It’s still early in the year. Have you set your real estate business goals? If so, have you considered your overall vision when doing so? What is easily neglected in the process is the importance of the overall vision. When setting goals, the brokerage or team leader’s vision has a significant impact, and the importance of sharing that vision with team members is just as important as any goal itself.
Since the goal is the tangible, action-based measure of success toward achieving the overarching vision, it’s important for your team members to know how and why the set goals will benefit all involved. Furthermore, it gives insight into the overall picture.
Think of a vision as the direction for the overall brokerage or agents’ business, while the goals are the checkpoints along the way.
In theory that all sounds good, but how to go about translating theory into success — especially during difficult times? In fast-changing environments, it’s easy to lose motivation, inspiration, and hope when it comes to setting and, most importantly, following through with real estate goals. And, while we entered a new year on the calendar, we often bring along several of the same challenges faced within the last two.
Overcoming challenges to goal setting
To overcome this hurdle, it’s imperative to reflect and ask yourself some important questions. What worked last year? What didn’t? And what worked but likely no longer works? Evaluating and identifying the ways we were able to improve and move the needle, gives us an opportunity to look at what we can continue to move forward with in 2022, and what to leave behind.
Or, as I often ask, “Where do we need to find better ways?” This is also the point at which intentionality comes into play. If you continue to focus on setting and executing on intentional goals along with even small improvements each day you will see positive results.
Here are three steps to start intentionally setting goals that lead to success:
- Narrow in on what to focus on that is aligned with your overall vision, values, and priorities. When it comes to intentional real estate goal setting, it’s important to get specific, and make sure your goal is relevant to the overall vision and priorities of your brokerage.
- Make small impactful decisions consistently to create forward-change over time. Making decisions as small as they may seem will create positive habits over time, and as such set the stage for progress in a positive direction and forward momentum. It’s no secret that to create momentum we must make a conscious action-based effort towards our goals and do it consistently. Only with taking intentional and focused action as a result of positive habits do we create momentum that supports our set goals become reality.
- Work smarter not harder. Finding a better way doesn’t mean finding a whole new way (unless perhaps that is the better way), but rather taking an honest look at what no longer works, and then dropping, realigning, or changing what doesn’t. It requires to staying open-minded to a new way of doing things and taking the time to consistently measure and reevaluate. As stated by Albert Einstein, insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Or in other words, for things to change, we need to change, and find better ways – organizationally, professionally, and personally.
One misconception when setting intentional real estate goals is to think there is only one way to achieve the set goal, or letting your expectations get the best of you. To be effective as a brokerage, team leader or agent, it is important to realize that what we may think be the best way, decision or process may turn out not to be. And that’s OK. In fact, when we find a better way by involving others it’s often a lot more fun on the path to success as well.
Marion Weiler is brokerage growth strategist and CEO of Weiler International LLC
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of RealTrends’ editorial department and its owners.
To contact the author of this story:
Marion Weiler at marion@weilerinternational.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Tracey Velt at tvelt@realtrends.com
