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Uncomfortable Truths of Transformation with Chris Lahna, President of Dominium

Summary

Chris Lahna is Partner, President of Property Management and Chief Talent Officer at Dominium — one of the country's largest affordable housing operators, with 50 years in business and more than 40,000 apartments across 19 states. His path to the role wasn't traditional. He's helped build jet engines, worked in asset management, and started at Dominium leading HR. Now he leads transformation across people, process, and technology — in the unique position of owning both sides of it: what changes and how you bring your people with you. He sits down with host Jacob Kosior to get into what it actually takes to reinvent operations at that scale.

The point in my career where I stopped worrying about whether I would lose my job or get fired was when I started becoming the most productive and impactful.

In This Episode

Takeaways

  • The right foundation turns technology into a multiplier. When Chris joined Dominium, applications were still handwritten across the portfolio. Getting to digital-first was a foundational process change that unlocked everything else — from fraud prevention to faster resident screening to compliance. The property management companies moving fastest are the ones aligning their processes and their technology together.
  • Leaders have to create environments where people who want to do well can succeed. Chris believes every person in multifamily shows up wanting to do a good job. The role of leadership is to provide grace, remove barriers, and invest in the training and support that makes success possible during transformation — especially when teams are adapting to new technology and new ways of working
  • The moment you stop being afraid is the moment you start doing your best work. Chris credits the shift in his own career to the point where he stopped worrying about whether he'd lose his job. Fear holds leaders back from taking the bigger swings that transformation in property management requires.
  • AI doesn't have to mean fewer people — it can mean better roles. Chris sees a future where technology enables specialized roles across multifamily sites, letting people work to their strengths rather than filling generalist positions based on unit ratios. The need for talented people in housing isn't going away.