It’s All In The Attitude – The Power of Positive Energy

“Commit to CANI! – Constant And Never-ending Improvement.” – Tony Robbins

If you ask any expert, there are a range of elements that must be present for a business to succeed, whether you are a real estate broker, CEO of a Fortune 500 company, or just starting out on a new venture. Some of these are easy to think of:

• Resources
• Skilled employees
• Effective marketing strategies.
  
  

Others are more industry-specific. But don’t forget the driving force that brings these elements together–the glue of any growing business–which is positive energy and a can-do attitude.

What Is Positive Energy?

It may sound like something right out of an alternative lifestyle book, but it simply means having the right attitude. When you see nothing as an obstacle, but rather challenges to be overcome, you become that positive force that drives your brokerage forward. Think of leadership as a responsibility to inspire, not just give commands. This mental shift will affect everyone in your brokerage including:

• Yourself
• Your team
• Your vendors and partners and those you touch
• Ultimately, your clients
  
  

A positive, energetic attitude has that same effect on anyone you meet, drawing their most positive selves to the forefront. With a brokerage team aligned with your vision and this kind of positive mindset, there is very little you can’t accomplish.

Most successful business owners use this “can do” approach towards their professional goals, allowing them to achieve maximum effectiveness and results in the delivery of their products and services. Even if you’re more of an Eeyore than a Tigger, you can learn just a few behaviors that will make a big difference at the office and in all your interactions.

How Does Positive Energy Influence the Workplace?

An attitude shift is not about being unrealistic or seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses. It’s about creating a culture where achievements, success, innovation, and improvement CAN happen and are celebrated. The interesting thing is that studies have shown that simply by achieving this mindset, business owners receive the following benefits:

• Improved problem solving: Solving issues and developing creative solutions is key to having an agile, competitive business – especially when you’re in an industry as competitive as real estate. Positive thinkers have been shown to have a greater ability to absorb new information, leading to a more rounded perspective and better-informed decision-making.
• Improved resilience: This is the ability to bounce back after a failure or setback– something every business owner must deal with. No matter how careful you are, you won’t avoid every challenging, frustrating situation on the path to growth. Instead it’s learning not to take every problem as a blow. It’s learning to see every problem as opportunity to learn, improve or build better relationships.
• Builds energy and enthusiasm: Real estate agents and brokers work at the top of their game when they’re feeling engaged, driven and competitive – a mindset that is encouraged by having a positive workplace culture. Not only will employees work harder to achieve their own personal career goals, but will actively engage with the big-picture business goals.
  

This is especially important for brokerages with a less experienced team. With a leader setting the standard for positivity and creating a safe work environment where it’s ok to fail once in a while, your team will strive to accomplish goals more effectively, regardless of their formal experience.

• Removes the influence of negative energy: Many of us have been part of a workplace with bad energy. In these workplaces employees lack a team focus and often lack respect for leadership.  Attitude filters from the top down and consistent positive energy from leaders builds trust and respect. It can transform an office and its employees into a place of enthusiasm and willingness, focused on how to grow, thrive and succeed.  It also makes people with negative attitudes stand out, making it obvious that their behavior doesn’t fit in.
  
  

Increase Your Can-Do Attitude, Increase Your Results

As a successful broker, you’ve already learned how to keep your team happy. But why not kick it up a notch? You don’t have to start dancing down the aisles, but many times it’s small things like choosing to coach, instead of criticize. Celebrate the positive, can-do attitude of others on your team. At Weichert Franchise, developing positive team dynamics is a cornerstone of our philosophy and an attribute of our most successful brokers.

For more information on how Weichert Franchising can be a positive force in your business, visit https://www.weichertfranchise.com/.

Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/attitude-power-positive-energy-2/

Undeniable Traits Of A Successful Leader

As a real estate broker, you are no longer directly responsible for leading buyers and sellers through the complexities of real estate transactions. Instead, you are now charged with the responsibility of successfully leading your team of real estate agents to reach their potential. While there are many traits and skills that make up what most would consider a successful leader, there are a few that serve as the cornerstones for every broker. As you strive to become the best leader you can be for your team and your business, focus on the development of these must-have traits.

Authenticity

 

The greatest leadership wisdom taught in lofty places like Harvard has to do with being authentic. Authentic leaders are said to value input and feedback, are positive, truthful, and open. They build trust and generate enthusiastic support that improves both individual and team performance.

Consider that a career in real estate can feel like a roller coaster, full of ups and downs. For some real estate agents, the downs can lead to doubts in their abilities and fears about their future. As their broker-leader, you can help shoulder those burdens by being an authentic leader who has both empathy for their situation, but whose enthusiasm and positivity helps them stay focused and motivated. Being an authentic leader, also helps creates the authentic culture in your brokerage that will minimize turnover and help improve production.

