Peak Performance: Optimize Your Ability to Learn New Information

Monday, April 27, 2015

In today’s economy, we’re constantly bombarded with new information. Changes happen quickly and our propensity for success often depends upon our ability to assimilate new ideas.

Since Peter Drucker’s “knowledge worker” framework is how most businesses operate in today’s economy (including the real estate industry), our ability to learn quickly and efficiently is critical to our success.

HowYourBrainLearns

How can you increase your ability to learn?   We’ll lean upon some recent brain research to get us pointed in the right direction.

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Recruiting: What Your Body Language is Telling Your Candidates

Monday, April 20, 2015

In several WorkPuzzle discussions over the last few months, we’ve talked about the importance of “perception of fit” in the recruiting process.

If candidates begin to feel like they’re a fit on your team (before they’re hired), they’ll often rationalize their way around obstacles hindering their decision to change careers.

BodyLanguage

If candidates don’t feel this sense of fit early in the hiring process, it becomes an uphill battle that rarely ends in a hire.

How do you help your candidates experience a “perception of fit” during your interviews?  One way is by being aware of your body language and managing it for maximum engagement.

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Recruiting: “Grabbing a Coffee” with a Candidate is Out

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

For experienced agent recruiting, “let’s grab a coffee” is one of the most common phrases used to try to entice candidates into a face-to-face meeting.

Have you noticed this invitation is usually met with resistance or a flat out rejection of the request?

GrabbingCoffee

In a recent article in Entrepreneur magazine, Gene Marks explains why this happens.  Gene is a business owner, consultant, and author.   He commonly writes for several business publications.

If you asked Gene to have coffee with you, here’s the response you’d likely receive…

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Peak Performance: Too Busy to Be Yourself

Wednesday, April 08, 2015

Calm, peaceful, slowed-down, reflective, grounded.

These are the words I recently entered into my journal.  I wrote them on the return trip after visiting my extended family in Arkansas.

toobusytobeyourself

It’s a long story of how each of them ended up building their lives in that beautiful place. Each time I return for a visit, I seem to depressurize in a way that both rejuvenates me and causes me to slow down.

This reminder of escaping (at least temporarily) from a harried life caused me to do some further reading on the subject.

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Managing: Teaching Your Agents to Be More Confident

Thursday, April 02, 2015

When you interact with a confident sales person, all kinds of positive things happen on both sides of the transaction.

Sensing a humble confidence, consumers will start to let down their guard and reveal the true nature of their wants and needs.

Teaching Cofidence April 3

Feeling confident frees salespeople to take more risk and find creative solutions. During face-to-face interactions, they’re more empathetic to the customers because they worry less about being self-conscious.

As long as confidence doesn’t crossover into arrogance, it’s a win-win solution for both sides of the transactions.

How do you teach confidence?

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Recruiting: How the Gig Economy Could Disrupt the Real Estate Employment Model—Part 2

Monday, March 30, 2015

Last week, I introduced you to the “gig economy.”  Now that you recognize it, you’ll be surprised how often you see and interact with it.

Just last week I was chided by one my clients for not using Uber to get to his office from the airport.  Why rent a car when Uber is so easy and inexpensive?

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You’ll hopefully learn to enjoy the benefits of the gig economy, but there are some issues worth concern—especially for the real estate industry.

As Steve Jobs once said, “ large profits attract imitators and innovators.”  It could also be said large valuations attract attorneys—especially in environments where class action law suits find fertile ground.

Is the real estate industry becoming fertile ground for such lawsuits?  Probably not.  However, it could be negatively affected by new laws and changes in regulations resulting from lawsuits underway in other companies.

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