The One Thing Every Real Estate Team Leader Must STOP Doing

by Steve Shull

Team leaders, I’ve got two words for you…

STOP. IT.

Stop doing other people’s work.

That’s why you have a team!!!

You start a team because there’s too much to do. So you hire people…but somehow you end up doing not only your job but also their job. It makes no sense.

I hear these stories every day—let me share one from just this week.

I coach a team leader who has 20+ team members. We’re on our coaching call, and I can hear she’s distracted. She’s got one ear on the phone and all her attention elsewhere.

I ask what she’s doing, and she says, “I’m at a photo shoot.”

“What do you mean you’re at a photo shoot?”

“I have to make sure it gets done right,” she tells me.

“What do you mean you have to make sure it gets done right?”

“This property was on the market before and we did an awful job on the photos,” she says. “Now we’re bringing it back on the market again, and if I don’t supervise this, I’m not certain it will get done the way it needs to get done.”

“Did you not just hire a new listing coordinator?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Would I be wrong to think this is that person’s job?”

“No, you wouldn’t be wrong to think that.”

“Why isn’t that person running the photo shoot?”

“Well, she’s new. She hasn’t been trained yet.”

“Shouldn’t the existing listing coordinator train the new one?”

“Yes, but she says she’s too busy…so I have to do it.”

Hopefully  you’re beginning to see the point here.

I said it in The Real Estate Team Playbook (read it!): the #1 mistake almost every team leader makes is trying to do everything.

The whole purpose of having a team is for you to STOP doing everything. If you keep adding people and doing their job for them, what’s the point??

Here’s the thing that’s going to be really hard to swallow…

Just because you can do something better than another person does NOT mean you should do it!!

You are extremely capable. You are better at everything in your business than almost anyone else would be. That’s why you’re successful enough to even consider starting a team.

But if you continue to do every task just because you’re the best at it, you’re dead in the water. 

You will run out of time and energy before you even get to the high-value tasks you’re SUPPOSED to be doing. Your team will forever be dependent on you and unable to function without you. You will do nothing but tread water until you burn out.

I know, I know—if you don’t do it, it won’t get done right. Well, WHY is that?

Because you’re not hiring the right people (we talked about that last week).

Because you’re not training them to do things the way you want them done.

Because you’re not setting high expectations and holding them accountable.

Those things take time and effort, yes…but it costs you a lot MORE time and effort over the long run to keep doing everything yourself.

Here’s another example from a much smaller team, with just 3 agents in addition to the leader. In our coaching call this week, the team leader told me she’s constantly being pulled into client service issues.

I said, “We’ve discussed this. You know your job is to go out and generate business. That's your lane. You're not in the client service lane. You're not in the administrative lane. You're in the go out and get business lane. So why do you keep spending most of your day on problems that take you away from generating business?”

“Well,” she said, “I need to make sure things get handled in a certain way.” 

I’ve heard that line before, about a million times.

It’s nothing but an EXCUSE not to do the work of training your people to do their jobs right.

Ask yourself this…How are they going to learn if you keep handling everything? How will they get better if you do all the tough stuff?

Unintentionally you’re conditioning them to rely on you. If something’s hard, call the team lead. Don’t figure it out on your own, don’t risk making a mistake…just call the team lead.

Like the old Life Cereal commercial: “Give it to Mikey, he’ll eat it!” 

(I know, I’m really dating myself.)

Your job as a team lead is NOT to eat everything.

Stop it.

Stop it.

STOP IT.

Stop trying to do everything. Instead…

Hire people you trust. Train them in your ways. Hold them accountable for doing their jobs. Empower them to make decisions. Help them learn from their mistakes.

And if you’re not sure exactly how to do that, we can help. 

Our Team Leader Bootcamp is now available as an online course you can take any time for just $499. 

We did this course live a few months ago, and it’s FULL of transformational wisdom to help you become a truly effective leader.

Until next time,

Steve