The only reason a goal isn’t achieved is you don’t have a system for it. Intent matters in business; what do you intend to do, how do you want to grow?
The bigger the dream, the more important the team. As a leader, you want to create a leader-leader model. Most businesses are leader-follower, where everyone in the business has to seek permission – or, even worse, they are given autonomy but then undermined in the decisions made. Once that happens you’ll never have trust, and the ability for others to lead is lost.
A leader-leader model is where you back people in. ‘What would you do if I wasn’t here?’ When they present the solution, you reply, ‘That’s great; you don’t need to ask me about that situation again. Trust your instinct; go all in.’
What that produces is organisational clarity, where everyone knows who’s who, who can make the decisions and what impact each role can have on the business.
The bigger the dream, the more important the team.
That then leads to training in technical competence. What are the essential skills that need to be mastered in each area of the business and how do we teach them? We work on using the circle of competence, where every time someone gains a skill we write it in the circle. It builds confidence and clarity for the individual.
The challenge for too many leaders is that they are looking for unicorns – these magical new employees who get it – when the truth is you need to develop a business that’s built on systems; systems that are so good your people don’t have to be.
Work the systems and watch your leadership capability scale. People resist change when it happens to them, but they love change when they are part of it.
Leadership happens in every moment, whether you step in or help someone else to step up.
For leadership to truly exist in your business, you need to set the vision. This is made up of your purpose (the why of what you do), the mission (critical milestones) and values (the rules of the game). When you have these in play, every decision gets easier.
Our purpose is to inspire estate agents to achieve their potential and financial freedom. It’s in everything we do, and it forces absolute clarity about the activities we undertake.
To shift the dial on your results, learn to ask better leadership questions of your people. My favourite is: What’s next for you? If I wasn’t here what would you do? If you became the CEO tomorrow, what would you do then?
They force leadership thinking, which translates into better day-to-day actions. Most want to focus on accountability; I prefer responsibility. If someone is responsible, I don’t need accountability.
Leadership happens in every moment, whether you step in or help someone else to step up and step in. It’s a choice, and it’s the difference between a chaotic, dysfunctional workplace and one where people are empowered to pursue their dreams.
