Inside Boston’s brokerage momentum: Shihadeh on building a culture that performs

Boston, MA Five years ago, the Boston office of Marcus & Millichap was different. Agents worked in parallel, focused but separate silos. Today, it’s completely different.

“The team now operates together. The sheer volume of inventory we carry across all product types necessitated us to hunt in packs,” said regional manager Thomas Shihadeh.

“It’s now become second nature,” he said. “If a different team members knows the submarket or product type better, they bring them in. It always leads to better results for the client.”

Agents now bring top offers to listings they don’t represent. Listings that could pull either industrial or retail buyers get pursued together by industrial and retail agents.

Shihadeh started in brokerage Brooklyn, working multifamily and seeing the importance of how true connectivity across the boroughs led to more closings. He’s used this lesson to install true coverage in every market in New England to better serve the client. Building on that foundation, collaboration evolved into something cultural: self-sustaining, peer to peer, earned. But it didn’t happen by accident,

“It starts at the front door,” Tom said, “There is a huge emphasis on hiring people with talent and high character. I try to fill the room with people who are hungry to succeed with the right values, and know the rest will follow.”

Over time, those working relationships have turned into real friendships, a byproduct he says of how people are bonded by working hard the right way and experiencing wins together.

“In the beginning, my enforcement of standards was very much a hammer and a nail. I thought there was only one way to do it. If you didn’t follow that playbook, it wasn’t going to work.”

Experience changed that. He learned that standards hold better when people have room to meet them in their own way. 

The expectations remain high, but his approach grew more adaptive.

“You keep the standard, but let people get there in different ways. My job is to help them harness their strengths that will ultimately forge their own path.”

In his office, the rule is simple. “You can pursue as much opportunity as you want, as long as you do it the right way. When people know they can trust each other, collaboration becomes natural.”

That trust shapes how the team operates. Juniors come in through a structured training program, but they grow fastest by working alongside experienced brokers who take the lead in meetings, modeling the firm’s values in real time. It’s a cycle that keeps the office both competitive and connected.

“This place is a fabric of notes I’ve taken from fifteen or twenty different offices over the years.”

Shihadeh is part of a leadership network across the Northeast where managers trade ideas openly to help propel growth, “If I hear something from a manager or a specialty director that makes sense, I have no ego when it comes to implementing it when I believe it will help the team.”

Markets change, offices evolve, but leadership still comes down to what happens in the room. For Shihadeh, culture isn’t something you direct, it’s something you foster and protect.