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As a real estate leader, one of your biggest challenges is guiding your team through big changes, particularly when the change is meeting resistance. How can you lead when your team refuses to follow? 

Charles Darwin’s words, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change,” hold a vital lesson for leaders in the real estate industry. We see the strongest and smartest often finding success, but there are countless stories of people and companies who were wildly successful only to fail miserably when they were unable to adapt.  

Join us as we explore how acknowledging and overcoming fears while embracing change, can be the linchpin for creating success for your team of agents: 

1. Acknowledging and Addressing Your Fears – By understanding and acknowledging your fears, we pave the way for resilience and adaptability. Acknowledging what you are afraid of helps you take control of that fear. 
2. Embracing Change as a Constant in Real Estate – Rather than resisting change, we should welcome it. When we view change as a positive opportunity for advancement and skills development rather than a threat to our comfort, we open doors to new possibilities. 
3. Developing Adaptability – Just as species adapt to new environments, you, as a leader, can refine your ability to navigate unfamiliar territories. This might involve staying updated on market trends, mastering innovative technologies, or adjusting negotiation strategies, then passing the information and skills over to your team.  
4. Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone – This is where true transformation occurs. By actively seeking out experiences that challenge you, you’ll develop a greater capacity for adaptability and resilience, essential qualities in a thriving real estate career. 
5. Transforming Fear into Motivation – Rather than letting fear immobilize you, use it as a catalyst for change. Ask yourself, “What can I learn from this fear? How can it push me to reach greater heights in my real estate career? How can overcoming this fear help me lead my team better?” 
6. Building Resilience through Market Fluctuations – Just like the animal kingdom evolves to withstand new environments when they are forced from their habitats, you can cultivate resilience in the face of market fluctuations by learning new skills to try to predict what’s coming, and passing these skills over to your team so they can get ahead of these changes. 
7. Embracing a Growth Mindset – This perspective empowers brokers to view change not as a threat, but as a vehicle for professional evolution. With every change comes learning, and with this learning comes growth. 

Charles Darwin’s profound insight resonates deeply with every industry, particularly one that ebbs and flows as greatly as the real estate industry. Embracing change and mastering your fears are pivotal to thriving as a broker and leading your team.  

Related reading: Psychology Today – How to Lead a Team Through Change 

Do Team Members Hate Change? 

Every leader has gotten pushback when trying to drive change or respond to changes happening in the industry, which might bring some leaders to the belief that people hate change. This is both true and not true – people love change when it’s something they are in control of, such as vacationing for a change of scenery or painting the house to bring some color to their home. It’s the changes they have no control over that they tend to resist.  

As the team leader, there are ways that you can help your agents through changes, and it comes down to helping them manage the tangible (skills development, team structure, team strategies, etc.) and intangible factors (personal beliefs, confidence, company culture, etc.). When you can clearly communicate the “why” for the change, you can bring your team on board more easily.  

Justin Deonarine, an organizational psychologist, says, “It is entirely possible that leaders are not addressing all of the psychological factors involved in the acceptance of change. Many leaders can speak to the tangibles well but may mishandle or skip the intangibles. As a result, they are only addressing the readily apparent factors, but not those which are less obvious. This creates the difference between “managing” change and “leading” change.” 

He suggests that as leaders, you should stop trying to manage the change and lead by setting a consistent vision for your team to look to, engaging with your team members on a more personal level, building a company culture that supports employee success in a holistic way, and investing in individual and company skills development.  

Change impacts leaders and team members in different ways, and as the leader, it’s up to you to help your team through these changes while adapting to them yourself. You might have your own fears, but as Robert Louis Stevenson once said, “Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.”

For Your Agents… 

As you navigate your team through the ever-evolving landscape of the real estate market, remember that it’s not the strongest or the most knowledgeable who excel but those who respond to change with vigor and a fearless determination to succeed.  

We have an article that you can share with your team that takes a deep look at the fear of change, and how agents can overcome that fear to grow as a person and in their business. 

Read here… 

Resources You Can Count On 

Know that agents do NOT have to go it alone in this market. Our goal is to bring the tools, training, and coaching each needs to not only survive the shifts – but build solid, dependable foundations they can count on and help them build clients for life. If that sounds like a goal that can help you reach YOUR goals – then join us for our Free Weekly Real Estate Webinar Training Series! Click below to register for the next one!

Darryl Davis is an award-winning international speaker, real estate and business coach, and best-selling author of three books, all published by McGraw Hill Publishers.  

For more than 35 years, Darryl has spoken to and trained more than 100,000 sales professionals around the globe to more than double their production year after year. His book, How to Become a Power Agent in Real Estate, tops Amazon’s charts for one of the most sold books to real estate agents.  

He was awarded the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation by the National Speaker’s Association which is given to less than 2% of all speakers worldwide.  

Whether from a stage or Zooming into a virtual room, Darryl’s extraordinary humor, relatability, and natural gift for teaching real-world, results-producing skills and mindsets to audiences have made him a client favorite throughout his career.  

Audiences will laugh, learn, and ultimately walk away better prepared for a changing world, with the tools, skills, and training they need to build their businesses with more ease and less stress and to design lives and careers worth smiling about.  

Bring One of Darryl’s W.O.R.K. Topics to Your Organization! 

By providing your agents with the knowledge and insights they need to stay ahead of the game, you can ensure that they are equipped to handle any situation that comes their way! Contact us here to learn more!