The road to “top producer” is paved with discarded practices and self-defeating habits, and only those who can learn not to get in their own way will make it there.

Here are four bad habits that can hold agents back from reaching their full top-producer potential.

Avoiding conflict

We’ve all heard of the “fight or flight” response in times of strife. In professional situations that are not life or death, whether it’s an argument over who gets a lead or a discussion about your commission split with your managing broker.

Most people will avoid or ignore conflict altogether to avoid marring a relationship with a colleague, according to the Conflict Dynamics Profile (CDP), an assessment instrument that measures conflict behaviors developed at Eckerd College. But according to the CDP, that choice can lead to even more stalemates down the road. It’s a bad precedent to set with your agent peers or managing broker. The solution?

The CDP suggests restarting the conversation and to view the conflict from the other person’s perspective. Don’t allow conflicts to fester; both parties should engage in an honest discussion, then collaborate to work towards a solution.

Too much on your plate

Agents handle emails, client calls, meetings, contracts, showings, listing presentations and more–a successful career in real estate can look a lot like a sophisticated juggling act. Though it’s very common, multitasking can cause you to make more mistakes, lower the quality of your work and ultimately diminish productivity, according to Jeff Davidson, MBA, CMC and work-life balance expert. As the saying goes, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Devote all your time, attention, energy, focus, concentration and effort on the task at hand, and then turn to what’s next, according to Davidson.

Procrastinating

When faced with three tasks ranging in difficulty between easy, moderate and hard, the choice of what to tackle first may seem obvious: get the easiest tasks out of the way. But according to Roy F. Baumeister, Frances Eppes Professor of Psychology at Florida State University, individuals have within them “one stock of willpower or one self-control muscle.” In his lab research, once an individual has exerted self-control in one task, then arrived at a new task requiring self control, the person would perform worse on the second task.
So, tackle the most difficult task first to ensure you have the willpower to get it done. Whatever that is to you – putting together a listing presentation, preparing comps for a seller, handling an appraisal – deal with it up front and save easy tasks for later.

Over-Promising

Agents may be tempted to over-promise to clients in order to win a listing or appease them, but this will ultimately compromise your integrity, according to Linda Galindo, a California-based motivational coach, author and C-Suite consultant.
“Energy and vibrancy in a business culture is drained away when integrity begins to lose its power in favor of simply making things look good,” she says. Galindo’s solution: Hold yourself accountable and demonstrate “impeccable follow-through” with clients and other agents.