As an employee transitions from a lower-level position into a role of management, it is easy to experience a sense of “arrival” and become complacent with the current situation. Yet to be the best, it simply isn’t enough to become the best. You must remain the best, and this requires ongoing strives toward self-improvement and preparedness for what the future may have in store.
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Successful leaders in any company must continually sharpen their current skill set and acquire new skills, passing knowledge down to lower levels of the team so that it can grow and become better at what it does. New Home Star understands this concept and takes it deeply to heart. It is for that reason that our organization has instilled tools and processes that allow leaders to train and grow individually, in peer groups, and as a nation-wide leadership team.
Individual Leadership Training
The bulk of individual training for managers and directors takes place on New Home Connect™. In addition to the more than 100 training videos hosted on the platform for new and existing Sales Associates, there is a management section with more than 40 videos that teach the ins and outs of managing a team and becoming an effective leader. These videos cover a wide range of topics, from building trust with a sales team to developing a grand opening strategy, all of which have proven to drive sales and increase profitability. The role of new home sales management is multifaceted, complex and always changing. In turn, the library on New Home Connect™ is constantly being updated with training that addresses current topics and struggles of today’s new home sales landscape. Often, certain regions can be affected by forces of the market before other regions are. By listening to regional leaders, New Home Star is able to react quickly, formulating solutions and tips for handling these forces before they spread to the bulk of the country.
Learning as a Peer Group
Sometimes the best way to develop your skills is to surround yourself with individuals that will challenge you and encourage your growth. To create this sense of community, New Home Star has thoughtfully developed leadership peer groups. These groups consist of four or five individuals from different regions that represent different builders. This allows directors the opportunity to gather insight and learn from experts that have different perspectives of the industry than they do. While one individual may have a strength of creating unity amongst their sales team, the other may be strong in building relationships with their builder partner. Together, they can discuss tactics and work toward a solution for maintaining an optimal balance of each. Peer groups take part in weekly conference calls to discuss and challenge each other with these different tactics, as well as to analyze certain forces that are affecting their specific region and communities. While a director may be the only one physically present in their division, these calls ensure that each team has a group of industry experts that are bought into its success.
Peers are also expected to travel to each other’s markets on a quarterly basis. With a fresh set of eyes and a new perspective, peers can often identify issues that fly under the radar of the director. Once identified, the director and their peer can work together to formulate a new solution for addressing the problem, resulting in a stronger and more well-equipped sales team. These quarterly peer visits can also be beneficial as a means for training and challenging the sales team. Directors often understand the strengths that their peers possess and can instill these strengths into a training session for their team.
Growing as a National Leadership Team
Any company with as much expertise on their leadership team as New Home Star can benefit greatly by getting every leader on-board for ongoing learning. New Home Star brings together managers from across the country on a weekly basis for a management conference call. This call highlights the week's top performers, examples of value built for builder partners, and stories of highly engaged sales teams. These highlights, examples, and stories shed light for other directors and motivate them to drive more value with their sales teams and reach to new heights. The latter half of this weekly call is informative in nature and covers a specific topic that is either relevant for the current state of the new home sales industry or a current struggle for the company as a whole. This portion of the call is led by Founder, David Rice or another expert in the company who is well-versed in the call’s topic, but it is typical for more than half of the leadership team to speak up and discuss their tips and best practices. This call provides an avenue for each manager to gather invaluable knowledge from their peers across the country on a weekly basis.
Quarterly Management Training Conference
Not only is the position of new home sales management a role that requires a high level of expertise, but it is also a role that changes with the seasonality of the selling market. To combat the ebbs and flows of seasonal demands on new home sales leadership, New Home Star brings their management team together multiple times a year for three days of skill sharpening and team building exercises. These Quarterly Directors Training meetings always embody a certain theme and rejuvenate the leadership team with an enthusiasm to go out and attack the following months. At the end of each of these Quarterly Director’s Training meetings, directors leave with new ideas and practices for growing and enhancing their sales teams. With these leadership training practices in mind, there is no confusion regarding New Home Star’s ability to grow and motivate the new home industry’s most talented management team. Leaders are persistently challenged to learn and take away insight from other like-minded individuals who have different perspectives of the industry than they do. This, in turn, provides the opportunity for managers to go back into their market and grow alongside their team, culminating in better local sales and leadership teams across the country.