WorkPuzzle

Four Things Highly Productive People Do

One of the most important elements of a Real Estate Manager’s job is recruiting.  One of the most common tribulations managers face is time management.  They are tasked with deal doctoring, putting out fires, coaching, and in some cases selling, in addition to the general day-to-day operations of their office(s).  

Ilya Pozin, founder of Ciplex, a digital marketing and creative agency, interviewed Tony Wong, a project management guru who has served with the likes of Toyota, Honda and Disney.  As a result of this interview Tony shared seven characteristics of a productive person.  While seven points of interest were enumerated, I gleaned four that were of interest to me, and I hope to you.

Ilya first starts out by highlighting the fact that we are lovers of distraction.  I am indeed.  I see an email come in…I am right on top of it, regardless of the project at hand.  Ilya advises me to stop multi-tasking.  Yeah, right…I am a working mother of two active boys, and an avid tennis player…multi-tasking is my life.  Well, perhaps I need to settle down and focus if I truly want to be more productive.

Here we go…the tips towards being more productive:

1. “Work backwards from goals to milestones to tasks.  Break down work into smaller and smaller chunks until you have specific tasks that can be accomplished in a few hours or less:  Sketch an outline or list of tasks that will lead you to your endgame.  That’s how you set goals and actually succeed in crossing them off your list.
2. Be militant about eliminating distractions.  Lock your door, put a sign up, and turn off your phone, texts, email, and instant messaging.  In fact, if you know you may sneak a peek at your email, set it to offline mode, or even turn off your Internet connection. 
3. Work on your own agenda.  Don’t let something else set your day.  Most people go right to their emails and start freaking out.  You will end up at inbox-zero, but accomplish nothing.  After you wake up, drink water so you rehydrate, eat a good breakfast to replenish your glucose, and then set prioritized goals for the rest of your day.  
4. Work in 60 to 90 minute intervals.  Your brain uses up more glucose than any other bodily activity.  Typically you will have spent most of it after 60-90 minutes.  (That’s why you feel so burned out after super long meetings.)  So take a break:  Get up, go for a walk, have a snack, do something completely different to recharge." 

Okay, so this may be a lot to swallow, especially to execute all at once.  Baby steps...It may not be practical to apply all of these; It certainly depends on the job and the person, but I agree that even small steps towards productivity will lead to a more successful year in many aspects of the work/life balance.

---

Editor's Note: Lee Gray is the Senior Account Manager at Tidemark Inc. Lee is a guest 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.

Stress, RESILIENCE, Hope, and Meaning

Many of you have experienced continuous, intense, and unrelenting stress over the past few years.  I have been spending more and more time thinking through the ramifications of stress, resilience and its long-term lessons for anyone who works. 

Dr. Salvatore Maddi, a Professor of Psychology at the University of California says:

“People who are high in hardiness enjoy ongoing changes and difficulties.  They find themselves more involved in their work when it gets tougher and more complicated.  They tend to think of stress as a normal part of life, rather than as something that's unfair.'' 

I wouldn’t say that I “enjoy” ongoing challenges.  Do any of you?  I believe Maddi might be exaggerating a bit to get our attention. 

However, there has been a great deal of research on the topic of resilience--This research has provided us clear characteristics, helping us differentiate people who thrive under stress, from those who become less healthy and tend to languish.  

Researchers have identified the traits of commitment, control, and challenge as the “transformational coping skills” shared by those who become stronger during stressful times.

More specifically, studies have shown that people who possess these coping skills are able to:

• Find the personal meaning in a challenge, rather than detaching and giving up;
• Plan out sound problem-solving strategies;
• Facilitate an atmosphere of support and encouragement among co-workers; and
• Help those around them build the traits of commitment, control, and challenge (they decrease the isolation, powerlessness, and fear that others feel).

I see in these findings something deeper that has certainly helped me thrive in stressful times, and I urge each of you to analyze yourselves...  At the core of the findings resides the affirmation of the values of community and meaning as essential ingredients in dealing with stress. 

How can we think about meaning and work?  The answer, I believe, can be found in whether an individual can articulate and truly believe the WHY of their work. 

Many, I find, can only articulate the HOW and the WHAT of what they do on a daily basis. 

These are the people who are the consumers of the world; They go to work to extract meaning from their work, rather than add value and meaning to every part of their jobs, and within the community they find themselves.  Don’t get me wrong, we are all guilty of doing this part of the time, but many people live there permanently.  

