How Brokers Become Great Leaders

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The broker of a real estate office is also the leader. But the path to becoming a great leader takes some work, and you cannot let impostor syndrome get in the way.

The trick is to think like a leader you yourself would seek out—the person you aspire to be—someone you would be both motivated and proud to emulate.

Here are seven qualities and actions to take that will help you become a great leader for yourself and for your team of agents, now and into the future.

1. Great leaders lead by doing.

• Great leaders lead with vision, calm, and self-control; they lead with consistency and confidence.
• Great leaders set the tone for the team or brokerage. They model the expectations, goals, actions, behaviors, and communications at the company and among agents.

2. Great leaders keep selling real estate.

• Agents can smell an excellent salesperson a mile away. Great leaders are on the front lines of the market. They are an excellent salesperson who stays on their toes and is market savvy.
• By being an excellent salesperson yourself, you are automatically and unconsciously training your team of agents on how to become great salespeople.

3. Great leaders offer open office hours for their agents.

• Holding open office hours is like putting out a welcome mat for your team members and agents.
• Open office hours engender trust, accessibility, and availability.

4. Great leaders create ongoing opportunities for continuing education and skills development.

• Create appropriate daily, biweekly, weekly, or monthly meetings, as well as team huddles and motivational check-ins, and training on a consistent basis. The reliability and consistency of these meetings, huddles, and check-ins are important—both in person and virtually.

5. Great leaders communicate clearly, supportively, and consistently with their team members and real estate professionals.

• In addition to communicating and staying on point together, these touchpoints will provide consistent support and accountability systems with and for everyone.

6. Great leaders create and maintain transparent systems and scoreboards that highlight everyone’s goals and holds all team members accountable.

• Transparent systems help everyone perform to a higher standard and compete with a positive mindset.

7. Great leaders create and maintain a challenging, nuanced, accountable environment for all real estate pros.

• Great salespeople need an environment in which they are challenged. Great leaders use different tools with and for different team members and agents to help them self-motivate, develop, and achieve their own goals.