Co-Creation, Co-Ownership & Better Outcomes for The Masiello Group
Photo: GRTL & The Masiello Leadership Team on Retreat
A COVID-19 Shared Leadership Story
Chris Masiello, President and CEO of The Masiello Group, has spent several decades pursuing a dream started by his father more than 50 years ago – to build a thriving real estate company that puts people first. Today, The Masiello Group serves as one of New England’s largest real estate firms with 32 offices and 750 expert agents across several states. An affiliate of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, The Masiello Group has curated an extensive network of partners and resources equally committed to providing unparalleled, high-quality experiences for their customers.
We are proud to have embarked on a Shared Leadership learning journey with Chris and The Masiello Group team as they work to share power and leadership and strive to build a more innovative culture. Thus far, our journey together has included an in-person retreat and bi-weekly leadership meetings with their executive leadership team, with a focus on compassionate accountability and a deeper dive into their communication processes.
“We have a great leadership team. Our Shared Leadership journey allows us to create more in-depth experiences so that the true magic of everyone’s gifts evolves through this process,” says Chris. “We’ve discovered that Shared Leadership is about personal empowerment, distributed responsibility, and team accountability.”
When COVID-19 hit in March, the impact of their investment became evident. Chris looks back to the beginning of the global crisis with gratitude for the team’s Shared Leadership journey. The firm had a pipeline of 850 clients waiting to move into their new homes, but local and national regulations hampered and, in some cases, halted standard business practices. This required that the team mobilize their individual and collective strengths to react quickly, pivot in new directions, and navigate the ever-changing landscape amid the chaos.
“It’s been a blast to watch,” says Chris. “The COVID-19 crisis has taught us that Shared Leadership can create better outcomes than traditional, linear leadership. When you are in a Shared Leadership environment, possibilities that we may not have even thought of open up, and the culture becomes more about co-creation, co-ownership, and accountability,” says Chris.
Initially, Chris inquired about the Shared Leadership journey—not because his team faced a particular pain point or problem, but on the contrary -- because business was going well. For Chris, comfort can be a sign of complacency, and that it may be time for disruption, change, and innovation. That’s when he gave us a call.
“Saying yes to the Shared Leadership journey is about providing an environment that supports the next level of growth for my senior leadership team, both professionally and personally. It is as much about a commitment to people’s personal growth as it is about our team growth because we really can’t have one without the other,” says Chris. “Linear organizational structures are a constant bottleneck. There is no dance to it, no fluidity. I thought about the very gifted people that I get to go to work with every day and thought, what could we do together? What’s possible for us if we have an environment that supports deeper team growth?”
As a result of both the personal and team growth, The Masiello Group is thinking about post-COVID-19 life with fewer limits and a bigger vision for the business and systemic change. Chris and the leadership team repeatedly ask questions that challenge older, linear paradigms.
“This journey has helped us become aware of the things that are holding us back. Our industry is changing so quickly that we now ask ourselves: is this way of thinking empowering us or limiting us? Are we defaulting to old ways? How can we do things differently?” Chris, “Just because we’ve always done something a certain way doesn’t mean it’s best. We want to lean into the future.”
The Shared Leadership Journey has also helped The Masiello Group leadership team discover their ingenuity and how they bring their unique talents and strengths back to the ensemble. They are demonstrating more authority in their roles, communicating more openly, and operating more efficiently. Chris says the most significant outcome of their Shared Leadership journey to date is evident in more profound levels of trust.
“When the pandemic forced us to pivot our business, we weren’t perfect, but we were prepared. Every member of our team felt an individual and collective sense of authority, responsibility, and ownership. We communicate better as a team because of our shared experience through the initial phases of the crisis. We had trust before, of course, but we now have much higher levels of trust through the Shared Leadership process. It empowered every one of us to operate at a much higher level.”
We are proud to co-create and support The Masiello Group in their Shared Leadership Journey! To learn more about their work with our GRTL Team, you can check out Lori, our CEO, and Chris presenting together on Unleashing Your Potential: A Virtual Webinar sponsored by New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility.