What makes a team thrive?
As a high-performance business trainer, I believe the key is in an eco-centric performance culture. For years I’ve coached North America’s top-producing CEOs, team leaders, and brokerages to translate high-performance systems into billions of dollars in additional sales volume, and in these spaces, I’ve recognized the secret weapon inherent in all top one per cent performing teams.
Conscious leadership — the tool with the power to bolt or unhinge any business — became my mission.
How do we unlearn top-down leadership to support a thriving business ecosystem? What should solo agents and team leaders look for in each other to build healthy collaborative environments?
At the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board’s Realtor Quest in May, I dug into the topic with a panel of team lead all-stars, sharing their best practices with attendees of Canada’s largest real estate conference.
Know who you are
The first step is knowing who you are. A legacy business in a luxury niche market operates differently than one in its building phase, so before you set off on the journey, you need to envision exactly where you want to end up.
Representing the building phase of team structures, Kenneth Toppin, leader of the Kenneth Toppin Team and CEO of the Harvast App, believes that strong teams thrive when agents relate to their leader’s values and sales approach.
For example, Toppin is a data-driven leader. He created Harvast to track leads, conversions and follow-ups from door-knocking efforts. Harvesting the data, he works with his team to train and mentor specifically where they are not meeting their targets. His focus on systems streamlines growth for his agents and leverages their strengths to support the team effort.
This lead generation approach isn’t for everyone — and that’s okay. Discernment starts with knowing who you are as a team and an agent because misalignment and lack of inspiration break down company cultures.
Know your role
Mike Heddle of The Heddle Group rejects top-down leadership in favour of bee-hive collaboration. “I wake up every day with the idea that it’s my job to make it rain for these people. They don’t work for me — I work for them,” he says.
Representing high-performance teams, he notes that for a lean number of high-producing agents to achieve 200 to 300 unit sales per year, everyone on the team has to be interested in supporting each other towards a greater purpose.
He encourages agents to seek teams with aligned values but also ensure there is space to support their strengths. Heddle gives the analogy, “First, you need to ask if you’re on the right bus. Then you need to ask if you’re in the right seat on the bus.”
Know the value proposition
Self-awareness isn’t all that matters, though. From an entrepreneurial perspective, Chuck and Melissa Charlton, leading partners of the Charlton Advantage Team, encourage you to look for a team that offers the greatest benefit to your time, money and joy.
“Focus on the team’s value proposition,” Charlton encourages. Doing what you love increases your energy and capacity for higher performance, so you want to make sure you’re joining a team that supports that by getting clear on how much they’re going to take off your plate.
Dan Gemus, team lead of the Dan Gemus Team, cautions against searching for the wrong things. Most agents immediately want to talk splits — but does the most favourable split matter if sales are low?
Gemus, running a high-performance team producing 200 to 300 unit sales per year, doesn’t think so. He suggests aligning yourself with a team that offers the best culture and training. If the team culture is supportive with best-in-class education, any split concerns will be made up for in higher sales.
The bottom line
In high-performance training, I correlate these tips with a fundamental principle of top one percent performers: leverage. Focus on what you can leverage from a team to increase your performance and work amongst leaders and agents interested in exchanging value. If you’re looking for high-level profits, look in the direction of service-based leadership, collaborative teams and quality mentorship.
Kathleen Black is a globally recognized high-performance mindset & performance expert, bestselling author, and renowned transformational speaker. Her unique, holistic approach to empowered leadership and genius mindset training has guided iconic brands and high-net-worth professionals to add billions of additional dollars in sales volume annually.
Kathleen Black is a globally recognized high-performance mindset & performance expert, bestselling author, and renowned transformational speaker. Her unique, holistic approach to empowered leadership and genius mindset training has guided iconic brands and high-net-worth professionals to add billions of additional dollars in sales volume annually.
Kathleen’s remarkable achievements have earned her numerous accolades, including the Iconic Leaders Creating a Better World for All Award. She is the two-time bestselling author of The Top 1% Life and Relentless to Rise.
