Recruiting: What Causes a Candidate to Choose a Particular Real Estate Office?

Monday, February 02, 2015

A few months ago, I introduced you to the work of Richard Millington and his consulting company FeverBee.

Richard’s focus is helping large organizations develop, grow, and sustain online communities.  It’s difficult work because, as he frequently points out:

Most online communities aren’t.  They’re online but they’re not communities. They’re a group of people looking to extract instant gratification from a collective resource. They want immediate help or immediate resources.

JoiningaGroup

Since most of you don’t manage communities, this information doesn’t apply to you. Right?

Not so fast.  Reread Richard’s description.

I would argue that many real estate organizations (offices, teams, companies) operate more like communities than tightly managed business units.  While this reality has its advantages, it also has its own set of challenges.

Here’s the good news: These challenges can be turned into a recruiting competitive edge by a knowledgeable hiring manager.

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Coaching: An Update on Happiness at Work

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

As many of your know, we occasionally address the topic of happiness at work in WorkPuzzle discussions.  While it’s a natural topic of interest to most people, it’s especially important if you have the responsibility of coaching agents.

The driving force that causes most individuals to perform is a “pursuit of happiness.”

happiness

Here’s the problem:  What people believe will bring them happiness and what actually produces happiness are frequently disconnected.  As a coach, it’s helpful to consistently address this disparity and point individuals towards the activities that deliver on producing true happiness.

How are you going to know these activities?  Positive psychology researchers have been at work over the last 15 years finding answers.

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Managing: The February Dip in Performance – Part 2

Monday, January 26, 2015

Most people lose energy and enthusiasm for their New Year’s resolutions starting in late January.  After the initial decline starts, the trend bottoms-out around the first of February.

As a manager, there’s little you can do to keep this phenomenon from a happening.  The strong forces of human nature drive this behavior.

FebruaryDipInPerformance Jan 28th

However, you can help some people pick themselves up at the bottom of the dip and start a slow and steady march towards better performance for the remainder of the year.

One of the keys to this process is understanding the nature of habits.   We touched on this topic last week, and covered it in detail in a previous WorkPuzzle.  Today, we’ll discuss three more ideas on how you can sail through the February dip in performance.

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Managing: The February Dip in Performance

Thursday, January 22, 2015

If you’re managing a team (especially one that is filled with self-directed independent contractors), you’ve probably noticed the best New Year’s intentions don’t always turn into long-term productivity gains.

This is a reality of human nature that managers and individuals have struggled with since the beginning of time.

FebruaryDipInPerformance

Thanks to Facebook, we can now predict when this is going to happen.   It starts about now (3rdweek of January) and bottoms-out around the first of February.

Is there anything you can do to keep this from happening?  Probably not.

Once it does happen, is there a way to help individuals pick themselves up and become productive for the remainder of the year?   A few researchers, psychologists, and sociologists seem to think so.  I’ll share some of their ideas on this topic today.

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Recruiting: Lessons from the Hiring Lab

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

This may sound odd, but can you imagine a laboratory dedicated to increasing the effectiveness of the hiring process? There is such a thing, and the research it does is worth investigating.

Jan. 21

The Hiring Lab is sponsored by Indeed, the leading search engine for employment opportunities in the United States and around the world.  The Hiring Lab is headed by Dr. Tara Sinclair, associate professor of economics and international affairs at  George Washington University.

Dr. Sinclair’s research focuses on examining historical patterns in data to understand both the current and past structure of the labor market and to forecast future movements.

I know, this may not sound overly exciting.   However, if you want to increase your proficiency as a recruiter or hiring manager, it’s a gold mine of information.

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Peak Performance: Learning to Delegate Effectively – Part 2

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Earlier this week, we discussed the importance of delegation as a tool for reducing workload and freeing up time to focus your personal effort on the highest return activities.

When done correctly, delegation not only enlarges your personal capacity but also increases the capacity of your team.

delegating Jan 15

Those you manage should be growing in their abilities, confidence, and bandwidth to take on increasingly complex tasks as a result of the delegation process.

How do you make sure you’re delegating in a healthy way?  Matt Perman* provides some basic guidelines for ensuring your delegation methodology passes muster.

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