 Paula J. Miller, ABR® , CRS Coldwell Banker Premier Homes Shepherdstown, W.Va.
Wow! I’ve been attending NAR conferences continually since 2001, but I can’t remember a time that I felt more connected to the industry and the economic conditions that we are all working through than I did this year in Orlando.
RPAC and the housing stimulus program were front and center throughout the week of the Conference. At the “59 ½ Minutes” session, NAR CEO Dale Stinton explained the 4-Point Housing Stimulus Package NAR has drafted. NAR is working constantly and behind the scenes to get this program implemented through Congress.
As Dale so eloquently put it: “It has become a duty for our organization and others to get together and help end this downward spiral. If we don’t get our voice out there now, we apparently don’t care.” So let your voice be heard on this important issue.
Okay, so I harped on that issue long enough. Let me just give you a quick overview of some of the fun you missed. Lionel Richie performed in concert. I had front row seats thanks to my colleague and classmate in the NAR Leadership Academy, who invited me to be his guest at the International Consortium of Real Estate Associations dinner—which included VIP seating for the concert. I learned so much from the ICREA experience. Did you know that NAR is one of the nine founding countries of what is now a 30-country strong organization? REALTORS® from all over the world come to our annual conference to network with us and help us grow globally.
Charles McMillan, from the great State of Texas, was installed as the 101st NAR President, and I attended his inauguration. (First class!) Lee Woodruff inspired us all at the annual Inspirational Service breakfast with stories about the remarkable recovery of husband, Bob Woodruff, who suffered brain injuries from a roadside bomb, while reporting for ABC News in Iraq.
Wherever we went in Orlando, inspiration, outreach, and networking were common thread binding us all together. And I remarked more than once how the National Association of REALTORS® may have over 1 million members, but it still feels like an intimate family gathering when we are together.
 By Bob de Camara, CRS, GRI, broker/owner of Prudential Mountain Properties, Boone, N. C.
Our second session of the 2nd NAR Leadership Academy met in Orlando this Wednesday, Nov 5th. We have been Facebooking each other since our first meeting in August and were eager to see meet again. We are already fast friends. The connection is deep, genuine, and mutually supportive. This passionate connection, this formal establishment of a network of friends within the NAR family is in itself one of the greatest and most important aspects of the Academy experience. It is difficult to overestimate the personal magnetism of the people you will meet here--classmates, staff, and current NAR Leadership.
It would be difficult to describe what we did in an entire day, but I'll try to convey the flavor of our second session. Our full-day program began with a review of the book, "Lincoln on Leadership". The dialogue was stimulating among classmates many of whom are already leading at the state and national levels. I won't regale you with the entire day's activities, but one of the highlights was a visit by three NAR Past Presidents, Sharon Millett (1999), Richard Mendenhall (2001), and Cathy Whatley (2003). Speaking amongst ourselves later we agreed we could have listened to them for hours! Here are some tidbits we learned. "Leadership is never about one person; it's the team." "Find your passion within the organization and follow it." "Never underestimate the importance of thorough preparation." Merely conveying these words of wisdom imparted by our NAR leaders fails to capture the heart of the Academy experience. There is simply an indescribable grandeur in this wonderful association. One see in its dedicated staff and passionate leaders who can only be experienced in person.
If you're passionate about serving NAR and are committed to personal and professional growth, apply now Realtor.org/LeadershipAcademy or if you have questions email Bobbie Albrecht to begin your NAR Leadership journey today!
Continue reading "A Day in the Leadership Academy" »
Hear Daniel Pink and a host of other exciting speakers at the Entrepreneurial Excellence Series during the 2008 REALTORS® Conference & Expo, Nov 7-10 in Orlando.
For decades, the most valued members of society seemed to be logical, linear thinkers, those more comfortable with crunching numbers than exploring creativity. But Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, contends that going forward the contributions of “right-brain” types are becoming increasingly influential and indispensable
Q.: Are most real estate practitioners right or left- brained thinkers?
