Sporting 20+ years in the real estate industry, we sat down with Head of People and HR at Place Estate Agents, Amy Wolter, for her best tips for a lesson in leadership.
Contrary to what many believe, leadership is not about someone’s seniority or position within an organisation. Great leaders have humility and professional will, they take responsibility, they ask for help, they have discipline and passion, and they surround themselves with the right people.
Irrespective of your title and job description, you can influence the people around you and therefore, you can (and should) define yourself as a LEADER! After all, you are the leader of your own life!
Here are 7 Tips to being a great leader from Amy Wolter.
1. Have a clear vision.
A vision can be defined as a combination of an organisations fundamental reason for existence, core values, and aspirations for the future.
As a leader, it’s important to have a clear vision so that you can motivate your team to act with purpose and ensure they are onboard to reach your shared goal.
From an employee’s perspective, this provides a guiding light towards what success looks like for them. It allows them to feel more confident in what they are doing and that they are contributing to something larger and meaningful. Everyone wants to know what winning looks like and what it is being achieved.
2. Have the technical skills to guide your
High performing people have grown in their skills over time and have learnt valuable lessons through applying their craft.
How can I achieve this? Keep learning! Skilled individuals look inside and outside the company to expand their capability. This can look like participating in internal training opportunities or seeking external information sources such as books, podcasts, interviews, and so much more!
How can I apply my skills? Awesome leaders strive to share their technical ability and guidance with their employees and can be done so through two methods:
- Practical, on the run, where those you guide follow you in that very moment. For example, try a campfire exercise with your team. Get out some marshmallows, pillows, sit around in a circle, choose a topic related to your craft and fire away! This method gives everyone an opportunity to collaborate and learn.
- Other times, learning needs to be scheduled and focused learning for example, topical, proactive or responsive to an identified gap.
3. A leader is a good communicator and is ready to listen!
Real Estate Agents are highly skilled in their ability to communicate. However, when it comes to leading others, managing the natural urge to provide immediate solution can hinder the opportunity for the best possible outcome. Nonetheless, it is an excellent occasion to refine your patience and give others your full listening ears!
Once you have taken the time to listen, ask questions to gain a more comprehensive understanding – this method also helps the team member to find a suitable solution to respond with themselves.
Some examples of good questions to ask:
- What’s on your mind?
- What do you think?
- What is the problem we should solve?
- What options do we have?
- What do you find most challenging?
Whichever way you decide to work through the issue, have the necessary conversations to get to know your audience – what works for some may not work for the other. When you ensure the time to understand how to get the best of each other, communication becomes a more seamless experience.
4. The leader encourages productive behaviour and
I feel that this is something Place does well! Over time, we have nurtured such a productive environment with some of the best producers, where the whole team is driven daily with high trust to the achievement of results.
People worry about what their employees are doing, instead of what outcomes are being achieved. 5+5= 10 but so does 8+2. It’s about the 10!
5. The leader cares for the persons wellbeing.
Take a moment to think about the behaviour of recognising when a human needs your care. What I have learnt is, as leaders, we get busy; there’s stress from our home, our clients, our bills popping up everywhere (personally and professionally), we get into a space of our own self-importance, and on some days, it’s really all we can think about on that given day.
However, the people that help us also have things that are going on in their own world. We are all human. But if we are not observational and responsive to their needs, that is where problems can arise.
Be alert to work struggles; take an interest in your colleague professionally and personally.
6. Be the energy ball, the Chief Energy Officer – CEO!
Did you know, when NASA or SPACEx launch a rocket, the energy used in the first 60 seconds is more than the rest of the whole orbit?
This is where you can take the opportunity to reflect on your own presence as a leader! For example, it can be as straightforward as selecting a couple days out of the week to come into work early, have a clear vision for every member and spend 30 minutes being an energy ball for your team. It would create an environment of positivity for the rest of the day!
You’ve heard positivity breeds positivity and negativity breeds negativity. So, remember, the energy you bring is going to multiply. Which one will you choose?
7. People respond better to macro leaders than micro leaders.
This step kind of sums up everything we I have spoken about, but I would like to make it the 7th behaviour!
“People respond better to macro than micro leaders!”
If you can get traction in these areas, you are a GOOD coach, a GOOD leader, and a bloody good person to work for!
We loved getting some valuable insights from Amy about how to be a better leader. To be the first to know about open roles and industry leading advice on a career in property, visit our Careers Hub and subscribe to the newsletter below for more information…