Real estate is an industry where leaders face unique problems. Business in general is not for everyone, but leading a real estate agency is specifically challenging given its sales led. Selling or buying a home is a high stakes deal and there’s a lot of big emotions at play.
As I’ve said before, much of real estate is about the 3 Ds: Debt, divorce, and death. It’s about managing the reality of these situations, not just the record-breaking sales, big commissions, and luxury listings.
I can’t think of any other industry where there’s this false stereotype of flashiness, when the real work is the emotional side of the transaction. But because real estate is a performance-based industry, leaders must be expert salespeople, psychologically aware, and able to coach a team through all seasons, markets, legislative changes and motivation.
This is why I’m so passionate about coaching and mentoring fellow real estate CEOs.
This month, I’ve coached leaders who have been facing a revenue crisis and trying to keep cash coming in, and others that have no challenges with acquiring customers but then have chaos behind the scenes with lack of systems holding them back.
The great thing about coaching is often you have the answers already, but a coach gives you the right sounding board for someone who is actively in the space to unlock a better version of you to solve the problem you are facing.
I’m not the kind of coach who is detached from the industry, just speaking on stages. I’m actively leading, selling and mentoring at Nitschke, while coaching colleagues on the side. I’m a few steps ahead, not detached from our industry. This makes a world of difference, as I can help share what’s working for me in real-time, so you can skip some of these tough lessons.
Whether your issue revolves around recruitment, cashflow, systems or positioning, it’s helpful to have a clear philosophy around problem-solving.
I like to use the 3 steps to success framework:
- Elevate your state (your mental, emotional, physical and spiritual self)
- Raise your standards (establish and protect your values and vision)
- Simplify your strategies (pull back and re-establish your baseline as a business)
The second part of solving a problem is the process. For us, we use the operational framework, EOS. It centres on the Issues List (which you can use for yourself in The Operating System), which is a proven framework for raising, discussing and solving problems.
One example of this was a personnel issue we had. We documented it, discussed it in the meeting, then assigned an action to ‘hold a mediation between the two employees.’ We set up an open forum where both people could share their concerns and hear the other’s perspective, with a support person there. We were able to find some common ground, highlight their differences and agree on a go-forward plan.
We were able to resolve the issue and as a leader, I learned the power of mediation in management.
The lesson here is that many of the complex issues real estate leaders face can be solved with the right system for your business. Grab a 15-minute slot in my calendar if you need help working through problems in your property business.