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The gender gap in pay in the real estate industry is larger than the average gap across industries, and there are also stark gender gaps in career advancement to top leadership positions in the real estate industry. This research explores how job flexibility increases, rather than detracts from, promotion aspirations among working mothers, an important implication for managers looking to recruit and promote female employees and chip away at persistent gender gaps.

Incivility, rudeness, and a general disrespect for others has risen steeply in the workplace in recent years, affecting not only employees, but also customers and third parties in contact with employees. Servant leaders, those who put the needs of others above their own, serve as a critical force in preventing group-level incivility through promoting a virtuous work climate.

What do you prioritize on a job candidate resume? Prior selling experience or a formal sales education? Our research examines the effects of both on newly hired salespeople's performance trajectories over time, along with the impact of manager coaching behaviors. Our results provide insights into the benefits and drawbacks of each hiring heuristic along with recommendations for how to coach new salespeople depending on which heuristic led to their hire.

In his latest book, business leader Tilman Fertitta emphasizes that even when you think your business is performing at its best, there is always something lurking around the corner that could make your business obsolete. Fertitta warns that you should never, ever stop worrying about your business.

When highlighting exceptional performance of real estate agents, firms often credit the success to either sheer effort or natural talent. The way in which you market your agents, though, can impact their relationship formation with clients and, ultimately, the success of your firm.

Due to the nature of real estate, working beyond the walls of the office is accessible and frequently encouraged. But how does this balancing act impact others in your firm? We examine how an agent's family functioning relates to their interactions with coworkers, thereby shaping the coworker's job attitude and experiences.

In real estate, it is important to integrate employee-centered, symmetrical communication into change management in order to yield employees who are engaged in the change process. Our research examines how communication between managers and employees can impact employee engagement, commitment to change, and behavioral support for proposed change.

Kristen Koehler, MBA Candidate People often tackle change by attacking the problem head on and pushing through obstacles no matter the amount of resistance. In The Catalyst, Jonah Berger explains why "roadblock elimination" is the most effective way to pursue change and how to become a change catalyst—someone who facilitates change—within your organization.

Is it important for salespeople to like their managers? Research has established that people will do things for people they like, but does this have an impact on a firm’s sales performance? In this research, we examine several steps and practices that can increase your likeability as a manager, which can be a powerful driver of organizational sales performance.

Good leaders understand the people they are leading well enough to know their “language,” which they then use to influence employees’ or followers’ decisions and actions. Learning the language that influences others is particularly important for managers and team leaders and is the focus of Shelle Rose Charvet’s book, Words That Change Minds: The 14 Patterns for Mastering the Language of Influence.

Loonshots are ideas that, at face value, appear to be entirely outlandish, but that have the potential for great success. In Safi Bahcall's Loonshots: Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries, we learn that the vitality of loonshots extends into the board room and is dependent upon careful nurturing and cultivation of these loonshot ideas.

Change is inevitable for long-term organizational sustainability, but change management is commonly viewed as a difficult endeavor. Our research identifies and examines two key factors that can increase the odds for success for your firm's change initiatives.

With tight deadlines and sales goals to meet, agents often face temptations to behave unethically in order to get ahead. Our research suggests that unethical behavior actually decreases overall sales performance and that emotional exhaustion increases the likelihood of those unethical behaviors.

Richard G. McFarland, PhD and Andrea L. Dixon, PhD Salespeople are subjected to high levels of stress on a day-to-day basis, which often leads to burnout. In this research, we examine how interpersonal mentalizing skills and oscillating between actively addressing stressors and giving yourself a break can reduce the chances of burnout occurring.

Corrie A. H. Penraat, MBA Candidate In Robert Iger's Ride of a Lifetime, he shares the lessons he learned leading more than 200,000 employees as CEO of The Walt Disney Company for nearly 15 years. Through this journey, he explores the principles necessary for effective leadership in any business venture.

Jacob Brenton, MDiv/MBA In Company of One: Why Staying Small is the Next Big Thing for Business, entrepreneur Paul Jarvis discusses a variety of perspectives on how small business owners and entrepreneurs can redefine success in business, focusing on quality over quantity.

How can companies best manage rapid and constant change in technology? We explore The Technology Fallacy, which suggests that managing technological disruption is not about managing technology at all—it is about managing people.

How can you increase sales with no new software, gimmick, or miracle? Our research examines how psychological resourcefulness, characterized by optimism and resilience, will help salesperson performance and the bottom line.

A customer’s problem is the opportunity for the salesperson to create value for customers. This research investigates how the buyer-seller relationship is affected by the effectiveness of the salesperson’s ability to coordinate internal resources.

Profits are essential to managing a business, but can an emphasis on the bottom-line impact employees? Our research examines how supervisors with high bottom-line mentality garner negative perceptions from employees, leading to decreased employee performance.

Even as U.S. companies spend more than $900 billion on building sales forces, salesperson turnover has reached 27%, and average tenures are as short as two years. This article addresses how your firm can help new agents successfully gain entry into a network of interconnected contacts.

Although much research has been focused on a salesperson’s externally directed behavior, we found that political skill and intrinsic motivation have effects on adaptive selling and sales performance. In light of this evidence, we recommend that every sales manager assist his/her salespeople with developing these intrapreneurial abilities.

Entrepreneurs typically enjoy higher levels of job and life satisfaction. However, in contrast to the benefits, entrepreneurs may also experience high stress and longer working hours, while also fearing lower income. In this study, we examine how autonomy mediates the relationship between entrepreneurship and personal well-being.

