This is one of my most favorite times of the year, the start of the college basketball season. For officials like myself, this time of year is filled with anticipation and expectation. That is because the start of the season means that officiating assignment schedules are being sent out. Most people don’t realize it, or even think about it, but officials are usually assigned to a game at the very beginning of a season, or month, in some cases. The conference supervisor of officials looks at the entire schedule of games and assigns officials accordingly.
Naturally, some games are thought to be better, or more important, than others. In the large Division I conferences like the ACC, Big East, and Pac-10, the general hierarchy of games from most to least desirable is:
1) Nationally Televised Games
2) Televised games
3) Rivalry Games
4) Conference Games
5) Non-conference Games
If you watch college basketball on television and take a look at the names of the officials that are working those games, you will begin to notice that the same names will start to crop up consistently. These officials represent the cream of the officiating crop. These are the same names that you will see working deep into the NCAA Tournament in March.
My point is that EVERY official, from top to bottom, has expectations before the assignments are handed out. Every official knows the games, and knows the ones that they want to work, or the ones that they think they should work, etc. For some, their expectations are high, sometimes too high. This leaves many unsatisfied officials during the days after the assignments are sent out. Not everyone is going to get the games they expected to get. Egos can be easily bruised during this time of year.
The best advice I have ever heard when it comes to handling these expectations came from Steve Welmer. Welmer is a member of the aforementioned cream of the officiating crop. I had the chance to attend an officiating camp at which Welmer gave a presentation on this very subject. I will never forget his words. He looked at a room full of aspiring Division I NCAA officials and said, “You know what, the only official in the country that is satisfied with his schedule at the end of the season is the one who gets be the referee and toss the ball for the National Championship Game.” He went on to explain that every other official feels that they could have done better, that they could have had better games, or done a better job on the games that they did work. What was his advice for handling the disappointment of not meeting one’s expectations? Work harder in the off-season and the next year. If you want a better schedule, than you need to do something about it. It was that simple.
Since I heard that speech, I adapted his words into something that I could use and remember. I always try to remember to be– satisfied, but not complacent. The applies to real estate in many different ways. From my perspective, it means that when I do everything that I can think of for a listing presentation, or to find a home for my buyers, and it doesn’t work out the way that I would like, that’s okay. I can handle that. What I can’t handle is not working harder to try get that next listing, or find a home for the next clients. I must be satisfied that I have done what I can do today, but not let complacency prevent me from working harder to do better tomorrow.
This philosophy applies not only to agents, but to clients as well. Many times, a selling client will go into the process with expectations that are difficult, if not impossible, to meet. A public open house is one event that is very good at failing to meet the expectations of a client. I don’t know about you, but if I sold a home based on its first open house as many times as they do on the TV shows, I would be running 2-3 every weekend. The reality is that the majority of time, an open house is not going to produce an offer, at least not right away. If the client is expecting to sell the home based solely on one public open house, they are probably going to be disappointed. Open house feedback can also be tough for a client to swallow. Many times, they expect everyone who walks through the house to fall in love with it, just as they have. The feedback that people give can often make sellers disappointed at the very least, and downright angry at the very worst.
What do we do about this? The best thing to do is to be encouraged by the fact that people were actually interested enough to come to the open house, and then deal accordingly and reasonably with the disappointing feedback. People may not like the home’s floor plan, which you can’t change; but you may be able to move or remove furniture so that it makes the floor plan more palatable. If people think the house is too dark, open blinds, or add lighting. Just because the feedback is a disappointment doesn’t mean that you are forced to live with it. Do something about it.
For buyers, maybe the prices or the features of the homes available to them on the market aren’t exactly what they are looking for. They may be moving from another area, and are disappointed by higher prices than they are used to, or lack of lot space, or whatever. That’s fine. What they can do is try to find a home that gives them as much as possible of what they want, and as little as possible of what they don’t. That may sound obvious, but a lot of people get so caught up in their disappointment that they let it cripple them and they fail to work harder to find a solution. Many times, it is the job of the agent to make sure that clients don’t wallow in disappointment. Hard work on the part of the agent can be contagious, and it can motivate clients to overcome their own disappointment.
Expectation can be a dangerous thing. When it is met, everyone is happy, and all is right with the world. When it isn’t met, the situation can go downhill fast. It is at this time that clients and agents are tested. They must decide if they will be satisfied with those unfulfilled expectations, and just quit; or will they turn their disappointment into motivation and refuse to be complacent, continually working harder to achieve goals and meet expectations?
I’ve made my choice, how about you?
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You are so good in turning a BBall game or ref – ing into a real estate matter. Very impressive.
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