Then there are the gems...the people who can tell you the WHY of what they do.  With these individuals, there is a constant, unseen background of meaning and purpose that goes beyond bringing home a paycheck, motivating them to find meaning and hope behind every endeavor. 

These are the people we are drawn to...the people we find ourselves running to as a refuge in the storm.  What can you do to become one?  Figure out the WHY of your work...

---

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.

3 Resolutions For Making 2012 Practically Radical

In the midst of writing my own material for a New Year's blog, I came across some valuable insight on Daniel Pink's site, written by his friend, Fast Company co-founder, Bill Taylor.  The principles outlined in the article (below) were written last January, but are timeless lessons that will never age.  The suggestions are from Bill's book Practically Radical: Not-so-crazy ways to transform your company, shake up your industry, and challenge yourself.    

1. "I resolve to help my organization (and me personally) become “the most of something” in my field.  It’s not good enough to be “pretty good” at everything.  The most successful organizations (and people) are the most of something—the most elite, the most affordable, the most elaborate, the most approachable.  For so long, companies were content operating in the middle of the road.  Today, with so much change, so much pressure, so many new ways to do everything, the middle of the road has become the road to nowhere.  What are you the most of?
2. I resolve to embrace a sense of vuja dé.  We’ve all experienced déjà vu—looking at an unfamiliar situation and feeling like you’ve seen it before.  Vuja dé is the flip side of that—looking at a familiar situation (an industry you’ve worked in for decades, problems you’ve worked on for years) as if you’ve never seen it before, and, with that fresh line of sight, developing a distinctive point of view on the future.  The challenge for all of us is that too often, we let what we know limit what we can imagine.  This is the year to face that challenge head-on.
3. I resolve to look for new ideas in new places.  The more I study innovation, the less enamored I become of “benchmarking” the competition.  What good is it to compare yourself against “best practice” in your field, especially if “best practice” isn’t that great to begin with?  The most creative leaders aspire to learn from people and organizations far outside their field as a way to shake things up and make real change.  Strategies and practices that are routine in one industry can be revolutionary when they migrate to another field.  Do you have new ideas about where to look for new ideas?”

It's my belief that there are only two reasons we would resist adhering to Bill's resolutions above:  One would be complacency or laziness.  People who constantly grow, are people who consistently review their lives through some variant of the above.  Sure it takes time, reflection, stretching and focus, but it's usually well worth the effort.  Remember that others are drawn to people who live in this growth vector of change, even if it's small and incremental.  

The second reason some of us resist the above is fear.  Most of us fear change, and yet secretly hope for more.  These opposing factors are constantly at war within.  And yet for those who do risk the change, there is something divine in creating something new, seeing something differently, assessing one's blind spots and sometimes radical transformation.

On behalf of everyone at Tidemark, we wish you all a successful New Year.

---

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.

Top 10 Business Resolutions For 2012

I first have to apologize for misrepresenting the content of this blog, and starting off the new year making up for having missed my chance to pull one over on you last April 1st! However, I knew that getting you to read anything between Christmas and New years was not going to be easy, so in order to get your attention I used the gimmick of "Top 10" because it usually gets readers to tune in.

Instead of 10 items, however, I have just one meandering thought that I'd like to share with you today. It's something that I've observed in many people who aspire to success but never quite make it...and then wonder why. I was going to title this blog "The Number One Reason Most People Fail," but it sounded like such a downer. I'm hoping, instead, that it will have the opposite effect, and will help you conjure up a newfound commitment moving into 2012. I trust, at the very least, it will help you think through your own blind spots and/or help those you coach do the same in the coming year...

In any particular profession, there are always those people who have established themselves as beacons of success, and who everyone else aspires to emulate. From the perspective of everyone around them, it appears that everything they touch turns to gold. Others, especially anyone new to the industry, fantasize about becoming like these individuals...successful, confident, respected, able to make the right connections, and effective at influencing others.

And while there are a few people who will eventually achieve the success that they've aspired to achieve, most will not. Why? What is the difference between those who do and those who don't reach the pinnacle of success in their industry? The number one difference is the huge gap that exists between what the successful person is willing to do, day in and day out, to earn success, and what most people are unwilling to do.

