What Being a Consultant has Taught Me
Patience. It has taught me patience. Being an independent consultant brought me to the harsh realization that not everyone works at the pace that I prefer. I had the luxury of managing departments and business lines for many years and I controlled (for the most part) the pace at which we completed tasks. I could literally decide one day that we were going to create a program or service and I was only limited by the number of hours in a day I had available to work on that program. I was also dependent on the other staff and outside departments who I needed to assist me with the tasks. But I could strategize ahead of time with them and get their timelines and availability so I could plan out how long it would take us from planning to execution. Certainly, unexpected events could drop from the sky and sideline things for a while, but never for very long.
As a consultant working with various companies that have different motivations and processes and cultural influences has made me question how anything actually gets done at the corporate level of a real estate brokerage. It made me understand that just because something is important to me, it may not have the same level of excitement or urgency to others. My thought process has always been that the faster we create the program or improve a service, the faster we will reap the rewards.
But the crush of the day-to-day activities that plague leaders of a real estate brokerage or a relocation department can often drown out the far-off glow of the proposed benefit. I see people spending their days reacting to sometimes important, sometimes not so important things, that eat up their days. That’s when the art of delegation and time management really shows its value.
I often hear that the lack of staff or the busy market has challenged people in such a way that nothing gets done but what is flying at them. I am completely aware that running a relocation department or a brokerage can be like drinking out of a fire hose. But at some point, looking to tap into resources that allow you to move forward just makes good sense. If you aren’t moving forward you are staying static. While you are status quo, your competition is moving forward.
By seeking out interns, full-time or part-time staff, creating consortiums, or mentoring your existing staff to take on more may be the only way you find any way to come up for air to step back and evaluate how you are spending your days. I am not suggesting you delegate important tasks to interns, but I suspect there are things that could be delegated to others to free up some time for strategic business planning and execution.
I pride myself on operating each day with intention. I have lists and goals for me and my clients. The challenge is, their timelines and mine rarely line up. So I have learned to be patient and nudge with a consistency that lets them know I am not going away until we focus on the goals we have targeted. I could complete most items in a fraction of the time they actually take due to their other priorities, but I have learned patience.
If you calculate the cost of an additional employee versus all of the revenue-producing activities you could and should be focusing on, I suspect the math will speak for itself. I know we often think we are the only ones who can handle certain tasks. That may be true in some instances, but I have seen companies do massive layoffs and magically the business keeps going. We like to fancy ourselves by thinking the world will end if we aren’t the one to handle certain functions. I love my clients, but sometimes done is better than perfect. We have to let go of what doesn’t need to be controlled specifically by us.
So at the beginning of each day, try and carve out time to operate proactively with intention no matter what is swirling around you. Those are the tasks that will pay off significantly in the long run and move your company forward towards more revenue, profit, and deliver satisfied agents and clients.
