Every true leader understands the value in measuring the caliber of people in their organization. It doesn’t matter what kind of group or organization you are leading, or the size; the caliber of people you lead speaks volumes about you, your organization, and your direction.  As Dennis Peer put it, “One measure of leadership is the caliber of people who choose to follow you.”

There is a great relationship that is developed within a great organization, the leader motivates, and guides, but eventually the group matches the challenge and catches up, and now they push the leader forward so that the whole company can grow. Against that push, the leader must strive to find new objectives, new models and new goals in order to once again bring the organization forward in its development. The French diplomat Tallyerand, once said “I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion, than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.”

At the 2007 NAR Conference & Expo Bob Moles and I were recognized and awarded the prestigious RISMedia National Home Ownership Award for “outstanding achievements among residential real estate’s most influential and charismatic leaders.”  Often, as President of Intero, I accept such awards, but these awards are truly achieved because of the team that I lead. The Intero team of agents, staff and management are the highest caliber in the business, and I have the privilege of leading them.

Soon, it will be time to turn the spotlight back on those who push me every day to be a better leader by once again recognizing the best within our group through the Intero Achievement Awards. Every year it is a nice benchmark for where we stand as a company and as individual members of the whole.

It has been demonstrated that people’s motivation to increase their productivity only increases when they have a challenging goal and receive feedback on their progress. The awards are a very public way to give that feedback. It lets us know if we are still climbing, and it lets me know how much more I need to do to meet the challenge.  As described above, the leader pulls the group forward, and the group rises to the challenge and pushes the leader to still greater achievements, the group’s momentum never stops.