Step Up Your Coaching to Step Up Your Team
Everyone wants to build bigger businesses, but the path toward that goal can be littered with roadblocks and plateaus. Agents are superstars in their own right, but sometimes it may take an extra hand to navigate past obstacles and grow as professionals – and leaders of real estate teams play an integral role by investing in their agents’ growth.
As a leader, you have the opportunity to set your agents up for a thriving career in the real estate industry. One sure way to do this is by implementing a coaching program. Coaching not only demonstrates a commitment to the individual team member’s success, but also pays dividends back in the form of increased transactions for the entire team. Here, top team leaders share strategies for leveling up your coaching game for your team.
Why Coaching Is Essential
Everyone has natural talents, and coaching can both amplify these abilities and hone the ones we’d like to acquire. When faced with challenges and plateaus in growth, coaching can help break through barriers to achieve next-level results.
“Research shows that hiring a coach can increase accountability and lead agents to be more productive and profitable,” shares VP of KW MAPS Coaching Monica Reynolds. “For Keller Williams agents, Mega Achievement Productivity Systems (or MAPS) coaches are a fantastic resource that will train them to think outside their comfort zone, and develop new mindsets and skills to achieve incredible results.”
“When we hit ceilings of achievement, we know that most of the time we don’t break through that ceiling because of ‘something,’” says Lesley Peters, a rainmaker from Atlanta, Georgia. “We break through because of ‘someone.’”
You’re in People Development
With the right people on board, your team can achieve anything you could imagine, but to get there, you need to invest in each team member’s individual growth. These proven techniques can set you up for establishing a coaching strategy that can transform your team (and don’t forget that KW offers many additional opportunities for coaching as well):
- Start the day off right. Caffeine only goes so far, so consider implementing a Morning Mindset call or huddle for a much-needed AM boost. “We know that so much of people’s success and production all starts with the mindset with which we begin the day,” says Area Director for KW’s Mid-American Region Dawn Krause, whose team hops on a call daily from 8 to 8:20 a.m. “There are questions that are posed to help them stay focused on whatever the topic is for the day. It can be an opportunity to talk about challenges they may be having. It’s really an opportunity to help them start every day knowing the direction in which they’re going to go for the day.”
- ·Break it down into 30-60-90. Goals are more manageable when there is transparency and an in-depth look into what you are trying to achieve. With the 30-60-90 strategy, you are putting pen to paper on everything you need to achieve in the next 30, 60, and 90 days – which allows you to see clearer patterns and connections between your action steps and goals. If you’ve been in the business for a while, you may have a similar strategy, but as Philadelphia Center City’s Operating Principal Gaurav Gambhir learned after joining KW, “You keep going and going, and you realize there’s a better way of doing things, so why am I trying to reinvent the wheel?” As Gambhir implemented KW tools like the 30-60-90, his team saw big results. “That was an aha moment in our business where we went from semi-believers to believers,” he says.
- Stay on top of the 411s – and be willing to share yours. The 411 is an accountability tool for keeping track of weekly, monthly, and annual goals which puts your priorities in writing. When Peters felt team members hesitating on their 411s or viewing them more as a report than a tool, she thought outside the box to show just how important those numbers could be. “A few years ago, we said, ‘Why are we not sharing our 411s with our leadership team and having our leadership team share their 411s with their key players?,’” Peters says. “So everyone sees that the 411 is used and implemented from the top. For us, it’s just leading by example and really diving in to make sure they understand the why behind it.”
Related reading: KW’s #1 Team, The Loken Group, Achieves More Through Accountability
Coaching Challenges
You may already understand that coaching can impact the success of your team, but find it difficult to make opportunities for coaching fit into your team’s jam-packed schedule. Or, perhaps you’ve got team members who are reluctant to buy in. Here are fixes for common challenges you may face when implementing coaching:
- Make a commitment to your team members, and honor it. Things that aren’t scheduled don’t always happen, so show your team you’re making their growth a priority by baking coaching into your monthly, weekly, or daily activities. Peters, who has a background as a KW MAPS Coach, and her husband Andy divide their team in half and participate in individual, 30-minute MAPS-style coaching calls with each team member every Monday. “That really keeps your ear to the ground, because if you’re talking coaching with these people every single week on Monday, you’re really seeing problems and opportunities before they even arise,” Peters says.
- Share your vision for the team and for each team member too. Figure out what each member of your team is ultimately looking for in their business and their life. “We typically find agents want more time or money,” Krause says. “If we can coach them so they get more time back or that they grow their results, they get better business and lives worth living.”
- Invest in your own growth too. “You can’t give what you don’t have,” Krause says. “We have to be consistent learners and invest in our own education. We need to lead by example.” For Krause, that means taking the Leverage Series of KW courses 17 times. That investment in herself trickles down to the team, because the more coaching courses she takes, the more she adopts the language of coaching, and the more her team hears her using that language as well. “They’re hearing that same vernacular consistently, and they’re connecting the dots,” she says. “A big part of it is making sure we start with ourselves, so we can raise up and support those around us.”
Curious about the type of coaching that will best suit your needs? Head over to the KW MAPS Coaching website and find out the right path for you.
