the Lemons, the Turkey Trot, and Pass the Trash.

On the flip side, despite receiving public funds (as well as much private support), charter schools can hire non-union teachers and adopt their own curriculum and standards.  In these environments, they can hire and fire at will, reward good teaching, hold longer school days, and exercise high expectations.  What a concept!

What does this have to do with real estate?

I did some additional research and came upon an article, by Ellen Galinsky, who had personally spent time interviewing some of the best education innovators.  In this article, you will readily find principles that relate to the best managers and agents in real estate.  Here is some of what she has to say:

“About a year ago, I spent time interviewing and filming Geoffrey Canada and his staff at the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) for Mind in the Making.  Since Canada is one of the 'stars' of Waiting for Superman (as he deserves to be), I feel compelled to share my observations from that visit as a brief glimpse of what it will take to fix education.

 

To foster good teaching—it takes an adult learning environment where there is accountability: When I visited the HCZ, Canada told me that they look for teachers with a 'no excuses' attitude:  Everybody who comes in to work for me promises me they know these kids are poor and the families have problems.  However, Canada finds that if a teacher isn’t doing well, he or she is likely to begin blaming the difficulties in these children's home lives.  Canada says to these teachers:

'You knew [the realities of these children’s lives] when you took the job—you said you understood that was the deal—now you’re making excuses.'  If you allow people to make excuses, it becomes the kid’s fault, the parent’s fault, the community’s fault...versus those of us who are getting paid!  That said, the teachers at HCZ have a great deal of support for improving, including opportunities to learn more about children’s learning and teaching from other more experienced teachers, from specialists, and from colleges and universities which they are encouraged to attend.  I had the strong impression that HCZ was a learning community, where everyone, at every level, including Canada, was trying to learn more.  And that learning environment has become contagious, spilling over onto the children.

To foster good learning environments for the children, there needs to be high expectations and accountability, but mistakes are seen as part of the process of learning.  In its brochure, Canada describes the ultimate goal of HCZ: 'getting our kids into and through college.'  HCZ makes sure that this goal is visible and reinforced daily.  For example, in the Promise Academy elementary program I observed, the children line up in the hallway every morning and state this goal as their creed.  Canada says:
 If kids are saying their creed, 'I will go to college; I will succeed,'
if their parents are thinking that, if the teachers are thinking that, then you’ve got thirty percent of the work done.  In the HCZ, the children are expected to develop a good work ethic, put many hours into school, and to understand that there are times when learning won’t be fun.  The staff also know that it is impossible for children to succeed all of the time, which is why I like the rating system used there—not A, B, C, D, and F but 1 to 4, where 1 is an 'oops.'  The superintendent of HCZ, Daryl Rock describes their philosophy:  We give [children] the freedom to make mistakes.  We teach our kids that failure is not a way of labeling who you are—it’s just a way of identifying what you don’t know and what you need to put more effort into.  When kids understand that, they’re not hesitant about trying something, because if they fail, it’s not a reflection on them.  That just tells them:  'This is an area we need to work on.'  To put this in another way, the children aren’t just learning content, they are learning life skills, including how to take on challenges.”

Which attitudes are you and your company adopting toward productivity?
 
Furthermore, if you’ve been searching for a worthy cause for individual volunteering or better yet, to rally your office/company around, you might want to visit the Waiting for Superman website for action opportunities.  This could be what you’ve been waiting for...

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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. 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.