Scaling a real estate business requires more than just strong sales. Growth brings complexity: more staff, larger teams, multiple offices, and the challenge of maintaining a consistent culture.
One of the clearest examples comes from Kylie West, CFO and original partner at a Highland Property, who has spent nearly two decades shaping leadership, systems, and team dynamics in an industry that is often fast-moving and high-pressure.
“I actually started with the business when it was just six of us,” Kylie says.
“I didn’t really know too much about real estate at that point. I madly did a license course and got up to speed, helped out initially, and put all the back end together – the admin, the accounts, supporting the property managers. And then we just evolved as we grew.”
Her experience reflects a key lesson for leaders: learning by doing is essential. Instead of waiting to perfect every process or role, leaders often need to step into operational tasks and adapt quickly.
“You have to be in the trenches. Make decisions, make mistakes, and own them. That’s how people learn and how leaders earn credibility,” she says.
Building teams that perform
One of the biggest challenges in scaling a real estate business is managing people; As CFO, Kylie leads the group in all financial processes and plays a key decision making role in management and operations of all departments from sales, to property management and marketing across all offices from Cronulla to Double Bay, the Southern Highlands, Newtown and the Gold Coast.
She is also key in providing strategic leadership advice when it comes to long-term business and financial planning goals for the business.
“Managing people isn’t one-size-fits-all,” she says. “You need to know how each person learns, what works for them, and what doesn’t. That’s how you get the best out of people, and it’s the same across every team in the business.”
Real estate leaders can take note: understanding your team is as important as understanding the market. Leaders who adapt to individual strengths, explain tasks in ways that resonate, and offer support without micromanaging can extract far more value from their teams.
Retention and long-term commitment are closely linked to culture. Kylie observes that younger staff today are often less loyal, moving quickly between roles, but developing talent over time has its advantages.
“It’s nice to get ingrained in a business,” she says. “You develop skills, relationships, and insight that you just can’t get by moving around constantly. That stability drives both culture and performance.”
Empowering women in leadership
Diversity and inclusion are not just buzzwords, they are strategic tools and Kylie deliberately surrounds herself with both men and women in senior roles, seeing this as a way to balance decision-making and team outcomes.
“Having strong, capable women in leadership positions brings a different perspective to decision making,” she says.
“People might assume that creates tension, but it doesn’t. Everyone knows their roles, collaborates, and contributes to outcomes.”
Women leaders often also have a different approach to problem-solving, which can help strengthen teams and operations.
“It’s not about gender, it’s about creating leadership teams that are well-rounded
and capable of making smarter decisions,” she says.
Of course, trust and clarity are key components of this strategy.
“If you don’t trust your people to make decisions, your business will never scale effectively.
“Trust combined with clarity about responsibilities allows teams to operate independently but consistently, which is essential for growth.”
Systems and culture
Operational systems are the backbone of scaling a business and Kylie emphasises the importance of building processes that support growth without creating bottlenecks.
“We run a corporate model,” she says. “Professionalism, clear systems, and defined roles are not luxuries, they are foundational to scaling and sustaining a high-performing team.”
By combining strong systems with leadership development and diversity in management, a business can grow without losing its culture. Ultimately, she believes that these factors – trust, clarity, empowerment, and structure – are what allow teams to perform autonomously while maintaining accountability.
Kylie’s experience offers clear lessons for leaders in real estate:
Learn by doing: Hands-on experience, build credibility and operational insight
Understand your team: Tailor leadership to individual strengths and working styles
Build systems and culture: Professional processes combined with a strong culture
allow businesses to scale sustainably
Kylie’s approach shows that longevity and operational success in real estate are not just about transactions, they are about the people, systems, and culture that underpin them.
“Strong teams build strong businesses,” she says. “It’s as simple, and as complex, as that.”
