- Jeff Bezos recently advised Adam Neumann to speak last in meetings.
- Neumann said he is evolving his leadership approach at his apartment company, Flow.
- Bezos’ “speak last” strategy is supported by organizational psychologists like Adam Grant.
Jeff Bezos recently gave Adam Neumann some unsolicited advice: speak last in meetings, a leadership style adopted by a prominent organizational psychologist.
Neumann said Bezos made the recommendation to him after the WeWork co-founder spoke at an event.
“I was so happy that he was willing to give me any type of advice,” Neumann said on stage at the Bloomberg Tech Summit Thursday in San Francisco.
He said he is growing as a leader at Flow, his apartment company.
“I have investors around the table who not only feel comfortable responding, but I think they like it,” Neumann said Thursday. Flow’s main backer is renowned venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, while WeWork’s main investor is Japanese titan SoftBank.
At WeWork, Neumann was famous for his eccentric leadership style. His alcohol-fueled executive meetings could stretch late into the night, Business Insider previously reported. He has often spoken about superpowers – including with former BI editors in a 2019 interview – and the importance of authenticity.
“The way you build a relationship is authenticity, with a real connection with the person. And listening,” Neumann told BI in 2019.
Bezos, meanwhile, is known for much more corporate leadership, including tightly orchestrated meetings. In a December podcast with Lex Fridman, he emphasized the importance of leaders holding back. Bezos said he aims for a culture that allows junior employees to take a back seat to their senior counterparts when data supports their thinking.
Bezos recommended that the youngest person attend a meeting first, and then the meeting proceeds in ascending order of seniority.
“I know from experience that if I speak first, even the very strong-willed, very intelligent, very judgmental people in this meeting will wonder, ‘Well, if Jeff thinks that, I came to this meeting thinking about one thing, but maybe I “I’m not right,” Bezos said on the podcast.
Bezos’ strategy is not new: organizational psychologists like Adam Grant, a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, have long advocated the idea.
A representative for Neumann did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside of normal business hours.
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