Posts tagged:leadership

THOUGHTS ON LEADERSHIP: HUMBLE, HUNGRY AND SMART

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me at home, beginning the week with my normal Monday WIG calls. On Tuesday, I had a HomeServices of America Corporate Team Gathering and on Thursday I was a guest speaker for Guarantee Real Estate’s managers meeting. I also participated in five succession planning calls this week.

Being a leader means constant self-reflection, accessing your habits good and bad to double down on the former and break the latter. It’s part of a constant re-invention process every leader must regularly go through to evolve and grow. If a leader is going to be a catalyst for outward change, they must also be a source of inward change. And there are three key characteristics that help in this leadership evolution: staying humble, hungry and smart. Let’s examine those attributes and their distinct components as they relate to effective leadership:

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LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM VINCE LOMBARDI

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Gino Blefari

This week found me at home, starting my week on Tuesday with my weekly Berkshire Hathaway Energy meeting followed by my normal WIG calls. Today, I presented a 4DX Tune-Up for the leadership team at Harry Norman, REALTORS®, which is led by CEO Jenni Bonura.

It’s an exciting day for me as the NFL kicks off with the Houston Texans taking on the Kansas City Chiefs. I’ve often drawn comparisons between the lessons learned in sports and the lessons we can glean as leaders, and one of my all-time favorite football leaders was Vince Lombardi. The legendary coach was best known as head coach for the Green Bay Packers in the 1960s, and under his leadership the team won three straight and five total NFL championships over the span of seven years, which included winning the first two Super Bowls at the end of the 1966 and 1967 seasons.

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THOUGHTS ON LEADERSHIP: EFFECTIVE EXECUTIVES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me at home, starting the week with my typical WIG calls for our CEOs followed by the 6th Annual D’Ambrosio Family Foundation Golf Tournament in San Jose, California. On Tuesday, I participated in the weekly Berkshire Hathaway Energy meeting and on Wednesday, I filmed for HomeServices of America projects in Los Altos, California. I also attended a planning meeting with HomeServices of America group leaders for the upcoming CEO Leadership Conference taking place virtually Sept. 23-24.

As I worked through this new week and new month, I continued to explore the wealth of knowledge published by the Harvard Business Review. Peter F. Drucker, one of my very first mentors, wrote a compelling piece for the publication titled “What Makes an Effective Executive.” In the article Drucker details how executives who are effective get the right things done in the right ways.

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THOUGHTS ON LEADERSHIP: THE BENEFITS OF BEING INCOMPLETE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me starting the week with my usual Monday, which included WIG calls with HomeServices of America CEOs. On Tuesday, I had the weekly Berkshire Hathaway Energy presidents’ meeting then participated in a breakout session as part of Tom Ferry’s Success Summit. On Wednesday, I had a HomeServices of America board meeting via teleconference followed by the HomeServices of America team gathering and the Long & Foster shareholder meeting. Today, I delivered a 4DX Tune-Up presentation to the team at Bridgebank as well as to the team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Commonwealth Real Estate.

As I’ve been doing these past few weeks, whenever I have downtime to recharge and recalibrate, I’ve been digging into leadership articles posted by the Harvard Business Review. This week I listened to “In Praise of the Incomplete Leader” by Deborah Ancona, Thomas W. Malone, Wanda J. Orlikowski and Peter M. Senge.

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THOUGHTS ON LEADERSHIP: AUTHENTIC LEADERS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me at home, starting Monday with my typical WIG calls among our HomeServices of America CEOs. On Tuesday, I participated virtually in the Berkshire Hathaway Energy Weekly Presidents Meeting followed by the August CEO Leadership Microsoft Teams Meeting. On Wednesday, I had the distinct opportunity to take part in the first-annual Walk-N-Wag to benefit the Sunshine Kids, a non-profit organization for children with cancer. Kona and I got some exercise and enjoyed the summer day, all for a great cause.

