JLL’s Stephanie Hyde doesn’t see challenge. She only sees opportunity. Which is a pretty good attitude to have when you’re the first – and currently only – female UK chief executive of one of the big property consultancies.
It is an outlook instilled in Hyde from a young age. From the vivid memories of her “wonderful nan” telling her “Life is not a rehearsal, Stephanie,” to the years she spent working in a pet shop with a woman, now approaching 80, who she’s kept in touch with for 35 years.
Sue is Hyde’s personal inspiration. She is a woman who had a brain tumour when she was four, had her first brain surgery at seven, is blind and has to take an encyclopaedia of drugs every day to stay alive, but she refuses to let that get her down.
“Her attitude through life has always been one of fun, of looking for opportunities,” says Hyde. “She’s never, ever sat there and thought ‘poor me’. She’s just inspirational as an individual in her approach to looking at life.”
It’s not the story I expect to hear when I ask Hyde who her inspiration is. Working at PwC for 25 years before joining JLL in April last year, she’s worked with some huge businesses and inspirational start-ups. And while GSK and AstraZeneca rank highly on her list of inspirational firms, she doesn’t talk about them like she talks about Sue.
And perhaps it is this that makes Hyde the change in leadership the industry needed to see. Not that she is a woman; not that she is an outsider, an accountant taking up what has traditionally been a surveyor’s role; but because she’s unapologetically human.
But don’t let the human, soft side fool you. Hyde knows business. She knows what is important and she knows how she wants to lead JLL to become the service provider of choice across the industry.
Place of choice
JLL has been nurturing a focus on sustainability – of all the agents, it has arguably been the leader in this area, first investing in it 20 years ago and making the sizeable acquisition of Upstream back in 2007. Climate impact, utilising tech and data, playing a leading role in the levelling up agenda and nurturing talent are all areas where Hyde believes JLL can and will ensure it is that provider of choice.
“Ultimately I want JLL to be the place of choice, whether that’s for our people or for our clients,” says Hyde. “Our purpose is very clear around shaping a better world for real estate, and we try to bring that alive for people.”
Despite being an “outsider” to the world of property, Hyde does know the regions and big business well, and sees huge opportunity in the role that real estate can play in levelling up the UK.
During her time at PwC, Hyde ran the regions for six years, spending a lot of time on the road, traversing the UK meeting businesses. That knowledge – and the associated passion that comes with it – has recently seen her installed as the chair of the CBI’s new Centre for Thriving Regions, a division of the body focused on co-ordinating the private sector’s role in the government’s levelling-up agenda.
Hyde is passionate about what the sector can do for levelling up, particularly when it comes to regeneration and building a fairer society for all.
“I really do believe in the need to try and level up the UK,” Hyde says, “but I think everybody recognises this isn’t going to happen until the public and private sector really get together and focus on it.
“The role that real estate plays for me is a cornerstone because ultimately this is about creating places that people want to live and work in. You have to create that economic pull, but you also have to create an environment where people want to stay, and they want to thrive.”
Thriving environments
Creating environments where people want to stay and thrive is also a focus for Hyde closer to home. One of the first things she did upon joining JLL in April last year was increase the number of graduates the company was taking on.
While the pandemic clearly hit trading across all advisory businesses, Hyde was determined that the impact of the pandemic was exactly why they needed to invest more in graduates and support the younger generation.
“The young people are incredibly passionate, particularly about sustainability and wanting to see how they can move the industry forward,” says Hyde. “One of things we have done here is brought together innovation teams to look at the pinch points where we can use technology to do things more effectively.”
Hyde lights up when talking about the next generation of talent in the business and supporting them on their career journeys.
“I would like people to feel that they can have more cycles of experience,” says Hyde. “And while there are really important pockets of expertise that people want to develop, I think often in the past – and what I’ve seen here – is people would typically rotate as a graduate and then stick somewhere and have a long career there. They would develop this eye shape of knowledge.
“What we are looking at doing as we move forward is how do we help people have more of a T-shape, so they can go up and experience an area and then have a difference cycle and try new things. That will help us grow as an industry and a practice.”
Development of others is clearly a key indicator for success for Hyde in her role as a leader.
“I have always been motivated by knowing I’m able to have an impact on where others are heading,” she says. “If I think about our people here, I would love them to have amazing careers and really be able to enjoy and bring alive the passion that I see so much, but experience it in different ways across the breadth of real estate because it’s a very broad environment to be able to operate in.”
She adds: “Life is not a rehearsal, and sometimes we are very guilty of living it like that. The pandemic put in a fire break for many people, where they did suddenly think about their life choices, which is why you’ve got this discussion around attracting talent – not just for real estate but for everyone, because everyone has just had that period of reflection and thought about what they really value.
“As an employer, we need to think about how we make this a place that is enjoyable for people to come to, they understand why they want to be here and the difference they can make, and they want to be part of that.”
Reframing challenges
While she may be the “outsider”, Hyde definitely has the positive, glass-half-full approach stereotypical of the surveyor community.
But she’s not entirely closed off to the challenges the industry faces. Coming from a heavily regulated accountancy sector, she knows how lucky real estate is and how important it is that the current issues at the RICS get resolved. She sees the challenges that real estate has in being regarded as a career path open to all. She’s faced, full-on, some of the issues JLL itself has experienced when it comes to equality, diversity and inclusion. She’s had some difficult conversations and held the mirror up to the business. She’s battling those challenges and knows there is still a long way to go.
“I think the challenge is how far the industry wants to move and how fast, because there’s a lot of tradition that we need to respect,” says Hyde. “The challenge is how much people will feel there is a fear in making those changes.”
But, in the spirit of Sue from the pet shop, Hyde doesn’t linger too long on the issues and quickly swings back to the positives.
“Real estate has become so much more important in the world, and it’s really got that opportunity to grasp off the back of what we have been through over the past couple of years,” she says.
“There are so many different ways you move the business forward and so many different areas to focus on. We are not limited by market opportunity; we are limited by our approach.”
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@eg.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @EGPropertyNews
