Leadership limitations: A key obstacle to growth in UK property firms

Our research reveals that 37% of property leaders have little to no work-life balance. A quarter report chronic stress or burnout, whilst nearly a third are struggling to stay emotionally resilient. When leadership cracks under pressure, the entire business feels the impact.

Scaling a business places considerable demands on key individuals. Directors often find themselves pulled in every direction – closing deals, managing clients, reviewing cash flow, overseeing compliance, and stepping in to fill gaps when recruitment slows.

While this hands-on approach may be manageable during the early growth stages of a business, it becomes unsustainable over time. If senior leaders are constantly addressing short-term problems, they have little time to plan for long-term development.

We often see many growing firms experiencing the same challenges – their operating structure fails to keep pace with their expansion. The company grows by adding new branches, expanding their revenue streams, and hiring more staff. However, key decisions rely heavily on the founder or a handful of senior managers.

This creates risk. Progress can stall when key decisions are centralised. A lack of succession planning means that when experienced individuals leave the company, there’s no one ready to step in. When leadership is overstretched, clients get less attention, and teams often lose direction.

Avoiding this means thinking ahead. What will the business need in the next stage of its growth? What roles will become essential? Who’s on a path to senior responsibility, and where are the gaps that will need to be filled? The property businesses that grow successfully are the ones that ask and answer these questions early on.

Scaling leadership doesn’t always mean hiring externally. In many instances, the right people are already in the business. What is required are more clearly defined roles, better support and greater opportunities for development. In some cases, a reshuffling of senior roles may be the key to unlock potential. In others, bringing in external expertise might be the best way to support growth and introduce new ideas.

The key is to start with a clear vision of what your leadership team needs to look like in one, three, and five years, and building an achievable plan to get there. Importantly, founders and senior leaders must be willing to step back and letting go. One of the hardest transitions for any property leader is to stop doing everything and start focusing on the areas where they add the most value. That might be time better spent on strategy, business development, and client relationships – not day-to-day firefighting. Delegation is essential, but it is only effective when there’s a structure in place to support it.

As property firms grow, there is risk of losing the qualities that made them successful in the first place, such as high levels of client service, local knowledge and expertise, agility, and strong employee engagement and loyalty.

Preserving culture through growth means being deliberate and maintaining standards. Without this, growth can lead to inconsistency, lack of quality and fragmentation, which affects service levels and team morale.

When business leaders are fatigued or feel unsupported, organisational culture is often the first casualty. Ensuring leadership wellbeing is, therefore, not only a personal issue but a strategic business consideration.