Pink: I think that most are a combo, just as most human beings are. I think that with some changes in the broader economy, and in the real estate industry in particular, the key differentiator [in achieving success] is going to be the right- brain kind of abilities whether it comes down to empathy, symphonic thinking, or design. A lot of the purely transactional, purely informational abilities aren’t that valuable on their own.
Q: So if your strengths lean toward the transactional, can you learn to be more creative?
Pink: Everyone has both sets of abilities in some measure. But what’s happened is that these right-brain abilities haven’t been prized, particularly in business. And as a result, for many people, they are like muscles that they haven’t used, so people have to work them back into shape. I think for real estate professionals, especially in difficult markets, these sorts of empathic abilities become the differentiator. If you purely take orders and do transactions, you’re accessing information that’s readily available, so why would any home buyer or seller pay that commission? You have to figure out what value you are adding.
Q: You recently bought a house. What did your agent bring to the experience?
Pink: The daughter of the owner was, maybe, in her mid-40s or early 50s, and our agent ended up talking to her and getting the back story of this house and the family. It turned out that they had lived in this house since the 1950s and raised five kids there. The mother had died early and the father had somewhat grudgingly moved out. This was a significant emotional moment for the family. They were not going to be moved by $10,000 more dollars from the sale. What really mattered was the commonalities between our family and theirs. For instance, my wife and I met in law school and this husband and wife had also had met in law school. We have three kids, and they had more kids. So the idea here was a similarly situated family. These commonalities were actually attractive to them in a way that $10,000 more might not have been. There’s no way a computer program would’ve figured that out.
Q: So exchanging stories between buyer and seller helped to move the transaction along?
Pink: What it ended up doing is uncovering information that affected how the negotiation unfolded. The agent did a brilliant job, and made this a smooth and pleasant transaction.
Our agent never worked with the seller’s agent before, but immediately intuited the other agent’s style and how you present an offer to that person. These kinds of subtleties in understanding what makes people tick are an important element in the transaction, more than simply the dollars and cents. We ended up getting a great house at a very fair price. It’s hard for me to imagine reducing that transaction to an algorithm.
Q: How do you lead right brain people?
Pink: Instead of leading them,” I think you’re better off putting them in a context where they can do their best work. Now often that requires giving those folks a fair amount of autonomy to work where they want and how they want. Right-brain people often have this kind of craftsman approach to things. They want to achieve mastery of things. You often see this with real estate salespeople who you talk to. They like to tell stories about various transactions and what they did and what they learned very much like an athlete would. And they want to hitch their achievement to a larger purpose. They help navigate people through the largest financial transaction of their lives.
Q: How does being able to craft a story get others to see and buy into a goal?
Pink: You have to tell authentic stories, truthful stories. I think stories sometimes get a bad rap as something artificial when in fact the stories that are really powerful are the ones that are just purely truthful and straight-forward. There are all kinds of things people can do to get better at telling stories. First of all, be aware of how much of our personal and professional lives we spend narrating and that we see life as a series of episodes. Good salespeople understand the power of not only telling stories but listening to others. The ones who are relying more on these algorithmic transactional abilities are the ones that are right now in a world of hurt.
Q: What can a left-brained leader do to expand his or her right-brain abilities?
Pink: You can get better. I have my own set of six abilities that I think are most important, and most people are probably pretty good at one or two of them. I think for REALTORS that certainly empathy would be hugely important in any kind of sale or transaction. For some people, no matter what kind of interventions we put forward, they’re not going to become Mother Teresa. But there are ranges of empathy and you can move people to higher ends of their range. People can get better at reading facial expressions, or by simply stopping what they’re doing and being more aware of others, and by various kinds of listening exercises. These are not expensive interventions, just fairly low key things that people can do to push themselves to the higher end of the empathy range.
Q: What are other important right-brain abilities?
