Real Estate Management Training - Brian Icenhower interviews Professor Raed Elyadi to learn about his "failure resume" leadership training tool.
Real estate is an industry where leadership, adaptability, and the ability to grow from challenges are paramount. To foster these qualities, a unique and transformative tool emerges: the Failure Resume. Unlike traditional resumes showcasing achievements, the failure resume dives into our setbacks and turns them into powerful growth opportunities.
This concept, developed by business professor Rod Eatman, is a cornerstone for real estate management training. By embracing failure as a stepping stone rather than a setback, leaders and teams can unlock their full potential. Let’s explore how the failure resume works and why it’s an essential tool for real estate agents, team leaders, and broker owners.
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VIDEO: Real Estate Management Training – The Failure Resume
Why Leaders Must Embrace Failure
The real estate industry demands resilience. Deals fall through, market conditions fluctuate, and rejection can feel personal. Yet, these challenges offer the richest opportunities for growth. All leaders are coaches, and great leaders help their teams navigate obstacles to rise to new levels.
The failure resume isn’t just a reflection tool; it’s a leadership strategy. By encouraging agents and teams to document, reflect on, and learn from their failures, leaders demonstrate empathy, build trust, and foster a growth mindset. It’s a way to reframe failure as progress rather than defeat.
What Is a Failure Resume?
The failure resume is a structured self-assessment tool. It encourages individuals to document failures across various life categories—career, relationships, education, personal health, or spiritual pursuits—and reflect on the lessons learned. The ultimate goal is behavioral change: shifting from limiting beliefs to a mindset open to growth and opportunity.
Rod Eatman explains, “People often self-handicap, making decisions that hurt their potential. The failure resume helps uncover the root causes of these behaviors, allowing individuals to move forward with clarity and confidence.”
Icenhower Connect allows team leaders, brokers, and owners to become entrepreneurs by adding integrated mortgage and insurance services their customers and agents already need to their existing real estate business.
Key Benefits for Real Estate Professionals
Self-Awareness: Successful leaders are self-aware. The failure resume fosters humility and a deep understanding of personal limitations, which are essential traits for leadership.
Improved Decision-Making: By analyzing past mistakes, agents and leaders can identify patterns, avoid repeating errors, and make informed decisions.
Emotional Resilience: Discussing failures can be emotional. However, processing these emotions helps individuals move past fears and insecurities that limit their potential.
Stronger Relationships: Vulnerability and openness build trust. Leaders who share their own failures inspire their teams to do the same, strengthening workplace bonds.
How to Create a Failure Resume
Follow these six steps to implement the failure resume process in your real estate team or brokerage:
1. Capture Failures
Begin by listing at least 10 significant failures. These can range from lost deals and missed goals to personal setbacks. Encourage honesty and vulnerability to ensure meaningful insights.
Example: An agent might note, “I failed to secure a listing presentation because I didn’t prepare thoroughly.”
2. Describe the Context
Provide brief descriptions of each failure. The focus is on clarity, not detail, so the situation is easy to recall.
Example: “I assumed my experience alone would impress the client. I neglected to research their property history and market conditions.”
3. Reflect and Learn
Reflection is the heart of the failure resume. Guide your team to explore the lessons from each failure. What skills were gained? How can this experience inform future actions?
Example: “I learned the importance of tailoring my presentations to each client’s unique needs and doing thorough preparation beforehand.”
4. Organize into Categories
Group failures into categories such as career, personal relationships, health, or education. This organization helps identify recurring patterns and areas for growth.
5. Reframe with Creativity
Encourage individuals to reframe failures through a creative lens. Use visual aids, journaling, or even role-play to see failures as growth opportunities.
Tip: Incorporate team exercises where members share their reframed failures and celebrate their progress together.
6. Skip and Return as Needed
Some failures may feel too sensitive to explore immediately. It’s okay to skip these initially and revisit them later. Emphasize progress over perfection.
Leading by Example: Vulnerability in Leadership
As a leader, sharing your own failure resume sets the tone for your team. Brian Icenhower notes, “Vulnerability isn’t weakness—it’s strength. When leaders open up about their setbacks, they inspire others to do the same.”
Sharing a personal failure, such as a misstep in a major transaction or an interpersonal conflict, and the lessons learned from it shows your team that growth comes from imperfection.
Inspiring Growth: The Failure Mindset
The failure resume isn’t just about identifying past mistakes; it’s about cultivating a mindset where failure equals growth. This aligns with the principles of “failing forward,” popularized by leadership expert John Maxwell, which encourages embracing failure as a necessary step toward success.
By normalizing failure within your real estate team or brokerage, you remove the fear of taking risks. Agents become more willing to step outside their comfort zones, try new strategies, and innovate.
Learn more about the Agent Management Portal
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Real-World Application: Sara Blakely’s Example
One of the most powerful illustrations of embracing failure comes from Spanx founder Sara Blakely. Her father celebrated failures, asking her daily, “What did you fail at today?” This practice ingrained a fearless attitude toward failure and propelled her to success.
For real estate professionals, this approach translates to taking bold steps, whether cold calling potential clients, experimenting with new marketing techniques, or negotiating deals creatively.
All leaders are coaches, and great leaders help their teams navigate obstacles to rise to new levels.
Brian Icenhower
Conclusion: Building Resilient Real Estate Teams
In real estate management training, the failure resume is a game-changer. It equips agents, team leaders, and broker owners with the tools to grow from setbacks, build stronger relationships, and foster an environment of trust and innovation.
By integrating the failure resume into your leadership strategy, you’ll not only elevate your team’s performance but also create a culture where growth is celebrated, and potential knows no bounds.
Start today—capture your failures, reflect on the lessons, and embrace the journey toward greater success. Failure isn’t the end; it’s the beginning of something extraordinary.
