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When it comes to recruiting staff, Ray White’s biggest franchise owner says you can teach skills, but you can’t teach attitude.
Andrew Bell, CEO of Ray White Surfers Paradise, has worked in the industry for 42 years, and over time has moved away from recruiting skilful people to recruiting people with great attitudes.
Speaking to REB at the Ray White Leadership Academy at Sydney’s Sheraton on the Park last week, Mr Bell said that during most of his time working in real estate, staff training has been oriented around skills.
“How to do a listing presentation, how to run an auction campaign, those sorts of things,” he pointed out.
He emphasised that the Leadership Academy represented a “step up” from this and a shift towards understanding how to bring out the best in people.
“It’s not all about skills, and I’ve changed all my thinking in the last 12 months. I’ve really moved from recruiting skilful people to recruiting great attitudes, because you can teach skills but you can’t teach attitude – you’ve either got it or you haven’t,” he said.
“I’ll take an office of great attitude any day over an office of skills. It doesn’t take long to skill them up.”
Mr Bell said that for Ray White, training is underpinned by a consideration of how to bring out the best in its sales force and broader property management team.
The industry veteran also commented that he finds joy in helping to advance the careers of those around him.
“When someone is close to me – my family, or the colleagues who work with me – then my greatest ambition is to see them open up as flowers, and I get so much joy in my work now.”
For the second year running, the Ray White Leadership Academy was conducted by Harvard Business School professor Boris Groysberg and ran over three consecutive days.
[Related: What do Google, Ray White and Harvard have in common?]
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