Happy Sunday Everyone:
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There seems to be a common theme right now around teams, bandwidth, burn out, and frustration. The positive side of those words is many of you are having record breaking months, and for that you need to be grateful. With that-we have to be very aware of our teams right now (and always). Team members are being asked to work more hours, deal with back end operations, interact with 5-10 people on any given transaction (client, escrow, underwriter, processor, docs drawer, etc….) and then here it comes “hey guys-such and such just sent over a new opportunity and we need it closed in 21 days, their financials will be in tonight, oh by the way, they own 6 properties and have 3 businesses”. All of this is okay, it’s what we do, and the more we know how to handle it, the better we are BUT at what point does the same group of people on your team scream “UNCLE”….or “I’m done”. It’s not new news but if someone knows you genuinely care about them, they’re going to be more committed when things are hard. We can’t wait for the hard times however to show we care or it’s 100% disingenuous and any A player is going to see through it. How many times do you get busy, ask everyone to end their personal life for you and you buy them lunch?….way to go….you deserve an award…best boss of the year (personally guilty). Some thoughts about team members knowing you care by your actions:
1. if I asked you where your team members want to be in 1, 3, or 5 years, would you be able to tell me? Do you discuss their future with them? Are you putting them in a position to grow into what they think they want to be? it’s okay that not everyone wants to grow into something else, but you need to understand that.
2. Are you in the trenches with them when poop hits the fan. I screw up a lot but one team member couldn’t leave on Friday because of a deal, and had to miss dinner with her family…I was out the door and turned around, called my fellow baseball coaches and said I had to miss practice. Didn’t even cross my mind but another team member saw this and texted me Friday night to say what it meant to her that I did that (yes it was genuine but I win on that too).
3. Do your deeds follow your words? if you have no more bandwidth, it’s your fault, say no to new business. “Team I love you, and I want you to spend time with your families, but I just brought in 6 new purchases and didn’t do a single thing to find a new team member or ask operations for more help so please get this done before you leave”.
4. Do you speak openly and honest with your team? Assume your team is smart. There is nothing more annoying than someone selling their agenda and thinking I’m too dumb or naive to know what they’re doing. Tell them what you’re doing and why, and they will accept it (they might not like it but they will accept it). A players (employees) can sniff BS a mile away and if you throw it on them, you lose trust….lose trust, you’re done.
We have to ask ourselves if we have A players on our team? if we do, they will leave you if you’re being a C boss….if anything above rings true and you might find yourself in the C boss category, it’s a matter of time. Right the ship now. You can’t change your business overnight but you can change your actions with your team, and those actions will determine how committed your team is to you. Guarantee when you’re 100% honest, you’ll find most A players as committed to you, as you are to them. How committed are you? honestly.
Have a great week and work on this.