Business Management Life

Think about the leaders you’ve had in your life - that is, the people you’ve respected and listened to, and in many cases followed. School teachers, uni lecturers, people you’ve worked with, mentors, coaches, captains of sporting teams, friends, family.

Why did you see those people as leaders? Why did you accept them as your leader at the time?

I had a discussion with a friend the other day, and we were discussing the fact that leadership is not about being the head of a company or a team, it’s about a way of being. It’s having the ability or the presence to inspire people to trust you. You can’t lead if you don’t have the trust of those around you.
I came up with my list of what leadership means to me, and what attributes a person must have to be a leader:

Talent
To me, a person needs to demonstrate talent - they need to have ability and capabilities, they need to be able to lead by example, and also be a high performer that sets them ahead of the pack. They need to be very good at what they do.

Judgement
To me, this covers many qualities and attributes. A leader has good judgement with decision-making, delegation and being able to recognise what to delegate to whom for maximum results, they need to have good judgement when it comes to understanding their impact on others, and have the right balance of empathy and objectivity.

Commitment
A good leader can give the same as they expect - they can put in and demonstrate that they’re in it for the long haul. Self discipline underpins commitment, and without it, a person will never be able to improve and grow their skills. Leaders have commitment and self discipline.

Strength
Having the strength to do what needs to be done and to support others when they need it, is a core part of leadership in my mind. Leaders nee Read the rest of this post »

The buying forward issue for us as sales people is real. The consumers have taken advantage of the record low interest rates to position themselves for the long haul, in their present home or a new home, at record numbers in the last 24-36 months.

This movement produces some challenges for us as Realtors now and in the future. We need to respond to the call of the challenge. The marketplace of the future is going to be more competitive than ever, since the number of leads will be reduced due to the buy it forward trend. We will need to venture out into more competitive areas to generate listings and sales. The truth is most Agents choose to have a limited amount of listing prospects. The choice is made due to unwillingness to compete in the marketplace for listings. Most Agents want the listings to come to them instead. We use only a small segment of the marketplace to generate business. The small segment is centered around working ONLY on a referral basis or past client basis for their business. When we evaluate the potential listing prospects available there are six key categories of potential prospects.

1. People who plan to list with you now

This is the category that most Agents deal with exclusively. We don’t venture outside of this group. The reason is we are not prepared for the more competitive marketplace. We feel that people who are not in this category are a waste of time. We have been taught to be so-called experts to only do business with this group of people. That anything else in the marketplace is worthless other than a referral based business. These experts tell us, use my system and your relationships will be so great you won’t have to compete. They further say use my system and you will never hear an objection as long as you’re working my referral system. That is total hogwash. If you follow t Read the rest of this post »

The Promise

The 20th Century promised success to the conscientious, dedicated, persistent and focussed individual. If you had a “vision” too, your success was just then a matter of time.

Any number of role models were proof positive that the promise was within your grasp. And many of the role models evolved from deprived or at least modest personal circumstances.

The Reality

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with The Promise. It’s attractive and realistic. But in the corporate world where most of us dwell, it’s incomplete. In the corporation it’s simply not enough to be a brilliant individual. The greatest rewards go to the most effective team member.

The Social Manager

Corporations are made up of individuals. But they are all organized into teams. The more successful you are in the corporation, the more your success is dependent on your team effectiveness. A senior manager is a social manager. He or she is a member of a number of teams and the leader of at least one team.

In a large corporation, a senior manager may be a leader or member of teams outside his or her own department and represent their corporation in external terms.

Everyone’s Involved

Teams exist for the lowest paid to the highest. Even in an organization of only one person, that person has relationships with customers, suppliers and similar businesses. While no formal team structure exists the person still needs some team membership skills.

The Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal skills will always be important in the workplace. But they are different to team membership skills. Good interpersonal skills will enhance the use of team membership skills. But they are not the same.

Team Membership Skills

The skills involve negotiating and gaining agreement between team members about

• Team goalsRead the rest of this post »