Culture That Drives Performance | EAX 10 Live World Class Agency Panel

Most estate agency owners don’t struggle because they lack ambition, talent, or ideas. They struggle because culture is left to chance and leadership gets stretched between doing the work and leading the business.

Recorded live at EAX 10: Lead Without Limits, this World Class Agency panel brings together some of the UK’s most respected independent agency leaders to explore what really drives performance when markets tighten and pressure rises. Hosted by Rob Brady, the conversation features Abigail Grey, Katie Cromwell, Chris Ellis, Shane Harris, and Matt Giggs, leaders who have lived through toxic hires, shifting conditions, and the hard lessons that come with growth.

What emerges is not theory or motivation, but a clear, human playbook for building a culture that actually delivers results.

👉 Watch above or listen here

The conversation opens with a simple but powerful idea, culture is shaped by what you reinforce. Panellists share how recognition became a turning point in their businesses, not grand gestures, but monthly, peer-voted awards tied directly to core values. Handwritten notes, visible trophies, and consistent acknowledgement turned praise into a learning tool. When teams can see which behaviours are celebrated, belief grows. And belief changes performance.

From there, the focus shifts to engagement. Not engagement scores or dashboards, but the real work of fixing friction early. Short, recurring surveys and honest one-to-ones helped these leaders uncover what was really getting in the way — unclear ownership, clunky systems, broken processes. A recurring theme was coaching. Those who invested in coaching themselves and their leadership teams saw performance lift across directors and negotiators alike.

As one speaker put it, you must work harder on yourself than on your business.

Then the conversation turns to the hardest leadership decision of all: removing the wrong person. Every leader on the panel had waited too long at some point and paid for it. Morale drops. Customers feel it. Cash suffers. The breakthrough came from using clear, personal values as the standard. When values like Be Remarkable, Be Better, or Be Humble are lived daily, leaders can coach fairly and act decisively when behaviour breaks trust. Culture isn’t about being nice, it’s about being clear.

Structure was the next theme to land. Defined roles, operating rhythms, scorecards, and protected thinking time weren’t framed as “corporate”, they were described as the difference between progress and polite chaos. Structure creates clarity, and clarity gives people the freedom to perform. Without it, even the best teams drift.

As markets continue to test resilience, the panel is blunt: hope is not a strategy. Instead of waiting for conditions to improve, these leaders reset expectations, leaned into relationship-led activity like landlord care, and followed up relentlessly without micromanaging. Consistency, not intensity, was the differentiator.

The episode closes with a truth many agency owners resist. You cannot do everything and lead well. Steering the ship is a full-time role. Delegation, patience with mistakes, and committing fully to the CEO seat are what unlock scale and long-term resilience. Agencies don’t stall because of lack of talent, they stall because leaders won’t let go.

This isn’t a feel-good conversation. It’s a real one, between leaders building businesses that last.

And when you’re done, ask yourself one simple question: