Entrusting Talent to Run Your Real Estate Team

Whether you refer to the position as a general manager, lead agent or team leader, the idea of stepping away from the duties of running your real estate team and entrusting another individual with the responsibility of managing the day to day activities of the business is often frightening. The key ingredient necessary to accomplish this feat is leadership. Many real estate agents are excellent workers and even managers, but can they empower others to be leaders? The following will examine some of the key leadership principles to keep in mind when developing a business that can truly run itself.

Why Step Away and Let Go of Control?

For decades agents have ran their businesses according to the flawed model that the only way to make more money is to work more hours. Accordingly, concepts like retirement, travel and increased personal time always equated to less real estate business income. Selling a real estate practice is equally difficult. After an agent sells his or her business client loyalty tends to evaporate under new ownership. Therefore, the concept of employing a talented individual to maintain the high level of customer service and production expected has increasingly caught on as the preferred method for agents to continue to receive passive income while enjoying other pursuits.

Talent, Systems & Profit are a Must

In order to put oneself in the proper position to leverage the leadership duties of the business there are a few key elements that must be in place. First, the team must be talented and skilled from top to bottom in order to attract top talent to lead the business. A talented leader would always prefer to build their own business over fixing a broken one. The team must also be efficiently systematized with leveraged duties so that a new leader can step in without needing to micro-manage team members or repeatedly refer back to the the team’s owner for help. Most importantly, the team must be consistently profitable to justify compensating new leadership. Whether compensation be provided by salary, a percentage of the profits, production bonuses, ownership shares, or a combination thereof, the team’s customer base and income must be significant to attract top talent and ensure the success of the business going forward.

Empower Leadership in Others

Business philosophist Peter Drucker said “management is doing things right, and leadership is doing the right things”. No one will be able to manage the team successfully into the future. The team must be lead through the necessary change, evolution and growth that any business must encounter on the continued path to success. Here are some of the key differences between managers and leaders: