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Nicholas West, Take ownership of productivity


Nicholas West Take ownership of productivity

We all have the same amount of hours every day, but it is how well we spend those hours that makes the difference in work success. Nelson Alexander partner Nicholas West has spent a long time honing his personal productivity to reach the heights he has in his career.

Knowing he wasn’t naturally disciplined, Mr West set about making himself accountable so he could improve constantly and work his way up to the next career level. This commitment has seen him move through many levels to be at the top of his game.

Be Accountable To Someone

One of his first accountable actions was to establish a peer partnership with friend and business partner James Keenan. The pair meets weekly to review their daily and weekly activities. This discipline helped to “remove the ebbs and flows of downtime and uptime and create a far more consistent operation, operating costs and operating ability,” he explained, adding the meetings have an agenda so they don’t stray from the purpose.

Between Mr West and Mr Keenan, they devised a form they each use to document their daily prospecting calls. These forms are handwritten, which Mr West said was deliberate as it gave him ownership of the figures. “I find that if I put pen to paper, rather than typing it on a computer, I actually own it more. It makes me think about what I’m writing down,” he added.

Keep Track of Results

The daily results are collated on a weekly summary sheet which is used at the weekly peer partnership meeting. This sheet includes the number of appraisals, prospecting calls, buyer appointments, vendor meetings and face-to-face meetings with potential vendors, plus property management leads given, the leads Mr West’s assistant provided, properties signed up and listed, properties sold and lost listings.

This process means Mr Keenan picks up any down periods Mr West is in quicker than he might himself, and together they can pinpoint the issue. “You’ve got to be honest in those meetings and be prepared to be challenged in a good way. It’s a very clear way of becoming accountable and identifying where you’re at,” he said. “There are points where, if everyone’s honest with one another, you’re not operating at your peak and you need someone to pick you up. Unless you’ve got an ability to share it with someone on a regular basis and it’s measurable and tangible, you tend to find you remain in that down cycle for far too long and it impacts on your mental approach, it impacts on your productivity, and therefore it impacts on the business performance and on people around you.”

This accountability has allowed Mr West to set himself weekly targets of making 100 calls, seeing 15-20 properties, listing 5-6 of those properties and selling 5-6 properties at auction or through private treaty.

Review your performance

The final piece of Mr West’s productivity strategy is what he calls the “Three Rs”. In this he asks:

  1. What was the Result of your performance for the week?
  2. What was the Reason for the good week or the bad week?
  3. What’s the Response - what are you going to do in the next week to ensure that you have another good week, or that your week improves?

The mixture of discipline, accountability and the desire to succeed are the essential ingredients of Mr West’s personal productivity system.


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Nicholas West Take ownership of productivity