The job of a branch manager can be challenging, says industry training expert Julian O’Dell. In his first column for Property Industry Eye, he explains why.

The life of an estate agency branch manager is never dull, but it is frequently challenging. This is because there is normally an expectation that the manager must be responsible not only for the staff’s performance but also for contributing to the branch figures by personally producing an acceptable number of sales and/or instructions.

In reality, many managers in our industry are doing two jobs while being paid for one.

There is a high degree of difficulty in stepping up to management, simply due to the lack of support and guidance as to how to fulfil the new role. It was without doubt the trickiest transition in my career.

Thrown in at the deep end as a manager in 1987, somehow, more by luck than judgement, I ultimately swam rather than sank. Several months into the role and still on an almost vertical learning curve, I was sent on a management training course. It was as if somebody had switched the lights on. I just wished at the time that I had attended the course before accepting the position rather than afterwards.

On my travels around the country, I meet a large number of estate agency managers, who are hard-working and well-intentioned, but have not been provided with sufficient support to help them to supervise successfully. Some have even paid out of their own pocket to attend one of our management courses because their employers had refused to do so.

Many estate agency managers have been promoted at short notice to fill the role of team leader as a result of an unforeseen gap being created by the departure of the previous manager.

A sense of panic amongst proprietors when needing to find a new manager often leads to a quick decision based on who has been around a while and has a reasonable track record. Once those questions have been answered, it is a case of giving him or her a go. I once met a manager who only found out he had been given that role when a supply of new business cards arrived for him! The other serious challenge for a new manager – aside from becoming responsible and accountable for the results of a team of people rather than just their own – is that many are promoted from within the group they have to lead, demanding a rapid readjustment in key working relationships.

As a result of the above issues, a significant number of new estate agency branch managers do not make the grade. Their superiors lose faith and patience, often putting them under inappropriate pressure, and as a result, the managers themselves lose confidence and leave, often reappearing doing what they feel they are good at – selling and listing properties in a competitor’s office. That is often an easier way out of their difficult managerial role, rather than admitting defeat to their existing firm. That firm in turn, by promoting without support, loses a good staff member to the opposition.

The replacement for the departed manager is reactively chosen and the whole flawed cycle begins again.

Management books do not always provide answers. However, a principle that strikes a chord with estate agency managers is John Adair’s concept of “action-centred leadership”.

Adair identified three key areas that the leader needs to focus on – namely responsibilities towards the tasks, the team and the individuals within the team.

The effective leader is pivotal to the three key areas, devoting the correct amount of time and energy to each.

“Task” duties include ensuring all the appropriate jobs get done, and hitting targets by planning, monitoring and checking.

The “team” responsibilities will include motivation, communication and team building.

The “individual” duties will incorporate coaching, development and agreeing objectives.

Getting the balance right between these three areas will ensure effectiveness in each, leading to good results, a performing team and focused, productive individuals. There will be times when priority has to be given by the leader to one of the key areas over the others.

For example, when taking over an office producing poor sales figures, concentration on the “task” area will be important to drive improved results. Equally, when the staff are not gelling as a group, the manager will need to devote more time to improving the team ethic to ensure they are performing collectively, utilising strengths and understanding weaknesses. Finally, a new starter or poor performer forces a manager to concentrate on those individuals for a period to bring them to the desired level of effectiveness.

All managers should ask themselves daily: “Am I getting the balance right?”

They should also always remember that leadership is an activity, not a status.

Julian O’Dell
TM training & development
01480 405583