Wise people seek professional counsel and assistance. None of us has all the answers. The truth is we don't even have all the questions. From my vantage point, the questions are more important than the answers. The answers are the effect of a well thought out and asked question. Learning to ask the right questions is a Champion skill.

Often, we are too close to the problem to be able to survey the whole field. We also become biased from our own point of view.

Because of our independent nature, we are often too much like a maverick in our business. We are determined to do it alone. We all need at least a small group of advisors or a board of directors.

In any large corporation, the board of directors is a group of high-powered successful business thinkers. They are often people who are outside the company and its structure, thus enabling the board to have greater objectivity than the senior management. They work with the CFO and upper level management to increase the productivity and profitability of a company. We all need a board of directors that we can trust. We are not looking for a board to “rubber stamp” every idea that gets brought forward, but rather to objectively look at the business and give sound advice.

You should use people on your board who have life skills and are interested in helping and serving. This board of directors or advisers doesn't have to be a formal set of positions. I simply mean you need a person or people in your life to help you with sales, marketing, organization structure, training, financial management, employee issues, evaluating the marketplace, identifying strengths and weaknesses of the business, strategic planning, and providing a little accountability in the core areas. Do you have a few people (or one person) who can act as advisors or a board of directors?

I often describe a coach's role as fulfilling a number of positions on your board of directors – most importantly, evaluating objectivity, strategy and tactics creation and accountability to the implementation. Without a board of directors, advisors, or coach to help in all of these areas, you are at a much higher risk of failure in your business. Any Champion Agent has a person or group of people they can call on to help with these critical components of their business.

In order for you to move your business to the Champion level, change must take place. We can't expect improvement in our results without knowledge, skills, attitude, and activity improvement. We need to make some changes in our business of the items that I listed previously, in the paragraph on the board of directors. I want you to stop right now and list all of those items out on a separate piece of paper. Please give me permission to be your coach for the next fifteen minutes.

Completed? Now brainstorm the possible options of people you know that could help you in each of those key areas. Who could you learn from to help you create a better plan and improve your execution in those areas? Is your broker an option? Do you know another agent who is a candidate? We are not at this point to determining the probability if they would -- only if you feel they are qualified to do so. How about another successful business owner in your community? Is there another agent you met at a convention, for example, who is out of your area? Is there a consultant, mentor or coach who could help in one or more of these areas? It is possible to have more than one option listed for each category; in fact, it is preferable if you can. It gives you more options.

Once you have completed the list, determine which of these areas will have the biggest incentive in raising you personally and your business to the Champion Performance level. Create and prioritize a list of what is most important to what is least important. Your mandate is to talk with a person or people who could help you with your number one problem area. Make a commitment to start that process before the close of business, even if you are just leaving a message for the individual. If you listed no one in the core area, you need to begin your quest to find that person. In the interim, is there a book, CD, DVD, or seminar you could attend that would help start you on the path to change and improvement while you find the members of the board of directors or advisors you need?

Published: December 30, 2011

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Dirk Zeller is a sought out speaker, celebrated author and CEO of Real Estate Champions. His company trains more than 350,000 Agents worldwide each year through live events, online training, self-study programs, and newsletters. The Real Estate community has embraced and praised his six best-selling books; Your First Year in Real Estate, Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies®, The Champion Real Estate Agent, The Champion Real Estate Team, Telephone Sales for Dummies®, Successful Time Management for Dummies®, and over 300 articles in print. To learn more regarding this article, please visit www.realestatechampions.com.