By: Brianne Ika
Despite making up about 65% of REALTORS (according to NAR), a recent national study on real estate teams commissioned by Workman Success Systems and sponsored by Sisu showed that women are 20% less likely than men to be team leaders. Given that men are overrepresented in leadership in real estate, I wonder if they’re communicating and leading in ways that the women on their teams both appreciate and respond to.
That same national study found that women are 30% less likely than men to favor authoritative leadership styles and tend to respond best to a collaborative team environment, with a high focus on communication, honesty, and candor. While statistics don’t speak to every individual’s experience, these numbers may help you navigate working with other members of your team or brokerage, as well as illuminate some things about your business that you might not have considered.
A Lack Of Communication
A lack of clear communication was identified by our national team study as one of the biggest threats to a real estate team. If you’re a leader of a team or brokerage, this should concern you deeply—especially because it’s such an avoidable problem. Establishing clear lines of communication through frequent touches and daily huddles with your team members will go a long way to knitting your team together and increasing that sense of honesty and candor that our study showed women tend to value so much.
Community Matters
More communication tends to foster a higher sense of community, another thing that our study showed women tend to prioritize. What else are you doing to build a community in your team or brokerage? Do your agents work together or seek one another out for advice or training? Are you celebrating successes and recognizing talent publicly? It’s not just good for the women on your team—community is what makes or breaks organizations in the long run.
Collaboration Is Key
With 65% of REALTORS being women, can you really afford to lead in a way that has a higher potential for alienating them? Authoritative leadership is a red flag to many agents looking to hang their licenses with a brokerage or join a team. What are you doing right now to build a culture of collaboration? Are you aware of your agents’ and admins’ needs? Do you have systems in place to encourage working together or helping one another out?Despite being underrepresented in leadership roles in real estate, women are a powerhouse in the field, and you can’t afford to not hear their voices on your team—whether you yourself are a woman or not. If you don’t encourage clear communication, build a positive community, and incentivize collaboration, you’re likely to lose your best agents to the teams and brokerages that do. As you consider how you can take the best care of your team or brokerage, you might find our national study to be useful. You can check it out for free here.
Up Next: Your Day In Real Estate: 5 Tips For Supercharged Morning Routines
