You’ve decided to start a real estate team, determined your compensation models and hired a really terrific person. The next issue you will face will be how to integrate that person into your new or existing team and how to retain him. When agents start a team, most become frustrated when the team does not perform well right from the beginning.

A critical point to keep in mind is that building a high-performance team requires time, patience and the team leader’s attention. Psychologist Bruce Tuckman created an excellent model that describes the four steps required in creating and maintaining a successful team.

The four steps are, “forming, storming, norming and performing.”Whether you are starting your team from scratch or adding new members to an existing team, a critical point to keep in mind is that you must go through the process below every single time the team changes.

1. Forming When you add a new team member, everyone is excited and hopeful about the future. They may also be apprehensive, especially if the person is joining an existing team. The forming stage is about realigning tasks and job descriptions to fit the strengths and the weaknesses of your current team members.

This is the reason that it is so important to use a behavioral assessment such as the DISC, as well as Tom Rath’s StrengthsFinder. Each of these tools allows everyone on the team to see what each team member does well and what needs to be handled by other team members. It also helps the team leader to identify the skills needed for the next hire.

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2014/04/28/building-and-retaining-a-successful-real-estate-team-identify-strengths-procedures-and-your-big-why/?utm_source=20140428&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam#sthash.ssbrtzd7.dpuf