Ron Howard used to work 80-hour weeks and still wasn’t making enough to build the life he wanted. He had a team, but it wasn’t cohesive. Then he rebuilt his team, emphasizing a strong culture, great systems, and hiring the right people, and he’s now making more money while working half the hours. Because of his team’s abilities, Ron takes weekends off and never works over 40 hours a week. This allows him to spend time how he wants to, including taking care of his newborn son.
Tammie Slay didn’t have a team at all when she first bought her brokerage. Over the past couple of years, she has built a team that runs like a well-oiled machine. Tammie’s team supported her and helped to grow the business even while she had to scale back her involvement due to personal life events.
At some point in everyone’s life, they’ll need to devote some time and energy to things outside of work. When you have a rockstar team, you can step away and know that things will continue to run smoothly.
Not only is a team a safety net when you’re going through unique circumstances, but teams also help you grow your business, make more money, have more time to spend with loved ones, pursue your hobbies, and keep yourself healthy. Here’s how you can build a team like Ron and Tammie’s.
Hiring and Retaining Great Talent
The first step in building an excellent team is finding the right people. Even if you implement all the best strategies, if you don’t have the right team members, you’re not going to see growth in your business.
Ron used DISC, a behavioral analysis tool, to find the right people for his team. While it’s only a small piece of the equation, this tool describes the dominant personality traits in a person, which helps him understand how each individual fits into the team. He’s been able to create a team that works as a cohesive unit by understanding how different personalities are at play in a work environment.
Similarly, Tammie has an extensive process for interviewing potential people to join her team. She believes that when you go the extra mile to find the right person, you’ll avoid hiring the type of people you’d lose to turnover in the first place. Figure out who belongs on your team, and you won’t see a lot of people leaving to join other teams down the road.
Continually providing value to your team helps reduce turnover as well. Make sure your team members feel supported and have the tools to both succeed and thrive. When you offer this kind of support, you’ll keep the talented people you worked so hard to find.
Emphasis on Culture
A strong culture creates unity and cohesion in a team. It allows everyone to work toward the same goals. Culture is shaped by your core values, so it’s important to make these values clear and be sure that your team lives by them.
When Tammie identified the core values in her business, she believed they were so important that she renamed her brokerage. Now she emphasizes these core values in every aspect of the business and she ensures that every member of the team upholds these values.
When there is a strong culture based around shared values on your team, there may still be disagreement about how to achieve certain goals, but the whole team will have a shared vision of what those goals are, which allows you to continue moving forward.
Systems, Systems, Systems!
High-performing teams don’t happen accidentally. These types of teams function so well because they follow tried and true systems. When new team members join and old team members leave, everything continues to run smoothly.
One system that both Tammie and Ron’s teams use is the project management tool called Agile. Real estate agents aren’t necessarily project managers, so without a strong system for moving projects forward, tasks can be forgotten, delayed, or done incorrectly. Agile helps teams organize, delegate, and move things forward, so your team can achieve more in less time.
Ron and Tammie are experts at implementing systems with their teams. They both use a wide variety of tools every day. Those tools include daily huddles, lead tracking systems, and the Top 50 program. The systems improve team efficiency, raise lead conversion rates, and increase high-quality referrals. Nearly every aspect of the business is part of a well-organized and well-defined system that keeps everyone and everything on track.
Coaching
Tammie and Ron both emphasized the impact coaching had on their abilities to build amazing teams. At Workman Success Systems, we specialize in helping clients build teams that dominate. If you’re interested in learning about how coaching can benefit your team, schedule a free consultation with one of our business analysts.
