I admit feeling totally delighted that James Turner has returned to post about the Facility Management Industry. After a well deserved summer break, Jim publishes again on the FMO Maturity Model. In today’s post Jim addresses the “On-boarding the New Facilities Management Leader”.
On-boarding the New Facilities Management Leader
It was a busy summer proposal season for your faithful “FM Notes” blogger, including getting an article published and making presentations, most recently at the Facility Decisions Conference and Expo in Las Vegas. After the overview of the facility management maturity model was completed here on IWMSNews last spring, the plan for a next entry was to take a look at a proposed on-boarding process for new leaders, specifically thinking in terms of a facility manager joining a new place of employment, or taking on a new assignment. That’s where we pick up with this post.
Books
There are a couple of good recent books on the “new leader” topic, including “The First Ninety Days” by Michael Watkins, and “The New Leader’s 100-day Action Plan,” by George Bradt and others. As the titles suggest, it is important that new leaders find some early wins that demonstrate engagement and progress, culminating with a plan, delivered at approximately the three-month point, for further improvements and accomplishments.
There are three key takeaways from the books:
- Avoid common mistakes by mastering the new organization and situation early;
- Adjust to inevitable surprises; and
- Build loyalty, trust, and commitment.
Avoid common mistakes
Successfully completing the first item requires a couple of assessments; first, of the new organization, and second, of the facility manager’s own strengths and weaknesses. Taking the second assessment first, this effort should be completed before starting the new job, since it will aid the FM in knowing what help is needed to offset weaknesses – finding talented subordinates that some front line management tasks can be delegated to, for example, or creating a key executive relationship with the potential for making or breaking the assignment .
The organizational assessment is actually more comprehensive and should be a well-planned undertaking. While questions such as, “Why is the company bringing on new leadership now?” are the foundation of this assessment, and may have been partially answered during the interview process, the new FM needs to understand the broader environment the organization faces. Knowing whether the change is being driven by cost pressures, emerging technologies or new operational approaches, or knowing if there an innovative new competitor emerging, is part of this initial environmental scan. The FM also needs to know who the customers are, who the vendors are, and how well the employees in the facility division understand the value of their contributions to the business.
Adjust to inevitable surprises
There is any number of surprises that can arise to delay progress, which suggests a couple of good management tactics to make sure things stay on track. First, avoid over committing while still in the assessment mode of operations. It is common sense to add some flex- or float-time to a proposed schedule for meeting objectives, or to add a justified contingency to a cost estimate for an initiative.
Second, create a plan that outlines the findings from this on-boarding assessment, provides goals and objectives for addressing them, and identifies time frames for their accomplishment. To be workable, the plan needs to underlay broader corporate and organizational schedules, such as fiscal year planning cycles and employee performance evaluations, to provide the best overall benchmarks for how fast progress can be achieved.
Between these two approaches, most potential surprises can be identified and avoided. Still, it is inevitable that something will come up, and this is where the new leader will simply have to rely on his or her own managerial skills. After all, these are the things that earned the promotion to the new position in the first place.
Build loyalty, trust, and commitment
The final takeaway from these on-boarding books is to build loyalty, trust, and commitment. My approach to this process usually involves a first meeting with the team reporting to me a couple of days into the new assignment. This meeting will take place after an initial “on the ground” meeting with the new leader’s superiors, where their assessment of the situation, goals, and expectations is clearly communicated. Besides being an introduction, I’ve used the team meeting as a way to find out what the employees think is going well, what needs improvement, and what isn’t getting done because there isn’t time or resources – findings that I can use to corroborate what I’ve been told by my new boss, filling in the details of the challenges ahead.
After the team meetings, one-on-ones can supplement the identification of what needs to improve, and what’s going well. These rapport-building conversations are an ideal way to develop the trust and loyalty needed for success, and also can serve to build commitment to the change and new goals when they are communicated in a non-threatening way. Getting feedback from senior managers and superiors during this part of the effort will keep them up to date on the progress – which is critical to gaining their commitment as well.
Depending on your own preferences, you might find that one or the other of these books has an approach that better supports your leadership style. In my most recent new assignments, I used Bradt’s 100-day version with some success, especially since it includes examples of forms and reports that can be adapted to almost any new leadership situation.
Future Publications
Working with Steven, we’ve decided to continue the FM Notes from the Field posts over the next few months, so I’ll be posting on a bi-weekly basis going forward. As always, I’d like to thank you for reading this blog. And also, thanks again to Steven and IWMSNews.com for hosting it.
Comments from readers are welcome, so please drop a note to me at jim.turner@iwmsnews.com if you would like to offer some insight from personal experience or if you would like more information on the material in these blog posts.
