When Lost Creativity is the Price for Conformity
Real estate brokerages are like snowflakes. I have never found two that are exactly alike. Most reflect the culture of the leader or a team of people who set the tone for the company at its inception. Then it evolves based on the market and all those that contribute to its growth over time.
I worked for a national company that embraced the local broker’s culture and creativity for years after acquiring them. But over the course of decades in the effort to minimize risk, create uniformity, cut costs and create efficiencies, it began to slowly suppress what had been so attractive about the companies they bought in the first place. The ingenuity and entrepreneurship were what built these companies into local powerhouses.
Centralizing processes and power come at a price. When too many controls creep into an organization, then bureaucracy begins to thrive at the expense of those in the field. It can crush innovation and dramatically slow down the agility and entrepreneurial spirit.
For local leaders in national organizations, there is a fine line between being a good soldier and knowing when to push back. There are some high-level processes that absolutely make sense for the employee, independent contractors, customers and any other stakeholders. But when they begin to change the culture that is rooted in the very fabric of a local organization, then it’s time to speak up. Leading with your heart often presents an element of risk that big companies don’t like. But if the risk can be justified, and proven worth it, it is one small success that might keep them at bay.
Put a face on it
It's easy when sitting on high at the corporate headquarters to make decisions based on reports, spreadsheets, and flow charts. Sometimes we need to put a human face on it for those decision makers. Explain that the reason certain lines of business or branches are so successful is not because of the company name, but because of the people who execute the services and their ability to make decisions as needed.
Helping those in charge understand why things work at a local level is critical. Don’t assume they know or understand anything, and we must be extremely deliberate in the education process. The key is to get in front of it before the decision is made and help them understand what it is really like on the front lines.
If leaders have a habit of wastefulness and mismanagement, don’t expect anyone to trust that the leader is doing the best thing for the company. They want you to spend their money as if it were yours. The rub always comes when someone does something dumb. They ruin it for everyone else. Virtually every restrictive rule and process was born from someone taking advantage of a situation or screwing it up for everyone else. Don’t let them paint with a broad brush. Explain why your leadership is different with real examples.
When to fight back
The best local leaders can sort through specific practices and determine what makes sense to fight for and what can be put aside. By holding everyone accountable and telling the stories of success and proving they can trust your judgment, local leaders are more likely to fight the homogenization of their organization. One bad apple shouldn’t ruin the fun for everyone.
Hiring good talent and retaining it, is of critical importance right now. Having a slow and arduous process that doesn’t allow local leaders to do what they need to do to capture that talent can be crippling and can disrupt the flow of business. Organizations should create a parameter that everyone can work within and let the local leaders do what they have to do as long as they don’t abuse it. Proven leaders who are trusted shouldn’t have to scrap for every small victory to move business forward.
Being smart doesn’t mean they know how to run a real estate company
There are real estate companies who are at the mercy of overarching financial entities who don’t understand how the real estate industry works and they don’t really want to know at a granular level. They operate on sound bites and data points and hire smart executives from other types of businesses. They have very sound business acumen, but little expertise in the volatile nature of real estate. That market volatility doesn’t replicate itself exactly with each new market or an economic blip. But those that have weathered previous downturns know how to take what they have learned and apply it as needed.
The key is to trust the local leaders and give them enough autonomy to respond based on their expertise. Giving leaders the freedom to manage issues as they emerge streamlines the process and allows them to use their common sense. But corporate won’t allow it to happen for long if results don’t follow. Trust is earned and showing definitive results will build that trust.
When an organization puts its faith primarily in rules and regulations, bureaucracy grows and squelches risk taking and initiative. It can slowly drain everything good from an organization. Leaders who reward creativity, decisiveness, and results can release the organization from the grips of uniformity that may drive away the talent we all so desperately seek for success.
“Bureaucracy is the death of all sound work.” ~ Albert Einstein, a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to have one of the greatest minds of all time.
