The concept of horizontal leadership was very obvious within a mentor of mine. He was the property manager of a 606 unit apartment community. He was responsible for leading 25 employees and over 900 tenants. Sean was a very effective leader. He had this ability to help people reach their full potential, and in turn the organization grew leaps and bounds. One day I ask Sean, “how are you such a great leader?” his answer was profound he said, “I ask others for advise.” What do most people think of when they hear the word “leader?” I have asked over 300 realtors, property managers, and investors this very question. Their answers include words like, “authority, strong, powerful, a person who has followers, the boss that makes decisions, servant, likable, and courageous.” People tend to associate a leader as a person who is “over” a group of people. Think organizational chart: Leader Follower Google’s dictionary defines leadership as one’s ability to influence peop

In 2005, 10 years ago, I was on the Executive Board of a Lindenwood Student Organization. We thought it was time to implement a rewards system that would further ingrain these six values in all the students that went through the program. We thought of these six awards: Highest Scholar Award (highest grade point average) – Education Heat Award (person who did the most volunteer hours) – Charity Campus Citizenship Award (Person that demonstrated the best integrity) – Respect Valued Leader Award (high leadership skills) – Leadership Prompt and Prepared Award (On time and prepared)- Time Committee Award (Best Committee) – Teamwork Having specific “VALUE-GOALS” to achieve each semester created a different culture in that organization. The new culture was focused on these 6 values. This rewards system was also a perfect demonstration of how to set VALUE-GOALS. If a student wanted to win an award they automatically knew the value that was attached to their goal. This value go

Last week a Realtor was down on her luck. In addition, this was affecting her performance. Every conversation was full of negative and depressing comments. All she seemed to find was negative in everything. She was looking and listening for reasons to be upset and she found them. The truth is that correcting a depressed person is like throwing feathers against the wind. All the feathers can do is blowback at you. Not much was changing, and I was beginning to wonder if I picked the right career. I could not get her out of her depression. Then I had a simple idea. Out of nowhere, this simple idea came to me. I said to her, “Why don’t you e-mail me one thing you accomplished today and every day for one week.” You would not believe the difference! Just seeing all the emails at the end of the week changed her entire perspective about life. The way to overcome a self-destructive attitude is to realize that YOU are a GREAT person. You are capable of accomplishment. You make a

Leaders are measured and paid on their ability to reduce resistance within an organization. Resistance in your organization is the most expensive expense and it is a silent killer of profits. “Resistance to change is a phenomenon that slows the change process by hindering its implementation and increasing costs” (Christensen, 2014). Leaders take a vision and fill it with energy. They put that energy out into the market place. This energy needs to flow freely through all staff to the customers. Do you remember from 7 th grade science class when the teacher lectured about electrical resistance? You learned how to measure the electrical resistance of an electrical conductor. Resistance is measured based on how difficult it is for electrical current to pass through the conductor. Resistance is like friction. Your employees become resistant, when you the boss, blame them for missing on goals. Your team will become more resistant to change the next time they do not receive a ra

Big advances in my career have been happening. I am excited about a couple of projects I have been working on. I appreciate everyone’s attention. If you are like me then you would know that time is the most important commodity on the planet. Typically my posts are research based informative posts about leadership techniques or influence techniques that help to establish you as the authority. They are typically shortcuts to the 12 year journey I have been on. This post is just an update on some of the success I have had in just the last month in gaining in my though leadership platform. 1.        Realtor Magazine – I am really excited to announce that I have submitted my fist article to Realtor Magazine. I hope the editor likes the content. It is an article about ensuring contractors are protecting your brand. 2.        Twitter – On Friday I had 211 followers and as of right now I am at 279. I need one more to make it 280 followers. 68 follower on twitter gained in one w

Thank you for reading this blog. If you like my blog the best things you can do is sign up for my email list, share my content on facebook, linked in, and twitter. My audience has grown so fast and for that I am very thankful. In feel compelled to share 10 things I learned this week. As random as they are they may answer leadership questions you are having as a realtor. 1. People learn more from failure than from success. Most media presents the exception to this rule. Try understanding why projects fail, you failed, and others are failing. You will learn much quicker. 2. Sometimes it takes 10 years to reach your goal. Persistence pays off. Stay committed to your goals. If you stop, quit, or give up you have a 100% chance of failure. 3. Not everyone is going to like you. I found out this week for the first time that it took 6 months for someone to understand why I require certain things and why I push more in certain areas.  It is okay if people do not like you.

What is your perspective of 1099 representatives vs. working with employees? Just because you work with 1099 contractors does not mean that they do not need your attention, management, and leadership. In some ways 1099 contractors need more leadership, management, and attention. I am a believer in the American dream of owning your own business. Let us not confuse ownership with irresponsibility. Just because you work with business owners does not mean that you cannot hold them accountable. In some ways I believe the certain contractor relationships require higher levels of accountability than employees.  When I work with contractors I increase the level of required daily reporting. You read that right, daily reporting. I have had people tell me that daily reporting is too much. They would not work with a company that required daily reporting.  I would say that this is a good sign that the contractor is not really working hard for you if they cannot provide daily reporting.

Breaking the Slump: How a professional recovers from poor production numbers! Good News! This past week I was speaking with my leasing manager. We have been off with our production. I asked him my series of questions from my previous article, “How to Recover When Your Numbers Are Off!” We came up with the answers. One of the issues is that one of our agents that typically produced better results, was having an off month. The leasing manager ask me, “What can our agent do to get out of the leasing slump?” It is easy to get off course and run into a leasing slump! When you’re not meeting your own goals and expectations there are a number of things you can do. The following three things are the top three tools pro’s use to recover. 1.      Motivational Mornings Utilize Affirmations – I am not a believer that affirmations have magic power. There is some scientific proof within the study of the use of affirmations. “Positive affirming sentences are a constructive command to

The Pope’s recent work is a bad example of leadership. The Pope is an example of the head of the Catholic Church. I have great respect for the Pope. I have respect for his authority, his followers, and his servant attitude. In a recent article in The Financial Times Limited 2015, titled,   Pope Francis calls for end to ‘boundless thirst for power, ’ Shawn Donnan in New York and James Politi in Rome, writes, “ Since being elected to the helm of the Catholic Church in March 2013, Pope Francis has put forth a more strident critique of global capitalism and the world’s economic system than his predecessors, accusing it of widening income inequality, deepening the plight of the poor and plundering the planet” (Donnan, 2015). In fact, the pope is doing great work to reduce poverty and corruption in the word. He is doing so utilizing his authority, followers, and through service. This does not make his work wrong or right, he is truly having an impact, not only in the church but in the wor

Share on LinkedIn Share on Facebook Share on Twitter It was August. It was summer time at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. It was hot. Too hot. The sun was beaming down and you could already feel the humidity. It was 9:00am and we decided to go to the pool. There were 12 of us swimming and having fun. It was the typical family vacation. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, the lightning came crashing down! Bang, bang, bang! Everyone got out of the pool and ran to safety. Our first question was not, “Why did the storm come?” The first question we asked was, “Where are the children?” The second question we asked was, “Where are the adults? After we determined that everyone was safe, we kissed and hugged the children.  We ask,”What can we do to ensure that we are still enjoying our vacation?” “How can get there, safely?” “Who will drive?” If I were to ask you, have you ever had a month where you just were not meeting your numbers, I bet you would answer, yes. In real estat