Getting MORE out of your career with Focus

A collaborative corporate culture is an excellent foundation for high-performing teams and helps to drive creative solutions for customers and clients. It can also have benefits for individual employees beyond job performance. At Focus, we believe that by fostering collaboration, team members share knowledge which not only elevates the end result for our clients, but also helps to elevate careers through personal and professional development.

Recognizing this symbiosis, Focus offers all employees the opportunity to be part of the MORE (Mentoring Others Rewards Everyone) Program which pairs a mentee with a senior mentor who acts as a resource within the company. Mentors provide guidance, advice, technical skills and knowledge as part of larger professional and personal development program.

Program Design

The MORE Program is designed to last 1-year with several scheduled check-ins and interaction requirements but is otherwise open to interpretation by the mentor and mentee. Instead of crafting a rigid advisory schedule, the MORE Program invites participants to establish a clear set of deliverables based on the goals of the employees. Goals must fall into three categories, training, professional development or personal growth. Examples of the types of goals mentees might establish include:

Training

• LEED or Green Globe Qualifications
• Architecture Licensing
• Jobsite Safety Certification

Professional Development

• Admittance to a CRE industry organization or board
• Promotion or increased professional responsibility
• New external connections in the CRE industry

Personal Growth

• Improved soft skills
• Ability to hear and build on professional feedback
• Leadership abilities

After goals are set, and to facilitate early adoption into the program, mentees must select a book from an internal library of titles focused on career growth, to be discussed with their mentor. The library features titles like Work Rules! by Google's Laszlo Bock, Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and The Five DySFunctions of Teams by Patrick Lencioni. All of the options are studies of workplace topics like how to make the most of work, how to work effectively in a team or how to hone interpersonal interactions. The purpose of this requirement is to lay the groundwork for personal and professional growth being sought by the mentee.

The last requirement of the program aims to promote networking and requires pairs attend a relevant industry event together. As a young or inexperienced professional in the CRE industry, networking events are vital to your growth but can be very intimidating. Requiring participants attend an event together, increases the comfort level of the mentee and provides a working example to emulate. Not only does the requirement create a learning opportunity for team members but can launch new relationships for both the mentee and mentor which benefits employees and the company alike.

Achieving goals through mentorship

Success in the MORE Program is defined by the participants. As the relationship develops over the 12-month program, mentor and mentee are required to answer two questions:

1. How are you defining progress and success?

2. What steps are you taking towards success?

It’s important to establish and then re-evaluate how benchmarks are defined because, like in any professional setting, goals may shift. Mentees may approach a mentorship with one goal in mind and through the process, discover that they may need to accomplish another goal first or may pinpoint a new desired outcome altogether. The MORE Program aims to allow for flexibility by establishing space for continuous improvement and delivers tangible outcomes through the development of a professional relationship which benefits all parties.

Getting MORE at Focus

The MORE program is just one facet of the intentional company culture at Focus. Aimed at improving the experience of employees and elevating the effectiveness of teams, Focus’ work environment prioritizes honest conversations and values relationships. The MORE program is a natural extension of that culture and due to our integrated model Focus is home to employees who play very different roles in the real estate industry. That variety lends itself to a rich mentor environment. Previous partnerships included construction staff and business developers, human resource managers and CPAs. The benefits of the perspective gained through these types of mentorships garner a more well-rounded CRE professional benefiting the individual as well as the organization.

To learn more about the MORE program or about career opportunities with Focus, reach out today.