Yesterday, I spoke with a high-performing manager about how she keeps the urgent needs of her agents from encroaching on the proactive time she sets aside for recruiting.

Perhaps she was just putting up a good front, but she manages two offices and appeared to be incredibly centered and calm.

When an agent comes to me with a problem, I make a point of not answering their questions.

Instead, I always start these conversations with:   What have you done up to this point to solve this problem?

And then follow-up with:  What do you believe the next steps should be to get this problem solved?

By taking this approach, she’s training her agents to think on their own.

This subtle shift in expectations puts the burden for developing solutions and executing back on the agent’s shoulders.

This strategy is a double win because it causes your agents to become more capable and frees you up to focus on the important work of recruiting.