When I ask real estate principals about their team, the response is almost always the same: “We’ve got a good team. Everyone gets along really well.”

But here’s where it gets interesting. My follow-up question reveals the real story: “Tell me about your last twelve months and how consistent your turnover was.”

That’s when the cracks appear. Despite having a “good team,” most principals are dealing with inconsistent performance, unexpected departures, and the constant pressure of trying to drive results through sheer force of will.

Sound familiar?

Here’s the truth most real estate principals don’t want to hear: you’re either a manager or you’re a leader. Which one do you want to be?

A manager drives their team through KPIs. How many appraisals did you complete? How many calls did you make? What are your numbers this week?

Don’t get me wrong -these metrics matter. But managing through KPIs alone creates a fundamental problem: you become the bottleneck. Your team waits for you to tell them what to do, how to do it, and when they’re doing it wrong.

Leading is different. Leading means creating a framework where your team drives performance themselves, holds each other accountable, and has quality conversations without you being in the room.

Most businesses don’t know how to answer this question: “What are your core values?”

They might point to a poster on the wall or recite something generic about “integrity” and “excellence.” But real core values—the ones that actually drive behaviour—are different.

Here’s what most principals get wrong: they think core values are something the leader sets and imposes on the team.

That’s backwards.

Your core values need to be established together as a team. Not dictated from the top down, but built collaboratively with genuine input from everyone who has to live them daily.

When you do this properly, something remarkable happens. Your team starts having conversations with each other about standards, performance, and accountability—conversations that used to require your constant intervention.

Building a values-driven culture isn’t a one-off team building day that motivates everyone for a few weeks before old habits creep back in. It’s an ongoing system with two key components.

Monthly Check-Ins

Your team comes together monthly to discuss how you’re living your core values. Not in some fluffy, feel-good way—in practical, specific terms. Where did we see these values in action? Where did we fall short? What needs to change?

Quarterly Reviews

Every quarter, you step back and assess the bigger picture. Are these values still serving us? Do they need refinement? How are they impacting our performance and culture?

This rhythm creates consistency. Your values become more than words on a wall – they become the operating system of your business.

Once your core values are established, the next step is defining your high-performance standards. This is where values translate into daily actions.

What do your prospecting sessions look like? What’s your vendor meeting strategy? How often do these happen, and at what times during the week?

When your values align with your performance standards, you create something powerful: a self-managing team.

Your team members know what’s expected because it’s been defined clearly. They hold each other accountable because they helped create the standards. And you, as the leader, can finally step back from daily micromanagement.

Let me paint the picture of what changes when you implement this framework.

Before, you’re spending your time managing day-to-day operations. You’re checking in on every listing, reviewing every appraisal, mediating every conflict, and constantly pushing your team to hit numbers.

After, your team takes ownership. They have better conversations without you. They identify problems and solve them. They hold themselves and each other to the standards you built together.

This isn’t theoretical. When you shift from manager to leader, you buy back hours in your week—time you can invest in quality recruitment, strategic growth initiatives, and building the business you actually want to run.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most real estate businesses are reactive, month to month. Performance fluctuates wildly because there’s no consistent cultural foundation.

Principals try to solve this with motivation campaigns, new incentive structures, or another round of KPI tracking. But these are band-aid solutions to a systemic problem.

You can’t fix culture in a day, and you can’t manage your way to a high-performance team. Culture requires ongoing leadership – the kind that creates frameworks, then trusts those frameworks to work.

If you’re reading this and recognising your own business in these patterns, you’re not alone. The vast majority of real estate principals operate as managers, not leaders – not because they lack ability, but because they’ve never been shown a different way.

The cultural framework I’ve outlined here is exactly what we implement in the early stages of our leadership programme. It starts with a two-tiered assessment that uncovers what your real implementation strategy needs to be for growth over the next twelve months.

But here’s what you need to understand: this isn’t about adding more to your plate. It’s about removing yourself from the daily grind so you can focus on what actually drives growth.

Your team doesn’t need another manager telling them what to do. They need a leader who creates the conditions for them to perform at their highest level.

Ready to make the shift from managing to leading? Book a brainstorm call and let’s uncover the implementation strategy your business needs to build a values-driven, high-performance culture.

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