For those who are really serious about actually making it in their industry, rather than merely dreaming about it, there are two ingredients that must be in the mix:

1. Interview the successful: Most people never approach these very successful people and ask in minute detail, what activities were required daily to reach their success. Only through understanding the accountability to daily tasks, moving into situations that reek of uncertainty, and moving past failures and doing the right thing every day for years, can a person get a glimpse of what it will take for them to acquire what they aspire to. The trick here is to ask questions that the successful person might have forgotten about. Most successful people build a certain amount of amnesia around the vast number of tasks that they initially undertook to get to where they are now. You have to prime the pump for this information. Don't be afraid to ask, down to the detail, what they did every day to get where they are.
2. Implement the plan: Here's where the rubber meets the road. Successful people do the hard, boring stuff, without fail, every day. You have to ask yourself if you're the kind of person who can do this...or are you the type who has to be told what daily tasks to perform in order to follow through. Can you take ownership enough to work when nobody is patting you on the back, or giving you constant direction, and when you don't know what the near term benefit will be, when you are bored and there are "better things" you could be doing? The answer to these questions determines a lot.

If you can discipline yourself and keep yourself accountable, good things will happen. If you cannot do this, no amount of dreaming will make 2012 any better than past years. So, partner with some people who get things done, make a plan, break it into daily chunks, keep each other accountable, and aim for something big!

---

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.

Predicting success with Early Ownership

One of our readers, Jim Dickinson of Stark Homes, Madison Wisconsin, recently sent us an article that got our attention.  We'd like to pass it on to our readers. 

But first a few words to set up the context...

Attracting and hiring the right people (the best people) has never been more important, both for you and for the candidate.  Nobody is in the mood, has the time, or is in the financial position to make the wrong decision when it comes to their future.  We've improved the odds of making good hiring decisions with the Top Performer profile, but in the current environment, many of our clients are having to talk to as many candidates that come through the funnel as they possibly can in order to hire the numbers needed to expand market share.  Under these conditions, all of us can benefit from improving our ability to spot what we are looking for in candidates, so that we can pursue them with a tenacity that leaves them believing that they can succeed.  You can accomplish this by being dedicated to understanding people, keeping up with the latest research, and being purposely reflective about what you are seeing.

You might remember the name Daniel Coyle of The Talent Code, as we have written in WorkPuzzle (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) about his somewhat counterintuitive findings in the past.  In a recent blog entry, he takes another shot at trying to decipher what might help differentiate those who will be successful, from those who won't be.

"A lot of smart people have been thinking about this, and what they’ve decided is this: the problem is not that the measures are wrong.  The problem is --measuring performance the wrong way to approach the question.

According to much of this new work, what matters is not current performance, but rather growth potential – what you might call the G-Factor — the complex, multi-faceted qualities that help someone learn and keep on learning, to work past inevitable plateaus; to adapt and be resourceful and keep improving.

Thing is, G-Factor can’t be measured with a stopwatch or a tape measure.  It’s more subtle and complex.  Which means that instead of looking at performance, you look for signs, subtle indicators — what a poker player might call tells.  In other words, to locate the G-Factor you have to close your eyes, ignore the dazzle of current performance and instead try to detect the presence of a few key characteristics... Sort of like Moneyball, with character traits."

Coyle describes two "tells" of the G-Factor: one is Grit, something I have written about before (WorkPuzzle 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...).  The other is "early ownership:"

"Early Ownership:  As Marjie Elferink-Gemser’s work shows, one pattern of successful athletes happens when they’re 13 or so, when they develop a sense of ownership of their training.  For the ones who succeed, this age is when they decide that it’s not enough to simply be an obedient cog in the development machine — they begin to go farther, reaching beyond the program, deciding for themselves what their workouts will be, augmenting and customizing and addressing their weaknesses on their own."

How can you use this information in your interviews?  Perhaps your interviews need to include questions to reveal past examples of early ownership.  How can this knowledge help with training, observing, and mentoring agents in the first months of performance?  

If you're going to hire better, it's imperative to take some time away from the busyness of executing tasks and dedicate ample time to reflect on this kind of innovative information that demands experimentation.  Tailor your process to assimilate what science has discovered about people... 

---

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.

How to deal with Boredom or Anxiety at Work

Like it or not, we all occasionally get into ruts. We can’t seem to find a way to bring maximum enjoyment to our work, so eventually we get bored. One of the differences between very successful people and the rest of us, is that successful people tend to intuitively follow the rules I’m about to show you, to prevent them from experiencing too much boredom, or too much anxiety.

