Trish

When I first joined TTR Sotheby’s International Realty as Vice President of Business Development, there was a noticeable lack of family and culture. A cohesive company identity did not exist. No one gathered or socialized in a company-wide, organized way. Rather, they were just a group of independent contractors housed under one roof. The lack of community felt foreign and uncomfortable to me. After months of being miserable by the disconnect I was experiencing, I decided to create the environment and the culture I craved, and which I knew would help this company grow. As I witnessed in previous jobs, the presence of cohesiveness, community and a sense of family increases productivity, efficiency and retention while also promoting personal wellness. Win-win.

Here are three practices I rely on to create culture within a workplace:

Gratitude

Last year, I introduced a selling-focused seminar at TTR that emphasized the importance of starting out each day with gratitude. Feeling grateful starts your day on the right path. Before getting out of bed in the morning, think about things you are grateful for, for example: your health, your breath, the joke that made you laugh the night before. Daily positivity naturally evolves into an abundant mind, which creates a happy and successful individual. I often tell my agents this: when they feel as if they are spinning, take five seconds to make a gratitude list. Your blood pressure will decrease and your heart rate will slow down. Gratitude and negativity cannot live within the same space.

Along that same line, most of our associates now begin their days by writing affirmations, and I have most, if not all, my agents practice meditation or some kind of introspective activity. They are able to use meditation before big meetings, during stressful situations, or simply as a tool to center themselves as needed.

I also encouraged firm partners to instill small, yet thoughtful, gestures into the workplace, such as saying thank you for small favors, offering help with large projects, and sending flowers on an employee’s birthday or when there is a death in the family. Better yet, I tell the partners, pick up the phone and call the employee personally. It doesn’t have to be overdone. With any of these gestures of gratitude, the message is clear: We are a family. We are grateful for you. When good things happen we celebrate together, when bad things happen we are there for you. We appreciate you.

It doesn’t matter where we fall on the ladder, everyone wants to feel valued and seen. Being acknowledged in positive ways just feels good.

Relationship Building

Establishing culture requires going back to the basics. People crave and respond to human connection. Emails, texts and video chats are quick and easy, but they cannot replace the human element offered in a phone call or face-to-face meeting. Technology is an efficient tool, but it undermines human relationships and connections, and those are the elements needed to instill a sense of trust, support and belonging. Especially in a tech-dominated world, people and relationships matter.

At TTR, we consciously create opportunities for community. We organize business events on a quarterly basis so our associates can come together to network, exchange ideas and enjoy each other’s company. I also founded a wellness program that encourages fun, team-building exercises that allow our agents to interact outside of the office. Whether it’s a private yoga class, an Escape Room challenge, a cooking class or a walking tour around the city, the agents get to bond on a different level and create relationships & culture that will benefit them personally and professionally. The events don’t have to cost a lot; people just enjoy doing things that take them outside of their workspace. (Bonus points for coming up with activities that don’t run after-hours or include a bar or alcohol.)

In addition to the wellness program, I developed a free, coaching program for our associates. The program offers access to an internal real estate coach who focuses on their business, and sessions with me, a certified leadership coach. More specifically, in this role I help associates define what success means to them, what their ideal life looks like, and what might be getting in the way of what they want to achieve. We work together to determine where they would like to go and how they can get there. Once a path has been established, we work toward it as a team.

Real estate is an all-consuming profession; to be successful you need to live and breathe the work and have it become part But at TTR, I have made it a priority to assist agents in establishing a healthy work-life balance and make that balance work to their advantage. I help them set boundaries,