Would you call yourself a Leader?

Would you call yourself a Leader?

Most importantly, do others describe or perceive you as a Leader?

Do you think a real estate agent can earn a real income if they aren’t a Leader?  I don’t.

Here’s why. . .

If You’re Not A Leader, Then You’re a Follower.

We earn real income by attracting and delighting our clients and closing real estate transactions.  The cycle never stops.  When it does, bye-bye big bucks.

The reason it’s next to impossible to earn a brow raising income if you’re not a Leader is this.  Followers don’t attract.  They um, follow.  Leaders attract Followers. Well paid agents all attract. They attract Followers who believe their Real Estate Agent Leader knows what she’s doing and can make good and wonderful things happen.  They believe their Leader will help them fullfil their dreams and aspirations.  The Leader gets paid for doing so.  If we can’t attract, delight and keep Followers, what do we really have?

If you’re with me so far, then we can conclude that whether we think we’re a Leader or not, if we want better than average success, we should behave like Leaders.  Right?  But what if we don’t think we’re really a Leader. Not everyone’s a Leader ya know.  What then?

The solution is simple.  I suggest we simply behave like a Leader.

You know what a Leader behaves like right?  Yeah, I know.  There’s a spectrum of Leadership styles.  You’ve got your maniacal Leaders like Hitler, charismatic Leaders like Oprah and other types we could list off.  People like Kennedy, Gandhi, Dr. King, Susan B. Anthony and so on. I don’t believe we should focus on Leadership Styles.  I feel like we should focus our attention and model our behavior based on the positive common character traits shared by all Leaders. I think if we Lead based on the common positive character traits that all Leaders share, the appropriate style for the situation will occur naturally.  So the next question is this. . .

What Common Character Traits Do All Leaders Share?

I believe the dominant traits are:

Passion and Devotion

All the other good character traits probably fall under Passion and Devotion as subcategories or descriptions-of.  If we run our daily intentions, actions and interactions through an Am I Executing and Engaging with Passion and Devotion Filter, it’d be easy to figure out.  We’re either Leading or Following.  Attracting or not.  We’re gonna earn fatter stacks or we’re not, depending.

If It Was Easy Anybody Could Do It.

Passion and Devotion are scary words. They’re All-In words. Do both and you’re burning your boats and torching your bridges for what you believe in.  I guess that’s the spooky point and why so many real estate agents make so little money.

There’s no way to turn a blind eye or pussy-foot around it.  Being a Leader is the opposite of easy.  But, if we want to earn what Leaders earn, we have to decide that we’re in-it-to-win-it.  That means we have behave like Leaders and torch our escape boats and bridges.  Which is to say, we have to be Passionate and Devoted about delighting our clients, suspects, prospects, neighbors, friends and friends of friends.  No easy feat.

The Only Thing Stopping Us Is Us

Not everyone is in-it-to-win-it and that’s OK.  If a few satisfied clients is satisfactory, then Leadership isn’t a big deal. No sweat, rock on.

Ah, but if you need to achieve more, then behaving like a Leader will get you there and keep you there.  Deciding to Lead will change everything for you. I know this because I’ve seen it happen over and over again.  And so have you.  The rare ones that decide to do-or-die, they always RISE.   And so would we.

Everyday our actions and interactions define us.  Will I be a Leader or a Follower?
Source: Ken Brand 02/2011