After graduating from college, Brian Batten began his career with custom home builders, managing projects and bringing ideas to life. He later transitioned to production builders, drawn to the larger teams and the ability to oversee multiple projects at once. In mid-2024, he relocated from Texas to Tampa to become division president of Lennar, where he oversees the full homebuilding process—from land acquisition and development to construction, marketing and sales. Helping first-time buyers achieve homeownership remains a meaningful and rewarding part of his work.
I was born and raised in Texas. My father was an architect and a developer in the Dallas area. He designed and built custom homes while I was growing up. I was always around and loved it. Seeing ideas turn into actual reality is incredible.
My ultimate goal growing up was to be in the NFL or MLB. I am in awe of professional athletes’ discipline and consistency.
I was involved in sports from a very young age. I have always been competitive. Some of the best leaders I have been around in my life were coaches. I still have that mentality today. The way I lead is very competitive and people-focused. Every manager and leader of people is a coach. We are all getting results through and with the cooperation of others. Our ability to get incredible results is only limited by our ability to influence and get buy-in from our team.
My first job was washing dishes in a restaurant. I was 15 and learned a lot from the kitchen staff. I remember it was hard work, but I loved working and making money. I knew that working hard and getting an education was important, so I could do the type of work I wanted to do and not have to do.
My family has always been my biggest supporter. Being in the homebuilding industry has not been an easy road. It has always been very dependent on the economy. During the downturn of 2008, my family stuck by me when I committed to staying in the business. Going through challenging times allowed me to appreciate wins and successes even more.
I look up to several of my former leaders. I am where I am today because of them. I also learned to lead and manage people in a way that leads to great results. All of this was learned by mirroring their leadership styles.
My business philosophy is that in any business, we are in the people business. We work for a homebuilding company, but we are people-focused. Leading in this way makes people feel supported and empowered. This leads people to treat customers better and impacts results substantially.
The last few years taught me not to be afraid to take risks. Be confident in decisions and lean in 100 percent once you make one. Be clear on where you want to go and take specific steps to get there. I write down monthly business and personal goals. I review these goals daily and adjust my schedule and actions to achieve them. I have also implemented writing down business and personal goals with my team. We review them once a month to ensure they are making progress in the right direction.
In my career, I have been a part of some amazing stories. I have been in a position to promote many leaders in the industry. As they have grown and maintain a people-focused leadership style, they are affecting future leaders as well.
I attend several performance coaching retreats each year. I want to grow constantly. Tony Robbins says, “If you’re not growing, then you’re dying.” I have always been in growth mode. I want to make sure I am becoming a better leader, husband, father and overall better person. Challenging myself with aggressive goals, writing them out and being held accountable to hitting them is key.
I believe my best quality is that I enjoy helping others achieve success. Those are true wins for me and always have been. I have had my share of awards, trips and trophies. But I get the greatest joy seeing someone accomplish greatness and playing a part in getting them there.
I want the homebuilding industry to be better because I was a part of it. I want to be remembered for the positive impact I had on people.
It is an honor to build someone’s home. But it begins and ends with land. Evaluating and purchasing land is such a critical piece of the success in homebuilding.
Every experience has led me to where I am today. I love where I am and wouldn’t change a thing.
I never thought I could do well speaking in public. At the first corporate public speaking engagement I had, the CEO applauded when I was done. Not because it was good. He applauded because my talk was over. It was horrible. This was probably 15 years ago. On that day, instead of being terrified, I committed to becoming a great public speaker. I worked extremely hard to find opportunities, be very prepared and get repetitions. Now, I really enjoy it when I get an opportunity to speak to groups.
The biggest honor of my life was when I was able to marry my wife. She was and is way out of my league. She has been my biggest supporter and is the biggest reason I have had the success in the business that I have had.
My wife and I have been busy really learning the ins and outs of Tampa Bay. We love attending the Bucs and Lightning games. We have become true fans. We also enjoy several of the beaches and cities around Tampa. I don’t know why everyone isn’t moving to Tampa. It is truly amazing.
Tampa is a great place to live and work. If you love picturesque beaches, great restaurants and incredible people, you would love Tampa.
Over the past 10 years, the Bahamas has been our spot to spend some time. We enjoy the proximity and ease of travel.
My most surprising hobby or skill is that I love to hunt and fish. If I have any time off, I love to hunt a wide variety of game and fish offshore.
My greatest extravagance or luxury is that I have been a watch fanatic for years. It is my favorite thing to collect.
A song I love is “Purple Rain.” Favorite karaoke song. I’m not good at singing it, but I act like I am.
The biggest item on my bucket list is I want to go on safari in Africa. It is on my three-year goal list. I have been blessed to accomplish a lot of bucket list items. This is still one that I have not had the chance to do.
If I could wake up tomorrow with this quality or skill, I would like to have the background to be a GM of an NFL or MLB team. When the Cubs won the World Series several years ago, I was in awe of Theo Epstein. I then found out we had the same birthday, but a year later. He has been on this earth exactly one year less than me and has broken the curse for two MLB teams, getting them to win the World Series. I believe his leadership style and picking the right people for the right role led him to that.
My “perfect” day would be grilling at the beach with my family. We love to grill and get together with friends. Downtime is so important in our business. There are so many critical dates throughout the year when the business needs us. It is important to disconnect and create memories with friends and family.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
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