5 steps to go from active production to full-time leadership

If you’re a successful agent ready to level up into a full-time leadership role, welcome home.

At Follow Up Boss, we’re on a mission to help real estate leaders learn, grow and scale. And if we’ve learned anything from our countless conversations with real estate professionals, it’s: the stronger the leader, the stronger the team. 

Only you can make the decision to stay in or leave production. But there’s still a lot to be learned from those who have come before you.

In this article, we’re sharing learnings from a range of expert team leaders to give you a play-by-play look into the real success strategies driving today’s top-producing teams.

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From production to full-time leadership in 5 steps

Mindset. Systems. Delegation.

Transitioning from agent to full-time team leader is a significant shift — one that requires careful planning. The following steps will help ease the transition.

1. Master your mindset

You didn’t become a successful agent because of luck. You got here through hard work and a resilient mindset. But the attitudes and thought processes that helped you win as a solo agent, aren’t the same attitudes and thought processes that will bring you success as a full-time team leader.

To prove you’re a real estate leader with staying power, you’ve got to show your agents that your head (and heart!) are in the right place.

“You have to have a very strong sense of where that agent is coming from, what that journey is like, what the struggle is like. You almost have to retain where you were as an agent but at the same time, go a step further and take it into how do you change it for them.” — Lauren Bowen, Robert Slack Real Estate

If you’ve never done mindset work, here are some tips to get you started.

• Adopt a growth mindset. Always be learning. Read motivational books, attend leadership workshops and conferences, and take the position that every challenge is an opportunity. 
• Practice self-reflection. Set aside time each week to take a personal inventory. This could include journaling, meditation, or meeting with a trusted friend or real estate coach.
• Visualize success. From the classic vision board to daily meditation, there are many ways to tap into the power of visualization to help achieve your goals. Find ways to “see” your future success.
• Maintain a healthy work-life balance. As the saying goes, you can’t pour from an empty cup. Prioritize your mental and physical health so you can keep your team supported.

Mindset doesn’t have to be woo-woo if that’s not your thing. As a leader, it’s all about finding what works for you and helping the agents on your team do the same.

Lauren Bowen knows just how challenging the move from agent to team leader can be. As the COO for Florida-based mega team Robert Slack LLC, she leads a team of 800 agents.

Here’s how Lauren explains the transition into full-time leadership:

2. Delegate everything that isn't a leadership task

When you’re used to doing it all yourself, delegating can feel a whole lot harder than it sounds. But as a full-time team leader, your success no longer rests on you alone.

By delegating the operational tasks that eat up hours from your day, you can focus more of your time on the kind of strategic planning that will take the team forward.

“I was just wearing so many hats and was just being pulled in so many directions that I was starting to lose sight of that customer service piece, so I knew that I needed to replace myself.” — Jenny Wemert, Wemert Group Realty

Here are five ways to stop spinning your wheels and start delegating:

• Identify tasks to delegate. Take some time to look at all the things you do in the course of a day. If it’s a low-impact routine or administrative task, hand it off.
• Choose the right people. Don’t let delegation be a free-for-all. Match the tasks with team members who have the skills and knowledge to do the job right.
• Provide clear instructions. What does ‘done’ look like? Communicate any specific task requirements and your expectations for successful completion.
• Trust your team. Motivate, support, then step back. Nurture a sense of ownership within the team by giving team members the authority to make changes or improvements within certain boundaries.

No matter how much you love your job, you can’t carry the entire team on your shoulders. 

So, how do you take that first step away from doing it all? The path looks a little different for everyone.

Listen to Jenny Wemert, Team Leader of Wemert Group Realty, on what she wishes she would’ve done differently:

3. Build out your systems

One of the hardest things about growing a real estate team is having to build the plane while flying it. You know you need detailed systems to keep expectations aligned. But honestly, who has the time? 

The good news is, it is possible to create the team systems you need, while spending more time in a leadership role.

“Trying to balance being in production and running a business at the same time is a hard transition. You're using two different sides of your brain. You need to be available for your agents, but you need to be available for your clients. You don't have time to get the systems set up that you need.” — Tiffany Gelzinis, The Gelzinis Group

Here are three ways to scale up your systems when transitioning to full-time leadership:

• Get organized. Use a CRM system to store all client information, transaction details, and communication in one place to increase transparency and reduce time spent searching for information.
• Implement a system for lead follow-up. Establish a plan for engaging with leads to help every agent on the team stay top of mind.
• Create a coaching plan. Map a plan for agent growth and development with a clear goal-setting framework backed up by regular check-ins to track their progress and provide coaching where needed.

The last thing you want when moving into full-time leadership is to lose oversight into the behind-the-scenes processes driving the client experience.

Tiffany Gelzinis, Team Leader of The Gelzinis Group in Norfolk, Virginia knows that struggle.

Here’s how she describes the moment she realized she was cash-flowing her entire team:

4. Keep it scalable

Scalability should be part of your strategy, regardless of how you choose to grow your real estate business. 

Whether it’s bringing on new agents and locations or growing vertically through ancillary services, with agility at the foundation of your team you can expand in any number of ways.

“We can go double headcount and push on more transactions per agent or we can start looking at how we vertically integrate our businesses and create more revenue per transaction. I think this is a really important conversation right now.” — Daniel Dixon, Owner and CEO of The Dixon Group

The following tips will help you grow, without requiring a massive investment of your time and energy:

• Choose the right technology. Whether it’s marketing automation tools or a high performance real estate CRM, the right tools can empower your team to handle higher demand while still providing exceptional service.
• Standardize your processes. Create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) documenting every aspect of how the business should run and store them in a central location where everyone on the team can access them.
• Leverage outsourcing. Delegating is the first step, but outsourcing is real next-level leader behavior. Let the experts handle IT, accounting, and marketing!
• Monitor key metrics. Establish both individual and team-level Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) including leading indicators that help you respond to changes quickly.

Daniel Dixon, Owner and CEO of The Dixon Group in Denver, Colorado has made every mistake in the book.

Here he shares how he made revenue scalable, without adding more agents or staying in production:

Step 5. Lead like you mean it

As a full-time team leader, your role is about to shift from individual agent to motivator, strategist, and coach. Your team members need to know they can depend on you to help them through challenges and celebrate successes together. 

And although you’re no longer calling leads or hosting open houses, it’s still crucial to lead by example.

“As soon as I came out of production, the business exploded. Sometimes you need to step aside and let your people do what they want to do.” — Laurie Finkelstein Reader, The Laurie Finkelstein Reader Team 

Here are some simple ways to level up your leadership:

• Maintain open communication. Host regular team meetings and one-on-ones with agents to make sure team members feel heard, while keeping them accountable to their goals.
• Invest in agent development. When one team member levels up, everybody wins. Provide regular opportunities for learning and training to embrace an ‘always improving’ team culture.
• Recognize success. No one needs a pizza party every Friday, but celebrating your team’s successes on a regular basis is a great way to boost morale and help maintain productivity.

Last but in no way least, you’ve got to really, truly, deeply care about helping others win. 

Laurie Finkelstein Reader, leader of the Laurie Finkelstein Reader Team in South Florida, doesn’t just lead her own team. She also coaches agents to help them find success when building out their own teams for the first time.

In the following video, Laurie shares the one question every would-be team leader needs to ask:

It won’t be easy, but you got this

We all want to make more money for less work. But making the leap from agent to full-time team leader requires a clear understanding of why other people should trust you to help them win.

With the right mindset, powerful systems and an intrinsic passion for serving others, you can help your agents and team members become the best versions of themselves while building a business that supports your personal goals.

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