In addition to a packed week of virtual events and meetings, I also carved out some time to digest a fantastic Harvard Business Review article – “Discovering Your Authentic Leadership.” The authors (Bill George, Peter Sims, Andrew N. McLean and Diana Mayer) eloquently explained the importance of authenticity when leading a team.

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THOUGHTS ON LEADERSHIP: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me at home, starting the week with my standard Monday agenda of WIG calls and the Berkshire Hathaway Energy Meeting. On Wednesday, I presented the 4DX Tune-Up to HomeServices of America Relocation Directors then presented “Mindset, Leadership and Marketing Best Practices Amid COVID-19” to three chapters of the Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA): Orange County, Calif., Seattle and Portland. Finally, today I participated in the HomeServices of America Budget Review with Berkshire Hathaway Energy.

As I virtually met with leaders across the country (and world), I began thinking about the qualities all effective leaders must possess. What does it take to be a great leader? The answer is often more art than science, as author and science journalist Daniel Goleman explained in his pivotal Harvard Business Review article, “What Makes a Leader?”

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THOUGHTS ON LEADERSHIP: A IS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY

Gino Blefari

This week my travels find me at home, starting the week on Monday with my normal WIG calls then the weekly Berkshire Hathaway Energy Presidents Meeting. On Tuesday, I delivered two 4DX Tune-up presentations to the leadership team at HomeServices of Nebraska and the leadership team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties. On Wednesday, I participated in the HomeServices of America Corporate Team Gathering and today, I again presented 4DX Tune-up to the leadership team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, REALTORS®, followed by the leadership team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties and the leadership team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New Jersey Properties.

While I touched on the topic within my ABCs in last week’s blog post, I thought I’d go deeper this week into one letter: A, which we can associate with accountability. Here’s how accountability was defined as the “A” in our leadership ABCs:

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THOUGHTS ON LEADERSHIP: LEADING FROM A TO Z

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me in my usual locale — at home. On Monday, I had my normal WIG calls with our leadership teams across the world and on Tuesday I had my weekly Berkshire Hathaway Energy President’s Meeting followed by the monthly CEO Leadership Microsoft Teams Meeting. On Wednesday, I participated in Intero’s Leadership Symposium and today I presented “4DX Tune-Up” to the team at RealtySouth.

As I participated in these virtual meetings and conferences, I thought about the basics and how these past few months have created opportunities for leaders to focus on the true fundamentals of excellent leadership. In fact, you could take the entire alphabet and use it as a guide to the tenets of this “back to basics” leadership approach:

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THOUGHTS ON LEADERSHIP: CHANGE TAKES CHARGE

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels (virtually) found me first on Monday completing my regular round of calls, which included my 4DX call with the franchise sales team followed by a weekly update call with all of the national department heads at HomeServices of America, followed by the 4DX call with 30 CEOs of HomeServices of America companies. Tuesday, I discussed 4DX with the leadership team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty, then I finished my day with a HomeServices of America team meeting. On Wednesday, I participated in an Ebby Halliday Facebook Live chat with CEO Chris Kelly. Today, I was a guest speaker on a Zoom with the Northern California Women’s Council of Realtors, presenting Mindset Leadership & Marketing Amid COVID-19. Finally, tomorrow I’ll wrap up my week talking all things 4DX with the leadership team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago.

Between virtual meetings and the whirlwind of everyday work, I’ve been revisiting the key insights from some of my favorite business books, “The Leadership Challenge” by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner. Particularly applicable is the authors’ chapter on leading through change, and the importance of being proactive about changing course when challenges present themselves. They place emphasis on combatting challenge with change, and even purport that it’s a leader’s top priority to do so.

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THOUGHTS ON LEADERSHIP: TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE

By Gino Blefari

This week I taught in a 4DX virtual training with the Guarantee Real Estate leadership team. On Wednesday and today, I’m virtually hosting the HomeServices of America CEO Leadership Conference.

Specifically, the conference was organized to address COVID-19 from a future-thinking perspective.  How will business look in a post-COVID-19 world? What could be transformational about how we approach strategies, execution and successs?  

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