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Real +, the property experts – providing a full spectrum of services to ‘grow your business and yourself’. Support + Knowledge + Industry insights + much, much more! As part of the program, our teams will receive six months complimentary access to templates, tools, training and coaching from the real+ team. For more info, visit realplus.com.au.
Coach
Coaching Transcript:
Now, we have to look at business goals because that’s a big part of obviously what we’re here for. It’s equally important that you remember this is not just about business transforming, it’s also about yourselves. I will move on though for now onto business. What I would love for you guys to give each other over the next period is permission to be transparent and authentic in your teams and of course to each other. Everyone, big and small, regional, city, doesn’t matter. Everyone has the same challenges. It’s very important for you to be transparent with each other and be honest about what those challenges are, because from there you will be able to help each other.
When you look at this page, this becomes your goal page of what you think, yourself, individually, we’re not discussing it yet, what you think needs to change in order for you to improve the business from what you already know. I’m going to talk you through each area and I want you to write down and don’t talk to anyone. Right here now, if these challenges, let’s say for example we get to culture – topical one – could be a problem with the culture across your organisation and for the teams in the room versus the leaders, you might think, ‘Oh shit, I can’t say that’. Yes, you can. Because transforming is allowing transparency. Transparency in my business is our number one value. Anybody can say anything to anyone, as long as it comes from a place of love and care.
You have to be able to communicate like that because without that authenticity, you won’t be able to improve, but additionally, you need to be able to take it. It’s a boomerang, right? Whatever comes out, it’s coming back. What I want to do is mentor you through each area, and again, I want you to write down the goals. Let’s start, we’ve got systems. Talk about your systems. Your systems, your process, your standard operating. That’s not the tech that supports it, but that’s actually your methodology behind it. What would you need to do? Does this need a review? Does it need an overhaul? Have we got good systems? Are people using them? Do people understand them? Have we got an education program around them? Do they need updating? Are they antiquated? Have we got somebody in the office that says, “Well, we’ve always done it that way since 1992.”
Well, that’s lovely, but we need to look at it because this year, guys, transformation is about breaking stuff and I love breaking stuff. My point being is that, when you break something, you can put it back together and remove parts of it and it still stays withstanding. Because we have to find ways to get more cars into your carpark. We have to find more ways to get more properties into your portfolios, into your business, at the same time as not increasing the head count. Because that’s where our profit is going to come from.
The next part there, as you’re thinking about that, for those that have already gone through systems, is technology. When you look at technology, what technology do you have? Do you know how to use it? Have you been trained by the person who was trained by the person who was trained by the person who was trained on the system that was in existence seven years ago as opposed to the system that’s in existence today? Does your tech fail regularly? What tech do you know right now would need to change immediately?
Training. When it comes to training, what training do people need? Do we even know what training people need? Quite often, what it says that statement, you don’t know what you don’t know, so sometimes you need to do , we call it a ‘training needs analysis’, which is basically identifying where are the gaps for everybody in the team. What don’t I know that I don’t know? It’s always the person in the business that says, “No, no, I don’t need any training.” They need training. They need training that they need training. Training is about constant improvement. Constant improvement, constant efficiency, constant change.
Culture, we’ve talked so much about culture over the last two days and I think Melbourne Real Estate, those guys were up there, they’re so cruisey and everything. I’ve got to tell you, you walk in that place and you can feel it. It’s like a freight train as you walk in there. The energy is just like, it gets you sucked in. It’s about what is your culture, and culture is unique, but is your culture reflective of where you want your business to go?
Point five there is finances. What are the finances of the business look like? Where are we at? How are we tracking? Are we on track, off track? What do we need them to be? Finances, it could even be do we monitor them enough? Do people know what they are? Do people know how they can impact the finances of the business? I’ve got to tell you, there’s no company in the country where the team want to work for a non-profitable business unless it’s a not-for-profit.
Then the last part there is marketing. You could interchange that with branding. Probably a few things to think about there is like consistency and marketing and branding is not just the paper. It’s not just the website. It’s the living, breathing, brand. Look at that now and decide what’s the most important thing to ensure your business success this year. What you now have to do as part of your homework, write this down somewhere in a book. Part of your homework is to go back to the office and work out a blended goal, because you will not achieve the three goals in isolation. You have to blend them as a team.
Now, how many of you have heard about SMART goals? You’ve heard this acronym before? Even if you’ve heard this before, there’s an addition to it. Now I didn’t make up SMART goals, some other legend did that, but it means Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. All of this should be going in your red book. In front of your red book, in front of your red book, because you’re going to throw this paper out. In front of your red book. This red book is only for learning. Okay, so Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely. Now, when you look at your goals, were they specific? Do they have numbers associated with them? Because I need to be able to measure it. I want you to think about realism, about a cross-section of your organisation too. Because when we take this we have to add Energy and Risk.
At Real+ we make goals SMARTER. I really need to trademark this. Energy and Risk. When we take Energy and Risk, we have to think about how much energy is actually going to need to be expended to achieve that goal. In your businesses, you’ve got sales. You’re going to have to go like this energy-wise. You’ve got some energy that’s being spent in sales, you’ve got some energy being expended in property management. When you start setting goals in property management, you’ve gotta get some extra energy from somewhere. It either comes in the form of other resources or if it’s your own energy, you’ve got to take time, or mental energy, or emotional energy from somewhere else. You can’t just conjure it up, there’s no extra. You’ve got a capacity scenario, so you have to take that energy from sales, let’s say using that as the example or from some other part of your life. You take the energy and you’ve got to move it over here.
When I move energy from one spot: business area, family area, personal area, I leave a risk back here and you’ve got to decide whether or not you’re prepared to take the risk, and that’s the final piece of the SMARTER puzzle. What will happen if I move that energy to here? What do I risk losing over here and is it financially worth the risk? Is it emotionally worth the risk? Is it mentally worth the risk? Is it relationship-ly worth the risk? I just made up relationship-ly. Did you like that? You’ve got to make that decision and from there you’ll decide, am I going to proceed with that goal? Makes sense to everyone?