Recognition

 

There is nothing more demoralizing than having those you look up to ignore your strengths and accomplishments. As a leader, it is your job to give recognition to those agents that perform well and showcase exceptional talents. If you hold team meetings, you may want to consider regularly giving out awards or tokens of recognition to worthy individuals. Certainly top performers should be recognized, but there are many things you can recognize people for. In the spirit of being authentic, just make sure they are recognized for real achievements.  If you look hard enough, everyone has something meaningful they have achieved that you can hold up for your team.

Humility

 

Everyone makes mistakes. The difference between an average joe and a successful leader is that a leader is humble and willing to admit their mistakes. This is another attribute of the authentic leader, the willingness to admit mistakes. In fact, as a real estate broker, you have a special opportunity to use your hard earned knowledge to save your agents from wasting their own time, money, and resources in the same ways you may have as an agent. By exercising humility and openly leveraging your mistakes into lessons, your entire team can work smarter and will have deeper respect for you as a leader.

Empowerment

 

One of the first things you had to learn to do as a broker was to stop selling homes yourself. Now the next part is actually empowering your agents to do the selling and make them as good at it as you were. Don’t be a broker who swoops in and personally fixes everything, whenever a deal hits a rough spot. Instead give your team the training they want, the advice and support they need, and the encouragement to be successful. Agents who feel empowered and supported, and who are not micromanaged, will take more initiative and over time will develop into more productive and motivated sales associates.

Accountability

 

If you strive to lead an all-star team, you must lead by example by being accountable for what you say and do. This really means getting back to some basics like saying what you will do, and doing what you say you will. Since the buck stops with you, some things will naturally float up to your level, and when agents see that you will jump in and handle the big challenges, their confidence in your leadership will grow.

Accountability is actually one of the important skills Weichert teaches its brokers through the Weichert Management Academy. The academy, open to Weichert owners, brokers and managers across the country, teaches attendees all the important elements of building a successful team and managing a successful business. In this training the behaviors that constitute accountable leadership at every level are discussed. Being accountable means employees will feel your organization is solid, and that they are both well supported, and empowered to move their business forward.

There’s Always Room To Be A Better Leader

 

As a real estate agent, you successfully developed your abilities as a salesperson. As a broker, your focus shifted to being an effective leader. If you think you could benefit from leadership coaching and training programs, as well as a collection of production boosting tools and systems for your agents go to weichertfranchise.com or call 877-746-2067.

Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/undeniable-traits-of-a-successful-leader-2/

Yes, Your Agents Need a Business Plan, Too

As a knowledgeable broker, you’ve hopefully been writing your own business plan every year. You have seen the benefits of planning out your growth goals and “knowing your numbers”. However, are your agents taking the time to do the same? As a coach and the leader of your team, you can stimulate growth and inspire your agents by sitting down with them to write their own business plans. Even the most experienced agents can benefit from this exercise and once they see its power, they will be convinced of how necessary it really is in their business. Here are some helpful strategies to take when appealing to your agents to write a business plan.

Why Do Agents Need A Business Plan?

At the end of the day, real estate agents are independent small business owners. As you know, any business without a sense of direction and goals will struggle to grow. In fact, in a Harvard Business Review report, it states that those “who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve business viability than the otherwise identical non-planning entrepreneurs.” If you want to build a formidable team of agents that come to you for guidance, but are otherwise self-sufficient and successful, steer them toward developing a plan that outlines a path to reach those goals.

Easy Ways To Empower Agents To Write Their Business Plan

Once you have convinced an agent of the overwhelming value of a business plan, you may still need to give them an extra nudge to actually sit down and write it. Often, this challenge can be overcome with these five steps:

1. Lead By Example: Sometimes a simple example is enough to light the fire of inspiration. Sit down and show agents your process of writing your business plan and how you use it to achieve your goals.
2. Give Them A Template: If you don’t already have one, a quick search online will yield a never-ending library of easy-to-use business plan templates to alleviate some of the learning curves for your agents. Even better: create a template for them based on your own business plan, this will help them align their goals, with yours.
3. Give Them A Sense Of Urgency: Six months in, is too late to begin writing a business plan. Insist on your agents developing an initial business plan when they join your team, followed by annual plans each October-December, to ensure they start off the new year with a bang. Better yet, schedule a group planning day for the office
4. Check-In Throughout The Year For Progress Reports: With the endless surprises, curveballs, and distractions that life brings, it can be easy to get off-track throughout the year. Much like a New Year’s Resolution, it can be common for agents to stray from their business plan goals. Holding regular meetings to check in with them and hold them accountable for their production is a great way to counteract this challenge.

The bottom line is that working with each agent in your team is time well spent for both the agents, and for you the broker. Often you may find that working through this valuable exercise will increase your own motivation and spark further inspiration for your own business plans. Not to mention the obvious fact that the more success that your agents achieve, the more you will experience as their broker.

Brokers that have joined the Weichert Franchise have seen first-hand how empowering their agents with training, processes, and resources like business plans can be instrumental in their own growth. Having clear-cut goals, partnered with a proven system designed to achieve them is what allows Weichert brokers and their agents to do more. For additional information on how to further develop your real estate business, visit www.weichertfranchise.com.

Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/yes-your-agents-need-a-business-plan-too/