Pink: Visual and design acuity. To improve in this area, I tell people to keep a design notebook where each day for a week you write one instance of good design and another instance of bad design you see in your midst. One of the things that you begin to realize immediately is that everything in our midst is a product of a design decision. I mean, the phone the crappy phone that I’m holding right now is a design decision. The computer I’m working on is a design decision. Certainly, when you think about homes, there are a huge number of decisions. For example, it’s not only what color to paint, but what it feels like to walk up the steps. There are some very inspiring decisions and there are some crappy design decisions and knowing the difference is really important
Q: What can people do programmatically to increase personal and professional satisfaction?
Pink: One of the key determinants that comes out of a lot of the research on subjective well-being and on satisfaction is simple to articulate, but difficult to enact, namely, using your strengths and doing things that you’re reasonably good at that give you strength. So if you don’t like being around people or doing deals or getting phone calls on your mobile phone all of the time, you probably shouldn’t be in real estate sales. But if it juices you to hear that there’s a new crisis to handle on the phone, or wow, ‘I get to deal with these new people every day.’ If that’s what gives you strength, then you’re going to be good at it. People who have the greatest enduring satisfaction are people who use their strength and then hitch it to something bigger than themselves.
Tom Jones has been a real estate practitioner for only three years, yet he’s already been honored by the Rogers Board of REALTORS® as its 2008 REALTOR® of the Year.
One of my mentors Mike Henry recently said to me: “Leaders are like the cream because they always rise to the top if the process works as it should.” After some discussion, we came to the conclusion that while leaders will often reach the top on their own, they’ll be more effective if they get some training along the way. That is why it’s so important for an organization to identify, select, and develop its future leaders. It can be devastating to an organization if the leadership is poor. A good leader, on the other hand, is a positive influence on all members of a team or an organization, giving them the tools and the inspiration to build on their individual talents.
Leadership is teamwork. Before I started in real estate, the best and most successful jobs I ever had were the ones where my team worked together and had a common goal. It’s actually easier to be a leader under those conditions.
Continue reading "No One Leads Alone" »
Cynthia Shelton, CCIM, CRE, is director of investment sales at Colliers Arnold in Orlando and 2009 president-elect of Florida Association of REALTORS®
Favorite leadership quote: “Sir Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants.”
Q. What's the most important thing you need to know or realize as a leader?
Shelton: To multitask and be organized. As a leader, you get a lot of things thrown at you so you need to be able to identify priorities and know what to let go of or assign to others. You can’t know or do everything, so it is important to be able to identify the best and most qualified people and then get out of their way.
It’s also important to freely acknowledge those who contribute when things work out and take the heat when things do not. A leader should take full responsibility and get everyone back on track without placing the blame on anyone else.
Q. Looking back, how would you say your leadership style has changed or evolved?
Shelton: I’ve become more much more comfortable with conflict and learned to recognize that it can be a source of new ideas. When I first became National CCIM President, I had the responsibility to appoint all committee members and their leadership. I sat down with a long time mentor to discuss some of my choices; many were people who had been friends of mine and my mentor. My mentor asked me to look at what would really move the organization to another level and not maintain the status quo. To look for people who would mix it up and not necessarily agree with the way I thought, who would bring a different perspective. In the end I appointed individuals who brought new ideas to the table, yes we had some disagreements, but we came up with a new approach rather than taking the same route down the path of the way it was.
I’ve also come to realize that creating lasting accomplishments doesn’t always come quickly. You need to develop relationships with others who will work together to carry your mission forward. At the Florida Association, we’re now able to look at a 3 year plan, utilizing the executive vice president, president, president-elect and a vice president, where we will talk about what people we need and what programs, products, and services we want to create, cut or change. We lay the groundwork and determine what we can change and how we can begin to make the changes. It’s not about me or any one person as president. It’s the long-term vision that matters.
Q. What do you see as the most important leadership challenges facing businesses in real estate?
Shelton: Well, right now it’s difficult to see outside of the mire of current reality, but there was a time when we were flooded with new agents and many had little training. I think now we’re going to see that the agents who have the skills and professionalism will be able to ride out the downturn. I think we need to get back to basics, be persistent, educate ourselves, and understand the market. Five years from now, we’ll have higher quality REALTORS®, sort of a survival of the fittest.
