Facility Managers have a difficult job. They are in a profession that has a lot of responsibility and very little direct authority. While they may have some employees, their constituents represent: tenants, employees of the facility, vendors, general contractors, architects and subcontractors.
So how do you make things happen and achieve positive results?
You have to learn how to effectively influence others. Sure you can threaten vendors, contractors, subcontractors and architects with no further business if they don’t do what you ask. That can work, but you are kidding yourself if you believe that approach will result in their best effort. It won’t.
The intangibles of doing that “little extra” and that “attention to detail” will rapidly disappear. You get exactly what you contracted for and you can never address the intangibles in the contract because they simply won’t care anymore.
Or, you can learn how to influence without authority. If you are looking for best performance and service that wow’s your tenants or the facilities employees – read on.
As you delve deeper within this article, you will soon realize that you can motivate others to higher levels of performance You can positively impact the morale of your employees or tenants of the facility and have a positive impact on your vendors, subcontractors and others who provide services to your facility. The result – you get more work done and a higher level of cooperation.
Influencing without Positional Authority Strategy #1: Build Positive Relationships
We estimate that more than 80% of the time we spend as coaches to high-performance facility managers and leaders – is spent on helping them manage the transition and work their way through performance issues with others.
You will fast-track and gain altitude in your career as a facility manager when you learn and practice the keys to building strong, effective interpersonal relationships with others. And, it starts with recognizing that nothing happens until a relationship is developed.
Building a relationship includes:
– Having the other person’s best interest in mind – win-win verses win-lose
-Understanding and respecting the other person’s work style and key needs/expectations
-Understanding and respecting personality differences
-Finding areas of mutual interest
-Using exchange principles to enhance the relationship
Influencing without Positional Authority Strategy #2: Honor the Law of Reciprocation
The law of reciprocation involves a mutual value for value exchange. To effectively engage in the law of reciprocation, you must identify what the recipient values – whether the other person is your employee, an employee or tenant in the facility, or a contractor.
For example you can offer employees and tenants:
-Funding for projects, additional personnel, space
-Organizational support
-Your own personal support by being readily available when an employee or tenant is stressed, vulnerable or perhaps just needs someone listen to them
-Reliability — Doing what you say when you say you will do it
-Your acknowledgement
-Vision — Identifying the future direction, portraying excitement and confidence in the future, and in the outcome of the project
-Rapid response — This is self-explanatory
-Recognition –It can be an award, a new project assignment or praise at a public meeting
You can offer vendors and subcontractors:
-Information – Competitive intelligence, industry trends, upcoming changes
-Gratitude by thanking them with testimonials
-Your recommendation – The best way you can motivate your vendors and subcontractors is to let them know if they meet or exceed your expectations you will be more than happy to refer them to others.
-Bonuses when they meet certain milestones or criteria
No matter what you offer, it must be meaningful to the recipient. Just because we think we are providing something of value does not mean the recipient agrees with us. To determine what is meaningful, we need to understand issues such as:
• What do they need to succeed?
• How are they measured on their performance?
• How are they rewarded? And what is their greatest reward?
• Career objectives
• Their key concerns (or fears if they will share it with you)
• Key expectations (of their boss, peers, subordinates, their constituents)
• Recognition / Privacy. Preferences of the individual and considering the culture of the organization
• Interests outside the organization
This means you must first build a relationship with your employees, employees or tenants of the facility and those who work for your facility!
Influencing without Positional Authority Strategy #3: Participate in Healthy Conflict
It’s possible that as you work to influence others without positional authority, that conflict will arise. Employees, employees and tenants of the facility and contractors will push back, argue, and disagree.
Let’s face it, some people like to argue, negotiate and play devils advocate. In other words “they love a good fight”.
So, facility managers, please take note: Conflict is NOT bad or wrong. Engaged in the right way, conflict is good. In fact, it’s not only good, it’s essential for facility growth and development. “Healthy conflict”, that is vibrant and candid leads to:
-Expanding ideas and perspectives
-Identifying more options
-Better decisions
-Inclusion (individual value and contribution) rather than reinforcing exclusion and a natural futility when not being heard
So learn how to appreciate and participate in healthy conflict.
Remember, being a successful facility manager requires more that the hard skills we learn in school. Success also requires that we recognize and master the intangibles of successful management. And the most powerful intangible that is extremely important to master is the ability to influence others without authority. It will provide you with leverage and enable you to garner more support than you would ever achieve on your own or through positional authority alone.
About the Authors:
Tony Kubica and Sara LaForest are facility management consultants with more than 50+ years of combined experience in helping organizations improve their business performance. They say that trying to influence with positional authority is just one way to sabotage your business. Get their complete “Self-Sabotage in Business White Paper” at: http://www.kubicalaforestconsulting.com/resources.php and uncover the common, subtle ways you are harming your performance.
