Your Fortune is in the Follow-up

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

My name is Lee Gray, Senior Account Manager for Tidemark. Working side by side with our two blog masters, Ben Hess and Dave Mashburn, has inspired me to step into the blogging foray. Part of my job is to research relevant business related information and share with my partnering managers. In doing so, I came across a topic of special interest to me, given that I train and consult with managers on a regular basis regarding recruiting matters…the importance of “follow-up.”

Recruiting is fundamentally “selling.” As a hiring manager, it is your job to inspire/sell a career in real estate to your new-to-business candidates…or inspire/sell your company and/or office to experienced agents. You should be going about recruiting in much the same way you would expect your existing agents to prospect. Would you tell your agents to have one conversation with a potential customer and leave it at that? I think not.

Ali Brown, founder and CEO of Ali International LLC, an organization committed to empowering female entrepreneurs globally, validates my philosophy in her article, “Your Fortune is in the Follow-up.” Given that my primary focus is in the area of recruiting consulting, I read her article in that vein, however it clearly can be shared with existing agents or anyone in a similar industry.

“Most business owners are good at pitching clients or reaching out to new customers. It’s the follow-up where they fall down. Why? Because they figure, 'If they wanted my product, they’d finish the transaction,' or they worry that, 'If I bug them too much, I’ll come off as needy.'

Here’s the thing: while you’re worrying about bugging a prospective customer or telling yourself that maybe 'they’re just not that into me,' someone else is following up and sealing the deal!

'No' is just a little bump on the road to 'yes.' When someone expresses interest in your business, but they aren’t quite ready to sign on the dotted line, they can often be persuaded with a polite follow-up.”

After you go through all of the time and effort to sit down for an interview with a potential hire, why would you leave it at that? You wouldn’t. Here is my mantra: “If you interview someone and you want to hire them…treat them as though they are hired.” Many of you have heard me say this, and I don’t think I can say it enough. The more a candidate feels like they belong/fit in your company, the more likely they are to follow-through with the licensing requirements and join your office versus signing on with a competitor. In the case of experienced agents, the more they feel courted by you and welcome in your organization, the more likely they are to recognize your value-proposition…but they will never get the chance to realize that value if you are not staying connected.

So, how do you treat a potential hire as a hire? You can invite them to your training classes…yes, even before they have their license, or before on-boarding an experienced agent. It is a potential risk, but worth the investment. Invite them to sales meetings, events, open houses, tours etc. The more they are in front of you and inspired by your office and business, the more likely they will, not only convert to a hire, but be a quick-to-produce hire, especially with the early onset training. A couple of other ideas, discussed in Ali’s article are worthwhile to consider as well:

“Ask if they’d like to be added to your email newsletter.

Creating an email newsletter is a great way to keep in contact with prospects and update them on new promotions or offerings. Since nobody likes getting spam, ask their permission first and include useful content in your newsletter so it's not a pure sales message. Once people expect timely and insightful information from you, they'll become more likely to open your emails and conduct business with you.

Send useful links.

If you know the prospect pretty well, you could email her sporadically when you find articles that might be useful for her business or see networking events she might like to attend. That way you’re keeping the lines of communication open without pressuring her.”

It is this kind of diligent, meaningful, value-added and credible follow-up that will lead you to be a successful hiring manager. Yes, it is hard work, but nothing truly worth having comes easy…

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.

How great expectations lead to better results

Monday, November 07, 2011

Have you ever wondered how important positive expectations are in the workplace? Take a moment to think about when, and under what conditions, you best perform…

The Rosenthal Effect refers to a phenomenon that many of us might understand intuitively, but can't fathom the sheer amount of power and achievement it can harness. It emphatically shows that the greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform. The Rosenthal Effect is in essence, a self-fulfilling prophecy whereby people with poor expectations internalize their negative label, and perform poorly…while those with positive self-imposed labels, exceed their own apparent abilities.

In the late 1960's, Robert Rosenthal showed that if teachers were led to expect enhanced performance from a select group of children, these children were able to rise above previously predicted achievement levels. What he (and others who came after him) has proven, is that reality can be influenced by the expectations of others…And it goes both ways: Detrimental effects come from negative expectations just as strongly as achievement results from positive expectations.

