Letting Go of Control Is an Essential Leadership Skill
Collete English-Dixon, executive director of Roosevelt University’s Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate, takes a closer look at how being involved in other organizations outside of what you get paid for can be a strong enhancement to your day job.
BROOMFIELD, CO— At the recent GlobeSt. ELITE Women of Influence conference, Collete English-Dixon, executive director of Roosevelt University’s Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate, and real estate chair of the university’s Heller College of Business, discussed the struggles of being a woman in business today. She talked about the concept of “having it all,” challenges in the industry, and how she is currently working to groom the next generation of real estate leaders.
Part two of their discussion touched on which leadership skills were the most difficult for her to develop. When asked the question, she told moderator Christine Chipurnoi, SVP Real Estate Construction & Hospitality at USI Insurance Services, that understanding that she didn’t have to do everything was really hard.
“I always felt that if I knew the answer or the outcome… I had to own all of it and control it. I am fundamentally a control freak.”
She added that she doesn’t like to leave too much to chance if I she is held accountable. “But you wind up excluding your team. It gets tiring because you do everything and you don’t do well at developing your team.”
She explained that letting some of that control go and allowing people to be part of that process allowed her to have better outcomes because “you have that much more engagement and you get different perspectives.”
That was a lesson she said took a while to learn. “Engaging in organizations outside of my day job also helped me along that path… It was easier for me to let things go when it wasn’t tied to my paycheck. Being involved in other organizations outside of what you get paid for can be a strong enhancement to your day job.”