The Importance of Sharing Common Goals with Our Leadership

Do you know what your boss/company owner/president/broker owner expects from you and the department you run? You may think you know, but have you ever directly asked what their top priority is? And in what order do their priorities rank?

I have found that many department heads operate based on goals and that they perceive are important or are based on a different time in the market or on past leadership in the company that no longer exist. I recommend asking those that are the key decision makers in your company to rank the level of importance of the services to the company your departments provide or should be providing.

Here are some examples of the types of key metrics that should be ranked based on the level of importance of those that are in leadership roles:

Should my department’s top priority be:

• Department Profit

• Company Profit

• Branch Profit

• Generating agent commissions

• Increased revenue

• Increased closed units

• Bringing in new sources of RMC business

• Bringing in new sources of local corporate relocation and/or affinity business

• Bringing in broker referrals

• Helping the agents with their outgoing referrals

• Meeting our network goals

• Providing new clients to the agents and company

• Expanding the companies service offering (such as rental assistance, affinity services, international, moving services, concierge, etc.)

• Spreading the business around to a large group of agents

• Assisting with agent recruiting and retention

• Other?

You can do this in a one on one conversation or if you have multiple stakeholders, do it through a simple survey. Knowing the order of importance helps us understand how aggressive to be in our referral fee structures and where to focus our service delivery, training, budget and business development. Some department heads may be shocked to know that their brokers are less focused on the department’s profit and more focused on one of the other priorities listed above.

Once we know their priorities, we can create a business plan that puts the attention where it needs to be to fulfill the common goals of leadership. We can create a plan that divides our time in a way that will ensure success in the categories that matter most to them. Or it can also give us an opportunity to discuss with them why we may or may not agree with their ranking. If we don’t agree, then use it as a time of education and exploration. Maybe they just need to understand our point of view and why we don’t rank the priorities in the same way.

Whatever the outcome, make sure you all ultimately agree on what the key priorities are of the department. It will be much easier to get approval for budgets when they know we are all in lock step in the goals of the services we provide. It will allow us to reference our leaders wishes when seeking collaboration with others in the company giving them more weight. Having a unified mission makes everyone feel a part of the journey and the successes.

 “On this team, we're all united in a common goal: to keep my job.” ~ Lou Holtz, former football coach, analyst