Estate Management extraordinaire Anthony Barlow shares his leadership tips that focus on connecting to and developing staff through hands-on guidance, regular meetings, and establishing genuine connections. He asserts that investing time in your team fosters a cooperative and fun household environment that is palpable to Principals. Below are some highlights from our Clubhouse chat on Thursday, April 28th. You can listen to a replay of this audio cast by Clicking Here. Tune in Live for future conversations through the app on Thursdays at 7:30 pm EST.
Leadership Begins with Service
According to Anthony Barlow, “Great leadership begins with great service.” No performance changes can happen until you invest in your staff. Understand their needs and what stimulates them. Where do they want their career to take them? Anthony can offer peak private service to his principal and advocate for his staff by understanding their goals. He understands that his success depends on his staff’s success.
Cross-Training
Part of taking an interest in your staff is encouraging cross-training. Anthony shared that a UHNW individual related how he achieved his position not on what he knew but in pursuing what he didn’t know. Cross-training is a win-win because it builds layers of protection for the principal and makes each staff member more valuable to the household, as well as, their careers. Because someone can always step in to help, the principal is never caught short.
Connection Before Correction
Investing in your staff makes constructive criticism more palatable. According to Anthony, the key to this is needing a connection before correction. Therefore, he makes time to meet individually with staff to connect and invest. Regular meetings make inevitable constructive criticisms seem more like pro tips instead of trips to the principal’s office that everyone dreads. If you don’t take the time to meet regularly, you risk falling into the rut of only meeting with them when there’s a problem.
Find a Mentor
Finding a mentor is critical in the PSP industry. They don’t have to be experts in your specific field, but sometimes being a sounding board is enough. Even Anthony, as an estate manager, still seeks advice from his mentor. Everyone needs someone to go to for advice or to hear them out.
We All Have The Same Job
No matter what position you attain in the household, Anthony says, “We all have the same job. That is to keep the Principal happy.” So, he has no problem taking out the trash, hauling groceries, or helping outside of his on-paper role as an Estate Manager. A cross-trained staff makes his life easier. Investing in his team makes the household run smoothly with an upbeat attitude. Best of all, when it’s time to offer constructive criticism, he says his staff not only wants to do a good job, but they also don’t want to let him down.
Anthony Barlow has had tremendous success in Estate Management with his principle that great leadership begins with great service. His leadership begins with his investment in his staff. The ROI is a cheerful, well-run household. As Anthony says, “Our workplace is someone else’s personal space.” Therefore, he does everything he can to make it fantastic. It all begins with service-based leadership.
