Leadership Lessons With Liz Peace CBE

Written by Liz Peace CBE & Curated by Holtby Turner

When we asked Liz Peace CBE for a few Leadership Lessons she laughed, and said she wasn’t sure anybody ever taught her how to lead. Formerly CEO of the British Property Foundation, Liz now has a portfolio and advisory career in the field of property, politics and the built environment, which includes non-executive roles at Howard de Walden Estates, RPS plc, RDI REIT plc, and Holtby Turner Executive Search, alongside many advisory roles in the built environment.

Just over forty years ago, when Liz began her career, management theory was pretty basic and barring professional training you just learnt on the job. “If I have absorbed any of the tenets of good leadership” she admitted, “it has probably been through good luck and having some interesting role models along the way – whose style I could emulate – or avoid”.

Still, as one of the industry’s most loved and respected Chief Execs, we asked her to reflect on her own leadership lessons share so we could pass on a punchy ten point list to the next generation of leaders in real estate.

  1. Surround yourself with good people and never be afraid of hiring folk who are a lot smarter than you.
  2. Don’t be afraid to hire ’disruptors’ – people who are very different to you and the people around you. Although, be prepared for that to lead to subsequent demanding management challenges.
  3. Try and create a diverse organisation. On several occasions in my career I have ended up with a severely gender imbalanced team – all women bar one token male. Of course, I justified this by explaining that I had simply hired the best people for the job. But joking apart, a leader has a responsibility to ensure that they have a diverse and inclusive workforce – which, as we all know, is better for business anyway.
  4. Make sure everybody understands the business you are in and buys into the objectives for the company or the organisation. There is no need to spend days in fancy focus groups or with consultative committees to elicit views and opinions. Simply listen to your people, and once you have listened, go back to them with a clear view about where you are trying to take them.
  5. Be enthusiastic about the business: there is nothing worse than working for somebody who is perpetually downbeat and cynical. After all you are supposed to be inspiring your workforce not sending them into depression.
  6. Always be visible and available. An open door policy is not enough, especially as we don’t have doors anymore. Make sure you go round, perch on the edge of the desk and ask people what they are up to.
  7. Embrace new methods of working. I must admit I have found the move to flexible working practices incredibly difficult: there is nothing more annoying than wanting to talk to someone and then finding they’re working at home. There is, however, something called a phone and conference calls actually work perfectly well. If offering flexibility means you can keep your key staff, then you simply have to get used to it.
  8. Encourage your people to talk to you about their aspirations, including personal ones such as family and career breaks. If they feel the time is ready for a move to another company, then help them find the right move. I know ‘emotional intelligence’ is a bit of a buzzword these days, but dealing with people sensitively and showing that you do understand their feelings really does make a better leader.
  9. Never forget that you are there to run a successful business and so be prepared to take the tough decisions needed to achieve that. Your people will understand that for who wants to work for a failing organisation?
  10. Make sure you have somebody outside the organisation that you can talk to about the travails of your leadership role: it can be lonely at the top. My Presidents at the BPF invariably asked me what I wanted from them, and I always used to say ‘someone to moan to when things aren’t going my way!’

I don’t know what the many people I have worked with throughout my career would make of this and or indeed whether they would consider me to have been a good leader.  What I do know is that I have always been true to myself, treated people and situations  instinctively (and in accordance with my own personal values and beliefs), and been prepared to adapt to changing times. If that is the case, then to me it suggests good leadership may be as much about inherent personality overlaid with experience, as it is management theory and the right MBA course!”

This article is featured in our full report A Very Modern Leader: Contemporary Leadership In Real Estate & Construction which you can download by clicking the link. 

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