How can you set your Real Estate Assistant up for success in 90 days? The key may be the 90 Days to Thrive Coaching Program offered by Kathleen Metcalf’s team. This program is geared toward new real estate admin hires and their agent to help the two of them get started on the right foot. In this interview with one of the 90 Days to Thrive coaches, Tiffany Lawson, we explore the universal concepts that can be applied to any team, any hire.
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About Tiffany
Tiffany has sat in every seat of the real estate bus you could think of. She went from being an executive assistant, to a marketing manager, to building a team, to a director of operations, to an agent, and to helping her team build out their sales team. Her experience makes her the ideal real estate coach. It allows her to share her knowledge with admins and agents as they participate in the 90 Days to Thrive.
Initially, Tiffany meets with the agent and the admin and defines expectations. She helps admins define and analyze where the needs of the agent lie. And the “Big Rocks” she defines helps a team establish goals. These goals are the priorities of what the agent or the team needs, and it’s just a matter of defining it, building it, and providing clarity so that it works.
The Big Rocks
The first of Tiffany’s Big Rock concepts is time management. The 3 stages in time management are 1) Time blocking for personal time, 2) Blocking anything with standing times (i.e. meetings that take place every week at the same time and day), and 3) Blocking for project management.
Time Blocking
For anybody new to time blocking, it is not about focusing on the week, but rather focusing on today and tomorrow consistently, because over time it will build your transparency on what you are doing, when, and how long things are taking you.
Delegation and Communication
Delegation and communication are the next Big Rock items. It’s important that admins have a clear idea of how long they need to spend on tasks and what is the most important compared to the next. And that goes hand in hand with the communication part. Instead of an agent saying, “I need this done.” it is important they provide additional information such as “I need this by 2 p.m. today, and please let me know if there is anything I need to go over with you before you get started.”
As a leader, you are learning how to accomplish things through other people. Your role in that is to make sure the people you are delegating to know what they need to do, have clear expectations and have the tools and resources to get that done.
Workflow and Ownership
The next Big Rocks encompass workflow and ownership. Mistakes are opportunities for growth. Being learning-based is going to be key here. When an admin starts, there will be a learning curve in understanding the systems, how the team operates, and how to work well with the team. So they must create checklists and take ownership of the projects they are working on to improve the workflow.
Values
Tiffany also stresses the importance of working with people who share the same values. Find a team where “everybody is in it to win it” and shooting for the same goal. People will take more ownership of things when they know they share the same values.
It’s the little things, like an agent taking their admin to lunch or having a virtual coffee break together. Spending time to really get to know this person. Because in real estate, it’s a very intimate relationship within a team. The team spends a lot of time together. A lot of life events happen naturally as time goes by. It’s about connecting on a human level. An agent will develop a much richer and more complete relationship if he or she pours into their admin and connects with them.
Reflection
Taking the time to reflect is crucial for an agent and admin to grow together. The way to do so is by conducting Performance Reviews throughout the 30, 60, and 90-day marks and for future milestones. It helps a team measure where they are and where they are going.
Questions to Ask During a Review
It is important for an agent to ask their admin important questions during a review, such as: “What do you like most about your job? What feedback do you have for me? What are the goals from your perspective moving forward?” And a lot of times, too, the super-talented ones will think of goals and things that they foresee for the team that the agent didn’t even think about. They’ve taken so much ownership that they now see what they are working with, and what possibilities lay ahead.
When Tiffany reads through the performance reviews, she can see if the agent and admin are on the same page or if they’re not. And if not, it’s just a matter of if they are in alignment and what does that look like? What comes next? So it’s a huge reflection, and a lot of times its very celebratory time too, because it’s like, “Finally, I found my match!”
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, it’s not just matching skills, experience, and job salary. It’s about culture, values, personality, and goals. So many things have to align, especially in the first 90 days, for it to work and the 90 Days to Thrive Coaching Program will assist with that alignment.
It is hard work sometimes, to find that perfect fit. But when you find it, and you get through those first 90 days, it changes everything. That agent is on a totally different trajectory than they were 90 days before. For Tiffany, watching people grow together is the greatest gift a coach could ask for.
VANESSA ROSENBLUM
FOUNDER & CEO AT PRO REA STAFFING
Continue the conversation with her here to discuss more successful real estate team fundamentals.
TALK TO VANESSA