The culture of a real estate company has a direct correlation with its success. But for your business to survive long-term, the culture needs to change with the times, which isn’t always easy. Old habits can be hard to break.
“The challenge is that most people live every day without much thought to the patterns and habits that are guiding their daily business life, or even their general life,” says Andi Simon, a corporate anthropologist and author of On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights. “In a corporate setting, leaders espouse values, beliefs, and expectations so people know what to do and how to get it done. Everything is fine until something begins to change, and that culture must change, too.”
If your brokerage is in need of a cultural change, Simon suggests these six steps.
1. Examine your culture today. Simon suggests outlining what your company currently values in terms of six key areas:
- dominant characteristics
- organizational leadership
- management of agents and employees
- “the glue” that holds the organization together
- strategic emphases
- criteria of success