Lynn Minnick

By Lynn Minnick

I was lucky enough to have been picked to participate in NAR’s Leadership 200 and 300 classes this week at my association.  I say lucky enough because we’re the largest association in our state and there were only 35 seats open.  Last summer I was involved in our two-day strategic planning session, which was a first for me and pretty much blew my mind.  (Rumor has it we “younger” members have an in because they’re grooming us to become the future leaders of the association!)

While the courses are definitely aimed at becoming leaders in your association, the information and experience was much more than that, as it should be if you’re going to take an entire day away from showing and listing appointments, right? The classes covered topics such as how meetings are run, Robert’s Rules, strategic and operational planning, conflict resolution, and more.

These are the messages that resounded with me:

1. Always keep your association’s strategic plan at the top of your mind in committee meetings. For those who are serving on association committees, how is what you’re doing going to advance your association’s strategic plan?  If it isn’t, it shouldn’t be on the agenda at all.  Shouldn’t we be keeping that same focus in our own personal work agendas?  Also, do we have the metrics in place to track our progress?

2. Plan more, worry less. What keeps us up at night?  What are those things that are nagging at us?  Those are the things that need to be addressed and planned for.

3. Have a succession plan. We hate to think of the worst-case scenarios, but we should plan for them.  We may have that covered on the home front, but what about in our business?  What happens if…

4. Do team building right. How well do we know the players in our deck of cards?   So many REALTORS® have “past lives” or special talents that make them great candidates for certain committees or task forces (think former IT professional for technology committee, retired building inspector for building task force).  Maybe it’s time we had a talent/special skills database to draw from.  Let’s face it, not everyone who signs up to be involved has the background needed to make things happen.  Let’s build the right team.  This message definitely applies to our own every day business.

5. Make connections. My final takeaway from the day was making better connections with other REALTORS® and leaders in my business who are outside of my immediate market area.  I know a lot of agents prefer to take all of their classes online, or mingle via social networks, but there’s no replacement for the impact that face-to-face meetings have on building our relationships and referral business.

Lynn Minnick is a REALTOR® in Connecticut known for her love of all things international, organic, travel and design. Connect with her at thegreenctrealtor.blogspot.com or @LynnMinnick.