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It may sound heavy, or even a little morbid, but according to one veteran of the real estate industry, young professionals looking to lead could learn the best lessons from changing their attitude about fear … and death.
Speaking at RiSE Leadership Awakening in March, Chris Hanley, principal of First National Byron Bay, spoke to the crowd of over 100 about the difference between “eulogy values” and “résumé values”, and why the best leaders are guided by the former.
“I’ve been to a lot of funerals, and I’ve got to listen to the blessed eulogies of people, and they have been amazing,” Mr Hanley said.
“If you’re trying to chart a way forward and you’re a young leader, write down your eulogy values on a piece of paper, or imagine yourself at your own funeral from above, watching people and seeing what they’re saying about you.
“You don’t want people at your funeral saying he or she was great. They had 17 investment properties and raised $3.6 million in GCI in their last year. You want them talking about how you loved and the people whose lives you impacted.”
Mr Hanley noted over the course of 80 years, Harvard researchers have been studying what leads to the greatest happiness. What they found is that the secret is really very simple.
“The single most important thing to your happiness in your life, in your business, is your relationships,” Mr Hanley reported.
That’s why in his view, a eulogy is more important than a résumé because it reflects the quality of your relationships.
At this point in his career, after decades of experience, Mr Hanley said that it’s working with his team that actually keeps him in his role.
Real leadership, in his estimation, shines in those interactions with your team. But it’s not always easy to make decisions that will cultivate the kind of environment that you want to work in, and that will help people prosper.
And that’s why leaders need to get comfortable with the idea that leadership takes facing fear.
“[There’s a] misconception that people in our profession have, [which is] that if you’re around long enough, fear goes away. But it doesn’t go away,” he said.
“If you’re sitting in a room and thinking, I’ll be good by 40, I’ll find a way out of the fear and I’ll be a good leader then — no, I’ve gone through that one. And 50, and 60. It’s still there. Leadership has got nothing whatsoever to do with not having any fear.”
One of the situations where more principals and leaders needed to be brave, he said, was in managing difficult staff, especially top performers.
“Being brave is getting rid of someone who makes you a lot of money because they do something bad to a trainee or a property manager or worse, they do something illegal or immoral. You put what’s right against the interests of your business.”
But not being brave in such a situation risks destroying everything you’ve worked for, he warned.
“The moment you let those people in, or don’t address it, they contaminate the rest of the business. And what does that tell everyone else in the business? It tells them that you are not a good leader. It tells them that your values are different and then you lose them as well.”
That’s your moment to shine, and to show the good people around you that they can count on you.
“You’ve got to make decisions as a boss. To not decide is to decide … [and] it irritates the crap out of your staff if you choose not to decide.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juliet Helmke
Based in Sydney, Juliet Helmke has a broad range of reporting and editorial experience across the areas of business, technology, entertainment and the arts. She was formerly Senior Editor at The New York Observer.
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