Ryan Gorman On Effective Leadership & Decision Making

Podcast

Interview with Ryan Gorman by Kevin Kauffman

Intro 

Whether you lead a large organization or a small team, one of the things that will affect our people are the decisions we make. It can be a real challenge to get people to buy into the decision leadership makes, and for them to feel like the decisions we are making will benefit them. My guest today, Ryan Gorman is the leader of a massive real estate organization, and he is highly familiar with making decisions that have a huge ripple effect on the businesses and lives of other people. 

How do we make decisions in a way that gives everyone on the team a voice? What can we do to foster an environment where people can speak up and give feedback freely? How do we avoid getting stuck in the deliberation phase? On this episode, NRT President and Chief Executive Officer, Ryan Gorman talks about the tools leaders can use to be more effective when steering their people in a new direction. 

Quotes 

If you think a tool is going to solve your problems and make you work when you don’t want to, you’re looking for an external solution to an internal problem.

– Ryan Gorman

When you make high risk decisions, if we focus on making them for the right reasons, and communicating the right way, people will understand.

– Ryan Gorman

We’ve got more choices than ever before in the software and tools we use.

– Kevin Kauffman

Key Points 

Real estate is entrepreneurial but it has a strong human element

Real estate is an entrepreneurial venture but it’s equally a very personal and human-centric business. We walk people through one of the biggest life events they’ll ever have, we work around the homes and lives of our customers and everything we do is very much intertwined in the personal lives of people.

Build a system for decision making

Organizations need to have a systematic approach to making decisions, to make sure that it’s the right course of action. That has to include a phase where people can debate and “red team” their ideas, as well as a commitment phase where everyone in the organization has agreed, and has one voice on and moves towards the goals in one spirit. 

The mindset we have about leadership colors our actions

Our conception of how a leader should behave often affects how we lead. If we think leaders should just exude strength, it becomes hard for us to be willing to get feedback because it makes us vulnerable. If we shift the vision of what a leader should be, we can make the concept more dynamic.

Summary 

On this episode we discussed

• How Ryan made the transition from Silicon Valley major acquisitions to the real estate industry. 
• How leaders can make decisions running a big company where each choice has a major ripple effect.
• Why a lot of leaders don’t want honest feedback from their people.
• The tools that can help leaders and organizations make decisions more effective 
• How to make our people emotionally comfortable with our decisions and decision making process.
• How to pick the right tech tools. 
• Ryan’s tip for living a happier and more successful life.  

Closing Paragraph 

The decisions leaders make affect the lives and livelihoods of people, so it’s key that we make the most informed ones possible. When we make a decision, we have to be thoughtful about how we make it, take in lots of information, and allow for people to add their voices to the decision. It’s about balancing the act of making decisions fast with confidence, but also reevaluating when things don’t go as planned and pivoting so that in any event our people benefit.

Catch the Interview

Listen to the full interview with Ryan Gorman:

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