Leading With A Heart

One of the most important skills I have learned and am still learning is leadership.

I realized the best real estate agents are leaders. The best leaders can become great agents.

After I joined the real estate industry, I quickly knew I cannot just work alone. There would be a limit to how much I could do and achieve.

If I generate sales by myself, I would be exchanging my time and energy for money. Therefore, my income would be restricted. I would also have less time to learn, grow and achieve better results.

In my observation of the market, I also discovered that agents who worked alone do not last as long as those who worked in a team. Advisors who led a team could build a stronger branding to attract more clients, sales and commissions.

I decided to focus on being a lister and closer. I built a team to help me conduct viewings and preliminary negotiations.

After investing my hard-earned money, time and effort; just when I thought I had a good team going, my team resigned enbloc.

I could tell you lots of stories about why I was right and they were wrong. I could talk negatively about these ungrateful agents.

I could also give up trying to be a leader. My story would have been different.

However, I took responsibility for my failures. In my personal reviews, I realized I failed because I was not a good leader. So, I decided to learn, unlearn, and relearn how to be a good leader in the real estate industry.

I rebuilt a team of 33 agents. They were solely dedicated to marketing my listings. In this way, I sold more properties in one year than what normal agents would have to do in ten.

Later, I recruited and trained a team of 812 agents in one year. I also employed full time managers and administrators to help me lead the team. As a result, I became quite prominent in the industry and it opened many business doors for me.

Obviously, my corporate sales and profits increased dramatically. I was also involved with many exciting and rewarding ventures.

When I left the industry for a short period of time; unfortunately, I also lost most of my team members. Many of them took my intellectual and other properties, joined my competitors, and went after my strategic target markets.

It was a very painful period in my life. I could lay blame, justify and give lots of excuses. I could give up on myself, people, business and even life. I could become a negative person.

When I evaluated the experience, I decided to take responsibility for my failures again.

I chose to wisely ‘destroy’ the old patrick liew and aim to reinvent myself to be a better leader. If you have attended My HSR Bootcamp 3, you would have heard the full story.

I improved my knowledge, attitude, skills, and habits (KASH) to be the leader my agents would be proud to be associated with. I learned to love them, touch their lives, and serve them to achieve a win-win shared vision.

From almost nothing, I managed to rebuild a 2500-strong team. Along the way, I learned to leverage on new mindsets, structures, systems and processes to plan, lead, organize and grow the team.

This is line with ‘My HSR Code of Honour #10:  Leverage’ – I will achieve ever more with ever less to achieve the best results. I will leverage on people, systems, technology, and other resources to accomplish more for my clients.

I also disciplined myself to build a champion team with a team of champions. I realized all great organizations must have great leaders and great teams.

My ‘HSR Code of Honour #12: Teamwork’ puts it succinctly. A champion team is better than a team of champions. TEAM stands for ‘Teams that are Effective Achieve More’. I am committed to develop the #1 team and to harness the best from every member of my team. I will help to build a warm, dynamic, and caring HSR Family.

I lived by the wisdom from ‘My HSR Code of Honour #11: Positiveness’ – If I have nothing good to say, I will shut up. If I have to open my mouth, I will speak words of my life. Bad news should go up (to the top management). Good news should go everywhere. I will maintain positive, open, and value-added communication at all times. I will ‘tee-up’ every fellow human through positive appreciations affirmations, compliments, and other edifying actions.

I seeked to build a positive team that would inspire, motivate and encourage each other to achieve success. With a strong team, I can make a positive difference to the world around me.

In addition, our agents also helped My HSR to break major records in the industry. We were rated as The #1 Real Estate Company, The Best Real Estate Agency, The Fastest Growing Real Estate Company, and the Most Productive Real Estate Company. We became the most awarded real estate company.

Together, we built HSR into a warm, dynamic and caring family. A family that aimed to bring out the best from ourselves and to be the best in business and in life. We endeavored to be ‘The Happiest People on Planet Earth’ that will help others lead a better life and make our world a better home.

My HSR agents have become closer to me than my own brothers and sisters. They advised me, shared my sorrow, and multiplied my happiness. They helped me to live a more meaningful, exciting and fulfilling life.

That’s why, one of the best things I ever did was to learn how to be not just a leader but a servant-leader. I am committed to love you and help you learn, do and achieve more.

If I can serve you to be successful, we will be even more successful together.

This story has not ended. Please help me progress to the next level of my servant-leadership journey.

Go4It!

I hope this message will find a place in your heart.

By the way, I have also recorded other reflections.

Please go to ‘Notes’ found below my profile picture.

Visit my Inspiration blog at http://liewinspiration.wordpress.com

Visit my Transformation blog at http://hsrpatrickliew.wordpress.com

Please read them and continue to teach me.

Life is FUNtastic!

 

Question: How can I lead with love, compassion, and kindness?