Keeping your team of real estate agents happy and motivated is key to leading a successful team
By Megan Craig
The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the working world in many ways (hello, Zoom meetings).
And even with the return of most Americans to the workforce, more people are choosing to work from home.
That shift—and an attitude shift among workers in general—means people are finding better work-life balance but feel less connected to their co-workers, according to a social trends study released last year by the Pew Research Center. Productivity may also have taken a hit—many workers in that same study said they felt more productive when working at an office than at home.
“COVID-19 has made a big difference in how people work. It’s just more relaxed, where it’s become more fun and not as corporate,” says Bernice Maez, CRS, co-founder and broker with Vivo Realty in Plano, Texas. “It works because work has changed for the buyers as well.”
Maez says she sees the need to keep her team motivated, especially as they spend less time together in a physical office space.
So, how do leaders keep their team members engaged in an increasingly disengaged world? It’s a multi-step process that starts with communication.
1. Be in constant contact
Before COVID-19, when everyone was working in the office, Jeff Wu, CRS, associate broker and REALTOR® with Keller Williams Capital Properties in Fairfax, Virginia, reached out to team members maybe once a week.
Now, he reaches out at least once a day. When communication lags, people tend to fill that void with a negative story, Wu says.
“They might start thinking, ‘My peers don’t care about me,’ or, ‘I’m the only one with this problem,’ but none of it is true,” he says. “Communication is love. Time is love.”
Team leaders have found several ways to keep in touch without being overwhelming:
Team huddles: Try holding a full-team meeting every Monday morning so everyone can check in together. As an extra trick, don’t require agents to join—that allows the huddles to double as a red flag for disengagement, Maez says. “If we haven’t seen you on the huddle call in a while, we know to reach out.”
Group text threads: Jeremy Caleb Johnson, CRS, associate broker and team leader with Johnson & Burge –Long & Foster REALTORS® in Virginia Beach, Virginia, wanted to be sure his small team could all communicate whenever the need arose, so he started a group text for his whole group. This allows for quick communication on immediate needs (rather than for bigger ideas or file sharing, which Johnson saves for emails).
Lunch and learns: Create in-office learning opportunities to draw agents back to the group setting and keep them in better contact with each other. The chance to learn and earn continuing education credits—and, of course, a free meal—will keep your team coming back.
2. Rely on teamwork to create work/life balance
Johnson formed his team during the pandemic when the real estate market exploded. Because they came together as “overwhelmed agents,” Johnson’s team quickly learned that leaning on each other was the only way to get through the busy times.
“You have to be able to rely on each other, to seek out each other’s opinions, to understand each other’s approaches,” he says. “We try to handle as much as possible all together.”
That kind of partnership also allows team members better access to luxuries like weekends off or uninterrupted vacation time.
“It’s about lifestyle. If you need a Sunday off, another team member can show your properties or speak with your clients,” Maez says of informally partnering her agents. “If you’re not available, you and your client know your team is there for you.”
3. Create a coaching program
If newer team members are struggling to stay engaged, a coaching program may help them adjust, Maez says.
Maez and other team leaders meet with agents for one hour a week, in person, for the first 90 days they’re with the brokerage. They each get a report card breaking out parts of the training program they need to complete during that time—a two-hour bootcamp, signing up for board memberships, training on their leads software, shadowing another agent, holding a certain number of open houses, creating a business plan and more.
“It’s just another touchpoint for those newer agents,” Maez says.
Coaching agents also helps them feel more prepared, Wu says. He issues challenges to his agents, often through roleplaying or what-would-you-do hypothetical questions, so that when they face challenges from real clients, they’ve already formulated responses and are ready to act.
“It’s not just a training tactic,” he says. “This helps even the longtime agents stay alert and on their game.”
4. Promote positivity
Wu doesn’t only blame less time in the office for disengagement. He sees social media as a big part of the problem—not because his agents are spending time on apps but because those apps are negatively affecting agents’ mental well-being.
“Everything gets shared, and the news is often negative. It travels around the world twice before you can go to the watercooler,” Wu says. “The highs and lows are so much more frequent. Before, maybe you had a bad moment in a week—now you might have three in a day.”
Wu and Johnson both rely on “drive-by positivity”—that is, sharing small, positive notes, quotes or tidbits to keep agents feeling optimistic and engaged.
“If I see something that speaks to me, a quote or motivational video, I try to share as much as possible,” Johnson says. “Looking for that stuff to try to avoid getting down in the dumps helps reinforce positive thinking and positive behaviors among my team.”
5. Read the room
As a team leader, you must know each individual member of your team and what’s likely to motivate them, Maez says. With different personality types and working relationships, not every tactic is going to work for every team member.
For example, if Maez is about to introduce a new protocol to the team, she meets one-on-one with longer-term agents before making the wider announcement so they feel more in control of changes in their workflow. Or, if the team is looking to use new software, she might ask several agents for their input before a decision is made, again to make them feel less like changes are being forced on them and more like they’re part of the decision-making process.
“When you’re running a brokerage, there’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all,” she says. “But it’s all about consistency. It’s when you start to slack off on consistency that others are going to slack off, too.”
Getting Workers Back On Track
No matter how much leaders try to keep workers engaged, sometimes people fall behind.
The trick is getting your team members back on track without making them feel chastised, which may decrease their motivation even further, says Jeremy Caleb Johnson, CRS, associate broker and team leader with Johnson & Burge – Long & Foster REALTORS® in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
“The way I approach it is in a manner that acknowledges the situation in the moment but also acknowledges that it’s OK that we’re behind or we’re stuck,” Johnson says. “There’s never any slapping of the wrist or pointing fingers. We discuss how to fix it, but we don’t dwell on it.”
For Jeff Wu, CRS, associate broker and REALTOR® with Keller Williams Capital Properties in Fairfax, Virginia, getting workers back on track means following “the 15th protocol”—that is, setting specific goals for the month with each team member, then checking in on the 15th of that month to see if they’re on track. If not, Wu works with that team member to come up with a new strategy to increase productivity for the rest of the month.
He’s also working on a strategy-based idea he heard from another REALTOR® at a convention. That way, when he’s implementing the 15th protocol, he’ll have several clear strategies from which his agents can choose to get their productivity back in line with expectations.
The idea is that if the first tactic you choose doesn’t raise your activity level, you have to choose from another predetermined tactic. He’s working now to develop the tactics he plans to offer up.
“There’s no confusion, no question—you pick one of these five plays and execute on that play,” Wu says. “The idea is hopefully it raises your level of activity, but if you’re still behind, you have to pick a different play.”
Uncover more leadership tips in the recording Do Less Make More – Productivity Mastery, hosted by Neal Oates at CRS.com/catalogsearch.
Photo: iStock.com/AndreyPopov/amtitus
