Introducing Leese Rogers

Leese has been with us for nearly a year now. I have mentioned her a number of times in this blog,so she is overdue for an introduction.

I am going to go over the background to Leese’s hiring next week, but to keep that short, Kim and I found ourselves struggling to get enough done in the day and we went looking for someone who we could pass work on to. Consistent with our growth method, rather than finding an EA each, we would share! 

Leese brings a tremendous amount of experience to the team. Her experience includes setting up systems for real estate offices, assisting agents in administration and marketing. She has strong social media skills. She has worked in and on in-office events and in that ever important space of gifting. She is skilled in design and able to do lots of tech stuff! 

But these skills are only a part of what Leese brings to the table. 

In Kim’s words: “I remember realising sometime last year that I was carrying too much of the knowledge and the load. I knew I needed to share that capacity with someone I could trust to step in and keep things moving without me. Leese is that person. She’s able to seamlessly take on responsibilities as they come up, often elevating them beyond what I’d imagined. I call her the other half of my brain. I still remember being on a family holiday, cruising up the Gold Coast Highway, and saying out loud, ‘God, I feel relieved to have somebody capable like Leese on the team who can pick things up when I’m not around.’ ”

Her experience in real estate offices supporting agents has given her what we really need in a business like this – someone who understands things from both an administrative perspective and from the salespeople’s perspective – one of the major tensions in any business with a ‘sales department’ and an administration team or ‘head office’. 

Once more though, this is only part of the picture. Because amongst all this capability, we are very fortunate to have found someone that is just amazing to work with on an interpersonal level. 

We were in a meeting this week discussing communication, and Leese said ‘I can’t not be myself’. And so in a team that values honesty, fairness and candor, and can’t tolerate ass kissing, this is an invaluable trait. At times this is amusing (even slightly frustrating) but always helps us get to the solution.

In this ‘being herself’ Leese also wears her heart on her sleeve and in her we have someone with genuine sensitivity and emotional intelligence that is able to offer the right support at the right time, on time. This means that if someone is unwell, bereaved, or generally out of sorts they might receive a care package, that means if someone has communicated ongoing frustration with something Leese is likely to step in and help. If they have done something well, they are likely to receive some kind of thoughtful recognition. And as I said, it happens on time!! 

I will also add – it is not all heart emoji’s and positive fairy dust – Leese can cuss like a pirate and swear like a soldier too. So when it comes to real estate, she fits right in!  

Lastly, she is a team building queen. The latest admin team builder has been a series of easter related tasks, which (unlike the Christmas Elf activity) has managed to stay fairly ‘G rated’. I want to figure out how we can introduce these activities to those on the sales team who want to participate too – in the meantime, Leese has attached some of the Easter memes from task number one (because I can’t do anything myself…).   

I know that this blog has been a long time coming Leese, and I have only scratched the surface of what you bring. On behalf of Kim and I, and the rest of the team, thank you for the year. You have made a difference here and you have made our remote working distributed group feel more like a team with more connections and more shared experiences. You have spread a lot of good will and done some amazing work on some big projects. 

Oh, and by the way, thanks for keeping my inbox down to one page – Keeping that closer to zero than to 10,000 is a game changer! 

I look forward to what the next year brings!

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Leese’s introduction actually has a part 2 (yes Leese, you get two blogs). I go back to the hiring process – Leese didn’t make it easy for us and on her part it was a master class in presentation and negotiation. I want to share what she did, and I also want to share how I handled it, because when it comes to finding the right people to work with sometimes you have to go with your gut. As well as a lot of learning, I think that you will find the story quite amusing so keep an eye out for Round 2 next Thursday.