April is a great time to assess the performance of your business.

 This week marked the fourth anniversary of CRE Success.

Here’s a video I shared on IG about it, which includes a review of the business.

 

 

 

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A post shared by Darren Krakowiak | CRE Success (@cresuccess)

Now, you may not be celebrating a milestone at this moment.

But the first half of April is a great time to assess performance.

We’re only a quarter of the way into 2024.

And there’s still plenty of time to change (or solidify) the year’s trajectory.

Leaders have an important role to play in helping people improve their performance…so I want to share some ways to shift momentum.

For proven tips on empowering yourself and others, take a listen to episode 177 of Commercial Real Estate Leadership

Episode transcript:

We are 25% of the way through the year, which means we are at quarter time.

Now, if you follow football or any sport that has four quarters, you'll know that it's better to be up than to be down at quarter time.

But the game and the momentum can certainly shift over the following three quarters.

So how you're going now and how your team is going does not necessarily determine how you are going to finish the year.

So, in today's episode, I want to just quickly talk about a few different categories or cohorts of people you may have in your team.

And I want to talk to you about some things that you can do to help people who are probably doing the right thing, so you believe have the capacity to still have a great year, but it just having a little bit of trouble getting going.

So, if you've got any of those people in your team, or maybe you're one of those yourself, I think you're going to find today's episode particularly helpful.

Hello, welcome to episode 177 of Commercial Real Estate Leadership. My name is Darren Krakowiak.

And if you're a commercial real estate principal, business owner, leader, and you are interested in seeing your business grow, then you are in the right place. That's what we are here to help our listeners and clients do.

And today's episode is all about how we can help people who perhaps haven't had the best start to the year but have really great potential to still have a great year.

And before we get into talking about those people, I just do want to talk about the other cohorts of people that you may have.

The people who are already on track or way ahead of schedule, and then the people who probably aren't going to make it.

So, in terms of the people who are on track or ahead of schedule, I think it's just about giving them a bit of a rev up and reminding them of the opportunity to achieve more.

Don't let those people stay limited by the targets if you've set targets at the start of the year for them or their own expectations about what is possible.

You want to help them be motivated to do even more, to really sell the possibility and to give them the tools and the resources that they need so that they can produce more than what they expected at the start of the year.

And certainly, that the first quarter of performance shows that they can exceed if they continue with the way the year is going so far.

So that's what I'd be doing with those groups of people.

Then at the other end of the spectrum, we've got people who are just not going to make it, who aren't exhibiting the behaviors, who aren't putting in the effort and aren't performing activities, which are going to lead to them being able to post a year performance.

Well, we need to start intervening now with those people. Don't let it run and drag on until halfway through the year or three quarters of the year or even the full year before you make an assessment on how it is that they're going.

While yes, I do believe that you can still turn things around after three months, we do need to start doing things which makes it possible for us to make decisions on those people before the end of the year.

If we can see right now that they are just not going to get there, don't let it drag out.

Seen it happened many times. Though one is helped by us not having those difficult conversations, we need to be willing to have those difficult conversations as soon as it is time and appropriate to have them.

I want us to focus today though, on this middle group, which are people who we believe can get there, but just need a little bit more help.

They just need a little bit more support in order to get their year back on track and to achieve what you know they can potentially do.

And sometimes this can be as simple as just giving them a little bit of encouragement and support.

And recognizing that, you know, all of us get into funks, into slumps, into periods where we just have a bit of bad luck, right?

And some encouraging words from you if you are the leader of the business can go a long way.

A simple statement like, "I know this business is trying at times you're not alone. I've been there before. And I know that you're going to get this back on track."

And this is distinct from managing underperformance. These are the people who you can see are putting in the effort, who are doing the activities which make it likely that the results are going to come. It's just not quite happening for them at the moment.

And sometimes the thing that's missing is that mojo, that confidence.

And if you're willing to give them the support and the encouragement that perhaps they need, that is going to lift those people up.

If you're willing to let them know that you've experienced setbacks before, and that you've had doubts before, because we have all had doubts from time to time.

And we've all second guessed, if this short-term period of non-performance is going to last forever, we've got to make sure that these people don't lose the faith because you can see the potential in them.

