A LETTER FROM CHRIS SUAREZ
STAY CONNECTED
The past month has been an exciting month for me. I have been given the opportunity to block off some more time and spend that time in the day to day operations of each of my businesses. Whether by design, by circumstance, or by necessity, that time has been well invested.
To some, this may not sound very exciting. In fact, it may sound like a regression from where they are today. We may use rhetoric in our business around the need for us to be leaders of the business, or the CEO of the business, or the visionary of the business. That of course is true. But I always like to think of myself and show up as an operator of the business as well. There are a few reasons why, that I will share in a moment.
As businesses grow, it’s easy to get focused on the leadership vertical of the business, or the talent attraction vertical of the business, or working on expansion and acquisitions for the business. We drift further and further away from where the business came from. We get further way from the customer. The distance builds between us and the product.
This week, the Wall Street Journal wrote an article about the CEO of Uber becoming a driver on its platform after 5 years at the helm as CEO of the company. He decided to experience his own company for the first time from both sides - as a driver and as a rider. There were glaring flaws acknowledged in the product and the service and the technology. Critics challenged the intent of the article as rhetoric to calm investors, drove questions as to why it had taken over 5 years for the CEO to use the product, and in some instances all but called for his resignation.
The ensuing articles from various publications led to an incredibly valuable discussion amongst our leadership teams, our business owners, and our partners around the lessons of always being an owner/operator.
Stay connected to your customer.
In the real estate industry, as the business grows, you may find yourself engaging less and less with your actual customer. You may consult with fewer buyers. You may represent fewer sellers. You may show fewer homes and negotiate fewer deals. Go ahead and buy a home or sell a home with your team. Jump in and run a deal from start to finish.
If your customer is serving the real estate professional, how connected are you to what they need? Where and how are they finding customers? How are they communicating and presenting to those customers? What level of service is guaranteed and how easy is it to deliver that level of service? Can we name every touchpoint between the customer and the service provider? Do we understand what has changed, what will change, and what will stay the same? Does everyone who touches the customer love them and love serving them as much or more than you do? As Will Guidara asks, “Have you interrogated each customer touch point in order to elevate them?”
Stay connected to your product and service.
Hiring your own company, using your own product, and testing your own service is a healthy way to ensure what you expect to happen is happening. The further we get away from the product and service, the more likely it is to change without you knowing or understanding the reason for the change. Every month, choose one thing that a customer uses, and use it. If you are simply leading and not operating the day to day business in any way, we may make changes that affect the business in unintended ways. Either you or other management roles may make decisions that are not strategically based on the underlying purpose or mission of the company. We often complicate process or eliminate steps that ultimately were important. The more we use our product and service, the more excited and motivated we will be to improve, iterate, and level up what it is our company is doing.
Stay connected to the hard work.
Don’t allow others to do the hard work while sitting in the corner office wondering why it isn’t done the way you’d like it to be done. Being willing to do the hard work alongside of your people will allow you to experience and inspect what is actually happening. Every month, choose one thing that someone else in the organization does, and offer to do it. Is it currently being done in the best possible way? Is it being delivered at the level you would wish to deliver it? Is there a way to make the job easier? Are we asking too much? Expecting too much? Or accepting too little? Over time, the by-product of staying connected to the hard work is the incredible culture you will foster while being in the trenches.
We all want to build incredible companies, doing incredible things, working with incredible people, and serving incredible customers.
The only way to do this over the long term is to stay connected. Stay connected to your customer. Stay connected to your service. Stay connected to the work. And always, stay connected to your expectations.
Chris Suarez