As a broker or manager, your primary role is to create an environment of success in your offices for highly trained, highly motivated and highly productive sales agents. A huge part of your environment is the culture of your office. An honest review of your current culture may be just what you need as a leader to fix issues you know about, and, possibly even more importantly, fix the ones you don’t know about.
Culture directly contributes to the morale of an office or team. Culture is so important, in fact, that it correlates to levels of production and can make or break the success of an office.
Here are some ways you can conduct a spot-check inventory of the culture of your office, and how to turn it around for increased morale, increased production and a thriving, growing office.
The Mission and Core Values of the Company
Does everyone in your office, both staff and agents, understand, believe and follow the mission and core values of the company on a daily and weekly basis? Do you communicate these? It’s important that your entire office follow the mission statement and core values of the company, and that you as their leader are constantly reminding everyone of the importance of this. It is not something that is hung on a wall or mentioned once a year, but rather, it is at the center of everything you do and the philosophy of the company, the leaders, the staff and the agents—the guiding force for decision-making and united beliefs. If you have not talked about it recently, I suggest you start this week and re-establish the beliefs of the company into the hearts of your team. It will pay off big time.
Positive or Negative Vibe?
Is your office vibe positive or negative? Do agents praise or complain? Do they have mutual respect for each other, or are they more concerned with themselves? If you are experiencing one or two toxic personalities that are affecting your team’s morale and bringing everyone down, you need to address it and do so in a timely manner. Letting these go and not addressing negativity can result in major retention issues, loss of good-producing agents and an inability to recruit to your office. The agents at other companies see those agents as toxic, and unfortunately, no matter how much they like you, they won’t join your office because they think those negative agents are bringing the office down.
To repair this, it is important to confront the situations and not let them worsen. Remind toxic-attitude agents that their behavior is not helpful to the team or to themselves and will not be tolerated. Ask how you can help them improve their attitude. Consider not having them on your team, because one bad apple can ruin the entire cart. When you address and confront negative attitudes in the office, your agents will respect you and you will gain loyalty and preserve the culture.
Your Leadership and Communication Style
Do you avoid conflict, or address things in a timely manner? Do you engage with your agents or sit in your office and wait for them to come to you? Do you know what your agents are working on? Are you leading and driving the success of your team, or sitting back and watching what happens? Do you overcommunicate information that helps your team know about initiatives, increases morale, motivates production  and helps guide and lead them daily and weekly?
If you don’t, you need to start immediately. If you do communicate, check your methods. Are you emailing or texting too much? Perhaps your sales meetings aren’t cutting it and have become flat. An easy way to ramp up your communication and directly increase the morale of your office is to have social events, training sessions, power-packed sales meetings and positive, results-oriented, inspiring emails and texts to your team. Play music before and after your sales meetings, have a fun contest to reward agents for all kinds of positive sales activities. Constantly make sure that when people leave you, they feel better than when they came to you. The culture of the office is a direct reflection of the leader. It is 1,000 percent your job as the leader to set the tone and culture, and overcommunicate so agents feel valued, appreciated, recognized and know that you care about them. Success breeds more success. By building people up and building confidence, you are going to increase the effectiveness of your team and experience amazing results. This will lead to increased retention and your ability to recruit to your team.
Bring Out the Best in Everyone
Our job as leaders and motivators is to bring out the very best in everyone, and by doing this, you will create positive results. Develop your personal relationships by adding value to each of your agents. Call them, visit their office frequently and ask them how you can assist them with their business. Engaging managers have highly successful agents and cultures. By instilling confidence in them, you will be helping them create their own success.
It is true: Production will follow morale. Production of listings, sales and positivity will result when you have a thriving, positive culture. You have the ability to lead and guide your team to victory and success every day. Be engaging, communicate in multiple ways and get agents into the office to create positive energy, and you will positively influence your culture and create a thriving and successful, highly-performing team of agents. Happy leading!
For a free copy of my exclusive “Leadership Assessment Worksheet for Sales Meetings and Office Culture,” click here!
Sherri Johnson is CEO and founder of Sherri Johnson Coaching & Consulting. With 20 years of experience in real estate, Johnson offers coaching, consulting and keynotes, and is a national speaker for the Homes.com Secrets of Top Selling Agents tour and the Official Real Estate Coach for McKissock Learning and Real Estate Express. For more information, please contact coaching@sherrijohnson.com or 844-989-2600 (toll-free) or visit www.sherrijohnson.com.