For decades, despite hundreds of studies on boredom, not a lot was known about this elusive experience. Then, in the 1960’s and 70’s, a Russian born University of Chicago psychologist stumbled on the answers while studying the internal experiences of successful workers, artists, and climbers.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi found that for optimal engagement to be experienced, people must find a balance between their level of competence or skill and their level of challenge. If your level of skill is great and your level of challenge is low, you will most certainly experience boredom (see diagram).

Conversely, if your levels of skill and competence are low relative to the height of the challenge, then anxiety will kick in, and you could buckle under the pressure.

Where “optimum engagement” takes place is in the sweet spot between your level of challenge and your skill level. What this means is that we all need to pay close attention to balance between the two, looking for ways that we can increase our challenges as we increase our competence.

So how can we do this? This is much easier to answer when it comes to anxiety than when it comes to boredom. With anxiety, you can adjust in either direction....you can focus your energy on decreasing the level of challenge, or find mentors or training to increase your level of competence...or both.

With boredom, you can only adjust in one direction. Since it's impossible to decrease the skill level, you are left with having to find ways to increase the level of challenge.

Please send in your ideas about how this important balance can be accomplished in a practical manner for realtors or with those who manage them. If I get some concrete tips, I’ll pass them on...

---

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.

Challenges that Real Estate Managers Face: WorkPuzzle Manager Survey Results—Part 3

Recruiting and retaining talented agents is the most challenging part of the real estate manager’s job.  How do I know that?  The data in the WorkPuzzle survey was most clear on this topic.

There was large consensus that the top priority, as communicated by owners and managing executives, for the first-level manager in real estate companies across the county, is recruiting.  The second priority is retention.

However, when managers were asked what job function they perform best, only 9% said recruiting.  In addition, when managers were asked what part of the job they hear the most complaints about…75% said recruiting.

Let that sink in a little bit...

In essence, what managing executives want the most, first-level managers are the worst at delivering.

This prompts two important questions:  Why is this happening? ...and... How can this gap be reconciled?  I’ll address both issues.

1.  Why do real estate managers hate recruiting?  Quite simply—it is difficult work and the results come very slow.  As discussed in previous WorkPuzzle blogs, both the demographics and the economics of real estate recruiting make it increasingly difficult.

For experienced agent recruiting, the bottom 60% of the typical real estate company is either nonproductive or marginally productive.  The top 20% are very difficult to dislodge because they are well-respected and making money.  This leaves 20% of experienced agents who are eligible to be recruited.  Due to short supply, the competition for these agents is very intense.  If you are lucky enough to recruit some of these folks, they are typically acquired at low margins (ie. unfavorable splits).

For “new to real estate" recruiting, the risk-to-reward ratio that used to consistently attract new talent into the industry is no longer a compelling draw.  As house values have plummeted and transaction volumes have waned, an increasing number of candidates can do the math.  Starting a real estate career has significant risks and the payoff is not what is used to be.

2.  How can real estate managers be successful at recruiting in spite of the obstacles?  Quite honestly—there is no simple answer!  This is what we spend much of our time in WorkPuzzle discussing because it’s a complex problem.  So, here’s a plug to read past discussions and become an email subscriber if you haven’t already done so.  With that said, here are some patterns that I’ve noticed among companies and individual managers who recruit more successfully than others.

Compartmentalization.  This piece of advice is for managing executives who have the latitude to adjust workflows.  If a manager’s job description requires many different roles (ex. recruiting, training, coaching, building office culture, etc.), the role that has the least amount of short-term feedback will naturally get pushed to the bottom of a person’s priorities.  It takes an extremely disciplined person to overcome the inertia of human nature.

If the recruiting function (or parts of the recruiting function) is broken out as a separate role and a limited number of individuals are solely responsible for the execution of this role, the job gets done more reliably.  Why?  Because there are no easy, “sugary” tasks for the manager to fall back on.  The new reality is the difficult job at hand—making the recruiting process work.  Also, there are some managers who have more natural talent for recruiting.  Letting them focus that talent without distraction is a win-win.

Focus at the task level.  If your organization is not willing or able to compartmentalize the recruiting function, you may have to continue to work inside an environment with competing priorities.

