Karrone Young, Sr. Manager, Marketing & Brokerage Support, Western Canada, JLL Canada
Currently a Marketing & Brokerage Support Team Lead, part of JLL's National Marketing Team, I am responsible for fostering a collaborative, supportive, and results-driven environment within my Western Canadian team to ensure internal and external stakeholders receive exceptional support. I've been working in CRE for 12 years and a CREW Board Member for the past 3 years. In both roles, I strive to be a player-coach with sincere personal connection as the cornerstone of my leadership style.
As a board member, what has been the greatest benefit since you’ve taken your commitment to the next level?
For me, it's exceptionally fulfilling to be a CREW Board Member and witnessing how our programming and resources support our members to gain knowledge, expand their skillset, and grow within their careers.
Help us understand your unique role in the Commercial Real Estate Industry. What is one of your professional objectives for this year, and how will/have you executed it?
One of the key components of my role as a Team Lead is to ensure all of our in-market team members are aligned on brand messaging, creating continuity and consistency through visual mediums and story-telling. In 2023, JLL launched a new global brand so one of my professional objectives for this year will be contributing to brand awareness by ensuring all externally-facing marketing collateral is transitioned.
Facilitating meaningful connections is at the core of CREW’s mission. What constitutes a “meaningful connection” for you, and how has CREW help you grow these?
I resonate with CREW's mission of facilitating meaningful connections because it's in alignment with my personal and professional values. To me, a meaningful connection is built on trust, transparency, and true desire to see the other person succeed. It's knowing someone beyond their job title and caring sincerely about their wins and woes. CREW is filled with members who are genuinely cheering each other on and will go out of their way to help one another; so finding people with the same values and motivation is as easy as attending an event!
Focus is hard to find in a busy world, how do you reset/find/refine yours?
Right now I am figuring out how to be a working parent for the first time in my life. Prior to returning to work, I was extremely worried about how I was going to focus on my work in the same way I had done before becoming a mom. Spoiler alert: that's impossible! But what IS possible is devoting the same amount of dedication to the career I love in a different way. Thus far I've learned it means I need to focus solely on work during my working hours (even if those hours look different than they did before) so I can focus guilt-free on my family and friends in my personal time. I've also learned this is going to require me to be more flexible and less perfectionistic than I am naturally so it's going to be a work in progress. Setting these boundaries means I know where I should be focused and helps others to know what to expect from me, too.