David Wallach
Barclay Street Real Estate Ltd.
TEC 303
You have a very interesting background. Can you describe your leadership experience prior to Barclay and even before you moved to Canada?
I was born and raised in Israel and lived there until immigrating to Calgary in 1999. At age 18, I joined the Israeli Defense Force, completing 3.5 years of full service and another 18 years as a reservist. My first experience with leadership was in the army and for 20 years I served as Staff Sergeant, first in the Infantry and later in an Artillery Brigade. Following my mandatory service I began a career in the insurance industry in Israel, starting as a Life Insurance Supervisor where I had a team of 15 insurance brokers, and was responsible for building their annual business plans and goals and helping them to achieve these plans and goals. From 1988 to 1994, I was also a member of the Israeli National Basketball Association Management team and President & G.M. of Maccabi Haifa, a professional basketball team playing in the Israeli Basketball League. Since living in Canada, I have gained leadership experience through my tenure with Barclay Street Real Estate Ltd. (BSREL) as it has developed and grown, and my preceding employment with Torode Realty.
What were some of the challenges that you faced coming to a new country and working your way up the corporate ladder?
My first challenge was to get hired. I immigrated at age 40, and many companies were not keen to hire someone of my age, with a funny accent, armed with a wife and three kids, who did not know the city, the industry, or anyone in the industry. What I have found to be very interesting and different from the culture I was used to was the fact that people did not get back to you with an answer as to whether they were going to hire you or not – they just did not give me an answer. Once I was focused on working in the commercial real estate industry, I interviewed with most of the national and international brokerages, and finally it was John Torode who took a chance and hired me. He was a TEC member and his only comment was “if he is a good guy hire him, we need good guys in the industry.”
What is your approach to solid leadership?
My approach to leadership was shaped during my army service as a Staff Sergeant and is a combination of “lead by example” and “treat your people with respect.” “Lead by example” is key for every leader. You can only ask your people – whether they are your kids, employees, soldiers, or basketball players to do just what you yourself would do. When your actions follow your words, when you honour your commitments and promises to your people, they will follow you. In the Israel Defense Force the command is “Follow Me” – it is not “Charge”.
The other key leadership quality is respect - treat your people with respect, whether it is your top sales person, or your newest employee – you have to care about their personal life and their professional development. My view is that my employees are my clients and I have to maintain client satisfaction, I have to make them want to come back the next day. And if I treat my employees with respect they will treat their clients – the company’s clients – with respect.
Can you give an idea of how Barclay has grown since you joined in 2000? What specifically have you contributed?
Over the past ten years, Barclay has experienced some major changes. In 2000 we were Torode Realty owned by a sole proprietor; then in 2001, we went through our first change to become a partnership. In 2004, we bought the founder’s last shares and changed our name to Barclay Street Real Estate. In 2007, we started providing property management services. In 2009, we closed our Vancouver office to focus our efforts on key markets, and since then have enjoyed solid growth in the areas of brokerage and property management.
If I consider my specific contribution to Barclay’s growth, I would say it is to bring stability, direction, and transparency to the organization. For every key change, we make sure our employees know the reasons why and where the company is going. Over the past year, I have seen as my biggest challenge to grow in the role of coaching employees - the better and more experienced I become as a coach, the better personal and professional growth employees will achieve, which will lead to continuous company growth.
As president, how do you manage your company’s growth to ensure smooth and healthy transitions?
The focus for us over the past two years has been INVOLVEMENT - get as many people as we can in our company involved in building our future together. We went through an entire company process of finding our common values; Leadership, Professional Standards, Success, Balance. We have built a management team that has a representative from each division of our company. We hold town hall meetings every quarter to inform all employees where we are with respect to our goals. We also have an annual corporate retreat for all employees, providing a way for everyone to meet their peers in a fun environment. All of these activities have helped us to build a strong team.
Recently, we developed a one-page strategic plan and are now in the process of learning how to follow the plan and execute it. And last but not least, we are focused on hiring people based on their character and core values and then ensure we give them the tools to succeed in our organization. In times of growth, hiring can become a big hurdle. If you hire under pressure you may get the wrong people on the bus, and they can jeopardize everything you are trying to build.
In a recent feature in the Calgary Herald you said Barclay stands apart from competition because of management leading by example, combined with the fostering of a family atmosphere, as well as supporting and celebrating each other's successes. How does the cultivation of a positive work environment translate into overall growth and success?
People spend between 9 to 11 hours at work daily. If you do not build, maintain and cherish a supporting, open, fun and joyful culture, people will leave. To ensure we maintain high employee retention, we encourage leadership and recognize it within the organization. We have built a wall of fame to recognize employees. When we achieve the corporate goals we have set, then everyone is a winner.
Barclay Street recently joined the TCN Worldwide network. Can you explain what this partnership means to your organization?
Calgary has become a major market in terms of local companies that want to conduct business world-wide, as well as international companies and retailers looking at Calgary as an important market for their business. In order to serve our clients around the globe, we require a strong international network of commercial real estate brokerages. We think we have found such a network through our affiliation with TCN Worldwide. Joining TCN Worldwide helps BSREL improve our service delivery to our existing clients as well as open doors to new clients and new business opportunities. TCN is a very active organization and we are already working on two assignments in our market for two international companies as a result of referrals within the TCN network.
You’ve already had a busy year – what are the next steps for Barclay?
The next steps for us are to improve our understanding and implementation of our consolidated one-page strategic plan. If we follow our plan we will reach new heights.
Finally, how has being a TEC member helped you with your business?
I have been a TEC member since 2003. TEC has helped me grow both in my personal and professional life. Whether it has to do with personal goals or business goals, my TEC friends at TEC 303 as well as our Chair, have helped me identify new and different approaches to; goal settings, problem solving, financial focus and reporting, identify necessary changes as well as support during changes carry out process. I treat TEC as my board of Directors and my TEC chair as Chairman of the board.
Looking back in past six years, every major decision I’ve made, personally or professionally, went through my TEC group as a discussion issue during our Executive Sessions. Every commitment I made was reported to my board of directors (TEC303) or to the Chair.