What biases do you bring to the table with new agent candidates? Are you one of those who believe that everyone has a certain ceiling of performance that they will never exceed? Do you refrain from holding people to high expectations because it feels mean or unfair? "After all, this person couldn't pull it off, so it would be cruel to expect that they will?" This kind of thinking, Rosenthal and others have termed the "observer-expectancy effect," where a person forms unconscious, biased expectations, based on extremely limited, and usually irrelevant information…and creates a downward spiraling, self-fulfilling prophecy as a result.

The Rosenthal Effect is confirmed by Jane Elliot's blue-eyed versus brown-eyed discrimination exercise. In this experiment, a group of third graders were told that they were going to take turns looking down upon one half of the classroom, as if they were inferior people. They used something completely random to determine who would be inferior/superior – eye color. The first day of the experiment, one group was given preference and regarded as "superior" because of their eye color, while the other group was made to feel inferior in intelligence and learning ability. On the second day of the experiment, the groups were completely reversed; those who had been treated as lower-than, were regarded as superior, and those who were treated as superior were treated as dummies.

The teacher continued to hold classroom structure and assignments as if the "experiment" wasn't occurring. In keeping with the classroom routine, spelling tests were administered on both days. The results strongly confirm the Rosenthal effect: The students scored very low on the day they were "inferior," and very high on the day they were considered "superior."

It's time to recalibrate the way you approach everyone you are responsible for. Check your internal biases, reset your expectations, and watch people flourish.

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.

Career Security: The Recruiting Card You Should Learn to Play

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

On occasion, I highlight an article written by Peter Weddle. Peter is a nationally known author and consultant who specializes in dispensing career advice and explaining recruiting trends. He has published a number of helpful books over the years and currently writes in his blog as well as other venues.

Recently, Peter published an article in his bi-weekly newsletter that opened my eyes to a trend that I believe could significantly aid those who have the responsibility of recruiting real estate agents. The trend is a desire that many talented individuals have for some much needed “career security.”

Notice that I didn’t say job security. Most people have come to the realization that job security is not something that a company can truly offer. Why? Because in an era of global competition, employer needs and circumstances change much more frequently and unpredictably than ever before. Individual employers are not in a position to offer anyone security.

So, what’s “career security?” According to Peter, career security is the ability of a person always to be employed, and always by an employer of their choice. In essence, it is reinforcing a person’s ability and propensity to be gainfully employed in the future by helping him/her acquire the knowledge and skills needed to continuously succeed.

How can a real estate company do this? …By teaching each and every employee how to practice effective career self-management. This is not far removed from the mentality needed to start and manage a real estate career. I know this may sound crazy, but the rest of the employment world may be coming around to using the language that the real estate industry has been using for years!

It used to be that people went to school and then found jobs. Now, there is a need to start a career that must be notoriously self-directed. Peter points out that traditional companies are not very good at providing this insight and assistance to talented individuals:

"[Higher education and university] faculties work in ivory towers that were erected long before the advent of global competition and talent. They simply don't realize that employers can no longer afford to provide career-long guidance and development for their employees. Those workers must now do it for themselves.

The tragedy, of course, is that almost none of them know how. Talented people are defined by their quest to excel – to be the best they can be in their profession, craft or trade – so they are acutely aware of this shortcoming. Indeed, they more than any others in the workforce recognize the importance of this knowledge. They want to know what they must do and how they must do it in order to build up the strength, reach and endurance of their career.

Any employer which fills that vacuum will send a powerful and differentiating message to top talent. They are saying: We care about you and want you to succeed, in our organization and successively wherever else you might be. Yes, of course, we want you to work for us, but we also want you to work where you can grow and excel. That may cause you to leave us at some point, but if you succeed successively, there's a good probability that you'll also come back.

Admittedly, it takes a brave organization to embark on such a strategy. Because it teaches employees to take care of their own careers, it is, in some respects, their emancipation proclamation. However, it is also a unique show of respect for the ultimate goal of those individuals. And for the best talent, there's simply no more powerful and compelling reason to hire on.”

Is your organization willing to develop programs to meet this need? For many in the real estate industry, it would not be a significant jump from what is already offered in terms of training, mentoring, and coaching programs.

The tricky part is crafting a recruiting marketing message that “connects the dots” for those who are seeking career security, but would not naturally see a real estate career as a destination for meeting that need.

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.

