At a recent team leader retreat, Tom Ferry outlined the top 10 reasons agents leave teams.

1.    They’re burned out.
2.    The environment isn’t fun or isn’t fun anymore.
3.    They’ve become self-sufficient (many agents join a team to “figure-out” real estate).
4.    They have bigger personal goals than the team can meet.
5.    They feel like they’ve outgrown the team (I’ve learned everything I’m going to learn here…).
6.    They’re not being recognized in a meaningful way.
7.    The value proposition is not adding up (Others like me are earning more money and accomplishing more…).
8.    They are not understood by those on the team (lack of empathy).
9.    They don’t feel an emotional attachment to the team leader, others on the team, or the mission.
10.    They get recruited away with a more compelling offer.

If you’re a team leader, this is your retention scorecard. Many of the things on this list are emotional issues that require your direct involvement to fix.

If you compete with teams (i.e., recruit, train, and support independent agents), these are the hot-button issues that often cause agents to step out on their own.

In both cases, the first step to building a recruiting/retention strategy is understanding the pain an agent is experiencing.