Creating a Culture of Accountability

Last week, WSS invited senior coach Denise Klein to host a webinar discussing how she has developed a culture of accountability on her own real estate team and in the teams she coaches. 

Denise is one of the most experienced coaches at Workman Success Systems, with nearly 40 years in the industry. Given that experience, she had some great wisdom to pass along, regarding successfully building a team and developing real accountability to the actions that drive profit and growth. Here are some of her top takeaways.

We hear a lot about team culture, and for good reason. Culture is one of the most important defining elements of your team. It’s who you are and what you believe in. And, it’s the reason top agents will join and stay on your team. They can potentially make good money anywhere. What they won’t always find is a supportive, positive environment with strong core values.

Culture will happen whether you want it to or not. As the team leader, it’s your responsibility to be intentional about your team’s culture. Start by defining a vision of things that are important to you. It doesn’t particularly matter what that vision is, so long as it honestly reflects the kind of values you want your business to have. As you develop that vision into a culture, agents who want to be part of it will be drawn to your organization – and stick around.

True accountability is not the team leader micromanaging everyone’s work and keeping track of every little thing. True accountability stems from everyone on the team understanding that they are in it together, and that the success of the group is directly dependent on the work and success of each individual.

Denise says, “Teams don’t exist to feed agents, agents exist to feed teams.” This doesn’t mean that agents are food for teams, expendable resources for making the team leader money. It means that successful teams are made up of people who are there for each other and are working toward a common goal. And accountability is inherent to this condition. The minute an agent stops working only for herself and begins contributing to a team, there is an element of accountability. She knows she will be failing not only herself but her colleagues if she doesn’t follow through with her commitments. But that sense of accountability will never develop in a team without a strong collective culture. 

While a strong team culture encourages agents toward accountability, data resulting from tracking actually allows it to take place. Tracking systems are the impartial measuring stick for determining whether a goal has been met or a task has been completed. They also provide the roadmap for understanding where adjustments are needed if a goal is not met. 

For example, say you’ve got an agent who never quite reaches his monthly transaction goal. He might have an earnest commitment to do better because he knows he’s holding the team back. But unless you have a system that can pinpoint where in the transaction process the ball is getting dropped, there is no way for his commitment to produce actual results. Accountability without data to empower it is really only good intentions.

At the end of the day, accountability is about love. By fostering real accountability on your team, you are saying that you love your team members enough to want them to be as successful as possible. As a result you are able to better serve your clients and community and devote more time to your loved ones and other important aspects of your life. Putting in the work to develop a culture of accountability is not just a smart move for your bottom line; it’s one way to make a real difference in the lives of those you work with and serve.