Many years ago I hired a coach to help me with some challenges in my real estate business.
As a team leader in a very fast-growing real estate company, I was having a hard time to find a balance between my personal sales and my responsibilities as a leader.
Before I go deeper on what I learned from my coach, I would like to emphasise the idea of finding the right coach or mentor. Early in real estate, I learned that solving problems alone is a stressful venture. I soon found that asking help from coaches and mentors is the best investment any individual or group can ever make.
I still remember the first meeting I had with a coach. He told me something I have never forgotten.
He said that a real estate professional or any sales professional needs 4 things in their career.
- The right attitude
- Ongoing learning appetite
- A massive action plan
- A mentor.
Yes, he ended with a mentor. He also mentioned the following quote, “Nobody in the world ever became rich alone.’’ You need others to be able to grow, so you can become rich, wealthy and enjoy abundance.
In order to grow, you need to understand that two things will happen.
The first thing is that you will get confused. Our brain doesn’t like confusion, so we would rather stay in the comfort zone. However, when you commit to growth, you embrace the confusion and understand its part of the process.
The second thing that comes together with growth is struggles. Many things simply don’t come easy, which means you will hit walls, get stuck, and many times feel exhausted. Also part of the process, but it’s so much harder if you have to do this alone.
And that brings me to the point of my story. We need more leaders to help people succeed in real estate. And many times leaders fail to understand that this is their sole responsibility towards any team member.
Coming back to my coach, where I explained that I had a hard time balancing personal sales and my leadership. I mentioned something to my coach, which made my coach give me feedback that would change the course of my career.
I mentioned to my coach, “It’s really not easy to have my personal sales managed and at the same time manage a group of people to do what I expect from them.’’
My coach laughed and gave me the following feedback,
“As a team leader you need to learn that your team doesn’t work for you, you work for your team. If you are not ready from them or can’t commit to their success, please don’t be their leader.”
Ouch, that was a smack in the face. A kick in the back of the knees and a reality check I needed.
He was absolutely right. I was playing the game of personal sales, manage a team according to my expectations, and having a selfish approach towards winning in real estate all by myself.
In the following week, my coach helped me understand what I really wanted. He asked me, “What do you want? Have personal sales or be a leader?” In the beginning, I told him both.
He told me that both definitely is an option, but only expect to get 50% of the results, as the other 50% I’m focussed on other things.
I started to understand that real estate leadership is a commitment that needs my full attention, with the sole responsibility to help others succeed by supporting, coaching, mentoring, and empowering them.
If my team sees that 50% of my time goes to personal sales, personal goals, personal growth, my team won’t see my commitment. That means I can never expect their full commitment.
In real estate, we need more fully committed real estate leaders. Leaders that make it their purpose to elevate and support a small or large group of people to succeed in real estate. Nobody can do it alone, that’s why leaders need to step up and help those individuals to find the pathway towards extraordinary results.
If you are thinking of becoming a leader or decide to start managing a team, think for a moment. Are you committed, or are you just interested? Are you motivated and hungry to help people, or are you just doing a side job as a leader?
We need more real leaders, coaches, mentors and dedicated educators in real estate. This way more professionals will stay in the industry. Also, more people will become more professional easier and faster.
Leaders if you listening(reading). Do it 100% or don’t do it at all.
