Recruiting: Don’t Confuse Love and Money

Monday, June 01, 2015

A few weeks ago, a couple of my kids were studying some of Jane Austin’s works in their literature class.

Her most famous novel, Pride and Prejudice, takes on the age-old question of whether an individual should get married for love or money.

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I’m sure this topic will continue to be debated for years to come, with no conclusive answer emerging any time soon (if you’re lucky enough to be Austin’s protagonist, you got both).

However in the world of recruiting referrals, Google may have definitively solved this issue.

Are you surprised they study such things?  You shouldn’t be.  Understanding recruiting referrals is an important performance indicator for any organization.

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Peak Performance: Avoiding Frustration

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

How many times have you been frustrated this week?   More than you’d probably like to admit.

Frustration is an emotion we’d all like to avoid.  It’s not only personally unpleasant, but it also tends to stress and damage relationships.  This is bad for business.

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Proactively managing (and perhaps even avoiding frustration) is an important objective to consider in your own life, but it’s also an important issue to consider when coaching your agents to work with their clients.

To help with this topic, we’ll reference a recent article written by Eric Barker.  Eric is a regular contributor to several national publications and he manages the very popular Barking Up the Wrong Tree blog.  If you haven’t done so already, check out his work.

Eric’s thesis is:  Every individual has the opportunity to reduce the frustration level he or she is experiencing to near zero.  How could this possibly be done?  It’s by knowing your ABCs.

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Recruiting: Don’t Forget the Best Real Estate Agents Are Entrepreneurial

Thursday, May 14, 2015

If you had to boil the real estate position down to one trait that predicts whether a person will be successful, what trait would be at the top of your list?

For many of the real estate hiring managers I’ve worked with over the years, the most desirable characteristic is entrepreneurism.

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Hiring managers want to know: Does the person have the desire, ability, and financial resources to start and manage their own business?  If a person has this trait, it seems that a lot of other obstacles in the hiring process can be overcome.

But, how can this be accessed during an interview and subsequent follow-up interactions?  Isn’t the idea of entrepreneurism kind of nebulous?

Summer Suleiman, a writer at The Idea Village in New Orleans, will share her insight on this topic today.  She has interviewed dozens of entrepreneurs, ranging from new founders of fledgling companies to seasoned leaders who have launched several successful businesses.

Find out how she has learned to recognize a true entrepreneur during an interview.

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Managing: The One Reason Most Agents Leave Your Company – Part 2

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Last week, I opened a discussion on retention.  There was lots of great feedback on this topic—thank you for your comments.

I think this issue strikes a nerve with so many people because we’ve all had supervisors who have failed to inspire us.   It is hard to feel engaged when this relationship is not right.

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On the other hand, it’s such a challenge to be a great manager and lead in a way that others experience your involvement in their lives as inspirational.

How do high performing managers become proficient at this difficult task.  According to new research by the Gallup Organization, they focus on the wellbeing of those they manage.

But, not in a way you might imagine.

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Managing: The One Reason Most Agents Leave Your Company

Thursday, May 07, 2015

The counterbalance of any successful recruiting strategy is the retention of productive agents.

After going through the effort and expense of recruiting, it’s painful to watch your agents walk out the door – especially if they end up helping one of your competitors.

ManagerDissatisfactionSuccessfully retaining agents may sound complex, but a recent study by the Gallup Organization suggests you could eliminate 50% of the defections by solving a single issue.

What’s the issue?  It’s the relationship the agent has with the first level manager.  The majority of agents who are leaving your company do so because of a strained relationship with their manager.

How can this risk be minimized?  You guessed it – by being a great manager.

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Recruiting: What’s the Real Story with the Unemployment Rate

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Perhaps you read the article published a couple months ago by Jim Clifton, the CEO of Gallup, construing the commonly quoted unemployment rate was a “big lie.”

It has caused quite a bit of controversy, and there have been numerous articles written over the last couple of months trying to make sense of Clifton’s conspiratorial tone.

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Of course, in one sense Clifton is right.  The unemployment rate is an odd metric only giving us a small perspective on the job market.   It even tells us less about the overall economy.

What’s really going on—especially as it relates to the real estate industry?  We’ll tackle this issue today.

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