Studies have shown that service-related jobs, like those in real estate, can have negative impact on employees, including burnout and decreased motivation, leading to higher employee turnover. Our research examines how agencies and managers can lessen these impacts on their employees and decrease turnover within their organization.

Improving sales force morale can be a valuable strategy to enhance job performance and reduce employee turnover. Despite the benefits that can come from high morale, little is known about what factors impact it. We examine what market demands impact morale and what resources you can leverage to boost morale in your organization.

At every firm, there are employees who will adhere to a strict ethical standard and those who value performance above all else. Our team examined what happens when there are disparities in ethical practice and job performance between employees and how ethics may have unintended consequences on the social landscape of your office.

Many U.S. employees believe working from home—or at least away from the office—can bring freedom and stress-free job satisfaction. But our recent research says, not so fast.

Humility is necessary to reach the heights of success. Recognizing there are gaps in your knowledge, being open to that realization, and working humbly to learn more is a hallmark of intellectual humility and a starting point for greatness for you and your team.

Understanding the attitudes and emotions behind work environments is paramount to leadership success. In this article, we examine Simon Sinek's Leaders Eat Last and explore how building a "circle of safety" can benefit your real estate firm.

Networking can be a difficult issue for real estate professionals, and navigating that reality is key to successfully expanding professional ties to produce benefit for a firm, client, or project. This research examines how individuals' mindsets about networking affect their motivation to engage in networking.

Zachary R. Hall, PhD, Ryan R. Mullins, PhD, Niladri Syam, PhD, and Jeffrey P. Boichuk, PhD Understanding the changing dynamics of customers and competitors in your market is a cornerstone for maintained success. This information, known as market intelligence, helps improve decision-making, especially in real estate. But how do we utilize it in an agency context to bolster sales?

Arjun Azavedo, MBA Candidate In his book, The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle draws from a unique range of anecdotes and experiences to display how finding similarities in diverse groups can aid in effective leadership and communication.

In this article, we study the relationship between ethical leadership and employee deviance and turnover intentions, considering the role of hindrance stress from the leader and the job. Our findings show that ethical leaders who also impose additional demands are perceived to miss the mark in providing proper social support are likely to have deviant or withdrawing employees.

To remain competitive, salespeople must provide excellent service while still reaching their sales quotas. When these two ideas converge, sales-service ambidexterity is achieved. But how can sales managers encourage their sales associates to reach this medium?

It is widely recognized that political skill enables employees to secure valuable resources within their own companies and to promote positive outcomes with customers. In this article, we examine the effect of political skill in the sales context and draw conclusions for real estate professionals.

Buyer and seller markets are now comprised of multiple generations that not only see the world differently, but also value vastly different lifestyles. While the differences between generations provide obstacles to overcome, it is also important to recognize the accessibility, innovation and collaboration these differences provide for the workplace.

What kind of relationships do you have with those who report to you and with your own boss? We study these relationships in conjunction with empowering leadership to suggest that the better these relationships are, the better position leaders are in to positively influence their employees.

Research shows that men and women network differently and benefit differently from networking. In our research, we examine different types of networking benefits for female and male real estate professionals which allows us to offer suggestions for more effective networking.

The need for fantastic sales professionals is greater today than ever before. Increasingly, clients demand sales professionals provide exceptional customer service that coincides with meeting those desired results. To this, motivation is key.

Stigma is inherently problematic for any worker but is particularly detrimental for real estate agents and other sales representatives. Stigma can be detrimental to agents because job performance and personal well-being depend greatly on favorable interactions with customers.

Firms often prioritize frontline employee job satisfaction, hoping that satisfied employees will lead to satisfied customers. In real estate, this implies that improvements in agent satisfaction are expected to increase client satisfaction. According to our research, these agencies may be missing an important opportunity.

Have you ever felt insecure in your career? Have you ever doubted your ability to fulfill your job duties? If so, you are certainly not the only one in your field experiencing these emotions. While most are unwilling to admit their insecurity or discuss their self-doubt with their peers, insecurity is common among sales professionals.

The modern real estate agent's business relationships today transcend obvious interactions with customers and now also include the internal business team and external business partners. The successful agent must skillfully manage these three relationships to complete the transaction.

Forgiving a transgressor plays a monumental role in team or group dynamics. At a team level, forgiveness can impact the cohesiveness of the team or collective action.

Many people are driven to perform and succeed, especially when that drive comes from competition to outperform others. Competition and personal performance can be beneficial traits to people in performance-driven professions. But, how do people alter their drive to compete when they become members of a team?

In the book, A Beautiful Constraint, the authors, Adam Morgan and Mark Barden, take us through a series of real-world examples that show how constraints can positively impact a project and, in turn, help develop successful sustainable solutions.

Salespeople’s roles are far from failure-proof. In fact, approximately 50% of salespeople fail to reach their annual sales targets.

Salespeople with higher levels of emotional intelligence (EI) are better salespeople, right? After investing a great deal in the training of EI, firms are starting to wonder if those investments are well spent.

It’s no secret that a positive outlook can have dramatic impacts on a person’s day-to-day activities. In fact, according to the Mayo Clinic, positive thinking can result in increased life span, lower rates of depression, and better psychological and physical well-being.

For sales professionals in real estate and other industries, life in the digital world presents numerous challenges. Since mobile devices are the norm, work extends far outside the boundaries of the office and expectations are high for immediate response.