Why Drumelia Lets High Performers Go | Company Culture

By Yaroslav Mudry August 19th, 2026 · 13m. reading time

Read more about Yaroslav

Why Performance Alone Is Not Enough at Drumelia

Strong individual performance matters, but at Drumelia it is not enough on its own. The company has learned through experience that long-term success in real estate depends not only on what people achieve, but also on how they work, how they affect those around them and whether their behaviour strengthens the team.

That principle has shaped some of the most difficult decisions in Drumelia’s history, including the decision to part ways with high-performing people when there was no longer a genuine cultural match.

For a sales business, letting productive people go can appear counterintuitive. For Drumelia, it became one of the decisions that helped define the company it wanted to build.

Real estate is different from many product businesses.

An agency does not manufacture the property it sells. The same home can often be presented by different agencies, and the physical property does not change depending on who represents it.

What changes is the experience around it: the advice, knowledge, communication, judgement, organisation, negotiation and trust provided by the people involved.

In that sense, the people behind a real estate agency are a fundamental part of its product.

This is why team quality and company culture have a direct effect on client experience. A company's standards ultimately become visible through the everyday behaviour of the people representing it.

That idea is closely connected to Drumelia's Mission, Vision and Values, including its goal of elevating the image of the real estate agent and providing excellent service to clients.

One of the most important lessons came during the post-Covid property boom in Marbella.

Demand was unusually strong and Drumelia had an opportunity to grow quickly. The team expanded significantly in a relatively short period as the company tried to capture that opportunity.

The commercial results remained strong, but rapid growth created another problem.

Hiring decisions had become too focused on immediate performance. Sales figures received more attention than whether every new person shared the behaviours, standards and mindset the company wanted to preserve.

On paper, the strategy appeared to be working. Revenue and sales could show success. Inside the company, however, the environment was becoming less cohesive.

The experience revealed a distinction that has influenced Drumelia ever since:

A company can be growing financially while weakening organisationally.

Short-term performance can hide problems that only become visible later. When behaviours that conflict with the culture are tolerated because somebody produces strong numbers, those behaviours can gradually become normal for everyone else.

Eventually, Drumelia made a clear decision: strong results would not give anyone an exemption from the standards expected from the rest of the team.

This meant parting ways with people who were commercially productive.

It was a difficult decision precisely because the short-term cost was real. Removing productive people from a sales organisation can mean giving up revenue today without knowing exactly how quickly it will be replaced.

But keeping a high performer who consistently damages the surrounding environment can create a much larger long-term cost.

This is not unique to real estate. Research from Harvard Business School on toxic workers has examined how harmful workplace behaviour can affect colleagues and organisations, including the negative spillover such behaviour can have on peers.

For Drumelia, the lesson was practical rather than theoretical:

Individual performance should never be evaluated in isolation from the impact a person has on the team.

There is an important distinction between poor character and poor fit.

When an employee and a company are not right for each other, it does not automatically mean that either side is wrong.

Different companies reward different behaviours, operate at different speeds and have different expectations around communication, accountability, independence and performance.

Someone who struggles in one environment may become highly successful in another that fits them better.

The mistake is not necessarily hiring someone who later proves to be a mismatch. The bigger mistake is recognising the mismatch and ignoring it because the person's short-term results are good.

Company culture is often presented as a collection of values written on a wall.

That definition is incomplete.

At Drumelia, culture is understood as the behaviours that a group of people gradually comes to regard as normal.

What happens when someone makes a mistake? How prepared are people for a meeting? Do colleagues take responsibility when something falls outside a perfectly defined job description? Is feedback avoided or discussed openly? Do people continue learning when nobody is checking?

Thousands of small decisions answer these questions long before a company statement does.

When high standards become normal, people entering the organisation are surrounded by examples of what is expected. The same mechanism works in the opposite direction: behaviour that is repeatedly tolerated can eventually become part of the culture too.

This is why leadership matters. Policies, incentives, recruitment and processes all play a role, but one of the strongest signals leaders can send is their own repeated behaviour.

If punctuality matters, leaders need to be punctual. If development matters, leaders need to keep learning. If accountability matters, leaders need to accept responsibility for their own mistakes.

Culture becomes credible when what a company says and what its people repeatedly do are the same thing.

The experience of rapid growth permanently changed Drumelia's approach to recruitment.

Today, candidates go through a multi-stage selection process. Professional capability matters, but it is only one part of the assessment.

