A strong EBU should do more than support a lead agent. It should create a pathway for associates to develop the skills required to conduct appraisals, win listings and progress in their own careers.
One of the areas I am encouraging team leaders, principals and business owners to focus on is capability within the EBU. If you have a team of five, ideally at least one or two people should be developing toward the point where they can conduct market appraisals and eventually list property themselves.
That does not happen overnight. Listing is a specific skill and it takes role playing, repetition, dialogue work and market knowledge, as well as the ability to carry enough gravitas in front of a potential vendor to lead the conversation properly.
If every appraisal and listing presentation remains dependent on one person, the EBU eventually reaches a ceiling. The lead agent becomes the bottleneck and associates have limited opportunity to build the skills they need to progress.
A recent conversation I had with a high-performing team leader on The Adrian Bo Podcast, was a good example. He had developed two associates who became capable of listing independently, and rather than keeping them inside the EBU because they were productive, he encouraged them to progress into executive roles.
One of those associates had been in the industry for around 18 months and was already listing six to seven properties a month. At that point, the conversation was not about how valuable he was to the existing team. It was about whether he was ready for the next stage of his career.
That is the responsibility of a strong leader. Developing people should not mean developing them only to the point where they become most useful to you. Associates need to see that learning market appraisals, improving their listing skills and taking on more responsibility can lead somewhere.
A strong EBU should produce more than listings. Over time, it should produce capable agents.