It’s easy to bring on assistants and team members who think like you, but that’s often the biggest mistake you can make.
After all, most real estate agents don’t struggle with finding talent—they struggle with hiring the right talent.
At BAM Pro Bowl II, Tina Caul shared how the Working Genius framework transformed her hiring process, helping her build a team that actually gets things done. If you’ve ever felt like you’re drowning in unfinished tasks, constantly redoing work, or hiring the wrong people, keep reading.
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The Common Hiring Mistake: Hiring People Like You
1. We Naturally Gravitate to People We Like
Tina explained that most agents hire assistants and team members who share their strengths. If you’re a big-idea person, you’ll likely connect with other visionary thinkers.
But the problem? No one is there to execute the work.
Instead of hiring clones of yourself, you need to hire for your weaknesses. If execution, structure, and follow-through aren’t your strong suits, bringing on another idea-driven person will only create more chaos.
Hiring people to work with you typically gets hard because we like to hire people just like us—that we hit it off with…So, when I started to hire assistants that were just like me, people were smart, they were capable. But I started to figure out that they had the same weaknesses I did. And one of my major weaknesses is execution.
The result? “I wasn’t getting things finished. We had a lot of ideas. The ideas ended up in the idea cemetery. And frustration and resentment [started] to build.”
2. You’re Hiring for Skills, Not Natural Strengths
Many agents prioritize skills over innate strengths, but Tina argues that Working Genius—which identifies what naturally energizes someone—is far more important.
The 6 Types of Working Genius are:
- Wonder (W): Big-picture thinkers who ask “what if?”
- Invention (I): Idea creators and problem solvers.
- Discernment (D): Instinct-driven decision-makers.
- Galvanizing (G): Motivators who rally people into action.
- Enablement (E): Supporters who step in to help move projects forward.
- Tenacity (T): Finishers who push projects to completion.
If your team lacks E and T, ideas will never turn into results. Real estate teams thrive when every genius is represented.
3. Right Person, Wrong Seat
Even if you have talented people, they might be in the wrong roles.
As Tina put it:
People don’t struggle because they lack talent; they struggle because they’re in the wrong role. So, right person, right seat is what we’re looking for.
If an agent thrives in Galvanizing (rallying people) but they’re stuck doing paperwork, they’ll burn out. If a Tenacity-driven assistant is forced to brainstorm new marketing ideas, they’ll feel lost. Alignment is everything.
How to Fix Your Hiring Process
1. Take the Working Genius Assessment
Tina recommends that every agent (and their team) take the Working Genius assessment to:
- Identify personal strengths (and weaknesses)
- Pinpoint hiring gaps.
- Align team members with their natural talents.
2. Hire for Your Gaps, Not Your Comfort Zone
When hiring, ask yourself:
- What is my Working Genius?
- Where am I struggling in my business?
- Who do I need to complement my weaknesses?
If you’re full of ideas but struggle with execution, prioritize hiring someone strong in Enablement and Tenacity to bring your ideas to life.
3. Restructure Roles to Maximize Strengths
Before making another hire, evaluate your current team:
- Are they in their genius zone?
- Do their roles match their strengths?
- Are execution gaps slowing down your business?
By shifting people into roles that fit their natural strengths, you’ll see an instant improvement in efficiency, morale, and results.
4. Run Your Team on EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System)
Tina runs her business on EOS, a framework outlined in Traction by Gino Wickman. EOS provides a clear structure for business operations, ensuring that the right people are in the right seats and that projects move forward efficiently.
Build a Genius-Powered Team
Hiring isn’t just about filling roles—it’s about creating a team where everyone operates in their genius zone. When you align people with their strengths, your business will run smoother, productivity will skyrocket, and you’ll spend less time fixing mistakes.
Don’t keep making the same hiring mistakes. The Working Genius assessment can help you evaluate your team and start hiring for execution—not just ideas.
Aside from learning what you can from the assessment, connecting with other real estate agents and team leaders and exchanging ideas with them can transform your business from stale and struggling to energized and thriving.
As Tina explained, presenting the six types of genius (W.I.D.G.E.T.) as a system of gears, when you’ve got the right people in the right roles, every person on your team is leveraging their natural gifts to help the team function as a unified and dynamic whole.
Every member of the team is also bringing their full energy to their roles because their love for the work they do keeps that energy flowing.
Once you’ve got that in place, workplace communication also tends to improve, enabling the people on your team to better collaborate with each other to reach your company goals.
