Kickstart Your Year with Clarity: 4 Insights from General David Petraeus

I recently had the opportunity to listen to General David Petraeus share his thoughts on leadership. His book Conflict, The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Gaza, is riveting and horrible. And he has somewhat of a controversial reputation in Washington circles. 

That being said, I found his four-point framework for leadership helpful and thought I’d share as you’re thinking about the new year and how to inspire your real estate team:

Point 1: Determine the right strategy to get the big ideas right

This is not trivial, and progress is uneven. If this isn’t right, nothing else works. What is your big idea for 2025? (Reply to this email and let me know! Big ideas are even more powerful when shared.)

Point 2: Communicate the big ideas to all the stakeholders

If it’s only in your head, then it might as well not exist. Your team needs to know what the business's 2025 big idea is and needs to weigh in with their perspective. No great achievement happens without others, so give yourself a ranking on your ability to communicate with your team. How can you make that 10% better this year? 

Point 3: Oversee the implementation of the big idea

This is where things get interesting. Measure your key metrics to determine if you are winning or losing at any given time. How you spend your time matters, and the metrics should show you where that is. Who on your team does this? It probably shouldn’t be you.

Point 4: Execute events to move the big idea forward

One-on-one, small group, and large group meetings, calls, and retreats are where you recalibrate the big idea to the world's reality and what it will take to implement. This is where you incorporate the learning and improve incrementally, day by day. 

Interestingly, as he spoke I thought of real estate, and the business of Realtors and real estate investors. There are things we can all apply, especially as we embark on a new year.

These are not groundbreaking ideas but rather quite simple.

Don’t overthink 2025.

Identify where you’re going, and set up the team and cadence to execute.