The Power of Elevating Your Team From ‘Informed’ to ‘Committed’

When it comes to internal communication, would you say that your team is in the dark, engaged, or are they fully committed to talking with one another? In many businesses, one of the biggest employee complaints is about the lack of communication.

“Nobody tells us what’s going on around here!” I hear it all the time. We all talk about the importance of communication, and some of us even brag about how good we are at it.

Sadly, in many businesses, ‘communication’ is a one-way street. It’s the process of telling everyone what management has decided to do and then asking, or telling, the team to ‘get with the program’. Shouldn’t we go beyond the minimum standard to create true engagement and get your team committed to your real estate business?

Engagement and commitment start with involving your team in creating clarity about 5 things:

• The extraordinary value and customer experience that you commit to deliver and how you’ll communicate that in everything you do. This has to be in a way that clearly differentiates you from your competitors.
• What you and your business commit to become (your Vision).
• How do you plan to get to that extraordinary future (your Mission).
• The healthy bottom line you commit to generate profit. If there’s no bottom line, there’s no business. If there’s no profit, there’s no business and no jobs…including theirs.
• How you commit to behave along the way—Your values, ethics and standards.

Always explain the ‘why’ of things

The simplest way to move your team from blind compliance to engagement, commitment and creativity is to always explain ‘why’ you’re doing it, no whether you’re assigning a project, discussing a policy, coaching team members on a particular process or trying to improve some part of the business.

Explain to them the ‘desired outcome’ that you’re looking for and why it’s important

It might take a little longer, but the results will be significantly better. When we don’t explain the reason for doing things a certain way, many of our staff will simply assume that we’re insisting on high standards of performance, appearance, efficiency and behavior because we’re old and mean and cranky. They’ll resent us and resist us.

Don’t trigger blind compliance – invite their involvement

When you communicate to your people by just telling them to ‘do it’, they’re informed and the best you can hope for is blind compliance. But, when you truly involve them, listen to them and respect them, they’re much more engaged and committed! And here’s the magic: a few of your brighter folks will say something wonderful like, “Oh, if that’s the outcome we’re looking for, I have a few thoughts on how we might do it even better.”

You want that. Involve your team in these important conversations. You hired them because they know stuff… and you should know that they hate it when you don’t seek their perspectives. When you don’t ask for their ideas, they assume that you don’t care…and if you don’t care, why should they?

Failure to listen breeds resentment

For over 25 years, I’ve traveled North America doing events, public speaking and business coaching. Whenever I’d see an airline doing something customer ‘un-friendly’ or just plain stupid, I’d ask the front-line staff, “Why do you do that? It doesn’t make sense.” The reply was always the same. “We know it’s wrong and we keep telling head office… but they won’t listen!” It doesn’t matter what industry you are talking about. In that kind of environment, the best people leave in frustration and the mediocre people stay and take ‘I don’t give a damn’ pills.

How many people are taking ‘I don’t give a damn’ pills just to survive in your business? How many do you want to have there?

By asking and listening you’ll get more ideas and better ones. You’ll honour them, reduce attrition and improve their commitment to your agency. You’ll also find out who ‘gets it’ and, therefore, who might be ready for more responsibility.

According to Gallup Research, in North America:

• 31% of employees are fully engaged,
• 52% are not engaged,
• 17% are actively disengaged.

Actively disengaged staff are unhappy people who act out in various ways to undermine the organization and the performance of others. Get rid of them! Do it legally…but say goodbye.

So, will you shoot for ‘better informed’ staff or will you commit to creating a more engaged, more committed, and more creative team? It’s your choice.