Continuous Improvement

Last October, I had a chance to chat at some length with Gino Blefari, the new CEO of HSF Affiliates, LLC, when he was in town for our ribbon cuttings to launch our new Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices brand. I took the opportunity to ask Gino what had been the key to his success in growing Intero, a brand new brokerage company, from a couple of people when he founded it in 2002, to the 13^th largest independent brokerage in the USA by 2013. Pretty good track record for 11 years!

Gino’s response, with no hesitation at all, was “Training. Ongoing training opportunities at all levels coupled with solid coaching and mentoring.” Music to my ears! We talked about a number of specifics and Gino then said he felt that outside training from one of the “Big Three” real estate training companies was a an important element of an overall program.

Of course, you know what my next question was!

Again, with no hesitation, Gino recommended the Brian Buffini Peak Producers program. As you’ve seen, I then became a Buffini &  Company Certified Mentor and I’ll be facilitating our first Peak Producers Training class at our Indianapolis office starting February 17. I’ll be following up with our other offices around the state with a goal of starting Peak Producers classes in the ensuing months so all our agents will have the opportunity to benefit.

But, back to my conversation with Gino about training, coaching, and mentoring in the broader sense. One thing Gino said really stuck with me, and that was that, in our business, we have to continuously grow and adapt to changes in technology and market conditions, improving our skills as well as our habits and attitudes. Or we risk stagnation.

Then, just a few weeks ago, I read an article about some different cultural attitudes and approaches to business and life in general and came across the Japanese term “Kaizen.”No, it’s not some ancient Samurai warrior term, but actually a concept that grew out of Japan’s industrial growth spurt of the 1980’s. That was when companies like Sony and Toyota jumped ahead of most other manufacturers in both cutting edge technology and high quality. They made those strides in large measure because of Kaizen, or “Continuous Improvement.”

These manufacturers achieved continuous improvement by focusing on small steps, consistently applied. They encouraged all their tens of thousands of employees to make suggestions every time they had an idea to make their job easier, faster, more effective, or make the product or part better. During that time, employees averaged more than 60 suggestions a year, and many of them were incorporated, thus pushing their products toward the leading edge of technology and quality.

The bottom line was this: being aware of and seeking improvement, in even tiny ways, on a consistent basis, will have a huge impact on your success. Our goal with the training, coaching, and mentoring programs at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Indiana Realty is to help provide everyone with those opportunities and tools to find new and better ways to enhance each of our businesses and our lives. And, yes, your suggestions for new training and tools are always welcome!

Kaizen!

David M. Hassler

VP, Director of Business Development

The Word for the Day . . . Every Day!

Recently, I listened to one of Brian Buffini’s coaching tips on Prioritizing Your Day and I realized that that single tip, if we can all remember it, can make every one of our days far more productive, less stressful, and thus more profitable in our business and more enjoyable in our lives! Buffini’s Peak Producers Training Program focuses on building our business by focusing on referrals from our Sphere of Influence, so his suggested prioritizing starts with People. Current clients of course would come first, but if we think about who among our sphere is most important or helpful or responsive, ie, those we might consider our business advocates, and focus our time on them first, we’ll enhance our success. Of course, prioritizing this way can also help us realize on whom we should spent less time!

Buffini goes on to say that once we prioritize the people we want to focus on, we then can prioritize the actions we need to perform to optimize our ongoing service relationships with people, showing our professionalism as well as our appreciation for their business and their referrals. So, what will we do to interact with those important people when we engage with them?

Then, once we have set our priorities of people and actions, Buffini says, we can then more easily prioritize our time. And knowing the impact of proactively working with our key people, we should be more aware of the need to protect and make best use of our time.

Finally, he concludes by noting that prioritizing has two dimensions to it, that of focus and that of boundaries. Keep in mind that focus will be difficult if not impossible if we don’t set boundaries! Buffini reminds us that we should spend our time and energy on the people who deserve it, not just those who only need it! Of course, our business is serving client needs, but we’ve all had those energy sucking clients, friends, or that kindly agent down the hall who loves to chat without asking us if we have a moment, so Buffini suggests a few of the tips we’ve covered in the Playbook before: don’t answer your phone, turn off the dinger on your email device, (oh, no mine just rang!!) close your office door at least part way, and maybe offer that friend/agent a chance to chat later once you finish your tasks. All good ideas, and much easier to implement if we remember the goals of prioritizing and setting boundaries: to enhance our business, reduce stress, and enjoy life and family more and more!

Have you set your priorities for today . . . for next week . . . next year?

David M. Hassler

VP, Director of Business Development