“Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge.” — Simon Sinek
I sat in on a leadership review once where a principal proudly told me his team felt fully supported. I asked his team the same week. Almost none of them agreed. That gap isn’t rare — it’s the norm, and it’s exactly what nearly derailed his best agents before we caught it.
If you asked your team right now whether you truly engage them, would their answer match yours?
The $46 Billion Gap
Organisations spend an estimated $46 billion a year on leadership development, and research on The Mind of the Leader, involving 35,000 leaders, found 77% of leaders believe they engage their people well — while 88% of employees say their leaders lack real engagement skills. Separate Gallup research puts disengagement as high as 80% of the workforce. The investment isn’t the problem. The focus is.
Richard Branson said it plainly: “If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” Alfred Adler defined the skill underneath that care: “Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another and feeling with the heart of another.” And Theodore Roosevelt’s line still holds: “Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
Feeling this one? You don’t have to figure it out alone — book a free High Performance Call and let’s talk through where you’re at.
Three Mindsets That Close the Gap
- The Human-Centred Mind. See each person’s actual experience, not just their output.
- The Heart-Centred Mindset. Lead with genuine care and interest, not managed performance.
- The Soul-Centred Mindset. Connect people to a purpose bigger than the KPI board. Terry Orlick captured it well: “The heart of human excellence often begins to beat when you discover a pursuit that absorbs you, frees you, challenges you, or gives you a sense of meaning, joy or passion.”
Take action: Ask one person on your team this week how supported they actually feel — then let the answer be uncomfortable if it needs to be.
John Quincy Adams said it best: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” That’s the Awesome Human standard I hold every leader I coach to — not managing people, inspiring them.
If you’re ready to close your own gap, book a free High Performance Call.
About Jet Xavier
Jet Xavier is a High Performance mindset and accountability coach who works with real estate agents, principals and team leaders to build sustainable, high-performing careers. Learn more about Jet.
This piece began as a column for Elite Agent — you can read the original here.
