As a leader, you need to learn your entire business

There are sales, property management, operations, and external team members/partners. 

At Nitschke, we have an established a leadership team which is made up of each department head. 

This has served us really well over the years and continues to do so. 

These structures and systems are essential to keeping us aligned, accountable, and across what’s happening in the business. 

It doesn’t take much for a shift to happen that has a ripple effect across the business – whether it’s internal like an employee suddenly quitting or an external factor, like a policy change. 

In these moments, I’m grateful that we did the work in setting up our leadership team, organisational chart and Issues List. 

If you’re flying blind operationally, I highly recommend reading the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) and getting your ‘scaffolding’ in place.  

It was created by Gino Wickman and is outlined in his book Traction. EOS gives leadership teams a straightforward set of tools and routines to clarify what they want to achieve and how they intend to achieve it.

It truly transformed my agency. 

But recently, I realised there was a lot more work still to do. 

Because some personnel changes revealed a stark truth that I hadn’t seen all along: I had no idea how the other departments in the business functioned. 

I didn’t know the ins and outs of that department, the systems and workflows, and what the team needed. 

Not in any real way that I could confidently lead that part of the business. 

So when a key leader announced she’d be taking the time off, we were exposed. 

We were fortunate to have the runway of time to prepare before this change, so it wasn’t a major crisis – more of an awakening. 

In order to truly lead the business, I needed to know each area of it intimately. 

This includes the: 

• Deep expert knowledge 
• Systems and processes 
• Clients and their current needs 
• Onboarding and offboarding 
• What’s happening in the market. 

So, alongside other department heads, I’ve spent the past three months immersing myself in that side of the agency. It’s been eye-opening. 

A lot of leadership is having the courage to be completely honest with yourself, and others. 

It’s confronting when you realise you’ve run a business for years without complete clarity. 

It’s likely that massive opportunities were left on the table, unknowingly. 

But that’s just part of the evolution of being a business owner and what makes it so fulfilling. There’s no point of ‘arrival.’ 

This is also why you must create space as a business owner, in order to see these issues, strategically work through them and restructure accordingly, before it becomes a crisis. 

You can’t do this when you’re deep in the day-to-day. You must put your leadership responsibilities first. 

This often looks like working on the important tasks that might not have immediate ROI. 

I’ve sold houses for the past 18 years, and I step up my selling when we need to plug revenue holes, but it isn’t the best use of my time. 

I’m better off (and happier) when I’m leading the team and learning how every part of the business functions, to improve my decision-making.