I too liked Randy's blog.  I am in an office of about 80 agents.  One of the best things about my office is the people.  Very few, if any, of the agents wouldn't be willing to help one another.

I do think competition is good.  It keeps everybody on their toes.  I've heard coaches talk about players becoming much better when another player came in and pushed for their spot.  It is the same in our business.  You have to try and be one of the best. 

Competition is great when it is positive like this!  I am the same as you, love to hear new ideas and share my present ones. 

Very Nice post!  Not all office are created or run equally. I used to work for a corporation and what I noticed most as a new agent, was the lack of commaraderie between the agents. As times got tougher, they became more and more distant. It was nealy impossible to get a word of advise from the "pros". If something worked they kept it tightly sealed. I asked myself why in the world would I want to continue to come to a place that had a toxicity to it? Apparently my feelings were silently universal amoung the new agents. The mandatory training classes were virtually empty. Within 6 months, 50% pf the new agents had left for other companies. Yes, occasionaly few newbies would stumble in, but rarely did they last.  So from 35 agents, the team dropped to 17. The broker was not a team player either. She failed to acknowledge the agents but would come in to "check up and see if they showed up" on weekends. After shopping around, I found a great small company I wanted to hang my license in...it has made a world of difference is production. So whatever works is GREAT!  Large or small if you are happy you WILL produce and EVERYONE will profit!  Thanks for writing the blog!

I was just the other day bemoaning the way the real estate industry has changed (for the worse) with the lack of team spirit and intraagency cooperation and competition. It's great to be independent and work from home, but the modern world of real estate is also isolating. We would do well to return to at least some of the way things were in the old days.

Kay,

Thanks for the post. Friendly competition is good. We have staff meetings every Tuesday and today a listings campaign was the focal point of the first meeting of the new year. It's a good thing!

Every industry, every arena....competition often brings out the best!

Brett - You're right.  Trying to be one of the best is always good competition.  The struggle to the top has always been my competition.

Renee - Taking a positive attitude is one of my resolutions this year. 

Allison, congratulations for making a great move when you did.  Can you imagine working there today?  You're right!  When you're happy, you produce so much better.  Thank you for the comment.

Kathy, working at home and in the office is very different - I've tried.  I keep ending up back in the office.  Must be the drive in me to make sure everyone is doing their job.  Glad to see someone remembers the old days!!!!!!!

William, I wish you the best on your listing campaign.  My best competition is watching the board fill up with listings other than mine - sure is motivating when I'm behind in numbers.

Kaushik - competition doesn't change no matter the arena.  Thank you for the comment. 

When I started as a new agent, the office did not offer a lot of training.  The director of career development would stop by about once a week and ask "how are things?  hitting those doors?"  Uggh. Not helpful.  But I am a very competive person and the office had a special award each month for agents that had 2 or more transactions a month.  You got a certificate and a free lunch.  While it was a cheesy reward, the drive to be in the club was a strong one.  So all the agents my age had a friendly competition.  And we pushed each other.  And we got into the club.  Now that I have left that office, I miss the companionship.  Unfortunately, we have all scattered to different offices like fall leaves in the wind. 

Debi I miss that too.  Guess we need to plant new trees!  Remember when we hit every realtor luncheon to get a free meal?  AAAAAAAH!  The blessing of being broke!

This reminds me about something at my last office.  They had the big board up that showed everyone's production.  I would go into the room each and every morning to see where I stood.  It was hugely motivating to me. Sure kept me on my toes.

Diane, sometimes the old ways were better than what we do today.  Wouldn't it be something if we could figure out how to compete one on one with agents in Active Rain?

Nice idea --- friendly competition.  

I like competition, I think it keeps people on their toes and inspires. Some people take it too far though. 

Kay, great post. Most of us are competitive, but a lot of us also will share what we know. It's that sense of camaraderie that makes it fun to go to the office. You can build strong bonds with those agents around you.

Competition is always healthy.  It builds perfection through intent to make things better by challenging others.  Great post.

Ken

Our team sometimes breaks into groups of three or four and competes for bonuses at our quarterly meetings. It always adds a little more motivation and we often end up revising a system or model to make everyone more productive.

We used to play a game in "off season"  The Broker would put money on listing number 4 and 8 and 12 and 16 and it was fun.  The dollar amount grew as got further down "the board" so #4 might be $50 and #16 $500 bucks.  I remember calling and saying I'm coming in with #15 and the broker locked the door.  we had a great laugh.  Making fun and competition at the same time really motivates people.

I, too, started my career in an Office that although they were good on training, the Top Producers were not what I'd refer to as nice helpful people.  In fact, I left that office after a short 4 months.  However, my competitive streak would not allow me to quit.  I decided to take the advise of one friendly agent who told me that I might want to consider being a Buyer's Agent for a Top Producer in another company.  I will leave the names blank to protect the innocent. 

So I went on to becoming what I suppose those agents in my first office feared.  I then split from that Top Producer and went on my own and brought my husband into the business with me.  I had such a bad experience that I felt he was the only one I could trust.  Sadly that first experience set the stage for me in my career.  Perhaps it's an East Coast mindset.  I hate to be negative at all costs but I've never seen too many agents being helpful in the business.  Perhaps that's what I love about the AR community.  People are so giving, friendly and genuinely nice.  It's not like anything I've ever seen in this business.  We actually had an agent from that same company I started with threaten us with a lawsuit for doing what she claimed was "stealing her brand".  What we were doing was taking photos of the same town icons because we happen to have the same market area.  That's the sort of thing I'm talking about. 

Need I say, we love being helpful.  That's why we love being in Real Estate!  Thank you for your blog.  Hopefully it will touch at least one person and make them re-think how they treat other agents.  New or old!

Lisa

I love competition as well, however,  the other side of the coin is that it also creates negativity among the troops.  Some agents need that competition, and some average producers become demotivated, which in some cases is counter productive.  As adults, I feel the "sales board" has seen its better days, and the new way of agents working from home, and on the internet, is much more productive.  i know I'am in the minority here, however, I have seen many a good agent become upset at the competitve arena and leave for another office and they prosper.

Dick Beals

Ken, thank you for the response.  I actually talked with one of the realtors I wrote about today!  They said if we'd stayed in the same office, we'd be the top producers for our county.  Great complement!

John, what a great idea.  I think I'll try it.

Ardell - I'd be the one running in at the last minute and getting locked out!  LOL!  What a great idea. 

Lisa, I've been a top producer for years and still can't turn agents down when they need help.  What happened to you was not a good thing, however, I think it was a blessing - you get to work with your husband now.  What a great trade!!

Dick and Sandy , I've seen the same thing.  Some agents aren't as competitive as others.  Thank you for the comment.