Setting Real Estate Goals for Individual & Organizational Excellence

It’s a new decade and a fresh opportunity to do something different for your business. Whether you’re a broker, investor, developer, or business owner, in the real estate industry, setting intentional goals is the first step toward making a powerful impact on your career and organization.

But change is hard work, and each day is an opportunity to ensure your values and principles are aligned with your business practices. If you’re serious about making changes to your real estate business in 2020 and beyond, these steps will help you set your goals and keep you on track to success.

The first step toward seeing intentional changes to your real estate business is understanding your vision for yourself and the future of your business, career, and life. Jot down where you’d like to be this time next month, next year, and by the close of this decade.

Your vision is the overarching motivation that will shape your goals and inform your next steps to achieve them so don’t be afraid to think big! When your goals are backed by your vision, you’ll be less likely to give up when things get challenging. You’ll be more focused on seeing your goals and projects through to completion.

Your actions, beliefs, and motivations are ultimately shaped by your core values, and it’s important to understand how these beliefs are a driving force in your career. Your core values are the measure by which you judge yourself and others, and they are fundamentally important to the way you live and work.

There are three core work values to consider in goal-setting:

1. Intrinsic Values: These are the values that motivate you and help you feel fulfilled, like giving back to society and expressing your creativity.
2. Extrinsic Values: The tangible rewards derived from your career and your work environment, like pay, working as part of a team, and providing influence.
3. Lifestyle Values: What you do for a career and where you work produces a certain type of lifestyle, which can help complete the picture of what you value. A few examples of lifestyle values include living in a big city, traveling extensively, and living simply.

Aligning your values with your goals will bring greater contentment and balance to your work and help you avoid burnout and professional regret. A personal-values assessment is a helpful first step in better understanding your core values, as is reflecting on questions like these:

• What do you value most in your career (make a list)?
• Which value is most important to you, and which is least important?
• How do your values fit into your work & career goals?
• How do your life goals relate to your future career?
• Are you managing your time in a way that prioritizes your goals?

Keep in mind that your personal values will likely evolve over time, and you may find they’ve already changed during the course of your career. But understanding your values doesn’t need to be a mystery. With regular reflection, you’ll be prepared to manage changes to your educational goals, career choices, living situations, hobbies, friends, and other aspects of your life that are part of normal life transitions.

Once you’ve defined your core values, you’re ready to identify goals that align with these beliefs and principles. Your goals are a checklist; they are tangible markers that help you succeed in the day-to-day while pointing back to the more aspirational beliefs and vision statements you’ve generated.

Here are some questions to consider when writing your goals:

• Why are you the best person to execute this big disruptive idea?
• What are the talent, skills, experiences or resources do you have to make your business idea the next unicorn?
• Do you have the right people with the right set of skills in your team?

We’ve all heard of SMART goals that help set and measure goals for accountability. But this year, consider creating DUMB goals that are aspirational and encourage you to dream big:

• Dream-Driven: Stay focused on the vision you’ve set for yourself and create goals that push you beyond your comfort zone.
• Uplifting: Be inspired: Create goals that are positive, joyous, and motivating.
• Method-Friendly: Creating a method and daily habit of practice helps you work toward your goal in small steps, rather than through a series of tasks.
• Behavior Triggered: Changes in behavior lead to sustainable change. Create goals that are triggered by habits; this will serve a reminder and activator for your goal.

Begin with goals that are tied to your biggest, most visionary values and work your way down the list. If it’s helpful, you can visually tie these goals to your values as a reminder of why each one is important to your success. Your final list should inspire and motivate you so that you’re excited to start.

Setting goals for yourself and your organization is a good first step toward change, but in order to achieve your goals, they need to become an integral part of your systems and corporate beliefs. Transparency and goal integration are crucial for your organization. Even if you’re an individual entrepreneur, building your goals into your daily work habits will help you build the positive behaviors necessary to make them a reality.

Ensure that your team shares your core values and understands where your goals come from and why they’re important to your business. Use your goals as the framework for your quarterly and annual planning and to create individual and team performance goals that will motivate and unify your team. Be consistent, communicate regularly with colleagues, and remain positive in clarifying why these goals are the right measures for the growth of your business.

Your individual and organizational core competencies are the set of skills needed to perform your job successfully. When it comes to achieving growth goals, ensuring that your team has the right skills is crucial. The popular list of 31 Core Competencies by Workforce is a good place to start.

Consider any skill gaps for yourself and your team that you could best work on this year to meet your goals as a CRE professional:

• Fostering teamwork, empowering others, and interpersonal awareness
• Entrepreneurial orientation, innovation, and strategic thinking
• Stress management, flexibility, and self confidence

Take actions now to fill in any skill gaps that you observe. Sign up for training, build out career development activities for your team, and hire new employees to make sure you’ve put your best foot forward.

“I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” –William Ernest Henley

In order to achieve our goals, we need to believe in our ability to grow and succeed. It can be difficult to remain excited and motivated to meet big goals when challenges arise, but practicing daily habits and behaviors can help you maintain balance when things get difficult. As the philosopher William Ernest Henley famously said, “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”

• Meditation: A daily meditation practice helps you form a mind-body connection that builds calm and resilience. The repetition of self-observation can reset you in moments of stress and also build new positive and confidence-building behavior and habits.
• Healthy Habits: Eating well, getting enough sleep, and exercising regularly are small habits with big returns on our well-being. Keeping an eye on your self-care will help you stay balanced and focused on your goals.
• Journaling: Daily journaling will help you track your goals and help you document your development, growth, and wins. You can look back at your entries regularly to remind yourself of your progress.
• Reading & Study: Read books that motivate you to meet your goals and keep you on track. Books like Return to Your Core: Principles for a Respected and Purposeful Life, by Jay C. Rifenbary; Unwrapping Your Passion: Creating the Life You Truly Want, by Karen Putz; and Know Yourself, Grow Your Career: The Personal Proposition Workbook, by Anne Marie Segal tackles the subject of work and life values in a unique way.

Finally, executing on your goals is the best way to maintain a positive mindset. Make small changes every day and remember, every moment is an opportunity to grow.

Regardless of your starting point, Black Collie Capital can help you move forward. We work with a wide variety of real estate markets, giving you diversified options that build on your strengths and connections while offering new opportunities as well.