On 5 December 2019, 11 ULI NEXT UK members (real estate professionals aged between 35 and 45) had an exclusive breakfast with Jon Zehner, Global Co-head of Client Capital Group at LaSalle Investment Management, to discuss the issue of transitioning to a leadership role.

He is responsible for leading LaSalle’s global activities relating to capital raising, new product development, large-scale, cross-border strategic investments and marketing and communications. LaSalle Investment Management is a subsidiary of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.

The breakfast event, held under the Chatham House Rule, provided the opportunity for attendees to ask any question they wanted about Jon’s career and to discuss challenges they faced with leadership roles.

The key takeaways from Jon included:

• The toughest part of making the transition to managing other people is trusting them to do the work.
• Break the transition into stages to make is easier.
• Teamwork is highly praised.
• Give credit to others, so people want to follow you.
• Praise in Public, Criticize in Private.
• Communicate broadly and constantly (many problems can be cleared up by communication).
• Reputations and relationships are important.
• Take career risks.
• Have to work hard and good every day.
• Try to find the right spot for everyone.  Consider firm culture as part of the fit.
• Don’t worry about things you can’t change.
• Key issues have to be put on the table.
• If you have lost an argument be prepared to move on.
• Lead by example.
• A key role of senior management is quality control.
• Delegation is about letting people have a go and make mistakes.

The ULI NEXT UK group would like to thank Jacqui Collins of ULI for inviting Jon to speak and Will Colthorpe of Argent LLP for hosting at its office in Granary Square, London.

Words by Rob Mello and James Lai