MSRED Courses
11.430J/15.941J: Leadership in Real Estate
Fall 2007
Instructors
Gloria Schuck, Lecturer, Department of Urban
Studies and Planning
MIT Office: W31-310
e-mail: gschuck@mit.edu
Lecture
Wednesday 9:00AM-12:00 PM
Room W31-305 (Conference Room)
Course Information
Description and Objectives
Do you want to better understand leadership theories and frameworks?
Do you want to have conversations with leaders in the real estate industry to learn about their leadership experiences and points of view?
Do you know how to develop your leadership capabilities?
Do you have answers to the questions that headhunters and prospective employers frequently ask?
The "Leadership in Real Estate" course offers you the opportunity to:
- develop a deeper understanding of "leadership"
- converse with leaders in the real estate industry about "leadership", and learn from their insights and experience
- examine your authentic leadership style
- create an action plan to develop your leadership capabilities
- craft your "leadership point of view"
Increasingly real estate executives are looking for leadership potential and behavior in the people they recruit, hire, and promote. Many people are not sure what "leadership" is. They know it when they see it, and everyone agrees that we need more of it. Leaders are authentic; they know who they are and behave accordingly. They are passionate about their ideas and values. They are dedicated to teaching others to lead. They know that leadership is an on-going process of learning and personal development.
In the last several decades there has been a fundamental shift in the structure of the economy. Information technology has replaced earlier technologies; information and knowledge have replaced energy and capital as the pivotal resources. The focus is on satisfying customer needs in ever-changing markets. This fundamental shift has led to a transformation accelerated by the globalization of markets and intensified competition. Modern organizational life has grown ever more complicated, and this complexity is making new demands on all leaders. Hierarchical coordination and control are giving way to horizontal mutual adjustment.
Most companies, and particularly those in the real estate industry have been organized and managed using out-dated industrial revolution models; i.e., pyramidal, hierarchical, command and control-driven models. New organization forms focus on teaching and learning (not command and control). One author writes about two fundamental challenges most leaders face, and it's certainly true for the real estate industry:
"To understand why effective [leaders] behave as they do, it is essential first to recognize two fundamental challenges and dilemmas found in most of their jobs:
- Figuring out what to do despite uncertainty and an enormous amount of potentially relevant information,
- Getting things done through a large and diverse group of people despite having little direct control over most of them."
Do you want to learn about leadership theory and to learn from the experiences of leaders in the real estate industry?
Half of the class sessions are devoted to conversations with leaders in real estate investment and development Topics and quotations from guest leaders in last year's "Leadership in the Real Estate Industry" course included:
Vision:
- "You need to repeat your vision so much that you'll get sick of it. But when people make it their own and repeat it to others, you've made it."
- "Visions have a huge emotional component; people join or follow because of emotion."
Leading:
- "You need to sell your vision; tell the truth, face reality, ask for input. Business is not a democracy. You need to really hear people and then you need to make decisions."
- "My theory of business is that you hire really good people that share your values. You give them the tools to do their business. You trust them."
- "You have to be at the center of it, not at the top of it!"
- "Everything you do is a message."
Making sense out of the world:
- "Leaders recognize patterns in the marketplace and have the guts to do something about it."
Relationships:
- "The ability to connect with people in the organization, with clients, with partners - that's the most important thing. That's where the magic happens!"
- "You're responsible for teaching your people. Give them assignments 1-2 notches above their comfort level."
- "Technical skills are important, but when you're in a senior management role, your ability to listen to people is key."
- "You can't have happy clients and unhappy employees."
On-going leadership development:
- "I don't think I'm as good as people think I am, so I'm always looking to learn more…"
- "Getting feedback is so important and so difficult. You can't fix what you don't know."
- "Self-awareness is really important."
- "You need your own leadership point of view. Only you can do that, and it takes work. I will always work at refining what I know and developing myself.”"
Do you know how to develop your leadership capabilities?
This course gives you a framework and a process, and the opportunity to examine:
- Craft your personal and professional vision.
- Articulate your values.
- Identify your performance barriers.
- Create action plans for your leadership development .
Do you have answers to the questions that headhunters and prospective employers frequently ask?
This
course gives you the frameworks and concepts,
opportunities for reflection, and practice
to develop your "leadership point of view" and
to answer the following questions:
- Tell me about yourself.
- What is leadership?
- What kind of leader are you?
- What do you care about?
- How can you develop as a leader?
Leadership development is an on-going, life-long process of inquiry and transformation; no “leadership cookbooks” exist. Leadership development is the process of encountering challenges at a new level of complexity. At the heart of leadership development are reflection, inquiry, and self-directed learning.
Again, the "Leadership in Real Estate" course offers you the opportunity to:
- develop a deeper understanding of "leadership"
- converse with leaders in the real estate industry about "leadership", and learn from their insights and experience;
- examine your authentic leadership style;
- create an action plan to develop your leadership capabilities; and
- craft your "leadership point of view".
Lecture Dates
Download the syllabus (pdf 78k) for a list of dates, readings and assignments.
