The 5 Mistakes Real Estate Team Leaders Can’t Avoid

by Steve Shull

If you have a team or you’re thinking about starting a team, let’s be very clear about one thing…

You are going to screw it up, {{ first_name }}.

It’s 100% inevitable. Absolutely every team leader screws it up the first time. There are certain mistakes you need to make and experience for yourself, and there’s no getting around it.

It’s not a sin to fail…

It’s a sin to take a long TIME to fail.

If failure is unavoidable, your goal should be to fail FAST. The faster you fail, the sooner you can learn from your mistakes and start succeeding.

So in the interest of helping you fail faster, here’s a primer on the 5 key ways you’ll fail as a team leader.

 1️⃣ Failing to set a strong culture

Culture is not a buzzword—it’s the foundation of your team’s success.

You’ve heard me say a million times that at an individual level, everything starts with mindset. Your mindset drives everything you do in your business and your life.

Well, culture is the team’s mindset. It drives everything the team does. It’s your shared vision, your shared values, and how you do business. 

And make no mistake, complete and total buy-in from every member of the team is REQUIRED. That’s what creates successful team chemistry—without that, there is no team.

2️⃣ Failing to have process in place before you add team members

When you bring people into chaos, you multiply the chaos.

Remember why you’re building a team: to SCALE your business. And what’s the foundation of scalability? PROCESS. If you can’t replicate it reliably and efficiently, it’s not scalable, period.

So before you scale a team, you need culture and process. 

This seems obvious on paper, but most team leaders do it backwards. They add people because they’re overwhelmed and want immediate relief…but this backfires in the long run because adding people without culture or process to guide them will only create MORE work for you.

3️⃣ Failing to hire the right people

Most team members are hired based on need and/or hope—you NEED help right now, and you HOPE this person will work out.

That pretty much guarantees you’ll hire the wrong people for the wrong reasons, and there’s a big price to pay in turnover when you operate this way.

This is by far the hardest part of building a team. Getting the right people on the bus and into the right seats takes lots of thought, preparation, process, and time. And if you’re being completely honest, it’s probably the LAST thing you want to do.

So instead, you cling to the fantasy that you’ll hire people who can read your mind and do everything you want, the way you want, without any effort on your part.

Sadly, it doesn’t work that way AT ALL.

At best, the interview process will eliminate the people you KNOW are a bad fit. You won’t know what you have until they actually show up and go to work for you, and they won’t know how to do the job the way you want until you train them to do it.

Which brings us to the next mistake…

4️⃣ Failing to set your people up for success

They’re not going to show up and magically sell houses all on their own. Training and support are a big part of the success equation. It’s up to you to set clear expectations, teach them how to reach that bar, and help them get back on track when they fall off.

And this isn’t something that happens just once. Training should be happening EVERY DAY.

This requires PROCESS. If you just do it whenever you feel like it (or wherever they feel like it) it will never happen. Something else will always feel more urgent.

This is why we do role play calls every day—because if people don’t consistently practice what to say in crucial client conversations, they won’t know what to say. If you think the same isn’t true of your team members, you’re kidding yourself.

5️⃣ Failing to hold everyone accountable

One of the most important things to understand is this: what each person on the team does every day IMPACTS every other person on the team.

A team is not just a collection of people operating alone. They are dependent on each other. They affect each other. 

And if each person isn’t held accountable for doing their job, the whole thing will fall apart. 

Accountability requires CLARITY. What gets measured gets improved. That’s why each person needs a detailed job description with measurable performance outcomes—calls made, leads generated, appointments, contracts, profitability, etc.

And YOU have to hold them accountable for meeting their targets, because ultimately, having a team is only worth it if each team member is making you money.

And that’s where the failure ultimately becomes apparent.

If you don’t have a strong culture…

If you don’t have processes in place…

If you don’t have the right people…

If you don’t train and support them…

If you don’t hold them accountable…

They will COST you money instead of making you more.

And that makes zero sense. 

As I said before, you are GOING to make some, if not all of these mistakes.

The question is, are you going to make them for a long time? Or are you going to recognize them quickly and change course before the whole thing self-implodes?