If this is your reality, I would encourage you to stop looking at the recruiting part of your job from a transactional perspective.  Because many managers used to be agents, there is a tendency to look at the recruiting process like a home sale.  Did the transaction close or not?  Do I have the listing or not?  Is financing approved or not?  Is this candidate going to work in my office or not?

While there is certainly a time to “ask for the order” in a recruiting discussion, the normal, day-to-day pace of the recruiting process (as a whole) moves slowly and meanders.

Managers who recruit successfully have a large number of candidates in their pipelines (so that no one candidate makes or breaks them), and they focus on completing the tasks of recruiting rather than focusing on the end result.  The transaction focus shifts from, is the person hired (end result) to, is the next task in the recruiting process for this candidate complete?

I hope you’ve enjoyed gaining some perspective on how your peers view the challenges of being a real estate manager.  It’s a tough job and many of you could use the encouragement.  

---

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.

Challenges that Real Estate Managers Face: WorkPuzzle Manager Survey Results—Part 2

Hopefully you've had an opportunity to read and digest the summary of the data from the WorkPuzzle survey that was conducted in September.

While you’ve probably drawn some conclusions on your own, I thought it might be helpful to share some additional insight. This insight comes from the internal discussions we’ve had on the Tidemark team, as well as individual discussions with many managers, executives, and owners since the survey was commissioned.

Let me start the discussion by acknowledging that in most real estate companies, the first-level manager position (often called a branch manager or sales manager) is a very difficult assignment. Because there are so many “hats” to wear in this position, we rarely see individuals who perform at a high level in every role.

In many non-real estate organizations, a person in such a diverse role would typically be supported by others on a team who shore up the manager’s weaknesses. But, the profit margins in most real estate companies are too thin to support this arrangement. The branch manager is left holding the bag…or for that matter, several bags.

So, what’s to be done? I would suggest making the most of the realities that exist in both your company and your professional life. Here are some thoughts based on the data that we collected:

1. Setting clear and realistic performance objectives. A significant portion of real estate managers do not have clear performance objectives, and even a larger portion do not believe those objectives are realistic. This is a problem that needs to be solved. If you find yourself in this situation, here’s some advice: Don’t wait for your boss to solve it—solve it yourself. Develop your own set of performance objectives and present it to your managing executive. This is commonly called “managing your manager,” and it is lacking in the real estate industry. As you develop the objectives, make sure you focus on roles and outcomes that not only address legitimate business needs, but also play to your strengths. I know this may feel a little scary at first. But, to your surprise, you’ll find that most executives appreciate this type of exchange. You may not get everything you envision, but you will most likely exit the process with some clear performance objectives—exactly what you need as a foundation for success.
2. Re-Thinking accountability. Everyone seems to hate accountability. Most managers dislike being under it, and most bosses really hate to administer it. Why? Because it usually requires a lot of attention to detail (by both parties) and causes us to notice and address failures frequently. As the survey results suggest, it’s much easier to just assume that everything is OK and focus on the more non-confrontational and mundane tasks of our roles. But, accountability produces results—results that both you and your company need to be successful. If your managing executive is not willing or able to keep you accountable, keep yourself accountable. Set measurable short-term goals and keep track of how successfully you’re able to check off items you complete. Also, share these goals with your peers (other managers in your company), and ask them to keep you accountable to the things you’ve set out to accomplish. As the fitness industry figured out long ago, peer accountability is one the best ways to lose weight and stay in shape. While it is not practiced as much in the business world, it may be something you find effective—especially if your manager is not willing or able to perform this function.

In the next WorkPuzzle, we’ll discuss what the survey revealed about the state of recruiting in most real estate companies. Why is it that what owners and executives want most, managers have the most difficult time accomplishing?

---

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.

Challenges that Real Estate Managers Face: WorkPuzzle Manager Survey Results—Part 1

As some of you might recall, we asked each of you to participate in a real estate manager survey back in September. The purpose of the survey was to help us (and, in turn, you) better understand the challenges of the real estate manager role.

This was an unusual survey in that a group of our readers actually helped design many of the questions. In designing the survey in this manner, we hoped to focus on the issues that were of the highest interest and concern to the group.

The anxieties that seemed to rise to the top in this process centered on the appropriateness of the many “hats” a first-level manager is required to wear in today’s real estate company.

More specifically...What are the hats that managers typically wear? How does a manager balance these different roles? and, How is success measured and accountability maintained?

