As a family owned and operated company with roots in the hospitality industry, we’re a true team, dedicated to empowering and lifting one another up in our everyday work. You’ll see this sentiment reflected in the top-of-the-line service we provide to professionals like you — and in the communities we create and support in our national network of coworking centers.
In this blog series “It’s the People,” we’re highlighting our greatest assets here at Carr Workplaces: our people! In each “It’s the People” blog, you’ll have the opportunity to get to know key members of the Carr Workplaces team.
Our newest “It’s the People” blog is all about Adam Lashinsky, who is the General Manager of Carr Workplaces Aon Center in downtown Chicago.
As General Manager, Adam oversees all aspects of our Aon Center location, including all workspaces and meeting and conference rooms. Adam’s work also centers on building relationships in the local business community.
Though Adam has been in his role for a little less than 12 months, he and the team have already seen occupancy at the Aon Center location increase by 20%, of which he is especially proud.
When he’s not hard at work at Carr Workplaces Aon Center, Adam loves getting lost in the outdoors or traveling to far-flung locales to sample interesting cuisine.
Say hello to Adam Lashinsky, General Manager of Carr Workplaces Aon Center in Chicago!
Adam’s Role and Responsibilities at Carr Workplaces Aon Center
“The “general” aspect of my title, General Manager, is no joke,” Adam said.
“My responsibilities are focused on making sure that this office is holistically healthy and running as it’s supposed to, with services delivered on time, but also above and beyond expectations and with a degree of anticipation so that we stay ahead of any needs our clients have. We know people personally enough and care about them personally enough that we’re almost anticipating things that they need before they even know they need them.”
Adam sees his General Manager role as a balance between meeting the operational needs of the Aon Center — encompassing maintenance of fixtures and furnishings and ensuring all aspects of the center are well-organized and in good repair — and the business development aspect of the center.
According to Adam, the sales aspect of his job has become a major focus for him since the pandemic.
“Rebuilding has become my main drive in addition to taking care of the people who are already here, and who have been with us for a very long time, and who we have to pay respect to as our legacy clients who have kept us moving along,” Adam shared.
“My responsibilities are about doing the center justice because it’s a beautiful space in a beautiful building, and it deserves to hum and have life breathed into it. That’s my goal right now,” he added.
Before joining the Carr Workplaces team, Adam spent most of his career in the luxury hospitality industry. He previously managed five-star resorts in remote areas of New York state near Lake Placid in the Adirondacks.
According to Adam, his goal is to leverage his experience running operations teams to deliver such high levels of service that people are consistently blown away and want to come back because of the wonderful experiences they have had.
“My previous experience in the hospitality industry taught me to understand the balance of how to not only cultivate new business but also to place a high value on the business that you’ve already secured, because really what keeps someone coming back is the experience,” Adam said.
What Adam Loves About His Work and Carr Workplaces’ Company Culture
Adam told us that he loves the diversity of his job and enjoys being involved in multiple aspects of Aon Center’s operations. He reports that no two days are ever the same in his role as General Manager.
“I thrive on the diversity of it and the fact that my work is a mix of nitty-gritty operations where I’m getting granular with our budget one minute, and then the next minute someone I haven’t seen for a couple of weeks smiles and says they have to tell me about their recent trip to Mexico,” Adam explained. “I think both sides of my personality are nourished by the complexity of the job and the balance of it all.”
For Adam, his initial interview process set the tone in terms of how he views Carr Workplaces’ company culture. When interviewing for his current position, he met with Carr Workplaces’ Vice President of Human Resources and Chief Operating Officer.
During this process of meeting various members of Carr’s executive team, Adam said he got the impression that there is an underlying sense of shared humanity at the heart of Carr Workplaces’ company culture. According to Adam, he feels like the culture encourages him and other employees to be themselves in their work.
“It’s unique and it’s genuine and at the end of the day, it’s mostly about celebrating that and using that as our strength,” Adam shared. “Feeling encouraged to do that and having that mutual trust makes it so that everyone has a hand in where the company is going, and where we’re taking the operation.”
Adam’s Life Outside of Work
As for life outside of work, Adam is a self-described outdoors person who also loves to spend his free time traveling. He often will buy a plane ticket to a far-flung destination and figure out his travel plans as he goes, thriving on the unknown.
Adam’s previous trips include road trips across Bosnia, Turkey, and Costa Rica. He also loves sampling foods in the countries he visits.
“For me, it’s all about culture and digging into what makes a place unique, whether it’s Chicago or elsewhere around the globe,” Adam said. “There’s a degree of authenticity that I’m always in search of and you can only really find that by getting lost sometimes. A successful business might require structure, but on my own, I like to get lost as much as possible.”
For his next trip, Adam will be officiating a wedding in Portugal in June. The only plan he has so far is to rent a motorcycle for a few days, officiate the wedding, and see what happens from there.
Interested in joining our team? Take a gander at Carr Workplaces’ current employment opportunities.
To meet another vital member of our team, be sure to check out “It’s The People: Norman Pope, Carr Workplaces’ Office Manager.”
