During a time when agents are joining, leaving and becoming teams, what do team and brokerage leaders need to do to be a beacon of strategy, support, vision and leadership — both now and into the future as we come out of this storm?
How do you support your agents? What values does your leadership team need to focus on to foster agent success? What programs are vital to take costs and turn them into investments for the agents and the brokerage? Here are a few things to focus on.
1. Systems and processes
As I’ve mentioned in my previous Inman articles, implementing systems and processes into your business will determine if your business succeeds or fails.
Especially now, teams need coaching and systems in place. Your role as a leader is to build the components that lead to results, ensure your systems allow others to deliver the standards of your business and hold team members accountable to keep that system on track.
Having systems in place is a win-win scenario for everyone. It allows you to manage workflow and customer experience, without micromanaging every single person on your team. It works to guide you toward your goals.
Let’s take a lead generation system, for example. When creating any system, you need to start by narrowing down specific steps and plans. For a lead-based system, some of these specifics might include the number of times you call a lead as well as follow-ups. Have you thought about the guidelines for minimum response times?
As you can see, creating and implementing a plan for everything that your team does ensures you don’t fall down a rabbit hole that leads to a lot of work with little to no results.
2. Hiring
Don’t be reluctant to hire an administrative assistant to take care of the behind-the-scenes work. Especially if that means you get to spend more of your time face to face — or screen to screen — with clients, nurturing increased sales opportunities.
An administrative assistant is absolutely essential, especially right now. As agents and team leaders, we’re always on the move, and administrative assistants can do the foundational administrative work that we can never get around to.
Another hire you need to make is an agent with marketing experience or a marketing specialist. I’ve written before about how marketing has changed since the pandemic. Now more than ever, marketing is necessary for cultivating relationships with both prospective and existing clients. A specialist can add value when it comes to content marketing, which is an effective strategy for boosting engagement and fostering new connections.
3. Mastery
I’ve mentioned the idea of mastery many times before in my articles. To master something, you have to understand its nuances — to live and breathe it. When you master a skill or a concept, you practice it without thinking. And that’s something that’s absolutely crucial to implement into your team’s structure right now.
The human brain is a forgetful force. It remembers and processes things differently every time. The more you practice, you more you learn, experience, grow and eventually evolve as a professional.
We’re always learning, growing and increasing our ability to bring value to the world. This is how I believe you can recharge yourself and your team while doing worthwhile work, avoiding burnout and living in an inspirational model.
Kathleen Black is the CEO of Kathleen Black Coaching and Consulting in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. Connect with her on Instagram at @kathleenblackcoaching or through her website ItTakesa.Team.
