Facility management is not often considered a glamorous or highly influential field. To your tenants, the facility management is the people you call when there’s a plumbing leak or when you want to schedule landscaping services. However, your job is much more than that. You are the support system that keeps the infrastructure alive. You are the leaders who ensure that the business community can thrive and that your tenants can continue to do what they do best.
This job requires both management finesse and leadership potential. But what exactly makes a good maintenance team lead or facility manager? According to Harvard Business Review, these four traits make a leader in any industry exceptional:
- They set goals with their team, not for them
- They develop the skills of subordinates to empower them to perform
- They encourage collaboration in the workplace
- They support innovation
- They connect emotionally and empathetically with subordinates
- They communicate their vision clearly and practice communication often
- They act as role models rather than bosses
You may wonder, “How am I supposed to inspire and encourage innovation as a maintenance manager? Isn’t the way we’ve always done things good enough?”
It may be, but there is always room to grow in your position as a leader. While you may not make sweeping changes in the maintenance industry as a whole, by empowering individual technicians to exercise creativity in the workplace and inviting them to share input on your goals and procedures, you create a more cohesive maintenance team. Technicians who are challenged and rewarded for their creativity (and not just their obedience) are those who will perform above expectations.
These leadership traits can be practiced in any position or industry, and they can be cultivated in technicians and new hires as well as within the management. By empowering your staff to make decisions and come up with novel solutions, they grow your maintenance program for you.
MaintenX encourages all facility leaders to embody these principles in their daily work lives. The stronger the maintenance department, the stronger the building and the business within it can become.
