As a real estate broker, your job is to keep your agents motivated and productive. In order to do so, it’s critical to hone your leadership skills and become the leader your agents want to follow and emulate. Many brokers make the mistake of simply managing their people, and then wonder why their agents are frustrated or uninspired. Leaders build trust with their agents and inspire them to become better professionals. Here are three ways to improve your leadership skills and cultivate a successful brokerage.
Know Your Vision
A true leader has a vision for their organization and seeks to ensure this vision becomes reality. The vision could be to become the top brokerage in your marketplace or to improve your marketshare—but, it’s not enough to just have the vision; you have to share it with your agents and remind it of them often. Rally them around your vision and develop goals to get there. Don’t be afraid to fail or succeed in the process of achieving your vision.
Cultivate Integrity
Integrity is more than having strong moral convictions, and it’s more than being true to your word. It’s living by your convictions and doing what’s expected of you. If you want to cultivate integrity in your office, it’s important to model the traits you’d like to see in your agents. Arrive on time in the office and to meetings. Be prepared for meetings with clients and your agents. Be true to your word.
Encourage integrity in your office by keeping your agents accountable to what they say they’ll do. Help them realize their potential and stay true to their goals. Mentor them, offer advice and encouragement when they need it and make sure they can see you modeling the right behaviors you’d like them to emulate. They will become a reflection of you.
Build Trust
Real estate is a tough business. When your agents work transactionally, they are always trying to drum up business from cold or lukewarm leads; however, when they work relationally, they’re able to tap into their existing relationships to generate leads and referrals. At the core of these relationships is trust. We like to work with people we know and trust, who we know have our best interests at heart.
Nurture this sense of trust by building it with your agents. Just as you encourage them to connect with their clients, offer great service and go the extra mile, do all of these things for your agents. Make time to connect with them regularly to check in, inquire about their lives and goals and offer encouragement. Deliver thoughtful gifts to their desks, such as a favorite warm beverage or book, when they need a bit of motivation or “just because.” Write personal notes to keep them motivated and remind them you care. All of these seemingly small, but thoughtful gestures work to develop trust over the long term. Model them for your agents, and you’ll give them the tools to put them into practice with their clients.
As with any skill, keep your leadership skills sharp by using them often and looking for ways to improve them through training and personal growth. Listen to podcasts and read books written by notable business, military or sports leaders. Also, seek out the advice of a business leaders, whether in the industry or in another professions, who are further along the path than you and tap into their expertise to help you become a more effective leader of your brokerage. We can learn so much from the experiences of others. Just as you should seek to mentor your agents, seek a mentor who can help you become a better leader.
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