WeWork’s Adam Neumann is renowned for his outlandish leadership style. Before being ousted five years ago from the coworking company he founded, he made headlines for walking around the office barefoot, taking shots of tequila at work, and throwing raunchy retreats for staff—essentially, the Isreali-born billionaire isn’t one to blend into the background. But perhaps that’s all about to change.
That’s because after observing Neumann in action, Jeff Bezos recently offered him some unsolicited words of wisdom: Speak last in meetings.
Neumann revealed at Bloomberg Tech Summit that the Amazon co-founder approached him with sage management advice after watching the ex-WeWork chief speak at an event—and Neumann welcomed the feedback.
“I was so happy he wanted to give me any type of advice,” said Neumann, who has been busy with a new real-estate startup, Flow.
During that conversation, Bezos also reportedly told the serial entrepreneur: “Even if you don’t take my advice, I think you’re going to do really well.”
Whether or not Flow does go on to become as successful (or not) as WeWork, Neumann’s apparently already putting Bezos’ advice into practice and shifting away from the loud managerial style during his WeWork days.
Now, he is trying to be someone who pauses before jumping into action, giving Flow’s employees and investors—who include Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz—more space to air their opinions in meetings.
And when he can’t help but butt in during a meeting, he insisted that he takes “a deep breath” and reminds himself of Bezos’ advice, adding: “I’m sure I’m doing it better, (but) I’m sure there’s a long way to go.”
Coins2Day has reached out to Flow for comment.
The practice encourages ‘unfiltered’ opinions
Bezos is a fan of “messy meetings,” he previously admitted, on an episode of the Lex Fridman Podcast—complete with a six-page memo instead of a PowerPoint (because they’re too vague) and half an hour set aside at the start of the meeting to silently read it together before having “a really elevated discussion”.
“My perfect meeting starts with a crisp document,” he said. “I don’t keep to a strict schedule. My meetings often go longer than I plan for them to because I believe in wondering.”
Part of that structured chaos is ensuring everyone has time to air what they really think—but instead of empowering everyone to chip in as soon as they have a light bulb moment, Bezos asks his employees to take the floor in order of reverse seniority.
Why? In his eyes, our minds can be easily changed by those we respect, so asking the most junior staffer to speak first enables leaders to hear everyone’s “unfiltered” opinion.
“If I speak first, even very strong-willed, highly intelligent, high-judgment participants in that meeting will wonder, ‘Well, if Jeff thinks that, maybe I’m not right,’” he added. “If you’re the most senior person in the room, go last.”