Every market cycle produces the same question: What do you do when the rules feel like they’re changing faster than you can read them?
It is not an easy question to answer. The pull toward caution is real. So is the temptation to overcorrect, making major decisions in response to headlines instead of fundamentals, or to get pulled into the noise and lose sight of what actually drives performance.
The leaders I respect most resist all of it. They get quieter, more deliberate and more focused on what is actually moving the business. In uncertain markets, the strongest leaders are not watching everything. They are watching the right things.
Behavior, not sentiment
In uncertain markets, everyone has an opinion. The mistake is treating those opinions as data.
What actually tells you something is behavior.
- Are buyers who took a pause coming back to the table?
- Are sellers adjusting expectations before listing, or still anchored to peak pricing?
- Are agents re-engaging with their databases or waiting for the market to give them permission to move?
Sentiment can lag behind reality. Behavior is where the real information lives.
The agents who are growing
In every market, even challenging ones, some agents are growing. The most useful question isn’t always “Why is the market slow?” Sometimes the better question is: Who is still winning, and what are they doing differently?
Uncertain markets widen the gap between the top of the market and the middle. That gap is instructive. It shows where the skill deficit is and who is building trust, pricing correctly and prospecting while others go quiet.
When I see agents consistently converting in a tough market, I want to understand exactly what conversations they’re having and how. Then I want that information in front of every agent who needs it. The best market intelligence we have is already inside our own organization.
Where the friction is
Growth stalls where friction lives, and uncertain markets expose friction quickly. When the same stall point shows up across agents or markets, it’s a pattern worth examining. Sometimes it’s market education. Sometimes it’s pricing or positioning. Sometimes agents need better language to have honest conversations with their clients about where values actually are right now.
When I hear the same hesitation from multiple markets, that becomes a priority. It might mean creating new resources, running a focused training, or simply getting on calls with agents to work through the conversation together. The fix is rarely complicated. But you have to be listening closely enough to find it.
Finding friction and removing it is some of the highest-leverage work a leader can do in a slower market. It doesn’t require waiting for conditions to improve.
The team’s energy level
Energy is not just a reflection of the market. It’s a reflection of leadership.
Look at the daily habits: Are agents initiating conversations or waiting for the phone to ring? Are they actively pitching or playing defense? Are they sharing what is working or going quiet?
If the team’s energy is dropping, the answer is not another update on macro conditions. People already know the market is complicated. What they need is clarity: where opportunity exists right now, what actions matter most and what they can control.
The long relationship
Every slower market reveals how well agents built their client relationships when business was easier. Clients with a genuine relationship stay in contact. Transactional ones disappear until they need something.
I pay attention to how often clients are reaching out unprompted. It’s a signal about trust and the strength of the book of business an agent has built. When that number is low, it’s not a market problem. It’s a relationship problem, and the time to address it is now, not when conditions improve.
Agents with deep relationships won’t be starting from zero when the market turns. They’ll already be in conversation, already know who is preparing and already have the trust that closes deals quickly.
What this adds up to
None of these signals requires a market recovery to act on. Leaders can study behavior, identify who is growing and why, remove friction, protect the team’s energy and reinforce the importance of long-term relationships.
The leaders who outperform over a full cycle aren’t always the ones who predicted when conditions would improve. They’re the ones who stayed close to their business during the hard part, asked better questions and built the habits that let their teams move fast when the window opened.
Uncertain markets don’t reward waiting. They reward attention.
Rainy Hake Austin is president of The Agency in Los Angeles. Get connected on Instagram.
