This is a YouTube video titled "9 Key Leadership Principles and the Secret to Constant Growth" created in November 2015. The content is a detailed talk or presentation focused on leadership and business growth principles, covering topics such as accountability, meaning-driven business, ownership, system solutions, and managing discomfort in leadership roles. The speaker provides practical examples and advice for business owners and leaders aiming to scale and improve their businesses. There is no indication that Lars Hedenborg is a participant in this content.
These are nine principles that I want to go through and I want to give examples of sort of each of these. We're going to go through nine of these and I want you to take notes and kind of give you, give yourself an assessment or jot some notes on each of these. So. So the first one is that your business is inside you, right? So this is sort of a character of you being bullied by your business. It's easy to say that you're man, it's so hard. Or as business owners, and I realize that some of you are literally in the survival stage or kind of just getting ramped up in their business. But overwhelm is the result of relating to our businesses as being bigger than we are, resulting in exhaustion and resignation to the status quo. So the reason most business owners don't do anything differently, so they kind of stay where they are, is because it's exhausting to fight their business. But once you realize that you're bigger than your business, it's just a tweak in how you relate to it that I think can make all the difference. So I hope that one makes sense. So realness is required. This one, I struggle with some of you when I get on the phone. So we must get real with what we don't like about ourselves and our businesses so we can ignite our passion to change it. We can't change what we don't acknowledge and then accept as our current reality. So most of all is that many of you bring yourself into the business and you're not. It's not easy for you to look at how that might be impacting your business. So a good example is man, I've had five admin hires over the last three years and they all suck. Right? We hear that one a lot, and that might be a dramatic example. But are you really looking at the core issue in terms of what you're bringing into it and how you know, you have to sort of admit that you're part of the problem before you can solve it, I guess is what I'm trying to say. So changes inside out. We must hold ourselves accountable for every result, every effect of our action or inaction, helpful or harmful, and hold our strengths and weaknesses as the root cause of it all. So kind of along the same lines as the last one. But you are 100% in control of your destiny. And even when the market turns, which it will turn, so Sometime the next 6, 12, 18, 24 months, most markets are likely to turn. So real estate is cyclical. If you're not seeing it already. You know, there should be signs potentially of shift, which is going to be a phenomenal thing for all of us. So our ability to get through the next shift and do it in a. In a position of strength is going to be a game changer for the next time. I'm excited for it because next time when we come out of it, we're going to be even stronger than this upturn. So you had to hold yourselves accountable for the change. Meaning is not in your head. So a meaning driven business, rather than a money driven business is easy to feel, whether it's the client experience or employees feeling like they're a cog in some machines. When I started my team, it was. It was definitely a transaction treadmill. And I was willing to own up to it because I got myself out of it. I realized that I was not the best with clients and just the way my makeup wasn't the best. So your business has to have some bigger meaning. I'm the first to admit that I look at my business as a tool that increases my net worth and gives me time, freedom. But the people in my business now, we've sort of set this 10,000 families served in a single year, that big, hairy, audacious goal in motion. The reason we're willing to attract people now is because we have this big meaning. So ownership is not equity. So owners who become leaders by owning their choices establish credibility with their people. Everyone understands why the business exists and what part they're playing in achieving its goals and reaching its vision, Especially as we look to toward expansion. Right. So 10,000 homes is not going to come from a single market. We're probably going to put three or four expansion partners in place in our market next year. But the 10,000 homes is likely. We'll probably do 1200 in Charlotte, and then we're going outside of Charlotte to do the rest of them. So to do that, right? So it's a little easier when you have one location, but to do that in multiple locations, Everyone has to understand why the business exists and what part they're playing in achieving its goals and reaching its vision. All right, so in terms of, you know, this is something I see over and over again with leaders is that, you know, looking for the root cause of some. So what started the fire rather than just putting out the fire. So looking for the root cause rather than just the symptom of a business problem. You know, we have sellers that are pissed, right? We sometimes we even get them to closing, but our sellers are pissed. And then we find out that, you know, they didn't get their weekly calls or they didn't have their 30 day market reviews or, you know, going back to the problem and getting a better system for ensuring that our listing agents make the weekly calls rather than just trying to, you know, getting a 5 on a survey or not getting the NPS survey back at all is getting to the root cause. So discovering the best system solutions for scaling your business and creating predictable results. So discomfort. This is one thing I have learned about every part of the process. That discomfort is part of the job. So if you're hiring your first admin or your first buyer agents, it's going to be a very, very uncomfortable feeling because you just don't know how to do it. And if you've never managed people before, like I, I wasn't used to managing people. It's, it's something that you have to learn. So my thing is that I can get you through that learning process very, very quickly. It's going to be uncomfortable no matter what. It was uncomfortable for me for like three years where we can do it for you in six to 12 months. Cut two years out of the growth process. So true leaders seek out the uncomfortable truths and find the real reasons why they or their business is stagnating. The best leaders find comfort in reality, whether it feels good or not. Create value, not work. We must resist the temptation to get lost in the work that is easiest for you. We must lead by example in all three roles. That's the technician, the manager, and the entrepreneur. And you're always training everyone around you. Systems are a means, especially if you're in production. This is a balancing act. The combination of systems and people produces a result that is greater than either one could produce on their own. The client experience is the only true measure of business success. It's easy to have a decent client experience if you're in the role of agent and you have your hand on your admin and dictating what they do all the time. The true measure of owning a real business and not just having a job is your ability to step out of the day to day of knowing everything that your admin is doing and being involved with clients. So as we look to build these systems out and have people run the systems, that's why it's important that we know that your clients are getting a good experience.