You know that they're going to get there. You know that they're on the right track, and you do believe in them.

Well, express that. Let them know. Don't underestimate the impact of your words. You are the leader.

And even if you're not a leader, by the way.

Sometimes a little bit of encouragement from somebody else, an outside voice, somebody else just to come and interrupt that pattern of negative self-talk that might be going on in their mind, because they've had a few bad results, that can be the difference between them remaining in a slump, or getting their mojo back.

The other thing that sometimes can happen with people who you know can get there, but just aren't quite having a good run is that maybe they've lost their focus a little bit.

And this is another thing that you can do as a leader, it's help them get back on track.

Sometimes when things aren't going our way, we might get shiny object syndrome.

And this has happened to me, and I'm certainly someone who is prone to it.

And the problem with giving up on something that you've been working on and then starting to work on something else, is that you'll lose a lot of the momentum that you've built up.

And in my business last year, I went through a period of about two and a half months where we weren't bringing on any new clients.

And I kind of think about it as like a clogged drain hole.

And you know, I'm plumbing and plumbing and plumbing. And finally, of course it gets cleared, and then the leads start to come through or the better leads start to come through.

But there was this period where I was speaking to the wrong prospects, and the prospects that I was speaking to weren't converting.

And I started to really doubt what it was, that I doubt my capacity, doubt my capability.

And if it wasn't for the coach that I had, that reminded me to continue to stick to the fundamentals and to do all the things that I've been doing, because they are the right things to be done, and that is the strategy, then I can likely get distracted by, you know, starting a TikTok channel, or whatever it is that I could see other people doing in order to get results.

That would mean that I would lose all the momentum that I had based on the strategy that I had in place.

That was previously getting the results but just wasn't for a short period of time.

So if you're working with somebody who perhaps has lost their mojo and is a little bit distracted, one thing that you can do is just get them focused on the metrics, which will help them get the results that they are looking for.

Often these people are already the ones who are doing the activities that make it likely that they're going to get the results,

We just want to make sure they keep doing them, that they keep trying to unplug that hole. And then the water will start flowing and the leads and the deals will start coming again.

So, make sure they're continuing to generate leads, to call prospects, to submit proposals. Make sure that they're doing things like working the listings that they have had.

And they're canvassing for buyers and lessons, that they're looking for ways to improve and enhance their marketing techniques, as opposed to trying completely different things, which may or may not work.

Now, I know as I'm talking, it sorts of sounds like I'm saying we shouldn't try new things. I'm not saying that.

But what I'm saying is that we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater to use that expression.

As in, when things aren't going our way for a little period of time, that doesn't mean that everything that we've been doing that previously was working doesn't work anymore.

It can just be, again, to use that blocked drain analogy, that there is a blockage and we just need to pump a little bit harder in order to get things back on track.

And in a business where you're the leader, part of your role is to help people continue to stay focused, to maintain their motivation and continue to do the things that based on your experience is ultimately going to get them to where they want to go.

So, our episode today is really about helping people who are in a slump at the quarter time mark of the year to run out at the second quarter and sort of shift the momentum in the year.

One of the ways of course you're going to be doing this is through your one-on-one meetings.

If you are communicating regularly with your people, you should be able to hopefully tell them if they are a little bit off.

And again, the earlier that you can intervene, the earlier that you can help them to regain their focus and motivation and mojo, the sooner that they will be starting to produce results for the business.

So, to recap, we've got a quarter time the opportunity to check if things are on track or off track.

We've generally got three cohorts of people, the people who are on track or even ahead of target.

And we want to continue to motivate them and to give them everything they need to be able to have a stellar year.

We've got at the other end of the spectrum, people who are just not going to get there. And we need to start having those difficult conversations as soon as appropriate. So, it doesn't just continue to drag on and on.

Even though those conversations are difficult, they need to be handled. That's what is ultimately better for everyone.

And then we've got these people in the middle, who we know can get there, but they just need some help, some support for you.

And again, the point of really today's episode is don't underestimate the power of your experience and your encouragement to help these people get back on track.

That's our episode for today. Thank you so much for listening. I will speak to you soon.