WORD MAGIC:
(full story)
Decision Making – An Essential Skill for
Organization and Delegation ...
Being a real estate agent is challenging
especially considering the industry’s
technological intensity and the current climate
of economic uncertainty. It’s especially taxing
for successful agents and Realtors® who are
considering redefining their business. If you
plan to hone only one skill this year, select
the one that will make a huge positive
difference in your business, your success, and
your quality of life. Become an expert decision
maker. Let me explain.
Like you, most successful agents already work
hard. Redefining or niching a flourishing
business can seem like starting over. Trying to
define, delineate and differentiate your
business from the masses can create an unwelcome
‘drama’ to your daily routine.
There are decisions to make, websites to
design, research to do, marketing materials to
create… and even if you delegate, it can still
be quite an undertaking. Business changes are
necessary for growth, but can become
overwhelming when added to the dozens of daily
business activities required to serve your
existing clients.
Of all your daily activities, making
decisions is the most important (and often the
most difficult) one you face.
#1 Agent: A Client Case Study
I spoke with a client this morning who is too
busy to effectively organize. She also considers
herself less than “cutting edge” when it comes
to technology (I disagree) and says she is tired
of stomping fires (I understand). She’s ready to
preplan. She’s ready to make changes and she’s
asked for my help.
Now this self-proclaimed “low-tech” client
uses online outsourcing, she’s a Treo-toting
agent, a Michael Russer devotee, she uses a
top-rated contact management system… she even
has a part-time onsite staffer. (So we know
she’s not really as “low tech” or disorganized
as she fears).
Professionally, she stays on
top of her game. She’s well-versed in the
current market trends. She’s currently reading
The
E-Myth (a book I highly recommend for those
who haven’t read it yet). She attends (and
devours) continuing education seminars and
classes on real estate online marketing,
software packages, and other relevant
professional topics.
She’s also in the midst of developing a
seriously niched specialization.
A Common Conundrum
So what does this top-performing, educated
and personable Realtor® feel she’s missing?
For those who are constantly brimming with
great ideas (a career hazard for most excellent
real estate agents), there is never enough time
to get it all done.
These folks often have a number of ongoing
(but never quite completed) projects underway –
which causes an organizational nightmare on
their computers, the surface of their desks, and
often spills into the rest of their existence.
What Can a Successful Agent in the Throes
of Massive Change Do?
-
Take a deep breath and view your
business as a whole.
For just a moment, see your business as a
single, collective entity and refuse to view
it as an overwhelming mass of tiny details
to juggle. Step back and really look at your
business. Admire it. Recognize that you have
built a business based on YOU. YOU did this.
Pretty cool, huh? Congratulations!
-
Now take a peek at your daily
activities.
Determine what five things make you the
craziest on a regular or daily basis.
-
Write down the list of five things.
-
Attack and FIX those five things,
ignore the rest of the ‘crazy makers’ in
your life until next week (when you can
work on five more).
-
Set aside an hour a day – YES a
full, uninterrupted hour – to work on
fixing one of those things each day for
the next five business days.
-
If it’s something that requires more
time, schedule additional time to get it
done and physically block out time on
your calendar to complete it in a timely
fashion (that means within a week, not
“sometime soon”).
-
Don’t over-think the problem.
Quite often the solution is fairly easy if
you look at it objectively. The biggest
hurdle to making positive changes is making
the decision to do so.
"But, what if I make the wrong decision,”
you ask? Well, that happens sometimes.
That’s life. That’s business. If you have to
re-evaluate the decision later and make
another one, you will. But make today’s
decisions with confidence that they are both
permanent and correct. After all, what’s the
worst that can happen?
That Sounds Easy, But It’s NOT!
What if you aren’t sure about the decision?
For instance, my #1 Agent is considering a
change in her contact management system. She’s
considering replacing the online system with one
local to her office. She was stuck when trying
to make the decision, so we walked through it
together.
How to Attack a Decision
-
Make a list of pros and cons for each
viable option - You shouldn’t have more than
two or three contenders by the time you are
ready to prepare your list.
-
Make sure you are seeing the big picture
- For instance, if my client elects to keep
her offsite system, she can’t always access
it when she’s on the road because some ISP’s
(especially those overseas) block it. This
is important because she travels often and
will continue to do so. On the other hand,
if she elects to change to a local, onsite
system, she will be responsible for doing
her own backups to protect her
mission-critical data.)
-
Once you complete the list, make the
decision - Do it immediately. You have
“thought about it” enough.
Conversation About a Decision
This morning, I told my client, “I need you
to make a decision on your contact management
system and I need to know that decision before I
advise you on any additional software or systems
to meet your needs.”
My client said, “Well, I know I should… Ok,
I’m 90% certain that I will switch my system.”
I pressed her again for a full, committed,
confident decision, “You really need to make
this decision and get it off your plate. I need
a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ from you.”
She recognized the “wiggle room” she’d left
herself, “I didn’t really give you either one,
did I?” she laughed, “Yes, I’m just going to do
it!”
