Starting a real estate team is a natural evolution for an established agent searching for more out of their career, and embracing a leadership mindset is critical to its success. As a real estate agent, you understand your role clearly, but building and managing a team requires a new set of skills and strategies that must be cultivated and developed over time. A real estate team leader’s attitude and perspective is just as important to the team’s success as a solid business plan.
What makes an effective leader?
Leadership is more than just people management. An effective leader aligns the team’s goals, steadfastly navigating the team towards their collective outcome. As a real estate team leader, one must be able to expertly balance the development of both the team as a whole and the individuals that comprise it.
Soft skills matter
Successful leaders are confident in their business acumen as well as their ability to leverage soft skills to foster a deeper team connection. Leadership is more than just running a business, it’s a mindset. Strong leaders embrace their mission authentically and are curious and committed to continuous growth, active listeners, understanding and supportive of others’ wants and needs, and above all, fearless in their pursuit of their goals.
Leadership strategies to consider
When building your team, make sure the foundation of your business is strong enough to support your team’s success by leveraging the following strategies:
Make space for collaboration and contribution. Encourage your team to bring their ideas to the table, a fresh perspective may be the spark you need to push your business forward. While you understand your business best as the leader, being open to differing viewpoints or ideas is truly a sign of greatness.
Applaud hard work. Acknowledging your team’s accomplishments, ensures your team feels heard, supported and valued. As a team, each member is committed to collective success, and it’s important to shine a light on the wins as they come.
Set realistic goals. Managing expectations is also important as a leader; you never want to set a goal so high it is unattainable. When unrealistic goals are set for the team, it can become too easy to fall into a negative mindset that is detrimental to your growth. While goal setting should be aspirational, understanding the limits of your business is necessary.
Embrace opportunity and development. Fostering an environment that celebrates continuous learning will ensure your team can easily evolve, adapt and grow to meet business needs. Encourage your team to push themselves outside of their comfort zone, explore continuing education courses or finally secure that long-awaited designation. Investing in your team’s enrichment is an investment in your business, every single time.
Forward focused on success
While it may be easy to get caught up in past missteps or regrets, looking forward is one of the most important things a strong leader can do. Planning for the future may include scaling up your team, implementing new marketing strategies or adopting new processes to automate workflow and efficiencies—whatever your future, remain focused on what’s in store for your business to maintain career momentum.
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