Today I want to emphasise how really important it is to your business that you demonstrate leadership by coaching and mentoring your own team – how well you empower and train your people matters enormously to your bottom line and is directly linked to your core business.
Think of it this way; when a salesperson has the opportunity to come and work inside your organization they are effectively paying you for that opportunity to work underneath your guidance. They have chosen you as their career coach.
Let’s say, for example, you work on a 50/50 split with a salesperson and perhaps they’re producing $500,000 in fees. That means that effectively they are a customer who is paying you $250,000 for the opportunity to sit within your business. Remember, they are paying you to not only provide the resources, tools and the brand to manage their own business, but most importantly, the mentoring and the “tormentoring” that they need to achieve their potential.
This is a great way to stand back and look at your own business and its opportunities, essentially from the perspective of a managing partner.
One of the great challenges that we all face as business leaders is really connecting with our people and ensuring that we’re growing them in terms of their skill set.
Throughout the course of the year I recommend that you conduct some structured team reviews, maybe an annual review or a quarterly catch up, as well as having weekly one-on-ones with individuals for 10 or 15 minutes.
The challenge is that we all very rarely really connect with our own people when we’re trying to fit these kinds of meetings into a busy work day and a busy work life. I think it is critically important to every aspect of your business to fully understand your role as a leader and the opportunity that you have, at every meeting, to truly connect with a person and be a great mentor and a great tormentor.
The late Steve Jobs would actually take his people on a walk around the block to talk with them. His reasoning was that it’s an informal environment and can reduce friction and challenges to really talking issues through. It’s a great opportunity to get some sunlight and a refreshing way to connect.
If you want higher engagement with people then you you’ve got to get to know them. Most importantly, you’ve got to be challenging them specifically around the skill sets that you know are going to take them to the top of their game. We know, for example, that there are three core skill sets that substantially boost performance.
The first of those is the listing presentation. If you can train your people to be phenomenal at listing, that can change their entire view on prospecting, because they learn how to ask better questions, build their self-confidence and their own drive to do more prospecting.
Prospecting is obviously the second major element because it is about hitting the phones, understanding how to be more relevant to customers and also how to build a system for consistent lead generation.
The third component, which is a critical one for you as a mentor, is to ensure energy and self-management. I know that a lot of real estate agents burn out in our industry because they’re not managing their energy well, whether it’s their diet, physical exercise, values and goals or even simple things like making task lists and managing their calendar.
As your own business leader you must realise that you’re the boss first, not a friend of the people that are working with you. This means you must challenge and torment them to really achieving their growth. The best way is to do a SWOT analysis by sitting down with each person, from reception to sales, to pinpoint their own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
They key here is not for you to be the persecutor, but to help them to think about where their personal opportunities are for growth. Encourage them to talk with you in an open way around where they’re doing well, their weaknesses and how to pursue their opportunities and also the threats. Your clear role is to coach and mentor them so that they build greater momentum, more often.
Sometimes the best way to mentor someone is through the course of a transaction, to give them real, on the job training. As your business grows you can employ external coaches and mentors/ tormentors, as I do for many growing clients.
In short, it is critical for you to think about your own role in ensuring the delivery of the 50% of fees that those agents are paying you for the opportunity to work with you. At the end of the day, your role is to be a phenomenal tormenter, mentor and coach to take them to the top.
We’d love the opportunity to work with you at the Josh Phegan Company and help you make this happen within your own business and for your own benefit. Just hit reply to talk to us about where you’re capable of going. Have a great month!