She was then ready to proceed with a new
topic, so my next question exasperated her.
“When?” I asked.
After a bit of uncomfortable squirming,
(during which time she reminded me how “tough” I
was), she settled on a date. With this
information, she can now work backward and put
the tasks on her calendar required to meet the
deadline. Now, she’s in charge of the issue
that, only a moment before, was a source of
stress. She’s made the decision that she
admitted had been haunting her for several
months.
I hear her physically exhale. (Now, perhaps
that exhale was a substitute for telling me how
she really feels about my pushy nature today,
but I prefer to think it was a sigh of relief.)
Small Decisions Can Be Critical
I know this seemingly “trivial” decision is a
huge one for a real estate agent. Your contact
management system and ease of access to that
information is the lifeblood of your business.
It matters.
But making all decisions – whether big or
small – should be approached the same way. It is
imperative for agents who are re-evaluating and
further defining their business to disengage
from the daily grind long enough to make
decisions on business systems, direction and
long-term goals. Effective decision making is
crucial to continued business growth.
Decision Making is Essential for
Successful Delegation
Delegating requires expressing your needs in
precise, measurable terms. Those with
relentlessly mobile careers, like real estate,
often find it difficult to take time to
determine exactly what they need before
attempting to delegate the task. And,
determining when you need it is equally
important. Delegation is essentially another
decision which requires deadlines.
When you work with others, you and they need
to understand the difference between this
delegation approach:
“It would be nice to have an easy way to
regularly email my Chamber peers.”
And this one:
“I need you to create an HTML email
template that I can use to send emails to my
contact circle from the Chamber of Commerce
events each month. I want the template to
match my current marketing materials and
have a drag and drop functionality so I can
add photos from the event. I also need an
easy-to-change text box for the body of the
email. I’ll send you the standard list of
the recipients for the template tomorrow
before noon. Do you need any other
information from me on this project? My next
event is in two weeks. Will you be able to
get this to me by next Wednesday?”
With the second version, there is no doubt
that you are asking the listener to take action.
The first one seems to be close cousin to “Boy,
a chocolate bar sure sounds nice, wish I had
one.” In the second version, you have explained
what should be accomplished, how you want it to
look and when you need the finished product. You
have also extended an invitation for any needed
clarification, which will reduce or eliminate
delays.
The ABC’s of Delegating Success
When delegating, you can often use the same
basic outline used by writers covering a topic:
Who, What, Where, When, How and Why. If you
answer those questions about a task you assign
or request, you will dramatically reduce the
time spent clarifying, re-explaining and waiting
for overdue tasks to be complete.
Follow up the conversation with a written
version of the “who, what, where, when, how and
why” by email, so both you and the responsible
party have a copy of what’s expected, to reduce
the likelihood of a miscommunication and
eliminate missed project deadlines.
Revisiting My Client’s Initial Concerns
About Her Business:
-
Not Enough Hours in Each Day – It
takes more energy and time to perform in
“crisis management” mode than to make
decisions, plan in advance and implement
those plans on a coordinated, pre-determined
schedule. Making decisions now will lighten
your future load exponentially and will give
you that glorious feeling of accomplishment.
-
Inadequate Organization – It’s
hard to organize when you don’t make
decisions. Something as easy as “Do I want
to attend this event next Tuesday?” Becomes
another “I’ll decide later” item that
increases the height of the towering “to do”
papers on your desk. Or, it may languish in
your email inbox, plumping up the girth of
the items already clamoring for your
attention there. (If you ignore enough of
these, you may notice that you begin to
avoid your computer altogether.)
-
Less than Stellar Success in Task
Delegation – How can you effectively
delegate if your ideas never get fleshed out
into concrete actions that can be requested
of others? Decision making, especially when
you feel overwhelmed, is the only way to
lighten your load. It’s ok if the main
decision you make is to give it to someone
else to do. This is often the best choice
and can provide a great sense of relief.
-
Sanity on the Really Bad Days –
Until the decision making process becomes
second nature to you again (or for the first
time) the answer to any new projects, any
invitations, any “golden opportunities”
should be “I’d love to, but I’m booked until
the 15th of next month.” If the opportunity
is still viable at that time, add it to your
task list for the 15th. If not, you have
made the decision to not take on anything
more and you can continue with your
organization and delegation to further
lighten your load. Take heart, it won’t be
like this forever, but learning to say “no”
is often required to maintain your sanity
when you are undergoing change and/or
growing pains.
If you want to organize your business and
stop feeling that you are being dragged along
behind the wild stallion that your business has
become, you have to grab the reins and plant
your back side firmly in the saddle. Next,
select and commit to a direction. THEN, and only
then, can you dig in the spurs and gallop to
success. Galloping toward specific goals is an
exhilarating feeling. (And, it’s a much less
bumpy ride than the exhausting experience of
trotting about aimlessly or being dragged
along.)
All you need to do is make your decisions,
then pick your path and ride!
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