If you work in an office or building of any kind, chances are you don’t think about why your access card works everyday, why the grass is always watered, or even that your toilets flush properly. All of these may seem like small things but Facilities Managers everywhere, are often the unsung heroes of why a building operates as smoothly as it does. What are the key characteristics of a Facilities Manager that makes their work feel effortless? They think about all the things, so you don’t have to.
Because we all know, it’s not effortless. It’s planning, exceptional organizational skills, and the ability to both communicate the issues at hand, while listening to the needs of others.
As part of our ongoing Facilities Managers Series, we get the chance to speak to Facilities Managers everywhere, to find out in their own words, their thoughts on everything from their jobs, to the future of the profession.
We asked them their thoughts on the key characteristics of Facilities Manager, as well as experiences, that help them excel at their job.
Needless to say, their answers had a lot of things in common, and some may surprise you.
What are the Key Characteristics of a successful Facilities Manager?
Problem Solving
Facilities Managers are excellent problem solvers,. partially because their days are so varied. They’re often on their feet, and have to think fast, both to prevent problems from happening, as well as to solve them if they do occur.
“You can have standard solutions to a lot of issues but quite often you’re thrown a curve ball and you need to be able to act and act wisely so you’re not creating other issues, especially health and safety concerns.”
– Danielle Paquette, Facilities Manager
Patience
More often than not, people are impatient. When they want something done, they often want to wave a magic wand and have that happen. Real life is anything but that. Having patience and flexibility with budgets and people’s expectations, are a very important characteristic of a Facilities Manager.
“When I took over my role, we had not spent money on the parking lots for years. With budget cuts it was an easy thing to cut. Five years after the first cuts the driveways and parking lots looked appalling. We made a multi-year plan to fix the problem using a consistent standard for all sites. The patience part came in when we had to prioritize the work and explain that while a number of sites were awful, we had money to fix only a handful properly. It’s hard to say no, and it’s harder to stick with the plan when people are asking you to compromise, cut corners, not be as effective.”
– Lewis Morgulis, Managing Partner, Planning
Organization
Being organized is important, but Facilities Management organization, is top tier level organization. Why? Because they oversee a great deal of health and safety matters, and one thing going badly, could spell a big disaster.
“You will always be juggling multiple projects and priorities and not having strong organization skills will kill you.”
– Danielle Paquette
Facilities Managers – more than just Technical know how
Integrity, Trust and Listening Skills
We often think of a Facilities Manager as a technical role. But a great deal of decisions that fall under the responsibilities of a Facilities Manager are actually soft skills, such as listening, communication and adaptability.
Ensuring that the individuals who lean on Facilities Managers, believe they are doing the best possible job, is imperative. Whether that’s their team, building visitors or contractors. Handling matters with tact and sensitivity, while meeting everyone’s needs, involves a great deal of trust and listening skills.
“Build a team of trusted people. If you do not know something, talk with your team and seek the answers. If you act like you know it all it will diminish the respect your team has for you. Diversity is important to all work environments. Working with people who have different opinions and views helps creativity and operations.”
– Michael Walton, Facilities Manager
Saying yes more often
“Small or large requests that force us to rethink our beliefs are a great opportunity to change the world. We had an agency looking for a spare classroom to run programs for families. We had always charged groups like childcares to rent the space, but this group had no fees and only a small budget to run its programs. We said yes here because it brought new families into the school, it added a vital link to the community, it changed how we saw our neighbours … it changed our paradigm, all from a simple yes.”
– Lewis Morgulis
“You need to be able to listen. If you’re going to solve or help solve the problem you need to take the time to listen and understand it. Also, leadership skills. You’re not usually fixing the problem on your own, you have a team plus you have customers, and to make it all work efficiently you need to bring that all together.”
– Danielle Paquette
Constant Learning and Education
The best Facilities Managers in their field, never stop learning. Whether that’s technological advancement, changes in the industry they work in, learning new skills is a must. Many Facilities Managers attend conferences, seminars, read books and take courses to keep their skill set updated.
“Never stop learning. My advice for FMs is to stay teachable, adaptable, technology compliant and data driven in this 21st century. With the advance of modern technology, FMs need to stay abreast of emerging technology to further enhance productivity, reduce costs and Improve efficiency in the workplace or any other physical spaces they manage for people.”
– Yomi Agbenro, Business Support Services Manager
“Enter this field to help others. Be a lifelong learner. Contractors can take advantage of people who are not familiar with building systems. Hire people who are smart in their field, and learn from them instead of attempting to teach them. Mistakes are a part of learning. It is silly to hire smart people and hold them back.”
– Michael Walton
Optimism and Celebrating Successes
Finally, a very important key characteristics of a Facilities Manager, is to look forward to the future. Enjoy the positive impact that their work has done for others, and celebrating the successes.
“Some character traits that I think are important are to be optimistic, and to have an open mind. You will not be able to influence change or get people to buy into something if you’re negative. If you’re closed minded you will never move forward.”
– Danielle Paquette
“I love it when we get things done and we make changes that staff and students love. We track the number of completed capital projects, and the total amount spent, and we publish it for our public to see. To me, it’s important that communities see that every school is being looked after for its building and program needs. I also love it when our staff can take a pet peeve off their list. The leaky roof, the crappy doors, windows that won’t shut or open all eventually come up for replacement. Once the new component works, it’s nice to celebrate the fact that the school is better.”
– Lewis Morgulis
And always remember to enjoy the moment
“No matter how tough times get, we have time to laugh and goof around with the team. One night we were on snow duty and it just happened to be Super Bowl Sunday. The plow truck was parked while my assistant watched the game. Afterwards, he told everyone, I knew Michael would find me. And after he did, I had to shovel snow the rest of the night.”
– Michael Walton
Special thanks to the following Facilities Management Professionals who helped us with this article: