Adam Hergenrother is the founder and CEO of Livian. He believes that business is nothing but a conduit for personal growth and embraces the company’s vision to Love How You Live. When he’s not leading and growing his organizations, you can find Adam either in the mountains or out in nature with his wife and three children.
Conscious or holistic businesses are gaining momentum. Real estate agents and employees want to partner with companies that take the whole person into account. They want to go to work somewhere they can truly be themselves and be celebrated for it. They want to work smart and have their hard work matter.
This new era of real estate teams and companies will require conscious leaders. But what does being a conscious leader even mean?
There are five signs that you are a conscious leader or that you are working with one. You can also develop your conscious leadership skills, by reviewing these qualities.
Conscious leaders stay neutral
Building a real estate business and leading a team can certainly be a test of your patience, willpower, resilience, resolve, emotional fitness and more. This means it’s the perfect place to practice staying neutral.
When you have clients calling to complain about an agent — you stay neutral and centered. When your team just hit their biggest month of pendings yet — you stay neutral and centered.
This just means that you are dealing with your team and business without allowing your energy to get disturbed, positively or negatively. If you need a quick recentering practice, simply say “3, 2, 1 … relax” as you lower and release your shoulders. Sometimes you may need to do this a few times to get back to neutral.
Warning: Do not mistake staying neutral for being indifferent. Rather, staying neutral simply allows you to listen, respond, make decisions, and act with increased clarity and better judgment.
Conscious leaders are very self-aware
To be a conscious leader means being a self-aware leader. Self-awareness comes from a commitment to question who you are and your motivations. It means studying your behavior and personality. It means being willing to go inward and look at your flaws and strengths without judgment.
These leaders know who they are, how and why they act the way they do, where they tend to push boundaries, when they look for loopholes, how they communicate and much more. By being self-aware, these leaders play to their strengths, instead of working on improving their weaknesses. Then, they teach and encourage their team members to do the same.
Conscious leaders serve and contribute
Conscious leaders are not concerned with what they can “get” from their team and their business, but rather about how they can serve and contribute. As Zig Ziglar said, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” Conscious leaders know this and make it a part of their day — every day.
If you need a quick practice to ensure you keep serving and contributing top-of-mind, try this: Every time you pick up the phone, open a door, or get out of your car in the morning, use it as a sign-post to remind you that you are here on earth, at the office, on that phone call, to serve whoever is in front of you. From that foundation of servant leadership, a conscious business with other conscious leaders can be born.
Conscious leaders let go of the outcome
As a leader, knowing what you can and can’t control is crucial. You can control how tactical and comprehensive your agent training is. You can’t control whether or not your agents will actually get on the phone and lead generate.
Conscious leaders let go of the outcome of who does what, how people respond or even how a decision turns out. Instead, they focus on their actions and activities in the moment. In addition, conscious leaders let go of the personal need to be right or for a particular outcome to come to fruition.
In the example above, a leader may let go of the outcome of their agents making their calls. However, that leader will still make sure they are providing the coaching, training and accountability to set their agents up for as much success as possible.
They will remove friction. Provide operational support. Give encouragement and tough love when needed. What they won’t do is pick up the phone and call for the agents, nor will they get personally attached to whether or not they do make their calls.
When conscious leaders let go of the outcome, it allows them to remain clear, calm and neutral for whatever else might come their way.
Conscious leaders do not bother themselves about the moment
Much like letting go of the outcome, conscious leaders understand that whatever moment, challenge or experience is in front of them is not the problem. What is the problem is that you are bothering or disturbing yourself over the moment in front of you.
Agents not making calls? A client refusing to lower their list price? Your photographer delivering sub-par photos? Sure, those are all less-than-ideal situations. But think about this. A client working with an agent at another brokerage who is also refusing to lower their list price doesn’t bother you — it’s not even on your radar.
This means the client situation in and of itself isn’t the issue. What is? Your reaction, response and mental gymnastics about the issue. You end up bothering yourself.
But conscious leaders do not bother themselves about the moment. They stay neutral. They let go of the outcome. They get clear on how to separate their personal self from the issue at hand. And then they get to work serving the moment (and the client) to the best of their ability.
Conscious leaders who truly embody these best practices are the leaders who will thrive and grow in any economic market. They are the leaders who will be able to effect change and lead their businesses and entire industries.
Adam Hergenrother is the founder and CEO of Livian, the author of The Founder & The Force Multiplier, and the host of the podcast, Business Meets Spirituality. Learn more about Adam’s companies and culture here.
