A few years ago, I read The Game Changer by Dr Jason Fox. It explores why people will fail repeatedly in video games but keep coming back.
The answer? Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation—one is about rewards, the other is about purpose.
That idea stuck with me. Because if you’re leading a real estate team, you’re not just managing performance. You’re managing psychology.
At Besser and Co., we’ve been through phases of strong growth and cultural resets.
The biggest shift came in February 2022, when we went from a tight team of eight to a 24-person agency overnight.
I stood in front of a group of new team members and told them we’d just taken over the business.
It’s a moment I’ll remember for the rest of my life, not just because of the challenge, but because of what it taught me about leadership, values, and momentum.
In the early days of Besser and Co., I was focused on delivering genuine advice to clients.
I’d trained under some of the best coaches in the country, but I felt real estate had become too scripted and not human enough.
That belief still underpins everything we do—but the way we deliver on it has evolved.
The biggest lesson? Systems can’t live in your head. Culture can’t be an accident.
Best practice needs to be documented, shared, and constantly refined—especially if you want newcomers to succeed.
We’ve built frameworks around the everyday tasks in property management and sales: rent reviews, vendor communications, auction campaigns. And we’ve involved the team in shaping those systems so everyone owns them.
Hiring is also about values first, skills second. We use personality tests—not to label anyone, but to see how people receive feedback.
If they’re open to it, we’re already halfway there.
Of course, performance matters. But we’ve learned that tying success purely to commissions or KPIs doesn’t build lasting culture.
We’ve had to break models that rewarded output without alignment. Today, we balance rewards with meaning.
We have a “culture collective”—a cross-section of the team who help shape morale and lead conversations around people and performance.
And we celebrate wins, big and small – a great rent per square metre, a VCAT win, a task list under control, a big sale, even a small sale, or simply a face-to-face meeting.
That kind of recognition builds resilience in a tough market.
We’re still learning. But we’re also growing, with a team that buys into the journey, not just the job. That’s been the biggest game changer of all.
