As you look ahead to your healthcare facilities management career in 2020, make it your goal to accomplish the nine items below to help you advance your career in the New Year.
1. Develop soft skills or fall behind.
Communication, leadership, emotional intelligence, delegation, and change management expertise are essential competencies to develop. Technical acumen remains important, but without the ability to clearly and accurately relay your knowledge to others, success is difficult.
2. Articulate facility management’s role in the organization.
Facilities remain veiled in the fog to most in the organization unless, unfortunately, there is a system failure. Tout the good works done by your department and its employees. It’s a great way to shine the light on the excellent work facilities do while motivating and acknowledging facility employees.
3. Offer employees praise, not platitudes.
Well-timed praise motivates employees and provides an informal road map to good performance and success. Plus, it’s just a nice thing to do in a world that often places a spotlight on the negative.
4. Seek new talent from the consulting field.
With the lack of new talent coming into the field, seek consultants who have the desire and ability to transfer to the Owner’s Side.
5. Create compelling business case scenarios.
If you need a boiler replacement don’t ask for one because it is failing, present the business case for why this boiler is essential, and its operational impact on the hospital. Use more than the spoken word, use numbers and words, but take into account the knowledge base and information needs of your audience. Craft your message appropriately and always remember, you are not writing for a professor!
6. Show and tell to secure facility dollars.
Bring your words to life by taking leadership on a facilities field trip. Heating coil failing you? Show them visually, take them to it. Are cracks in your parking lot becoming dangerously large? Walk your lot. The adage, a picture is worth a thousand words, is true.
7. Build a real estate team with experience, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
The complexity of the facility’s role and diversity of responsibility continues to evolve. One area where facility management is seeing increasing burden is in off-site real estate management. No longer just a trend, most facility departments are now de facto property managers. Providing real estate services to a health care organization requires a mix of skills that many don’t yet have: If you need help, ask.
8. Position yourself for an uncertain future by being visible and seeking internal opportunities.
Visibility remains an essential component of effective facility management. Systems seek visible directors who don’t wall themselves off behind a closed door. In an environment where system consolidation and the gobbling up of stand-alone hospitals continues, a visible director is a director positioning himself or herself for the future. Think strategically and find opportunities to enhance your organizational value, and not just in facilities.
9. Join our network and send us your resume.
If you would like to discuss your career confidentially or have us review your resume for free, please feel free to send it to us. Let us help you advance your healthcare facilities management career in 2020.
If you would like Gosselin/Martin Associates to help you plan your leadership education for 2020, please see https://gosselin-associates.com/planning-your-education-for-2019-call-us/