Over the
last two years, I have met hundreds of letting agents, mostly business owners,
be they independent letting agents or franchised letting agents ... and there
is something I have noticed about 70% to 80% of them ... their attempt at
running the perfect lettings agency.
When I say “perfect letting agency” to these agents,
reaching the peak of perfection is the decisive and pinnacle of accomplishment to them being a letting agent. Such letting
agents incessantly strive to be perfect at whatever they do. Sometimes, they
will frequently fail at this goal, which fuels their aspiration to be ‘even
more perfect’ next time.
But striving
for perfect must be a good thing? Even if we don’t get perfect, most of the
time?
Because by
aiming for the best and being perfect, even if we don’t reach perfect, we may
still end up being in an awesomely good place .... one or two steps down from greatness…and that has to be a good thing,
right?
Errr, no.
Those sorts
of thoughts sound good, no they sound great, but this is the real world and
instead of trying to be perfect .... what you should be doing is finding
balance between getting the job
done and getting the job done perfectly.
Before I
tell you why I think this is the case, there are certain advantages to being a
perfectionist.
If you aim
to be perfect, which, of course, you never will be, it does mean that you are always
attempting to improve on what you are doing. Those thoughts and actions of
trying to be perfect allow for the opportunity for you to come up with quite extraordinary
improvements in your life and work .... as you move toward the heavenly mindset
you hanker after .. and as you get
better, you should eventually become a specialist and authority in your field
of letting agency nirvana .
Letting
Agents who overachieve (and whom are perfectionists) tend to persistently and
repeatedly chase higher standards .. again not a bad thing. The world around us
values perfectionism. While few agents manage to achieve this state, many
people (even those naturally, unremittingly disorganised) have high beliefs in
the positivity of perfectionism.
Why perfection is a good thing
So why be
perfect? ... because nobody wants to be
mediocre ... but here is a thought. The antonym (ie the opposite word) of mediocre is excellence ... and excellence does
not require perfection.
There are huge
benefits for letting agents that seek excellence, yet stop short of requiring irrationally
perfect results. There are many ways to build a culture of
excellence other than an expectation that every letting neg, letting
valuer, property manager, accompanied viewer needs to deliver immaculate or unblemished
results on a hour by hour, day by day, week by week basis.
In the real
world, in life in general, being perfect is an impossible target.
1.
Being
perfect screws with your head .... and
health
Why saddle
yourself with the mental burden of trying to be something you will hardly every
be .. 100% perfect 100% of the time? It
will drag you down mentally and eventually physically .... which will likely to
be harmful to the success of your letting agency.
Perfectionists
often set unfeasibly high standards for themselves. So when they are
successful, they feel more could have been done or achieved.
2.
Being
perfect is screwing your staff’s heads up
But here is
the another problem of trying to be perfect ... you expect your colleagues to
be perfect, and this creates an enormous sense of pressure.
3.
Perfectionists
make rubbish bosses
We have all
had managers who do not recognise successes as often as picking out errors or
mistakes (and often tiny ones at that). Those sorts of actions can very easily
create a negative culture in your agency, and is the quickest way to lose
talented staff to the competition.
4.
Perfectionists
are Control freaks
Perfectionists are
often control freaks, protecting
themselves against their own inner vulnerabilities in the belief that if they
are not in total control. Such persons manipulate and pressurise others to
change so as to avoid having to change themselves, and use power over others to
escape an inner meaninglessness.
Why are you an
letting/estate agent?
Ok, let us remind ourselves why we are in business, why you
opened your lettings (estate) agency .. I bet it is one or all of these ..
1. You
are your own boss
2. Earn
more money
3. Thought
you could do a better job than your old boss
4. You
do what you are interested in
5. Better
life for you and the family (more money, holidays, nice cars, nice houses etc)
I am sure when you decided to start your own lettings
agency, and you were talking to your better half, asking them to trust you,
when you were about to hand your notice in at your decently paid old employer,
use all the rainy day money and remortgage the house up to the hilt ... I bet
you didn’t use phrases like,
I
want us to put everything on the line because when I start this lettings
agency, I will know every box ticked on WinMan or Jupix (or whatever property
management software you use) will be ticked 100% perfectly.
I
need you to go back to work, and we will have no family holidays for three
years, the kids will have got without riding lessons and we need to borrow
£50,000 from the mother in law, all because, when I set up this agency, I will
personally check every line of every letter that goes out, every Tenancy
Agreement, Mid term Inspection and not come home until 9.30pm every night.
No, I didn’t
think you had those conversations.. did you?
I can see
why you want to be perfect .... like I said, you want to do a good job, you don’t
want to be seen as mediocre. Many people believe the opposite of perfect is
cheap and yes, there is always a balancing act between being perfect and being
cheap. However, somewhere in the middle lies the combination found by many of
the world's most successful business leaders occupy.
Remember, excellence does not require perfection.
Ok, let me ask you a question ... its Friday
morning. Let us say you have an
important assignment that needs to be completed by Friday 4pm to ensure your
business succeeds.
Now imagine
you have two employees you could entrust with this task.
Colleague A
is a competent and capable worker who tries to perform his job to the best of his
abilities. If you delegate the task to this person, you know that it
will be done, but the performance is not likely to be innovative or pioneering.
Colleague B
is a neurotic perfectionist who will promise to perform the task at a level
that will be outstanding. Experience, however, suggests that this employee will
oversell his abilities, and if he finishes the job at all, it will take
twice as long to complete as Colleague A would take.
Which
employee would you choose to take on this important task?
I know who I
would choose.
Last thoughts...
Are you the sort of letting agent that can’t
delegate, can’t let go?
Let me tell you some home truths .... that
neg, that valuer, that property manager will never be as good as you ... so
stop trying to make them as good as you .... why the hell do you employ them.
You don’t have a dog and bark yourself .. but that is what you are doing with
your constant laser focus on perfectionism.
Delegate ... delegate .. delegate.
Does the office go belly up when you have a
few days off or a long weekend? No .. (I bet it runs better without you!).
Remember those awful bosses, who were always
checking you, nit picking ... well, let me ask you .. is that now you?
Just let people get on with their jobs ... so you can get on with yours
... building and growing your lettings agency because excellence
does not require perfection and getting the job done is
better than perfect and never finished