The One Big Problem Behind All the Small Problems on Real Estate Teams

by Steve Shull

The other day, a team leader came to me with two pressing issues. 

One was a relatively new team agent who was asking for a higher split—80%.

The other was a question of who should get a lead generated off a listing—the listing agent or another agent on the team.

This isn’t unusual. Splits and leads are some of the most common issues that come up on teams. You’ve probably faced the same questions.

But it’s not really about splits and leads. There’s a much bigger problem at work here…

Most team agents come to work with their hand out, not up. 

When they come to you with an issue, it’s always with the same attitude: What’s best for me?

They’re looking for what they can get for themselves, not what they can do for the team.

And if they don’t get what they want, they bail.

This is a culture issue, 100%.

For a team to succeed, its culture has to be TEAM FIRST. Everyone’s first instinct has to be what’s best for the team, not the individual.

If that’s not the culture on your team, you don’t have a healthy team. Period, end of story.

This is very tough to achieve in real estate. In this industry, everyone has an independent contractor mentality. It will permeate everything in your business unless you root it out and replace it with a team-first mindset. 

Let me be clear: talent alone is NOT enough.

If you watched the Chicago Bears play the Houston Texans last week, you saw how true this is. 

The Bears had the number one draft pick this year, and they chose Caleb Williams, a quarterback from USC. They made several trades in the offseason to reconfigure the team around Caleb’s talents. There are huge expectations that this new player will transform the organization.

But in week 2 of the season, he got his butt handed to him. 

Because here’s the hard truth…

Until the culture changes, even the most talented players will have limited ability to drive team success.

Culture is a combination of attitude, perspective, values, and philosophy—all of which combine to drive the behavior of your team.

You’ve heard me say over and over: how you do business is more important than how much business you do.

Culture is how you do business.

It’s foundational. It’s deliberate. As a team leader, you get to CHOOSE with your team what the culture is going to be.

Most importantly, you need 100% buy-in from your team members.

That will require some change—definitely a change in attitudes, and probably a change in your roster as well.

I know, no one likes change. It’s the one thing we all resist most in life. 

But the fact is, life is changing every day. Everything is subject to change all the time. It’s uncomfortable, and it’s also inevitable.

You get to choose whether you’re going to fear, resist, deny, and avoid change…

Or embrace it and learn to adjust to it.

The goal is to be open and curious about what’s next. 

Bring it on—the more uncomfortable, the better.