Above: Colette Ching.
After more than 20 years in real estate leadership, one thing has remained constant: markets change, people don’t.
In every cycle, we see the same pattern. When the market is strong, many can win. When the market shifts, only the skilled and the supported rise to the top. Today, we are firmly in a skills market. And in a skills market, brokerage productivity is no longer solely about motivation. It is about leadership.
As a divisional leader at Keller Williams, my role is to serve as the bridge between vision and execution, between the franchise and its affiliated brokerage leaders and agents. What I’ve learned over the years is simple: productivity doesn’t start with systems. It starts with people.
People first. Always.
Too often, leaders try to solve productivity challenges with more tools, more technology or more pressure. But real productivity begins when you understand who you are in business with.
What matters to your agents? What are they building? What are they afraid of? What does success actually look like in their world?
When leaders take the time to understand this, everything changes. Coaching becomes more relevant. Training becomes more impactful. Accountability becomes something people lean into, not resist.
This is not soft leadership. It is strategic. When people feel seen, they perform differently.
A practical best practice: build time into your calendar each week for real conversations, not just performance check-ins, but conversations that uncover motivation, obstacles and goals. That is where true coaching begins.
Hiring also plays a critical role. In my experience, both today and earlier in my career as a Team Leader, or as a CEO of a KW-affiliated brokerage, using structured interview models and behavioral assessments helps leaders better understand how someone is wired, not just what they have done. When you get the right people in the right seats, everything downstream becomes easier.
From activity to alignment
The next level of brokerage productivity is alignment. Not just more activity, but the right activity.
Leaders often confuse being busy with being productive. They are not the same. True productivity comes from focusing on the few activities that actually drive results.
In real estate, that means lead generation, real conversations, setting appointments, pricing correctly and consistent follow-up.
A simple strategy: identify the top three activities that directly lead to closings in your market and track them weekly. What gets measured improves. What gets coached improves faster.
At a high level, I coach leaders to simplify their focus into three core levers:
Growth. Productivity. Profitability.
Growth is agent count. Productivity is how well your people convert opportunities into closings. Profitability is the outcome that sustains the business.
Alignment across these three creates predictability.
Coaching over managing
One of the biggest shifts in high-performing brokerages is the move from managing to coaching.
Managing is about overseeing people and processes. Coaching is about developing people.
Team leaders, or brokerage leaders, lead agents to grow. They educate and train in the skills that matter. They coach the activities that drive results, lead generation and real connections. And they consult agents on how to build leverage as their business scales.
A best practice here: set a weekly coaching rhythm. One-on-ones should not just review numbers. They should connect activity to outcomes and create a clear plan for the next week.
The leaders who win are the ones who sit in real conversations. They ask better questions. They challenge thinking. They help agents see what they cannot see on their own.
If we want higher productivity, we have to raise the standard of leadership.
Culture is the multiplier
Culture is the multiplier of everything.
Not the kind that lives on a wall, but the kind that shows up in conversations, standards and how people are treated when things get hard.
In strong cultures, people hold each other accountable. They share. They push. They grow.
A practical approach: define clear standards for activity, communication and performance, then consistently reinforce them. Culture is not what you say once. It is what you tolerate and reinforce over time.
For agents evaluating where to build their business, culture matters. The right environment will challenge you, support you and expect more from you.
The bottom line
A brokerage’s growth and success are a direct reflection of the leadership.
When leaders focus on people first, align their business around what matters, hire with intention, coach consistently and build cultures rooted in care and accountability, results follow.
And when you build an environment where people are consistently developed, supported and challenged to grow, the business becomes a natural byproduct of that commitment.
For more information, visit https://kw.com/.
