Team failures often come down to one major culprit: a breakdown in communication. “When we see things are breaking down, the first question I ask the team leader is, ‘How much time have you invested in your team this month?’ When teams aren’t doing well, it’s typically because of lack of communication from the leader,” explains MacDonald.
According to Mesa, when teams decide to dissolve, a common issue is one or two members feel others are not contributing or pulling their weight.
Wong, who estimates that 10 percent of his company’s 1,500 agents in Chicago and Southwest Michigan are in teams, thinks that the biggest challenge is when the team leader fails to lead effectively. “The team leader should be offering a value proposition for the team members,” he explains. “When members come to us and say, ‘We are not getting something out of this,’ it usually comes down to the team leader.”
Not everyone is necessarily cut out to be on a team, nor is every large-producing agent cut out to be a team leader, says Hutton. And even those that are right for it can still get it wrong.
Team leaders can get off on the wrong foot with poor planning or bad hiring, or both. A rookie mistake is hiring too soon—before you have a plan in place—or hiring someone who is just like you, Hutton explains. Instead, team leaders need to make sure they hire agents with a different set of skills that complement their own.
“Before jumping in, agents need to analyze who they are and what they want to accomplish,” says MacDonald. “I meet with agents on a regular basis to talk about their team and team growth. I meet with both the team members and the team leaders to help keep them on track.”
For the past eight years, his company has also offered annual team summits, which give agent teams a framework in which to structure responsibility and a reference guide to use throughout the year. He also encourages the teams themselves to hold regular meetings at least monthly.
Another essential best practice is to establish one point of contact for the client, no matter how large the team, according to MacDonald. “The team is there to feed the information to the team leader, who then gives that information to the client,” he explains.
When it comes to the best and most successful teams, Wong narrows it down to two types: one that shines in terms of systems and one that shines in terms of relationships.
“The one that is more focused on systems and processes establishes superior, consistent communication. The client receives the exact same service over and over again as its perfect systems flow through a funnel like a science,” he says.
“The other teams may be less organized on the back end, but they are far better at the relationship skills,” adds Wong. “These are the brokers who are the really fabulous salespeople. They really connect with the consumer, and as a result, the consumer has a lot more faith in that broker, which yields more work for that broker.”
Wong notes that this is often where successful teams enter the picture—when the broker-connector who is perhaps a little disorganized can join forces with a very systems-oriented team. As Wong says, “That’s when you create the magic.”
Reva Nelson is a freelance writer and marketing consultant based in Chicago. She has been writing about real estate and professional services for more than 15 years. Reva lives with her husband, their two sons, and a Russian tortoise.
