A few years back, I wrote a blog with the above title that became one of our most popular blog entries.  I reviewed it recently in order to address a manager's concern, and realized that a revisit to this important topic may be due.  Some of the information below is from the original blog, but included are new thoughts garnered along the way…

It's no secret that managing and coaching those around us can feel futile if those being coached lack confidence in their ability to succeed.  We've all witnessed talented people lose their spark and confidence, begin to wilt, and eventually begin to drop below performance standards.  Most of the time it feels like we can’t predict who will go which way.  And sometimes we can’t.  But, here are some clues and suggestions…
 
At the time I wrote the article, in 2009, I was watching "American Idol" (OK, I admitted I watched it- and still do) when one of the judges, Simon, who happened to be pretty candid and generally correct, asked a contestant, "Do you think that you can win this?"  Her answer, or lack thereof, proved that she clearly had serious doubts as to whether she could!  And you can guess what happened.  She was soon voted off the show.

Psychologist, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, expert on the subject of confidence explains:

"Confidence consists of positive expectations for favorable outcomes.  Confidence influences the willingness to invest – to commit money, time, reputation, emotional energy, or other resources – or to withhold or hedge investment.  This investment, or its absence, shapes the ability to perform.  In that sense, confidence lies at the heart of civilization.  Everything about an economy, a society, an organization, or a team depend on it.  Every step we take, every investment we make, is based on whether we feel we can count on ourselves and others to accomplish what has been promised.  Confidence determines whether our steps – individually or collectivity – are tiny and tentative or big and bold."  (Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Confidence: Leadership and the Psychology of Turnarounds, 2004)

Recruiting people is only the first stage of an ongoing process.  It's your job as a coach, manager, and/or mentor, to bring out the best in others, and that begins with assessing their confidence.  They have to believe that they can succeed in order to succeed.

This past weekend I caught the last two holes of the British Open.  I witnessed Darren Clarke, the least likely person to win the trophy, do it three strokes ahead of the runners up.  What struck me as I watched him on and off throughout various news stories the entire weekend, is that it appeared like he expected to win all along.

After the win, a commentator said that Clarke had consulted with his sports psychologist before the Open, who told him: “Don’t let your golf game determine your attitude, let your attitude determine your golf game.” 
 
So…what do you do if your agents begin to "lose," or rarely show a sense of confidence?

1. Ask them: "Do you believe that you will succeed?"  If they don't, or if they say yes in a tentative or not believable manner:
2. Then ask them what they believe the outcome will be if they don't really believe they can achieve their goals?  (Even though my graduate courses were over 25 years ago, I can tell you that those who believed they would finish and succeed, did!  Those who didn't have that confidence, failed!)
3. Once you have them talking openly about their uncertainty and its impact on their performance, ask them to remember a time when they did succeed – big time!  Get them to remember their attitude going into the situation.  What was their level of confidence?  Did they expect success?  How did they envision success?
4. And lastly, remind them that their best confidence comes when they aren't taking on important tasks and projects to bolster their ego, rather when they are doing it to contribute to clients, co-workers and society at large.  Only under these conditions can one sustain great performance.  Because when things don't go well, it's not about your ego, it's about your contribution!

And remind them…“Don’t let your sales so far this year determine your attitude, let your attitude determine your sales the remainder of the year!”

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.

If you haven’t already seen it, I want to highly recommend you watch the critically acclaimed documentary called Waiting for Superman.  Directed by Davis Guggenheim, Waiting for Superman, received the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, as well as Best Documentary Feature at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards.

Documentary filmmaker, Davis Guggenheim, explores the tragic ways in which the American public education system is failing our nation's children, and explores the principle differences between “dropout factory” public schools and some charter schools, many of which are in some of the worst neighborhoods.

On the public school side, dreadful statistics are presented in a series of animated episodes. He chronicles decades of diminishing national reading and math scores, America’s low standing when compared with other countries, the high dropout rate in urban public high schools, the tenure system (guaranteed by union contract), and the fact that it is against union rules to pay excellent teachers a higher wage than inferior ones.  Apparently, many public school principals rotate lousy teachers within a district, in pessimistic shuffles known as the Dance of the Lemons, the Turkey Trot, and Pass the Trash.

On the flip side, despite receiving public funds (as well as much private support), charter schools can hire non-union teachers and adopt their own curriculum and standards.  In these environments, they can hire and fire at will, reward good teaching, hold longer school days, and exercise high expectations.  What a concept!

What does this have to do with real estate?

I did some additional research and came upon an article, by Ellen Galinsky, who had personally spent time interviewing some of the best education innovators.  In this article, you will readily find principles that relate to the best managers and agents in real estate.  Here is some of what she has to say:

“About a year ago, I spent time interviewing and filming Geoffrey Canada and his staff at the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) for Mind in the Making.  Since Canada is one of the 'stars' of Waiting for Superman (as he deserves to be), I feel compelled to share my observations from that visit as a brief glimpse of what it will take to fix education.

 

To foster good teaching—it takes an adult learning environment where there is accountability: When I visited the HCZ, Canada told me that they look for teachers with a 'no excuses' attitude:  Everybody who comes in to work for me promises me they know these kids are poor and the families have problems.  However, Canada finds that if a teacher isn’t doing well, he or she is likely to begin blaming the difficulties in these children's home lives.  Canada says to these teachers:

'You knew [the realities of these children’s lives] when you took the job—you said you understood that was the deal—now you’re making excuses.'  If you allow people to make excuses, it becomes the kid’s fault, the parent’s fault, the community’s fault…versus those of us who are getting paid!  That said, the teachers at HCZ have a great deal of support for improving, including opportunities to learn more about children’s learning and teaching from other more experienced teachers, from specialists, and from colleges and universities which they are encouraged to attend.  I had the strong impression that HCZ was a learning community, where everyone, at every level, including Canada, was trying to learn more.  And that learning environment has become contagious, spilling over onto the children.

To foster good learning environments for the children, there needs to be high expectations and accountability, but mistakes are seen as part of the process of learning.  In its brochure, Canada describes the ultimate goal of HCZ: 'getting our kids into and through college.'  HCZ makes sure that this goal is visible and reinforced daily.  For example, in the Promise Academy elementary program I observed, the children line up in the hallway every morning and state this goal as their creed.  Canada says:
 If kids are saying their creed, 'I will go to college; I will succeed,'
if their parents are thinking that, if the teachers are thinking that, then you’ve got thirty percent of the work done.  In the HCZ, the children are expected to develop a good work ethic, put many hours into school, and to understand that there are times when learning won’t be fun.  The staff also know that it is impossible for children to succeed all of the time, which is why I like the rating system used there—not A, B, C, D, and F but 1 to 4, where 1 is an 'oops.'  The superintendent of HCZ, Daryl Rock describes their philosophy:  We give [children] the freedom to make mistakes.  We teach our kids that failure is not a way of labeling who you are—it’s just a way of identifying what you don’t know and what you need to put more effort into.  When kids understand that, they’re not hesitant about trying something, because if they fail, it’s not a reflection on them.  That just tells them:  'This is an area we need to work on.'  To put this in another way, the children aren’t just learning content, they are learning life skills, including how to take on challenges.”

Which attitudes are you and your company adopting toward productivity?
 
Furthermore, if you’ve been searching for a worthy cause for individual volunteering or better yet, to rally your office/company around, you might want to visit the Waiting for Superman website for action opportunities.  This could be what you’ve been waiting for…