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Real Estate Business Management: How To Become A Great Leader

Written by JD Esajian

Does your real estate business management style impact your ability to become a truly great leader?

Real estate business management and leadership go hand-in-hand. The ability to innovate new ideas is equally as important as the ability to manage them. The enigma, however, is that not every manager qualifies as a great leader. An effective leader not only produces the vision for their business — the recipe for success, if you will — but the actions needed to accomplish it. Rather than control people, true leadership aims to guide, energize and excite those around them.

This begs the question: Are leadership skills more important than management skills? Or are they one in the same? The first step to answering those questions is distinguishing between a leader and manager, and understanding how the two correlate.

Real Estate Business Management & Leadership

Business management tips

There are many defining traits between management and leadership, as the roles have traditionally been separated. Managers have been taught to manage, not lead, and real estate business management practices tend to focus on short-term, intermediate objectives. Leaders, on the other hand, think big picture; they go beyond what is expected.

The customary components of a leader and manager include:

Manager

Planning: One of the primary duties of a manager is planning. They understand the goals at hand and develop a plan to achieve them.
Organizing: Managers are in charge of delegating authority, assigning work, and providing direction.
Budgeting: Along with planning and organizing their plan of attack, managers must also be conscientious of the budget.
Coordinating: With many moving parts, managers must ensure everything is working according to plan. Coordinating tasks is one of the many responsibilities of a manager.
Time Management: Their tasks are completed on-time and in the most efficient manner.
Problem Solving: Problems arise and managers need to be there with an immediate answer.

Leader

Vision: Leaders focus on the long-term future of the business.
Inspiration: Motivating and empowering others to achieve their goals is a big part of being a leader.
Coaching: Teaching others is another part of being a leader. Giving freedom to others to learn and grow is important. Leaders strive to build strong relationships and ensure their team is balance to the right degree.
Listening: The ability to sit back and listen to what others say is an important part of being a leader. You have to be able to access and analyze situations quickly, and it won’t be possible if you’re not listening.

Whereas leaders are proactive, managers are reactive. The details of how a leader and manager operate are clearly different, but the marriage of the two sides is what differentiates great leaders from ordinary managers. In essence, it takes a combination of the two, including the right balance, to truly become a great leader.

Another defining trait between management and leadership is how they motivate the people who work for them. According to the Harvard Business Review, “management consists of controlling a group or a set of entities to accomplish a goal. Leadership refers to an individual’s ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward organizational success. Influence and inspiration separate leaders from managers, not power and control.”

Although leadership is important in management, it goes both ways. Managers must learn to inspire and lead people, rather than control their every move. In order to achieve optimal results, leadership and management must be one in the same.

3 Ways Business Management Is Vital For Leadership

“Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.” — Stephen R. Covey

To become a great leader you must be effective. It’s important to have some degree of management skills to help others envision your idea. The following highlight three ways management is important for leadership:

Builds Communication

Communication is important in almost every facet of business, but nowhere is it more evident than in management. This skill set is critical to leading others, as a manager’s ability to communicate will play a significant role in getting others to complete the objective at hand. In addition, communication will impact how all levels of the organization operate. A great manager will not only be able to access his employees’ engagement in work, but tailor their communication style to ensure they achieve the desired results.

Plan Of Attack

A real estate business management strategy is essentially a roadmap to how your business should operate. The vision is clear, but now comes the strategic planning to achieve it. Although every real estate business management strategy will vary, the general objective is to communicate the company’s goals, determine where to focus energy and resources, and produce fundamental decisions and actions to implement their plan of attack. Business management is the implementation of the grand vision; the process of turning an idea into reality. While a leader aims to inspire people to follow their goal, a manager ensures the necessary tasks are completed to achieve it.

Creates Systems

We know it takes the right balance of guidance and management to become a great leader, but systems also play a big part. Leadership not only produces the vision, but instills the right systems in place to be successful. Systemization is what breaks down the complexity of your primary objective and provide a blueprint to how it should be completed. Done right, it will assist in automating your workforce, with you removing yourself, to effectively achieve your common goal.

Real estate business management is about putting the vision into practice. You cannot be a great leader without the proper business management skills to take you there. That said, while the two side are inevitably different, true leaders are those that can seamlessly integrate the two.