Real Estate Team 2.0: A team of rainmakers with one coach

For the team I'm building, I'd like to move away from the Rainmaker model and propose that every team member is a Rainmaker and the leader is the Coach. I worked as a broker in a Rainmaker model designed on Craig Proctor's system and I had  lot of problems with it. Any team member with an ounce of healthy ego will eventually rebel against the Rainmaker set-up.

I want a team of stars and I want everyone promoted. If I am the leader it will be in the capacity of coach and inspirational guide. This will be a true team effort, not 6 people building up one person. When it rains it will be the result of the team working together in unison to make it happen. Will some outperform others? Inevitably, but not so on a constant basis. I envision everyone having their days and their runs, but it's not about who wins on the team, it's about the team winning. Will there be conflict if one continues to outshine the others? Yes, unless the one is rewarded for producing more.

Before I get into who decides who gets rewarded for superior performance, I want to continue the building process and all along make the connections that define the team. It will take an uncommon understanding for team members to gell and understand the team concept at the deep level necessary for it to work. But I will eventually show why the rewards will be sufficient to gain this deep level understanding and accept what others may see as "unfair".

Mental models will need to be challenged. The more ingrained the mental model the more difficult it is to uproot its causes and clearly see a new way of thinking. In real estate we expect those who produce to be rewarded for their effort, and many agents begin to see themselves as the sole causes of success. This is not always the case -- I've seen arrogant agents take their magic show to another company and flop. So the system one works in has SOMETHING to do with the success. This is not to deny that some people could sell real estate at any company -- they are naturals and they can make things happen. These are rare exceptions so we want use them as models -- this is has been a problem with many real estate agents, trying to be like the mega-agent they saw at the last conference.

There's a more realistic way for MOST agents to succeed and it has to do with systems, discipline, knowledge, technology, online participation and, in our case, teamwork.

Co-ordinated effort using the various strengths of team members will produce more powerful results than most individual efforts. I believe this because I have experienced it. My older brother used to score 40 points a game in basketball, but his team lost more games than they won. Most of the times that they lost the other team didn't have anyone as good as my brother, but their teamwork was superior to my brother's team and they won.

I've witnessed it in sports and I've witnessed it in business -- a superior CEO of company X with a poor management team  is no match for company C with a management team that has developed good rapport, good systems and working relationships.

Real estate companies have been held back by the star system where a few stars create most of the business. A business should work as a business competing against other businesses in a co-ordinated team effort. Real estate agents aren't taught to be team players. The star system is good for the stars, but it's not the best way to run a business. I truly believe a fully functioning team of six can outperform a company with 50 agents and 4 or 5 stars. A team of 6 stars can dominate the market if you judge by net profit. This I believe. In the long run, the star would be better off on a team -- both financially, professionally and personally. Having to deal with broken brokers in a broken system is rewarding only in a financial sense, although, like I said, I think a star on a team would make even more.

The rewards of being part of something different with vision and purpose are far greater than making more money. The efficiency, improved productivity and sense of camaraderie of the team effort will be sufficiently rewarding for any player.