Continue reading "Leading with the Giants" »
By Darrin Friedman, branch vice president of Coldwell Residential Brokerage, Chevy Chase, Md.,
Friedman is a regular blogger for the Young Professionals Network YPN Lounge blog. Read his and other YPN posts there. 
"But you're so YOUNG!"
"I have shoes older than you."
These are actual quotes I‘ve heard during almost two years as the
leader of a real estate office in Washington, DC. So, when I was asked by
REALTOR® magazine to begin a conversationwith some leaders
who represent a different generation than mine, I jumped at the chance.
I am a 34-year-old Generation X managing associate broker in a major
metropolitan area. I lead an office of more than 50 agents who range in
age from 24 to 92 (that’s right, 92). Although I manage several agents
who are younger than I am, I manage even more who are beyond the
traditional retirement age. Every day I can see firsthand how differently
my generation operates from each of my predecessors.
Like most younger agents and leaders, I tend to be more aggressive in
my manner and more eager to go against previous ways of doing things.
For this reason, I have been accused of “not playing well in the
sandbox.”
The viewpoint of many of my generation is that real estate is no longer
a cottage industry. We see it as a fast-paced, cutting-edge,
multibillion dollar industry, and we are determined to run our
businesses in a way that maximizes the benefits of modern technology and
electronic information-sharing. In our drive to be innovative, many of us
attempt to break the mold of our predecessors entirely--not because the
previous ways didn’t work but because the ways we are accustomed
to communicating are so drastically different than those of Boomers.
We’ve embraced the social networking paradigm. That means, that to us,
sending out handwriting letters to your sphere of influence is dead, and
snail mailing “Just Listed” and “Just Sold” cards is a waste of effort, time, and resources.
Instead, we ask ourselves, “How many friends do I have on Facebook.com?" "Am I making
and growing contacts on LinkedIN.com?” That’s how we gauge our circle of influence.
To younger real estate professionals, these virtual connections represent
the relationships with the people who are most likely to refer clients
and other agents to us.
From firsthand experience, I know that Gen Xers and Millenials sometimes
feel dismissed and misunderstood in this industry. Those in other age
groups may see our desire to be innovative as brash and disrespectful of
the lessons learned from the past. Some believe that the importance we
place on speed and instantaneous communication implies nothing more than
impatience, or an unwillingness to spend time on the things that matter.
That is why I hope this blog can shed a little light on the way my mind works,
to help you understand my generation's perspective a bit better. Perhaps then
Gen Xs and Boomers can to start to talk with each other instead of at each other
and start building a more multigenerational real estate industry better prepared
to serve multiple generations of home owners.
Jim Hirshfield, author of Fortune & Freedom: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Success and the now-retired founder of cable company Summit Communications, shares his ideas on how to become a better leader.
Q. What makes a good leader?
Hirshfield: I define leadership as the ability to accomplish things through others. Those others can be employees, or they can also be peers or vendors. Getting vendors to cooperate is a better indicator of leadership than getting employees to do so. If people work for you, they’re supposed to do what you say, but getting vendors to go out of their way to help you, I think that demonstrates leadership.
Q. Can you learn to be a leader?
Hirshfield: I believe leadership is a skill you develop. And you should start at an early age. You don’t want to start to open a business when you’re 45 years old and have never worked on your leadership skills.
Q. How can you practice your skills?
Hirschfield: If you want to hone your leadership skills, my advice is work on getting a group of people who aren’t always that motivated to get a job done. You might want to managing a shift at a fast food restaurant or volunteer to lead a committee at a charity or an association. These positions give you a chance to try out and improve your leadership abilities.
