Know Your Mission! You may not need to fire that employee, just yet. Coaching can play a significant role in turning around employee performance. Personally, I love working with challenging employees. Employees with a bad attitude, employees hired for the wrong role, employees who do not have the skills to do the job, employees who are disengaged, bring them on! In my book, Leadership Coaching as a Strategy for Employee Development , I explain the importance of resisting the temptation to blame your staff for poor performance. It is your responsibility, as the manager, to get results. The first time you blame your staff member, for your poor performance, you will start the “Cycle of Resistance” and significantly impede your ability to succeed. Think about this, would you rather have one hundred percent of your own effort or one percent of one hundred people’s effort? What is a Mission Statement? It is important to understand the Leadership Engage

Can you believe in November, 2016 it is 80 degrees outside, the Cubs won the World Series, and Social Media Marketing is not working for businesses. Think about your current social media strategy. If you are like most Realtors, Property Managers, Brokers, or Sales Managers I know, You can spend significant amounts of time on social media and  get zero leads ringing your phone. Large social media giants such and Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin hire programing experts to keep your post from gaining exposure. These companies want you to pay-for-clicks. As far as advertising goes, these social media giants may be good choices. If you want to utilize these tools effectively, you must pivot your attention to Social Team Engagement! Just today, I was able to engage my team though social media. They were completely engaged in a number of personal development suggestions, while they also worked hard doing their job. Look, I understand one thing, Millennials are going to b

What is a Values Goal ? I believe a lot has been written about setting goal yet I find many managers struggling to reach their goals. The values goal triangle has a specific design that pairs your personal values with the goals you are setting. Bottom line: understanding the values goal triangle gets you big results! Think about the many different areas of your life for which you are setting goals. Spiritual goals, personal goals, professional goals, customer service goals, vacation goals, financial goals etch… this list could go on and on. A values goal is set like any other goal but attached is one or more personal values. Values goals are affirmed out loud everyday until your affirmed values goal becomes a reality. A simple example of setting a values goal could be as follows: My personal values – Time with my family, excellence in all areas of my life, and integrity in my personal brand. One of my business goals – Coaching 30 clients who have prepaid 12 sessions in

Leading Teams with the Right Words... When you are coaching your team especially in the real estate industry it is important to remember the Cycle of Resistance . Blaming, personal attacks, telling someone that they are wrong will never serve you. The first time the team member is blamed will be the time the Cycle of Resistance starts. It is ironic that Real Estate Sales Managers and Property Managers are often promoted to their position because of their ability to lease or sell homes, yet their skills of influence and overcoming objections don’t often promote with them. Managers seem to forget about the sale they need to make right in front of them.  This sale is to their team. In a professional since I like to use the terms “barriers and objections” interchangeably, in place of calling them “your team’s excuses”. What would you tell a customer if you were trying to close a sale? What would you say when they say to you, “I don’t have enough time to do XYZ to buy

  How to use social influence to correct bad behavior It was a regular Tuesday at the property management office. It was around Lunch time (I know because I remember how hungry I was). I was in an important one – on -one meeting with a leasing professional on my team. The backstory for the situation looks like this…… This individual had been having a hard time. Their numbers over the past month had been low, really low. Their attitude was even worse. They were spreading their negativity to other employees and not truly being the blessing. The blessing I know they can be. First, of all, I do not know if something was going on in their personal life, because with this particular employee, they are very private. There private-“ness” to me translates to professionalism and I like that about them. From the time I started my career in Sales Management I learned three things: 1.        Never {ever} correct anyone for their bad attitude – 2.        Never {ever} correct team is

Social Media Works Best to Engage Your Team! Gary Vanderchuck, Grant Cardone, John Lee Dumas, and even Yes Pat Flynn have you working hard for them, but not yourself. Social media has become virtual reality where people can escape from their real lives and hide from work. There is no substitute for actual hard work!  Two days ago I caught a team member browsing facbook and I just simply asked them what are they working on? Their response was slick, “Social Media Marketing.“ How much money are you really making with social media marketing? Really ask yourself. Social Media is dead! Completely dead! It is a waste of time, energy, effort, and resources? Do you really think you are winning customers looking at cat videos and/or marketing on facebook, twitter, linkedin, or any other social media platform? Do you think you are gaining customers playing Pokemon’ Go? Media is media and the big media giants still control the audience and the attention. Stop thinking that you a

At 7:00 am I posted a video for my sales team to watch. At 7:15 I asked the question, “What are your current goals for today? How many? By When?” This type of communication used to require me to drive to the office, hold a meeting, ask in person or wait for a response via email. At minimum It would require everyone to dial into a conference call. Because of the nature of email, I may or may not have received a response. Now with a quick “post” my sales team is motivated and committed to their goal for the day. These this type of cultural leadership changes have freed up the most valuable resource I have as a leader, time. In 2015 there was a white paper entitled Motivational Drives of Content Contribution to Company- Versus Consumer- Hosted Online Communities, and the authors wrote, “The results reveal that opinion leadership, self-presentation, and enjoyment positively affect content contribution; altruism negatively affects content contribution. In company-hosted online c

If companies can measure their customer engagement through social media, can they also measure employee engagement? “Social media channels enable brands and companies to engage with consumers on their own terms, when they want, at work and play, through their chosen channels” (Stone, & Woodcock, 2013). It was 3:00 pm and I get a call from another department manager. “Nathan, I can't get my staff to do their job,” he said in frustration! “How vague,” I said. It is probably because you are trying to control your staff vs. influence them. Next, I asked a question, “How involved are you, with your staff, on social media?” Social media is the new relationship building. While I definitely believe managers should keep their professional distance, it is important to engage your team in the social conversation. Of course you should check with HR and your direct supervisor before you proceed, however today's teams communicate via social apps like facebook, slack, twitter, and

It was 5:00 am, we had just started our walk. My friend, who is in an MBA program, leans over the side of the treadmill and asks this question, “What is the hardest thing leaders do?” I thought about it for one minuet and then I said, ‘” The hardest thing about being a strong leader is that I want my team to improve sometimes more than they want it themselves. It is difficult to help your staff find the drive to improve themselves, I wish I could get them to read, listen to podcasts, take courses or invest in their own development.” Being driven myself to succeed is the only thing I can attribute the moderate success I have had in my life.   “Human resource development (HRD) means competence building, commitment building, and culture building” (Kundu & Vora, 2004) . Underdeveloped staff cost organization millions of dollars. “In order to keep on delivering high-quality performance, it is of vital importance to invest in the employees by enabling and encouraging them to c

“I can’t get them to report their numbers,” he said with some frustration. It wasn’t just the reporting of the numbers that was an issue for this sales manager, it was the productivity of the entire team that was down, as well. This manager was more than frustrated, he was border line discouraged. I often heard, during our one-on-one coaching sessions, there was not enough time to ensure the numbers were reported. He would say, “The staff was already overloaded.” He would express to me that his organization was, “Short staffed and it wasn’t the staffs fault” Delegation of his tasks were not an option because the current assignments that he delegated were not being completed. I told him that if he was going to be a great leader, then he must embrace evolution management. Does the case above seem all too familiar? In the book, Servant-leadership Across Cultures: Harnessing the Strength of the World's Most Powerful Management Philosophy , the authors express the following abo