How to Coach in Five Minutes

Monday, October 31, 2011

Among the many management topics out there, people tend to feel the most confusion about one in particular…coaching. Despite the plethora of material available on the subject, there are some managers out there who continue to exercise coaching methods used by their childhood sports coaches. Well, if you're like me, you'd be duplicating behavior that wasn't very pleasant in the first place. I never really liked any of my coaches. Why? There are a multitude of reasons… They never really knew me, for one. They didn't ask me questions, and if they did ask, they weren't meant to be answered: "Why didn't you block your man?" Because I'm 20 pounds lighter and I don't like the feeling of getting my clocked cleaned!

At the heart of effective coaching lies something much simpler and so much more rewarding for everyone. Coaching is first and foremost based on the formula that if I, the coach, ask the right questions, I can elicit information from the coachie that he/she hasn't even thought of before. When this happens, people follow through, set better goals, and come to you again and again to help them achieve the same magic advice that came from their own mind. It's a wonderful formula that we all forget too often. I know I do.

If you've come to this article, hoping to figure out how to do all of your coaching in five minutes…I'm sorry, but it can't be done. Nonetheless, for those occasions when you don't have more time, below is a good blueprint for coaching others…in five minutes. Remember, with the following questions, your job is to ask, listen, and ask them to tell you more.

Here are the questions I found in an article by Scott Eblin (potential follow up questions are in parentheses):

What’s the most important meeting or event coming up on your calendar in the next week?
If that meeting or event is a complete success, what happens at the end? (What do people know, think, do, feel or believe?)
How do you need to show up to make that outcome likely? (What are you going to say and how are you going to say it? What kind of energy, body language, tone of voice, and demeanor do you need to demonstrate?)
(What else?) This is the all-purpose coaching question, because it draws out the extra ideas.

Pretty simple, huh? Well, the hard part is keeping your direction, your agenda, your ego in check, and your mouth shut. This is about them, not you. This is a problem for most of us. Let the process work and get back to me on how it went…

What’s An Elevator Pitch and Why Do My Agents Need One?

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

In the WorkPuzzle post I wrote last week, I suggested you develop a short elevator pitch, explaining why agents have the highest chance of attaining "happiness at work" if they work on your team.

How did you do on this assignment? Hopefully you've been able to quantify this illusive yet important set of qualities.

After suggesting this, it occurred to me that some of you may not have much experience with elevator pitches. If you've never started a business from scratch or had to raise money to fund a new venture, it may be a new concept.

So why circle back on this topic? In addition to helping you retain your best agents, an elevator pitch can also be a very powerful tool for those you coach. Agents need to be able to quickly articulate "what they offer" to perspective clients.

I'd like to reference an outstanding article written by Michael Hyatt a few months ago. Here is an abbreviated and slightly modified version of what Michael wrote regarding elevator pitches:

"What's an elevator pitch? The name comes from the idea that you should be able to deliver a succinct, compelling description of what you offer in the time it takes to ride an elevator up a few floors—approximately 30 seconds to two minutes.

The idea originated with entrepreneurs who needed to pitch their business proposals quickly to potential investors in order to secure funding. This enabled those same investors to quickly eliminate ideas that were ill-conceived or simply didn’t fit their investment profile. The elevator pitch has become so effective that it is used in other fields as well."

Why do you need an elevator pitch as a real estate professional? It forces you to achieve clarity yourself and understand your prospect's perspective.

"An elevator pitch should consist of four components:

Component 1: Your product name and category.

Component 2: The problem you are attempting to solve.

Component 3: Your proposed solution.

Component 4: The key benefit of your solution.

Here’s an example from a person who is writing a book:

'I am writing a new business book called Platform [Component 1]. It is designed for anyone who is trying to get attention for their product, service, or cause [Component 2]. I teach my readers how to build a tribe of loyal followers, using social media and other new technologies [Component 3]. I explain that it has never been easier, less expensive, or more possible than right now [Component 4].'

Obviously, pitches can vary widely, depending on your offering. Regardless, you want to create an elevator pitch that is clear and compelling. This is a prerequisite for attracting the partners and prospects you need to succeed.

Once you get your elevator pitch fine-tuned, don’t deliver it like a mechanical parrot. Instead, use it as the foundation of a meaningful sales conversation."

Do you have any thoughts on constructing a good elevator pitch for a real estate agent in your office? Start noodling on this and write down the thoughts that come to your mind.

Of course, an agent would need to conceptualize their own elevator pitch if it is going to come across as authentic, but being able to provide examples is a great place to initiate the conversation.

