Author: Mark Johnson

To Team Or Not To Team

 So, you want to start a team?

Or you already have a team and are now questioning that choice?

Maybe you already have a team performing at a high level, and you are looking for a boost?

You see, we’ve just about seen it all:

• Starting a team too early;
• Starting a team for the wrong reasons;
• Starting a team without a straightforward value offering;
• Starting a team with no or poorly written team agreements;
• Letting your team and performance get stagnant.

In the most successful teams we know, the leader assumes the CEO role of the team, and they always lead with revenue! And they understand this:

“A system will produce what a system will produce, nothing less, nothing more.”

Here are a few thoughts to consider as it relates to team leadership:

Team Requirement No. 1:

Do you have a clear and compelling value proposition?

• Will you be a lead provider?
• Will you be a coach, trainer, and mentor?
• Without a clear value, turnover will be the challenge you face.

Team Requirement No. 2:

You’re on Target or Ahead of Your Production Goal

• Bringing additional team members aboard is not only a big responsibility… It’s taking on a serious expense.
• If your income cannot support additional team members, you only set yourself up for failure.
• Get your house in order, and then consider taking that next step.
• Lead with revenue first

Team Requirement No. 3:

You Have At Least 4 Successful Pillars of Lead Generation

• You have solid influence strategies (referrals) in place or control strategies (online leads) in place.
• You’re tracking and measuring all your leading indicators, right? (If not, you’re not ready for a team.
• When you look at your lead sources, are you producing multiple sales monthly from AT LEAST four different pillars?
• The key here is to ensure your business is diversified sufficiently to support additional sales agents on your team.

Team Requirement No. 4:

You Have Lead Follow-Up Systems in Place That Create Raving Fans and Ensure a High Level of Service

• Are your systems in place to the point that you can say you’ve operationalized your business?
• If not, it’s not a total deal-breaker, but know that developing systems as you grow your team will steal precious time away from your more immediate dollar-productive work. Can you afford that?

Team Requirement No. 5:

You Have an Accountability Structure in Place That is Utilized Daily

• As a team leader, you need a built-in system to hold you accountable to your schedule, the systems you have in place, and the others on your team.
• This accountability structure begins with you and must extend to all who join your team.
• Suppose you’re not consistently sticking to a morning schedule and setting that example for others. In that case, it will be difficult for you to expect team members to perform with the necessary daily discipline to succeed.
• If not, you might want to work on your discipline a bit before putting yourself out there as a role model.

Team Requirement No. 6:

You are on a mission to grow your leadership skills and serve your team members

• Face it, some of us just don’t want to “manage” others, and all that entails
• If you are not into people with a decent EQ level, you might want to consider options like a sales or operations manager who can handle those things.

Now that you’ve considered six factors for team success, I have a practical exercise to start the process.

1. Why do you – and your team – do what you do? This may sound like an odd question, yet one example could be: Are you in the real estate business (I sell real estate) or the problem-solving business? (We help consumers navigate the complex process of buying, selling, or investing in real estate with ease, transparency, and less stress.) See the difference?
2. How are you different or unique? And does that matter to the typical consumer?
3. Who is our ideal client? And how do you reach them in relevant, consistent ways?
4. Hyper-local. Are you constantly working to become a hyper-local expert? The portals and national chains can never be the hyper-local expert.
5. Growth plans – what is your vision? If you are in one city, do you want to expand into other cities or even another state?

There you have it; the opportunity is yours.

Consider this…

With all the plans, strategies, goals, innovations, business practices, and culture that make up your team, you are getting exactly the results your business systems and processes are currently capable of producing – nothing less, nothing more! Looking to be more outcome-focused? Read this blog from Mark Johnson, co-founder of CoRecruit.

To get better results, you must improve the design and execution of your business systems and processes—at the detail checklist level.

The law of cause and effect governs all business outcomes. To change an effect or result, you have to change the cause.

#WinTheDay

By design vs. by default with Seth Godin

Leaders make one thing more than any other: decisions.

Every environment has constraints, and the decisions about how time and resources are allocated – about what to do next – drive all outcomes.

How do leaders decide what’s next? Is it based on urgency, proximity, or values? It’s a mix of each, yet the top 1% make more value-based decisions.

The top 1% know the first in + first out approach is not an effective strategy; it’s typically an excuse or by default. Even worse: defaulting to the squeaky wheel strategy. Leaders minimize the whirlwind. By design vs. by default.

PS: Need help with talent attraction, selection, or sourcing accountability? Just a DM away.

If information was enough, we would all be top performers in our profession, exercise every day, eat more vegetables, be within the government’s height and weight standards, and have a ton of money saved for the future.

Think about it: you can use Google or YouTube for the instruction manual for almost anything. You can access a step-by-step guide, the best practices, and the quick start guide. So, I have a straightforward question – with access to all this information and proven evidence – why do we still struggle with limiting beliefs and behaviors?

The answer? Our feelings outweigh our commitments. When our commitments outweigh our feelings, that’s when a breakthrough begins.

The five words that kill more dreams, more potential, and more happiness than any other five words spoken are:

“I don’t feel like it.”

I’m not sure of your dream, yet I suspect that for many of you, it’s more financial freedom, better health, stronger relationships, and more connectedness with your community. Yet let’s face it, so many times when you are about to start something toward those dreams, the onslaught of excuses flood your mind like water gushing out of a broken pipe. The theme of these excuses always traces back to the same root:

“I don’t feel like it.”

How often have you said, “I don’t feel like it?”  How often have you listened to that thought, allowing it to alter the course of your actions? What has that cost you physically, financially, and emotionally?

What if you could make a different choice?

I know that “I don’t feel like it” is the universal human condition that silently kills dreams. Yet you and I don’t have to accept this dream killer, and we can overcome the feeling and move powerfully toward our goals and objectives. It starts with intention: the intention to live on your terms, not the terms of your moods and feelings.

When our commitments outweigh our feelings, that’s when a breakthrough begins.