It’s a really common frustration amongst agency principals. Pushing themselves hard to recruit the best possible team members. To train and support and guide and lead. Then, despite their best efforts, those staff feel the grass is greener and move to a competitor.
Like any role, leading a real estate team has its ups and downs. I was talking with a long-established agency owner last week who’s had enormous success with his Brisbane team. Built a market-leading business with high, sustained income. Led his local areas in sales volumes for long periods of time. For many years the momentum kept rising and the highs kept coming. Until they didn’t.
A couple of key salespeople left for a big competitor who offered a sparkly promise of a fresher brand and a “guarantee” of more listings. Then an old hand salesperson, solid as a rock with their couple of sales a month, decided to retire to do some traveling. New recruits suddenly seemed harder to find. The music started to fade on this once busy business.
I was very fortunate to have the senior team members in my agency that I did. Long term and hugely dependable. I was able to take holidays of more than a week at a time – a luxury many principals find impossible to do. And for a long, long time I loved leadership of my agency. I’d always had the goal to help grow real estate professionals and I had the mental space, time and energy to do just that.
But then, almost without me noticing the change, the daily grind became too much. Recruit, train, support, mentor, lead, counsel, wave goodbye, recruit, train….
I recorded a video after I sold the agency where I openly confessed I’d lost the passion to lead. I’ve been amazed how many principals have commented on its honesty – many of us struggle to admit we’ve had enough of leading other people. We can’t speak with our teams about it. Our spouse and friends might empathise, but knowing the way forward (and the time to take that step) is tough.
Ownership of a business seems like a career summit you can’t climb down from. It really is lonely up there and there were plenty of times I felt completely trapped in my agency. I was the only one who couldn’t leave.
It took a clear vision of my new career and life to lead me from my mental fog. I refocused on the work I most enjoyed – listing and selling, dealing with people and negotiating. So rent roll and agency broking was an easy career path forward for me. And many, many agency principals move to personal real estate sales (minus the team) and love it.
If you think you’ve had enough of working for your team I’d recommend a fresh focus on your own career plan. Maybe it’s time to quit and make yourself your main priority again!
I’d love to have a confidential chat with you about your agency options (or even just listen while you have a whinge about a PM who won’t return calls and a salesperson who won’t prospect! ) Please call me on 0423 332 022.