What is “Your” message and how is it being received?
Sep 18th
Sometimes I struggle with what would be of interest to someone other than me in our blog. Today it occurred to me that many times the message you are trying to convey isn’t the message being received by the recipient. What is your message and how is it being received is a critical question that we must continue to ask ourselves as professionals.
My wife has a favorite saying that she shared with me some twenty years ago and I’m not sure I fully understood it until recently. She said “Every situation is like a tennis match; how you serve the ball may not have the same effect as the person on the other side of the net. And the return may not be what you were expecting either. “A very smart person.
As business professionals are we trying to build a relationship first or do our actions lean toward getting to the finish line no matter the cost? What is your message and how is it being received? Too many times we do not stop and consider the demands being put on the time of our customers and clients. What we may being trying to accomplish with them may only be a small part of their overall responsibility. What are the demands on their time away from their profession? How many times do we take this into consideration? Too many times it’s about our needs and what we have to have happen and not what is best for the others involved.
We need to teach ourselves to number our days in order gain wisdom. Do you evaluate the outcomes of your relationships whether they are good or bad? My maternal grandmother would always say “there’s good and bad in all” when I was young. Like my wife’s advice I didn’t realized the value the first time I heard her say that. Often times it’s beneficial to look within yourself in order to improve and continuously improve the process you are offering to others.
What is “Your” message and how is it being received? What side of the net are you on?
Ego vs. Let Go
Jul 9th
Recently I’ve experienced different commercial real estate practitioners around the world pounding their chests through various media vehicles when they achieve a successful conclusion to a transaction. This is certainly an accomplishment in today’s economic climate. However, I never see it explained how they actually helped their customer or client and more specifically what professional services were necessary to complete the deal.
Years ago a professional commercial real estate provider was applauded for the amount of ego he or she possessed and portrayed in their business practice. Caliper used to test for the level of ego an individual may have and what that meant to their development and success as a commercial real estate sales person. Today I’m not so sure that this is still an admired attribute. Now don’t get me wrong we all need some sense of ego but what about the “let go”. What about providing real honest to goodness service without concern for monetary rewards?
One of my mentors whom I’ve admired for almost 25 years, NAI Global’s David Blanchard, made it a point long ago to teach me that “compensation is the natural by-product of a service well rendered”. Of course when I was new to the business, I kind of looked at that statement with some reservations. In today’s economy, today’s business climate, today’s competition; based on my experience working with corporations and practitioners around the world, I look at it quite differently.
Ego is in conflict more times than not with “let go”, but isn’t letting go that service well rendered mentioned above? I’d like to think that it is. My compensation in whatever currency is a natural by-product of whatever service I might render and to what level of satisfaction that service is received. Many experts, certainly more educated than me, have analyzed the effect of EGO but in the 21st Century. I would challenge you to find too many of those same experts encouraging an overzealous ego today, but rather applauding the individual that knows the difference and the value of letting go and realizing the wondrous abundance that comes to them in the form of reward, repeat business, strengthened relationships and sense of satisfaction.
Remember if you let your ego overtake your let go, what you are left with may not be your ultimate definition of success.
Giving Helps you “Get It”
Jun 11th
As the commercial real estate market has ebbed and flowed over the last 25 years I have been blessed on more than one occasion to personally meet with or be introduced to the teachings of people who “get it”. To “get it” as I’ve defined it is that they practice what they preach. Two individuals stand out and both came into my life because I was receptive and open to the way they conducted themselves and their business.
The first is a gentleman from California that when I heard him speak at a convention in 1998 a light bulb went on and I immediately thought I must hear more. That’s my friend Vance Caesar or the Vance Caesar Group, a premiere leadership coaching organization. He was kind enough to take some time to visit with me. It was evident that his many accomplishments like mountain climbing and being the editor of a major metropolitan newspaper chain, taught him well that it was better to give than to receive and that by sharing his time with someone like me made us both a little richer for having the experience. He taught me about balance in life and that we must maintain more “get to’s” than “got to’s”. Vance came into my life when, let’s just say, I needed him to as my priorities were askew. I could never repay him for what he gave me, but it has taught me to give before I get and to bring value to others where ever I can realizing that I come into every situation as a servant.
The other influential person came to me by way of a book that was recommended I read called “The Go-Giver” by Bob Burg and John David Mann. I read the book and couldn’t put it down. It was all about how I’ve tried to live my life since meeting Vance Caesar. It’s a story of an ambitious young salesman who yearns for success. He is desperate to make a sale at the end of a particularly bad quarter. He seeks advice from someone whom he respects and is taken on a week long journey to find what he is made of and in the end, he “gets it”, just like I did after so many conversations with Vance Caesar.
Well I was so moved by this little book that I was going to write to the authors to tell them my story but realized it’s not about me but rather what I was going to do with what they had taught me. As luck would have it, through an unexpected connection (a friend of mine happens to also be a friend of his!), John David Mann and I recently had a telephone conversation about what he had taught me through his writings. It is my hope that you strive to bring value before reward and to understand that in life as in business it is always better to give than to receive.
Who Needs a Corporate Services Group?
May 11th
Experience has shown over the years that commercial real estate around the world is cyclical. Corporations become aware of overhead and are forced to reorganize the way they do business and typically the first department to be disbanded is the corporate real estate division. Goals and objectives remain aggressive around the country or even around the world but how can they now be achieved without the people. This is the time to lean on a professional corporate services group that will become the extension of the executives’ staff and literally becomes the corporations real estate department. It is the job of the corporate services executive (CSE) to build a value added team to enhance the job performance of the executive of the corporation.