In the end, there were ten questions selected for the survey. These questions are listed on the left side of the chart below. On the right side of the chart, we’ve summarized the data that was collected in the responses.

This is not intended to be a vision test. To view a more readable version of the chart, click on it and a new window will open and display a much larger version (if you’re an email reader, clicking on the chart will take you to WorkPuzzle where you can click the chart again and get the larger version).



Take a few minutes to digest this information. Is there anything that surprises you? Do you see any inconsistencies in the responses that you feel are significant? Do you notice similarities between what you’re experiencing in your company and what your peers in other companies are reporting? Do you see problems that seem to characterize the manager position? If so, what are they, and why are they systemic?

Next week, I’ll provide some thoughts on the survey and make some suggestions regarding how you can use this data to make changes and improve your performance. In the meantime, record (click the comment link in web version) or email your comments (reply to your WorkPuzzle email) to me. I’d love to hear your thoughts, and it will also help me focus on the issues that you find most interesting.

---

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 10 Dumbest Things (Real Estate) Recruiters Do

Electronic Recruiting Exchange (ERE) and Dr. John Sullivan recently surveyed hundreds of corporate recruiters in the ERE network, on Twitter, and at the recent SMA symposium in Seattle on this humorous, self-debasing topic. The recruiters were given a list of 30 "dumbest things recruiters do" from which to choose. Here were the top ten...

10. Poor Recruiting Presentation (graphics, website presentation, etc.). Potential applicants assume that the company puts its best foot forward when it comes to recruiting. So when they compare your dull presentation with your competitor’s more compelling presentation, they will simply apply elsewhere.

9. Not taking advantage of referrals. The best-practice firms approach 50% referral hires (the percentage of all external hires who come from referrals). Failing to fully use referrals means that you will miss out on a large number of high-quality pre-screened, and pre-sold candidates.

8. Not learning about your competitors. Obviously, if you can’t speak “their language” and you don’t understand their problems, it will be more difficult to communicate with, to sell, and to build relationships with candidates.

7. Treating all candidates the same. Higher-level agents require a different level of service, knowledge, and relationship-building. So, using the same process that you use for lower-level candidates will result in fewer returned calls, a higher candidate dropout rate, and lower-quality hires.

6. Not striking while the iron's hot. When a crisis occurs in the lives of your best prospects, the best candidates are gone quickly. A drawn-out process or slow decision-making means losing the best.

5. Assuming interviews are accurate. Interviews are traditionally weak predictors, but poorly executed interviews dramatically increase the chances of making a major hiring error. Poorly designed interviews may also turn off top candidates.

4. Lack of focus on revenue. Focusing on candidates who will have minimal revenue impact will reduce business (P&L) results. Think like a businessperson--focus on the candidates who will produce the most company dollar for your company.

3. Not identifying "ideal agent" criteria. If you don't know what you're looking for, it is difficult to recognize it when it when it becomes available. Many hiring managers just pay attention to the candidates who are easiest to engage.

2. Not tailoring your recruiting marketing and candidate-selling approaches to the decision criteria of top candidates. Because the most talented agents have choices, they will simply wait until an opportunity comes along that precisely fits their requirements and expectations.

and the #1 dumb thing that recruiters do...

1. Not managing the candidate experience. The candidate experience is the perception of the sum of interactions with an organization throughout the hiring process. It includes every communication, the design of the process, the fairness of process elements, the quality of information exchanged, and the honesty with which questions and concerns are addressed. Providing a poor candidate experience can have many negative consequences, including an increased candidate dropout rate, negative word-of-mouth, and decreased loyalty to the overall brand.

While this survey was focused on corporate recruiters, it is amazing how many of these issues directly apply to the real estate recruiting process, particularly the #1 dumb thing that recruiters do... As we've highlighted in recent WorkPuzzle posts, poor follow-up after the interview is the most common symptom of poor recruiting results.

I guess it could be said that recruiting is...recruiting, no matter what industry you find yourself working. And the principles that produce results-- managing perceptions, knowing what you're looking for, maintaining focus on desired outcomes, and treating people with respect-- are surprisingly similar.

Make sure you're not one of the hiring managers who makes the mistake of believing these pitfalls don't apply to you. You may find yourself contributing to a list of the ten dumbest things that real estate recruiters and hiring managers do...

---

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.