Going for Gold with Your Real Estate Team: Three Lessons from the Winter Olympics

With the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in the rearview mirror, it’s time to celebrate the world class accomplishments from the different competitors. We saw athletic feats in many different sports – from many individuals. But what was most impressive was the team competitions. 

Great Britain’s women’s team of four won gold in curling. Finland’s team of 25 men won gold medals in hockey. Other teams showed impressive cooperation in bobsleigh, speed skating, and other sports.

The objectives, equipment, and skill sets needed in each of these sports may be different – good luck getting some burley hockey players into a bobsleigh or getting a curler to fly around the ice without skates – but the overarching concept is the same: Through teamwork, people can achieve a common goal. 

The same is true in the real estate world!

In our real estate businesses, we look to maximize the effectiveness of our team members in a variety of ways. Those who maximize the effectiveness of team members are gold-medalists in production and client satisfaction. A gold-medal team in action is a joy to behold – and a joy to work with! Their agents are knowledgeable and flexible when working with all types of clients. Their staff are responsive and clear with their instructions to move transactions forward. 

But getting to that point, where all team members perform at such a high level, is similar to how the olympic athletes made their way to the top of their respective games.

So how do you go for gold with your real estate team?

Stay Coachable

Both top-performing agents and gold medal athletes begin their route to success the same way. It starts with adopting the mindset that you will always seek to do your best, even if it takes an outside eye and humility to see what you could do better.

Athletes need coaches to help them recognize blindspots and understand where to focus their attention to achieve maximum results. Coachable athletes join in on the team huddles to understand how they can best fit their role. They take criticism and direction in good faith and are willing to do whatever they can to help their team. That coach-ability factor can be the difference between a person full of athletic potential, and a superstar teammate whose teams regularly succeed.

In real estate, coachable team members recognize that they don’t know everything and aren’t capable of doing everything themselves. They ask for assistance, clarification, or more information to solve problems. They participate in team huddles and regularly meet with their mentors or team leaders so that they can be in the best position to excel. They see themselves as equals to the rest of their team members. After all, everyone has an important role to play on a top-producing team. This willingness to evolve and adapt to best practices is what helps real estate teams improve and perfect their work together.

Maximize Team Roles and Responsibilities

That willingness to change and be coachable comes in handy, especially on a team where everyone performs their role to the best of their ability.

On a curling team, there are four different roles to fill. Each one is necessary to score the most points. Whether that is “throwing” the 40-pound granite stones down the ice or sweeping up in front of the stone to create the right trajectory, each curling team member must maximize their skillset during each throw for the team to succeed. They work in tandem and communicate with each other to make sure each throw ends up in the right spot.

Everyone should have the ability and the determination to do great things within their real estate teams, even in different roles. Buyer’s agents need to be at the top of their game negotiating concessions and addendums. Listing agents need to be top-notch communicators with both their clients and potential buyers. Client care coordinators must be the masters of organization and coordination between the different parties. 

Put in the Work!

How do we fill our roles best? We work!

A willingness to embrace hard work is the final point of difference between a great athlete and an olympic champion. Other athletes may have the same technical abilities, but don’t have the discipline to keep up with olympians. They skip out on practice, they zone out in coaching sessions, and they don’t practice good habits. 

Olympic athletes, on the other hand, train and put in the work – day in and day out. That work comes in the form of exercise, practices against their teammates, refocusing on the basics, and participating in coaching sessions. It’s a daily commitment to doing everything that has brought them here to the pinnacle of their respective sports.

Gold medal real estate team members put in the work, too. They role-play for upcoming situations, they review contracts, they prospect daily, and they keep things organized and updated so that they are best prepared for any and all circumstances. The work they put in isn’t stored like a battery where they can “phone in” their effort in the future; they do what’s necessary every day.

Through intentionally staying coachable and putting in the work, real estate team members can maximize their roles and go for gold – turning clients into raving fans in the process.

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