Ask An Ambassador: Lessons Learned

And too often in my life I've seen corporate procedures (and real estate offices for that matter) stuck in the same/same approach, when something new is needed.

People really don't like change!

Kat, it was similar in my last role, a new department was created to meet regulatory requirements.  We began doing work that had belonged to other people prior, and rather than being happy they'd have more bandwidth to focus on priority projects, there was fighting to keep the work.  Ultimately the new process was accepted (and even appreciated), but it took some time.

One lesson after another to be learned as we go about living.
Letting gas sit too long in my snow blower?  Lesson learned :)
That an appliance company will try to claim that a lint catcher isn't a warrantied part and isn't covered because it's not "functional"?  And that the part will be covered if you make it clear you're not accepting less than that?  Lessons learned :)

Patricia Feager , the learning never stops does it?  Rarely does the path perfectly follow what we expect.  We can do the best that we can, work as hard as we can, and things can still go sideways.  Clients change their minds after we did exactly what we were asked to do. 

Your friend isn't off the mark.  If you give something your best shot, learn what we can, and keep moving forward.

And your friendship is also appreciated :)

Asking for help has always been one of the hardest things for me to do, but I've been more willing in recent years to hand off work that I know I'm capable of doing, but not the best at.  E.g. website redesigns I leave to the pros, most appliance repairs I'll have someone who does it for a living and has all the specialty tools come do.

No doubt, there are always new opportunities for me to put my foot in my mouth :)

All good so far!

Carol Williams , it took me some time to listen to others here and once I followed Anita Clark's advice, I started to get more results.

My hope for the Tuesday posts is that I can help shorten someone's learning curve so they can have success quicker.  That's good for them and the long term health of this community.

One of the things that I look forward to post-move is the new opportunities for learning.  My focus may be on gardening and history, but there will be plenty more to explore.

I had some good partners to work with, even though the project was very trying.

One of the engineers there was the first to introduce me to using pivot tables in Excel.  I've gotten a lot of mileage out of that teaching :)

No argument from me on that.  It's a continual review to find improvements.

Fred Griffin Florida Real Estate , I think we've all done something that went beyond reasonable effort.  One buyer we kept going with after about 70 showings, and that one DID pay off, but he was relocating and we knew he HAD to have a home.  A few years ago I was working with another buyer couple on the fringe of my service area.  30-45 minute drives to show a home or two.  They never acted on any of them, always something just enough wrong to not offer.  Finally we walked into the perfect home, just minutes from where she worked, and they still hesitated..and then played the victim card when it went under contract the next day.  That was the final straw, I referred them to another agent with full warning about what I had dealt with.  I never got a referral fee, and never searched county records to see if they did finally purchase, but at least I wasn't wasting my time on someone that apparently just enjoyed looking at houses.

You're welcome!

Olga, it was other Rainers that taught me how to make blogging pay off, about escalation clauses, QR codes and a host of other good to know items!