Q. What does it take to lead others in a volunteer situation?
Hirshfield: To lead and motivate volunteers, you have to give them a well-defined task and set a time limit on both the number of hours of work you expect and when that work has to be completed. People want control of their lives, but they’ll give you a little piece of those lives if you define specifically what’s expected. What doesn’t work is just calling a meeting and then asking for ideas and input. Volunteers know then that they are going to be sucked in. You have to give them a specific timetable.
By Bob de Camara, CRS, GRI,
broker/owner of Prudential Mountain Properties, Boone, N. C.
I believe that part of being a leader is not only holding strong values but know when and how to aggressively pursue those values in the face of opposition.
Abraham Lincoln was determined to “protect that form of government whose aim was to elevate the condition of people.” People intrinsically trusted him for his individual character as well, and his fundamental allegiance to the dignity of every individual resonated throughout the North. Because of the specificity of his values, he engendered some resistance from moderates and border states. So he modulated his advocacy of abolition until timing and events strengthened his position.
I find that this strategy relates to our state association in North Carolina. We encountered significant resistance and pushback from a segment of members to our state dues increase, which was implemented to replenish the issues mobilization fund depleted in fighting a transfer tax initiative. Some members accused our state association of being unethical and dishonest. The allegations were numerous, if not well-founded: violations of campaign laws, possible illegality in use of members’ dues for political purposes, using scare tactics (possibility of a services tax) to support advocacy, extorting dues from members using MLS privileges as clout, interfering improperly in community government to name a few.
What is interesting to me is the perspective of our members in such situations as it relates to leadership. It raises questions of how far and aggressively an association’s leadership can go before it begins to lose the cohesion of its members. We have many members who favor a community-based agenda more than the REALTOR® agenda. How do we balance theses opposing values within our membership as we chart our path into the future as an association? Hope you’ll weigh in and share your thoughts.
Bob de Camara, CRS, GRI is broker/owner of Prudential Mountain Properties in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Boone, N. C. Visit his Web site at www.prumountainproperties.com.
We are pleased to welcome the Leadership Academy class of 2009. The group met for the first time during the Leadership Summit last week (8/21-22) in Chicago. The group is very enthusiastic and anxious to learn more about potential leadership roles at the national level.
The Leadership Academy will aid in identifying potential leaders from within the vast membership who will lead the association into the future with the tools they need today.
The 2009 class is; Francisco Angulo Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Ennis Antoine from Powder Springs Georgia
Mary Ann Bush from Battle Creek, Michigan
Otto Catrina from Castro Valley California
Lisa Conner from Anchorage, Alaska
Robert de Camara from Boone, North Carolina
Dee Denton from Madison, Mississippi
Jan Ellingson from Burlington, Washington
Christine Hansen from Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Craig Hawker from Sandy, Utah
Carey Jensen from Council Bluffs Iowa
Tom Jones from Rogers, Arkansas
David Kent Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina
LuAnn Kidd from Flemington, New Jersey
Michael Labout from Colorado Springs, Colorado
Lynn Leegard from Blaine, Minnesota
Susanna Madden from Tampa, Florida
Glenn Moore from Cordova, Tennessee
V.Faye Nelson from Kennewick, Washington
Lee McClelland from Overland Park, Kansas
Rob Mehta from Minneapolis, Minnesota
Paula Miller from Shepherdstown, West Virginia
Jenny Olivo from Manati, Puerto Rico
Kenny Parcell from Spanish Fork, Utah
Victor Raymos from Albuquerque, New Mexico
Daniel Sullivan from Chelmsford, Massachusetts
Suzanne Yost from Silicon Valley, California
Welcome!
By Donna Harnett, CRS, GRI, ePro®
Coldwell Banker/Ward & Misenheimer, Durham, N.C.
 Congratulations to all of you chosen for this year’s Leadership Academy. As a member of the Class of 2008, I wanted to share a few things I learned from my year that you may find helpful this year.
• Try to arrive at your destination early in the day even if it is not required. Washington and Chicago are notorious for weather-related problems late in the day. You could miss out because of travel delays.
• Try to have lunch or drinks with other early arrivers.
Continue reading "Tips for the New Academy Class" »
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