Good Evening, Folks!
Would like some input from those of you that lead a Team, as I do. It can be a Team of Real Estate Agents, Unlicensed Assistants + Yourself, a Lending Team, a Staging Team, or a Husband & Wife Team in any of the above categories.
When times are tough, closings are hard, and revenue is tough to come by - what do you do to keep your Team motivated, postitive, and working through the slow times?
When is it time to perhaps let go of an under-performing Team member?
Do you help keep them financially solvent if they need extra money - or is this a bad precedent to set?
What types of training do you emphasize during slow times - highly motivational stuff? Tech stuff? The basics? What?
I need to do a bit of Masterminding here, and I can think of no better place to do it!
We had a very strong production year in 2007 - but 2008 pales by comparison so far.
As the leader of a four-Realtor + two admin Real Estate Team, I'm down a bit numbers-wise, but still getting by. But my people seem a bit blue, and frustrated - and I don't want to lose them! Or, perhaps, I need to consider cutting bait on those that are too "down" - I'm not sure!
Would love your thoughts, Team Captains. Please share!
DEAN & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
Dean: Been there done that.. got the T-shirt. 2 years ago I told my team we all needed to refocus and get re-committed or they may want to concider something else. Well 2 of 3 team members seen greener grass and left. One joined a new team 2 months later. the second one is hanging in there. Now the third hung on for a few months and then decided to leave the business.
Everyone on a team needs to be committed to the team goal to make it work. They have to be willing for self commitment and self motivated and willing to learn, and do the basics of real estate.
Dean
I just had to make a tough decision to leave a team that we had just formed in the fall. I was the rainmarker and discovered that although they said they wanted to work together, their actions spoke otherwise.
The brain is an associating machine. It is amazing how better you feel when you are doing the activities that you know you need to do to be successful. It's like forcing your facial muscles to smile when you don't feel like it. The muscle movement actually changes the mind's perception, so you "feel better".
Same thing in our line of work. There are very few issues in our business that cannot be solved, or at least improved, with more prospecting and a transaction or two. We know that this busniess is a numbers game, so if you are prospecting three hours a day, five days a week, good things are going to happen.
Set forth a plan with expectations. We do not have control over results, only acitvity. So when a team member shows activity, then we know that results will follow. Reinforce proper behavior, share the victories, and work on incremental improvement. We seek progress, not perfection. If they opt to work, great. It not, great. It is great either way.