Part of the selection process a broker/manager goes through when interviewing and hiring new agents is determining the candidate's ability to think creatively, but little thought is given as to whether the office provides an appropriate atmosphere to foster creativity.

In the interviewing process, broker/managers test responses and reaction time to such questions as "What would you do if a buyer said they want to back out of an offer?," "How would you handle a seller who doesn't want to sign a listing contract for more than three months?," or "If your buyer won't sign a listing agreement, what do you do?"

The answers reveal the candidate's ability to "think on her feet." This means sorting through available choices and coming up with a solution to a problem. This is fine in a hypothetical situtaion, but in real life, each set of circumstances is unique, and it takes a creative thinker to pull out a solution that is tailored to a new set of circumstances.

An article published in the September-October issue of the Harvard Business Review, "How to Kill Creativity" by Teresa M. Amabile suggests that creativity is often misunderstood by management as being a skill that has an appropriate place in business. But in the highly emotional, mercurial world of real estate when any number of variables can threaten to capsize transactions, having the ability to think creatively can be an asset for agents and management as well. Creative people can think of everything from how to lower costs for feature sheet production to how to save a sticky sale to how to acquire the competitor across the street.

Think about your most productive salespeople. Your office leaders already have learned to think "outside the box." Rather than rely on traditional business building techniques, each of these top producers has a tool that they use better than anyone else in the office or by the competition. They go to other sources outside of the mainstream to find new ways of doing things. If they hear a great idea, they try it. If they have a great idea, they share it. If that isn't creative, what is?

When you are across the table from a new agent, who has yet to experience and master the learning curve, you have to rely more on your instincts than on past performance. What you also have to do is rely on your ability to produce a creative environment that will help your staff provide better service and build more sales.

Creativity is composed of three elements - expertise, motivation and creative -thinking skills, each of which can be concurrently or independently developed.

Expertise comes with knowledge, training and experience and is based upon the technical, procedural and intellectual abilities of the candidate. Look at the expertise your candidate has. Is that English degree going to come in handy? Yes, this person may be a born communicator with strengths in ad writing, newsletter copy writing, and networking. Those are the strengths that can be played up to launch this candidate toward a more successful real estate career. What about that background in management? This candidate may have a much easier time in organization and technical matters.

Motivation stems from an inner passion to solve the problem at hand and goes beyond monetary compensation or reward. That is the vein that you as a manager must tap into - the intrinsic motivation - that which a person is compelled to do. Ms. Amabile states, "People will be most creativ ewhen they feel motivated primarily by the interest, satisfaction, and challenge of the work itself - and not by external pressures. Does your candidate have an understanding of how long it may take to launch a profitable real estate career? Is he equipped with the right inclinations toward customers and clients? Would he be willing to work on salary learning the ropes around the office and assisting top producers until going off on his own? Are you willing to provide flexible salary arrangements to keep from losing good people while they roller coaster up and down the learning curve?

Creative-thinking skills show flexibility, and an ability to look beyond the status quo for answers. Creative thinking is how people approach problems and solutions and this is based largely on personality. Is the candidate too willing to abandon a problem without looking for a solution? Is the candidate comfortable disagreeing with others, and does he accept suggestion or criticism readily? Does she approach problems from a number of angles, looking at all sides?

Managers, according to Ms. Amabile, can influence all three components of creativity through practices which fall into six basic categories - challenge, freedom, resources, work-group features, surpervisory encouragement, and orgainzational support.

Challenge - Managers can match people with jobs that play to their expertise. The trick is to stretch the new agent's abilities - not so little that they feel bored and not so much that they feel overwhelmed.

Freedom - The real estate environment is ready-made for the entrepreneur, but too much autonomy can cause a new agent to freeze before making the first step. You can choose which mountain the agent climbs first - floor time, helping buyers, or canvassing neighborhoods for listings, but let how they go about it be their choice. Be careful of failing to define goals for your new agent, or letting them flounder when they clearly need help.

Resources - Alloting resources to a new agent can be difficult, especially when you have top producers who feel entitled to more resources because of their proven productivity. But they have to have some kind of launch, whether it is a new web site, newspaper advertising allotment or in-house training. By being too tightfisted, a manager can force the new agent to spend valuable time seeking resources elsewhere.

Work-group features - This can apply to real estate in terms of networking and building a team identity at the office or through the office system. Smart managers create teams with special expertise, such as those with foreign language skills or those who hold special designations such as historical homes designees to promote unity and a sense of uniqueness. The team members can mentor each other, and by having teams, your new agent belongs someplace special right away and is more bouyant with the sink or swim nature of the business.

Organizational support - Managers must put into place appropriate systems or procedures that emphasize the value of creative input. Recognition and rewards go a long way toward encouraging people to have fresh ideas. Get people together with brief meetings to share ideas and work together to solve problems, using communication tools that are easy for them. This exposes new agents to an environment which says it is safe not to know all the answers, and others are here to help.

As you already know, the perfect agent doesn't exist. One who sells like gangbusters may be weak in phone skills or paperwork. Creating a better working environment for agents means playing to their strengths, and making it easier for them to follow through their leads to closings. But attempting to pound a round peg into a square hole will only frustrate you as a manager and alienate your sales force. To implement your ideas and to foster a more creative environment, keep infighting and other distractions to a minimum. Raise the sense of mutual purpose, that what is good for the individual is good for the team.

Published: November 9, 1998

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