The company also looks at motivation, discipline, curiosity, accountability, learning speed, communication and whether there is a genuine match between what the candidate wants and the environment Drumelia offers.

This is particularly relevant in the highly competitive luxury real estate market in Marbella and the wider Costa del Sol.

There is no single academic background that guarantees success as a property advisor. Previous real estate experience can be useful, but the profession requires much more than the stereotypical ability to sell.

A large part of the job is consistent execution: organisation, preparation, follow-up, administration, market knowledge and attention to clients over long periods of time. Interpersonal ability matters, but so do discipline and the ability to learn quickly.

This is why Drumelia also creates opportunities for people without previous real estate experience. The company's careers programme in Marbella includes a structured path for people who demonstrate the qualities needed to develop into successful real estate professionals navigating the Costa del Sol property market.

For a more detailed view of the expectations, responsibilities and development of the sales team, see what it means to be a real estate agent at Drumelia.

Recruitment is not only about convincing talented people to accept an offer.

Sometimes the responsible decision is the opposite.

If the hiring team believes that a candidate is capable but unlikely to be happy or successful within Drumelia's environment, the company would rather discuss that openly before a person joins.

That can mean losing a strong candidate. It can also prevent a mismatch that would eventually cost both sides more time and energy.

The objective is not to find universally "good" employees. It is to find people for whom Drumelia's expectations, ambitions and working environment make sense.

The phrase high-performance culture can easily be misunderstood.

At Drumelia, it does not mean that sales figures excuse everything else.

It means creating an environment in which high standards apply to both results and behaviour.

A strong salesperson who repeatedly weakens trust, collaboration or accountability is not automatically a strong performer when the wider impact on the organisation is taken into account.

Likewise, being supportive and pleasant is not enough if someone consistently fails to fulfil their responsibilities.

Sustainable performance requires both.

This approach is reflected across the wider Drumelia team, which brings together specialists in sales, marketing, listings, exclusives, legal, finance and other functions around common standards rather than treating individual departments as isolated businesses.

The post-Covid period taught Drumelia that there are different ways for a company to grow.

One is visible immediately: more people, more transactions and more revenue.

The other compounds over time: better people, stronger systems, higher standards, deeper expertise and an organisation capable of maintaining its performance as it becomes larger.

Sometimes the two happen simultaneously. Sometimes a company has to choose.

Drumelia chose to prioritise the second when the two came into conflict.

That decision forms part of a much longer evolution. Since its beginnings in Marbella, Drumelia has developed from a small real estate business into an international team while continuing to redefine its structure, technology and approach to professional development. The broader journey is covered in the history of Drumelia.

The lesson from that period can be summarised simply:

Drumelia looks for people who can perform at a high level without compromising the environment that makes high performance possible.

That means professional ability matters. Results matter. Ambition matters.

But so do discipline, accountability, willingness to learn, respect for colleagues and alignment with the company's purpose.

The standard applies in both directions. Drumelia needs to be the right company for the candidate just as much as the candidate needs to be right for Drumelia.

For people who want that kind of environment, the Drumelia careers page explains current opportunities and the paths available to join the company.

Why would Drumelia let a high-performing employee go?

Strong individual results are not considered in isolation. If someone's behaviour consistently damages trust, teamwork, accountability or the standards expected across the company, their wider impact can outweigh their individual performance. Drumelia therefore considers both results and contribution to the team when assessing long-term fit.

What does company culture mean at Drumelia?

At Drumelia, culture means the behaviours and standards that people inside the company come to consider normal. It is shaped by everyday actions, leadership, hiring decisions, accountability and the way colleagues work together, rather than by statements or slogans alone.

What does Drumelia look for when hiring?

Drumelia considers professional capability alongside motivation, discipline, accountability, communication, willingness to learn and cultural fit. The objective is to find people who can develop and perform over the long term within the company's working environment in Marbella.

Do you need previous real estate experience to work at Drumelia?

Not necessarily. Previous experience can be useful, but it is not the only route into the company. Drumelia also recruits people from outside the property industry and offers a structured development path for suitable candidates entering real estate.

What is a high-performance culture at Drumelia?

A high-performance culture at Drumelia means maintaining high standards for both results and behaviour. Commercial success matters, but so do professionalism, discipline, continuous development, accountability and the effect each person has on clients and colleagues.

How can someone apply to work at Drumelia?

Current vacancies and information about working at the company are available on the Drumelia careers page.