You have a great vision for your company…that’s the easy part! Few companies fail because there wasn’t a great vision; they fail because they can’t translate the vision into concrete results. “Vision without execution is hallucination”. Jim Collins said in Built To Last, “Great performance is about 1% vision and 99% alignment.”
Ask yourself these questions:
- Are all our processes running without drama and driving industry-leading profitability?
- Is our execution leading to improved gross margins and efficiencies?
- Do we have excellent, precise execution habits and is everyone being held accountable?
If your answers aren’t a resounding YES, then you’re likely to hit barriers as you try to grow and scale your company or team. I am a firm believer in the Rockefeller Habits, the most straightforward, practical tools to effectively translate your long-term vision and strategies into short-term goals and priorities that will create alignment. Verne Harnish wrote the best selling book, Scaling Up…Mastering the Rockefeller Habits 2.0, to help companies break through the barriers and challenges of growing and scaling businesses, just like yours.
The concepts of the Rockefeller Habits are simple and can be implemented in every real estate company and with every team realizing immediate results. First, strategic execution is about identifying the top 3 to 5 priorities that must be addressed or accomplished. These are the most important and impactful items over the next 3 years, during the current year and for the next 90 days. The key is to prioritize which ones are most critical because if everything is important, then nothing is. And that’s why it’s so difficult to execute on long to-do lists.
There’s incredible power in prioritizing. I know a real estate company that is trying to recruit and retain its agents. Sound familiar? Start with your goals for the year, and I always recommend breaking it down into 90-day bite-size pieces. Then cascade it down to each manager and key team member, so they are aligned and held accountable for their portion of the goal. How do you guarantee results? First, clear metrics that are not only tracked but also visible to the entire team. Second, meeting rhythms; weekly, monthly, and possibly daily huddles, where accountability is reinforced. And finally, each team member prioritizes their top 3 to 5 recruiting/retention action items every single day and crosses them off when they’re complete. Then a new list of 3 to 5 for the next day. Do this for 90 days and you’ll be amazed at the results. This is how you will meet and most likely exceed your targets. It’s simple, and all it takes is focus and a high degree of discipline.
As Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, said, “THE MAIN THING IS TO KEEP THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING”. Laser focus everyone on a few priorities—today, this week, this quarter, this year—and you’ll create clarity, alignment and best of all, solid results.
