To put it frankly, Seven Gables agents are prouder than anybody else. Each agent is hand selected and they understand what it takes to stand tall above the rest. Why? Because their happiness at work is directly reflected onto their ability to bring their clients top notch service. We hear this phrase all the time in real estate, ‘I will go above and beyond’, but what does that statement really mean? Answering client calls at midnight? Cutting vacation short to close on a deal? Driving clients around 15 new neighborhoods in one day? Or maybe it’s less about the tangible details and more about the culture that stands elevated and eminently behind an agent.
Culture embodies the belief, the values and energy that you find in an organization. Culture is not something that you can touch, it’s not something that you can see, but it sure is something that you can feel.
“Have you ever walked into a room or met somebody who just had a ‘bad vibe’?” asked Mike Hickman, President of Seven Gables Real Estate. “In Essence, culture is very similar. You can feel the culture in a company and you notice that this culture is created because the company’s values are aligned with those of its people who want to work together.”
Hickman is the driving force behind Seven Gables’ values driven business. The Seven Gables Management Team at focuses on three pillars; building culture, developing people, selectively growing our business. These are proven philosophies that foster happiness from the ground up and establish thriving organizations.
If you ever attend a Seven Gables Sales Meeting, you can be assured it won’t put you to sleep. People are outgoing, excited to meet new agents, ready to take on the next quarter. The culture is permeated with eager and content people and it couldn’t be more clear to a hawk.
“Seven Gables gives a lot of support to every agent and they make sure we are educated on what it means to have a positive work/life balance,” said Seven Gables Agent, Shauna Drumm. “We had a seminar and had to go completely unplugged [from technology] and separate from our work and shift to working on our personal lives. Coming from somebody with three children all under the age of five, I couldn’t ask for a more supportive organization to be a part of.”
It’s the culture that keeps its agents happy and also keeps them sticking around. One-third of agents switch to a new firm each year on average according to a study performed by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Seven Gables, on the other hand, rarely sees its agents leave to another brokerage.
“To maintain culture, we make certain that we carefully select the associates that we bring to Seven Gables and make sure that they feel significant, that their work and image of the firm are aligned and that we constantly provide them with a clear vision of certainty on values and their future,” said Hickman.
Happiness allows success to blossom, success does not create happiness. Seven Gables inherently holds this to be true and factual and that’s how a company can begin to build culture all while seeking to improve day in and day out.
