A new era for real estate association leadership

By Carlo Calma

National Association of Realtors (NAR) CEO Dale Stinton is set to retire this year after having served the organization for the past 36 years and as its CEO since 2005.

Since making the announcement in December 2016, Chicago-based executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles has been tasked with finding Stinton’s replacement. However, one group has emerged to not only highlight viable candidates for the coveted position, but to overall empower and shine a light on the next wave of female real estate industry leaders.

#NARGirlBoss

Sunny Lake, Owner/Operator of Sunny Lake Consulting and former managing broker at eXp Realty in Katy, Texas, started the campaign NAR Girl Boss 2017 with this very goal in mind.

“We started it because in the 100-plus history of [NAR], there has never been a woman CEO,” said Lake. “And I really thought, with the coming of this new CEO, [the organization has] really needed to take a look at that and realize leadership should be reflective of the constituents.”

This holds true for the organization’s current membership dynamic. According to NAR’s 2016 Member Profile, 62 percent of its membership are female, up from 58 percent in 2014. And, since 2005, the distribution of gender among NAR’s membership has remained predominantly female.

With this in mind, Lake started the NAR Girl Boss 2017 campaign as a Facebook group, which has provided a platform for its membership to profile female leaders in the industry who they feel would be a perfect candidate for CEO of NAR. Since its inception in January, the Facebook group has amassed a membership of 974 at the time of press. The group holds many real estate agents from across the country amongst its membership, including those currently in leadership at NAR, according to Lake.

“This group and this discussion is totally not private and it’s not something that we’re hiding from NAR,” said Lake. “It’s something that we’re doing out loud because we actually do believe in what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. The conversation is healthy and it’s important.”

A Need for Transparency

Transparency lies at the forefront of this campaign, says Lake, who emphasized that while she would ultimately like to see a woman at the helm of NAR, a leader who brings fresh ideas to the table – regardless of gender – is what the organization needs and is currently searching for.

“NAR says they want big change, [that] they really want someone who’s forward thinking,” said Lake. “But if they actually want someone who is going to make change, [it] needs to be someone who is not so mired down in the politics of the current organization.”

The Current Landscape

Nykea Pippion-McGriff is president of the Chicago chapter of the Women’s Council of Realtors (WCR) and real estate broker with Dream Town Realty. In her 12 years in the industry and five years serving WCR Chicago, McGriff says she’s noticed more and more women “engaged at the higher levels of associations.”

Despite this, continuing the momentum and empowering her fellow female colleagues in the industry is what she aims to do through her work at WCR.

“We are cognizant of the need to continuously develop a woman leader in the association, [in] the local, the state and national level, and that’s a part of what [WCR] helps to do, and that’s develop the next wave of leaders,” says McGriff.

In terms of the current landscape, both McGriff and Lake agree that the profession still has a “boys club” façade that it needs to break.
“[Women] are really underrepresented — and that’s across the board, not just at the NAR top level, but across brokerages, it’s in associations. There are some great female CEOs of associations, but, as far as people serving on the boards of different organizations, there is a lot of underrepresentation of women,” said Lake, who adds that agents of different ethnicities are also underrepresented.

McGriff agrees that diversity in association leadership is an important goal. “I am the fourth African-American president of our network since our inception in 1987. So, I think it is still important that we have prepared women leaders and that we’re also keeping an eye out for diversity,” she says. “I think that we still need to make sure that we’re preparing all ethnicities to lead in the future.”

What’s next?

In terms of how she feels about the NAR Girl Boss campaign, McGriff says she appreciates the efforts of organizations who are “speaking up and speaking out to make sure that the powers that be … are aware of what our members want to see.”

Moving forward with the Facebook group and campaign, Lake says showcasing top talent in the industry remains the main priority.

“We’re actually just planning on keeping on shining the light [on talent], even after the CEO is selected,” she says. “We just want to keep having a conversation and putting emerging female leaders or just other people who are doing wonderful things in the industry, we want to keep shining the light on them.”