Brand culture in turbulent times #MBAre
Is your business sailing along smoothly? Free from competition or challenges? If you’re in real estate (and truthfully – any business) then the answer is likely no. Not only no, but not anymore and probably not ever again. The real estate landscape has changed, and the only constant now – is change; more change, bigger change, and faster change. Real estate is a highly competitive industry which has turned upside down several times in the last few years. Our new reality is that – anything is possible.
What will it take for consumers to love you, advocate for you, refer you, and engage with you? It won’t take vanity, a sense of entitlement, or a know-it-all attitude. Tom Ferry says it takes; trustworthy brand, a hyper-local presence, online savviness, and a demonstrated ability to negotiate (a future topic in the #MBAre series).
What I present you with is an intangible, yet incredibly powerful concept to explore in addition to the items mentioned previously. It won’t hurt and it won’t cost you a dime.
Make People Matter. A professor of mine says “People volunteer their best thinking, their hearts, commitment, willingness to adapt…or not“.
Paul Spiegalman totally transformed the way I thought about company culture in a talk he gave last fall. Tom is the CEO and founder of The Beryl Companies which operates a call center for the hospital industry. It’s consistently ranked a “best places to work” has enjoyed a 95% client retention rate and a 400% lower employee turnover rate than competitors (leaving them in the dust). People love working for Beryl. They’re doing incredible things to encourage employee engagement. We’ll explore some of the ways they’re doing this, but I know that Paul will simply tell you: they put their people first.
Technology changes, vendors go out of business, marketing mediums shift, and budgets grow or shrink. But people remain constant. A positive culture attracts positive people who are willing to tackle the challenges of today and solve the problems of tomorrow. Culture also attracts customers. Are your people excited about what they are doing? Are you excited? This is the foundation of any great business. Think more like Google and Zappos and less like American Airlines (nice article here by Paul).
Empower your people (and yourself) to be their best and they will surprise you. They will surprise themselves too. Stay ordinary – and your results will be ordinary (or worse).
Forget for a moment about Zillow, about blogging, about your website, about social media.
Lead your business like the future depends on it. Because it does.
Note from author: This is part 1 of a series of posts related to my experience in the MBA program at TCU in Fort Worth. Learn more here. Topic 1: Managing People
Kirk Eisele
Posted at 18:23h, 25 MaySometimes it is hard to know how to translate large corporate culture concepts to a real estate reality where typically you have small teams and individuals. The power of getting it right can’t be denied though. Look what Zappos did just buy slinging shoes online…
Greg Fischer
Posted at 20:34h, 25 MayThanks for reading Kirk. These concepts exist more often in smaller and more entrepreneurial ventures (like real estate teams) by nature. Funny enough the concepts have to be “taught” to large corporations. Arguably, I’d say you can’t really teach it as much as you can awaken it. Authenticity must start at the top, whether the top is a CEO, broker, team leader, or individual agent.
Your comment “the power of getting it right can’t be denied” is spot on. Infectious cultures win hearts and minds.
J.J. Stakem
Posted at 08:11h, 26 MayGreg, I tend to disagree that change needs to come from or even be supported by the top. That would be ideal, but I think that rationale is often times dis-empowering to individuals who are trying to affect change in their organization. Individuals can get lulled into the idea that until the top changes their input or actions don’t matter. It is important for individuals to realize that they can make a difference, even if the top does not change first. By modeling behavior individuals who don’t have formal power within an organization can make significant changes.
Here is a link to a blog a read a couple of months ago that describes Viral Business Transformation. There is a video at the bottom which shows what appears to be a crazy person dancing at a concern, and the subsequent change is a metaphor for what an individual can do within a organization.
http://www.gluu.dk/2011/viral-business-transformation/
Greg Fischer
Posted at 10:53h, 26 MayThanks for reading J.J. Great video link too. I agree with your comments to an extent. Individuals can absolutely champion change, you are right. When these people (like the dancer) exist in cultures like Google or Zappos though – then I’d say their impact is limitless. Read Paul’s open letter to the American Airlines CEO if you haven’t already. Put the “dancer” from the video in Zappos and then put the “dancer” in American Airlines. Which place better allows him to be the best version of himself?
People happily bring their best stuff every single day to places with poor culture, I’m not saying that one must exist within one of these (Google/Zappos) spaces to make an impact either. And really I guess what I’m really saying is that one should make an effort to affect “culture” whenever they have an opportunity to do so. It’s that important.
It’s the major difference between Southwest Airlines (39 straight profitable years) and American Airlines (in bankruptcy).
AllThingsPondered
Posted at 05:16h, 27 MayI agree that making your employees feel that they matter AND that they are part of what is going on is a great step to getting far more production out of them than raises or ‘bribes’ ever will. People want to be a part of what they are doing and they want to be respected. If you want good employees to leave – just marginalize them.
Sometimes, when a good company goes south, you can trace it back to having an exodus of good people which can occur when the company stops providing the great environment that they once did.
Everything comes from people. The relationship of your company to your employees is just as important as any of your personal relationships are. It is surprising that so many companies don’t bother to consider this in their strategies.