Learning, Relevance & Execution

I am passionate about learning…In fact so much so, that I believe that staying ahead of the learning curve is what keeps you relevant, interesting, engaging, and a few steps ahead of the competition. Show me a person or an organization that doesn’t embrace learning, and I’ll guarantee you that the only thing they excel at is failure. It is continued personal and professional development that allows people and organizations to maintain relevancy. You simply cannot adopt a static approach to a fluid market and expect to succeed…it won’t work. A focus on learning not only prevents static thinking, but it fosters innovation. Perhaps most importantly, learning and development form the core of any successful talent management strategy. In today’s post I’ll examine the link between learning and relevance.

For some, graduating from high school or college means an end to organized learning.  The days and nights of reading and studying for 5-10 hours become a thing of the past, and entering the rat race of a corporate job, where knowledge is gained by what is fed to you takes center stage.  Young professionals breathe a sigh of relief knowing that mid-terms and finals are long gone, and non-essential learning simply stops.

What I find most interesting about the aforementioned trend is that a student’s fear of receiving a poor grade, disappointing a parent, or failing to graduate is more of a motivation to learn than learning is to advancing one’s career.  Yet, ironically, the stakes are arguably higher the further we progress through our careers.  Consider that investors, executive committees, direct reports, employees, customers and your family are relying on you to consistently improve upon your knowledge base and skill set and you start to realize that while a return to the classroom may not be required, a significant investment in independent learning certainly is.

As the CEO of one of the largest commercial real estate brokerage firms in the world, covering more than 150 markets in 3 countries, and having completed more than 39 billion dollars in sales volume in the last 4 years, I can state that learning and professional development are critical to both our growth and sustainability as an enterprise. Why is our firm growing and debt free, while others are in decline and even failing during this tough market? One of the key reasons is that our learning and development initiatives provide us with a strong competitive advantage. While other brokerage firms are doing business in largely the same fashion as they have for decades, we are innovating and adapting our business practices to embrace current market conditions while planning for changes in future market conditions.

When you engage with one of our advisors you won’t encounter the same old “broker-speak”, but rather you’ll find someone well versed in every aspect of what it takes to successfully serve their client. Notice that I didn’t say ”sell” but I chose the word “serve.” We don’t sell, we add value. We don’t push, we listen and engage. We don’t just try, we provide a certainty of execution not found when working with many of our competitors.

We are successful because we are relevant, because we have learned. We have learned that clients aren’t looking for brokers or hobbyists, they are seeking skilled advisors. They’re not looking for someone who simply puts up signs and sends out post cards. They are looking for someone progressive, who has embraced social media and knows how to engage in meaningful conversations.

At Sperry Van Ness, we don’t sell to close deals…we have learned to meet client needs which culminates in creating value, building relationships, and facilitating transactions that stick. Our advisors have learned, they are relevant, and they provide a certainty of execution. Can you say this about your broker?