I’ve observed a disconnect in our business recently. Like the economic debacle we are experiencing, it didn’t happen overnight. It was a long and winding road that sidetracked us – from home ownership advisors to contract writers; from proactive to passive prospectors, from excited drivers of business to expectant and sometimes even complacent riders on the bus.

This disconnect can be summed up in one word – Passion. For all the times I may have thought I was “done” with real estate, the one thing that drove me to continue my mission of helping each agent I meet maximize their potential is my passion for this business.  Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not saying we don’t have passion, I think we may have buried it when the market was good; like a dog buries a bone even when food is plentiful or like a squirrel buries acorns in fall. When times are good it’s easy to get caught up in the ABC’s of failure:

• Arrogance – It’s easy to adopt an overbearing sense of pride during good times.
• Bureaucracy – Putting administrators in charge of tasks otherwise handled by front line people can create a lack of initiative on their part; their job becomes someone else’s job.
• Complacency – Best described by definition, this “feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like” can blind us.

Imagine the squirrel or the dog falling prey to those ABC’s; not paying attention to the exact location of the buried bone or thinking it was another squirrel’s job to find the acorns come winter, or worst of all, thinking there would always be enough food at their disposal.

Dogs and squirrels instinctively bury and know when it’s time to dig up food. Maybe it’s time for us to dig up our buried passion and energize our enterprise. How, you ask? Try these ABC’s:

• Attitude – It starts with you. You’ve heard the expression “attitudes are contagious.”  Is yours worth catching?
• Basics – I know, you don’t want to hear it, but agents need knowledge of the basics of real estate before they go on to advanced business practices. Consider this from an agent who completed a recent training program:  “I really enjoyed the program …It was really a great help to me as a new agent.  The assignments given after each session challenged you to take action and because of that I have a better prospecting plan in place now.  The program will definitely let you know if you’re dedicated to doing the things necessary to become a successful agent and I needed that…”  There are basics at all levels of experience.
• Create excitement – Challenge today’s norm. Excitement is worthy even in the smallest of accomplishments – it’s all in the presentation. Find reasons to recognize people, bring the group together occasionally to celebrate successes. With more people working from home, we’ve become more “independent” than ever. Just because we’re independent contractors doesn’t mean we’re silos.

Why did you get into real estate?  What keeps you here?  As leaders, we owe passion to our agents and they owe it to their clients.  Is it time to energize your enterprise?