Here is an elevator pitch that I came up with, pretending I’m an agent in my hometown of Woodinville, WA (a suburb of Seattle). It is partially based on a discussion I had with one of the top performing real estate owners in the Seattle market.

“I am a real estate financial advisor who focuses on real estate investments in the community of Woodinville [Component 1]. Because the process of making real estate investment decisions is so heavily influenced by emotion and personal preference [Component 2], I’m the neutral third party who understands the psychology of making an important financial decision [Component 3]. By personally coaching those involved in the decision, I help each individual gain clarity at a point when their emotions and feelings often point them in the wrong direction [Component 4].”

You’re welcome to use this as an example with your agents or make up one on your own. If you make your own, you’ll have the added benefit of experiencing how it feels to put one of these pitches together. It is not as easy as it looks.

Once you come up with a few of these (collected from multiple agents going through this process) send me one or two of your team's best elevator pitches. We’ll publish a few examples in an upcoming WorkPuzzle.

Psychology at the End of the World

Monday, October 24, 2011

I love true adventure stories. I can't tell you exactly why, but at the very least, they help me resist becoming complacent with living a risk-free life. Another reason is that these stories typically tell me something about how courageous people are wired…how they think, feel, interact..and most importantly, how they respond to inevitable setbacks, disappointments and fears.

These stories also attract the scientific eye of research psychologists, who are interested in what happens to the human mind and human relationships under such extreme conditions. I've posted several articles based on real life stories of adventure, with all the trials and tribulations that go along with the experiences. I believe these stories offer insight for us all into ourselves, our organizations, and most importantly, how we can successfully navigate difficult times. In a post written by Christian Jerrett for BPS Digest, I found a fascinating story that illustrates some great principles we can all learn from. I trust that you will thoroughly enjoy the research findings below…and in the next edition, I will follow up with my own insight regarding how all of this applies to you and your team.

"A new paper by Gloria Leon and her colleagues has gauged the psychological profile and experiences of two polar explorers – given the pseudonyms Bill (age 32) and Andrew (age 35) – who in 2009 became the first team from the USA to reach the North Pole without outside support. Starting out from Ward Hut Island in Canada, they reached their target in 55 days. Personality profiles of the men prior to the challenge were largely as you might expect – they were both high-scorers in leadership and extraversion and low scorers on harm-avoidance. Andrew also scored low in conscientiousness, which may be unexpected given the preparation required for an expedition, and had a tendency to become highly engrossed in his own thoughts and surroundings.

The challenge itself was grueling, with each man hauling a 300 pound sled. Temperatures ranged from minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit at the start to zero degrees Fahrenheit at the end. Both men lost significant amounts of weight. At one point, Bill fell through ice and was submerged up to his neck, only narrowly escaping hypothermia. The final leg of the trip was the most arduous as the duo fought to reach their destination before their helicopter arrived on Day 56 (it was to pick them up whether they'd reached their target or not). For the last 66 hours, the pair had just one hour of sleep for every 16 hours on the move. Throughout, the men filled out weekly questionnaires about their coping methods, their relationship, and their mood. They were also interviewed a few weeks after their return, and again six months later.

For the duration of the expedition, both men scored high on positive mood and low on negative mood. They survived and succeeded by supporting each other and communicating effectively, and by adopting flexible coping strategies, including positive re-interpretation of challenges and use of relaxation and meditation. Their relationship hit a low point around day 40 when Andrew aired his grievances about planning for the trip, but they worked through this constructively. These observations contradict some earlier research suggesting that all-male groups suffer from excess competitiveness.

'We were basically one persona when it came to goal orientation,' Bill said. 'We had a high degree of self-care for each other and ourselves,' he explained. Andrew said: 'Anytime we expressed ourselves it brought us closer… We talked more about recognizing differences and embracing our similarities and we celebrated that it was really fun.' Based on this, the researchers said it was important not to overgeneralize the effects of gender on group processes. 'By focusing their interactions on supporting each other, competition between them was minimized or essentially eliminated,' they said."

So what was the long term impact? Both men "experienced a greater sense of unity with nature and a reduction in their need for conventional achievement, in terms of social status and prestige."

Reflect on this for a few moments… and please add your comments or email me personally with your thoughts…

Source: Leon, G., Sandal, G., Fink, B., and Ciofani, P. (2011). Positive Experiences and Personal Growth in a Two-Man North Pole Expedition Team. Environment and Behavior, 43 (5), 710-731 DOI:10.1177/0013916510375039