I would venture to guess much of the success that you had early in your real estate career came as you applied your entrepreneurial talents to being an agent. Being a self-starter, setting your own schedule, showing perseverance, and getting things done.

Doesn’t this sound like you? Of course it does.  Almost every top performer in the real estate industry starts this way.  The boot-strap experiences are part of every success story.

But what happens when you move into a leadership/management role?  Most everyone reading WorkPuzzle has transitioned from an individual contributor role to a team or organizational leadership role.

Here is a question I’d like you to consider:

Will the same talents that made you a successful entrepreneur serve you well in a leadership role?

According to Geoffrey James, a bestselling author and columnist for Inc. magazine, the answer is yes, but there are some major blind spots that often keep entrepreneurs from performing at a high level in leadership roles.

James recently published an article based on a conversation he had with venture capitalist Jeff Busgang.   The article was titled Six Avoidable Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make, and has direct application to the issues real estate managers struggle with most.

Fighting fires rather than scaling up

Great entrepreneurs have a tendency to focus on crises: product issues, customer issues, investor issues and, of course, running out of money.  They forget an [organization] can’t possibly grow and succeed unless they spend the time to interview and hire great candidates.

What to do: Put aside at least two hours a week for recruiting and interviewing candidates, even if you’re not currently hiring. Ideally, you want a “stable” of potential hires whenever you need to hire somebody.

Doing rather than coaching.

For a startup to grow, everyone on the team must up-level every 12 months. That’s only possible if the owner helps them understand what new skills and behaviors they’ll need in order to grow themselves as the company grows.

What to do: Think of coaching as an investment in time management.  Yes, it takes longer to coach somebody to do a task than to do it yourself.  Once you’ve trained somebody, though, that task leaves your to-do list, creating time to do those things that only you can do.

Failing to plan for setbacks

Even the best-run [organizations] encounter problems.  If you’re not prepared to deal with them, even a small hiccup can derail your ambitious plans.

What to do: Work with your [executive team] to create written contingency plans, in case there are product delays, slower-than-expected sales cycles, departures of key personnel, and so forth.

In our next discussion, we’ll cover the remaining three blind spots that entrepreneur-turned-leaders typically face. In the mean time, do an inventory of daily activities.  Do you find yourself thinking too much like an entrepreneur?

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