Written by Holtby Turner
Ever since MIPIM, BREXIT has been a hot topic in real estate and property. Despite a logical, and ever hopeful, belief an exit won’t be happening in June, the uncertainty abounds in real estate – and it’s hitting budgets, hiring and leadership badly.
So what can leaders in real estate do to reduce uncertainty? It’s lonely at the top, as the saying goes, and leading amid uncertain times makes it even lonelier. Those of us who have experienced a major recession will know that whatever seems certain can change. And the uncertainty around BREXIT is even harder to fully grasp.
Grainne Gilmore, Head of Residential Research at Knight Frank articulated the issue real estate faces very well in last week’s Estates Gazette; “The market can cope with change. What it can’t cope with is uncertainty.” Despite RICS’s recent survey revealing that “not a single central London commercial property market professional believes a pro-Brexit vote would be positive for the sector”, uncertainty is abundant.
This level of uncertainty often causes deep-seated fear in leaders – who are damned if they speak up and risk running unnecessary anxiety through their organisation, but damned if they don’t prepare for an unexpected turn of events. According to Accenture Strategy, 43% of high-league professionals see uncertainty both as a potential threat and a potential opportunity. Interestingly around half believe their leaders are prepared for change because they regularly review trends and emerging possibilities.
What threats such as BREXIT show is that the finest leaders in real estate are prepared to act, and their senior managers can see that. The essence of leadership itself means when situations are volatile, complicated, or uncertain, you offer direction, and lead.
So how can our real estate and construction leaders do so? In Leadership Imperatives for an Agile Business, Accenture Strategy goes on to identify leading in uncertainty as the number one characteristic of winning CEOs.
In her recent Management Today piece, “How to Square up to Uncertainty as a Leader”, Rebecca Alexander outlined five steps as critical for leaders during uncertain times. We thought them applicable to market threats such as BREXIT:
- Stay curious: what do others think? What are their ideas? Asking great, probing questions often results in a good outcome.
- Demonstrate confidence by being prepared to change, ditch or stretch your present thinking.
- Be an ideas consolidator: notice how different suggestions could be woven together, ensuring you’ve taken heed of all of them.
- Embrace multiple points of view: put yourself in the shoes of someone you respect. What would your old boss have done – good or bad? What may a competitor be likely to do?
- Don’t let fear of failure stop you and accept that some decisions you make will be wrong. Full stop.
Amid change and uncertainty of any form, strong leadership needs to trickle through an organisation and ensure that the most robust teams are in place. This often involves an expert assessment of a team’s strengths and then securing specialist interim management to ride the storm and give leaders the support they need, and deserve.
