Strong facilities leadership is often demonstrated through the day-to-day interactions that build trust within a department. During a recent Healthy Green Schools & Colleges conversation with Assistant Director of Building Services at University of Wisconsin – Madison, Jodi Krause, she shared some of the leadership lessons that have emerged over the course of her career.
Krause has seen her understanding of leadership evolve alongside changes in her responsibilities, her team, and the broader university. Authentic leaders most often approach leadership in a way that is deeply intertwined with their values. For Krause, the servant leadership model resonates strongly and forms the basis of her leadership approach.
“I find that listening to employees, elevating team members’ voices, learning from the people around me, following through on commitments, and being willing to step in when the work gets difficult are some of the most important things I can be doing as a leader,” shared Krause.
Servant leadership goes against the traditional beliefs about what makes an effective leader. Rather than a focus on power, hierarchy, and an exclusively top-down approach, servant leadership is focused on serving others to help them grow. Servant leaders care deeply about the welfare of their team members, they are focused on developing relationships, and they are actively supporting others to improve.
Throughout the conversation, Krause shared what this leadership philosophy can look like in practice.
One important component of Krause’s leadership approach is a willingness to learn directly from the people who understand the work. “I will be the first person to admit when I do not know something,” shared Krause. “I believe that honesty is a really important component of leadership, and I want my team to know that others, including myself, can learn from them.”
Facilities departments bring together employees with different technical skills, responsibilities, and areas of expertise. A leader does not need to become the expert in every one of those areas. However, understanding how the work gets done can make someone a more knowledgeable and effective leader.
For Krause, this can mean asking an employee or another departmental leader to show you how something works, spending time observing a process, or being willing to admit when you need additional information before making a decision.
This approach can be particularly valuable when implementing a new program or operational change. “The only constant in this line of work is change,” said Krause. “The Servant Leadership approach can be really helpful in guiding a team through change and ensuring they feel heard and empowered through the process.”
Krause reflected on an initiative that required a substantial change to processes and procedures when the introduction of a single water-based cleaning product called aqueous ozone eliminated the need for window cleaner, disinfectant, and a general purpose cleaner.
Like many operational changes, adoption did not happen simply because someone decided it was a good idea. Employees needed to understand the value of the process and trust that the new product would actually work. Krause focused on testing and ensuring that staff who were especially skeptical were part of the testing and could regularly give feedback. “I am a convert to sustainability myself,” shared Krause. “I want to see the proof in front of me that something is actually the better choice. Having been a skeptic previously guided my approach with the team. It took time but was worth it because we were using testing to prove that aqueous ozone was the best way forward.”
After almost a year of testing, Krause came to the conclusion that aqueous ozone produced significantly cleaner surfaces and reduced residue build-up. In several cases, aqueous ozone cleaned as well as or better than disinfectants. In common spaces, the product cleaned as well as general purpose cleaners and window cleaners.
Leaders sometimes feel pressure to enter a conversation with an answer or maintain a position once they have taken it. In reality, being able to say that you learned something, saw something differently, or changed your perspective can demonstrate credibility.
Another consistent theme throughout the conversation was the importance of trust. Much of trust building happens through daily practices and moments that can be overlooked.
“Knowing the people who work for you is a foundational leadership practice,” Krause shared. “Asking how they are doing, remembering important people and dates in their lives, listening when they have concerns, knowing what matters to them – this is what makes an effective leader.”
Employees are more likely to share concerns and ideas when they believe their leader genuinely wants to hear them. That does not mean a leader will always be able to make the change an employee requests. Rather, an important part of trust is being honest about those limitations.
“[A leader can] listen to an employee, bring their feedback forward, advocate for their team, and still acknowledge that the final decision may sit somewhere else within the organization,” said Krause. Leaders do not need to–and should not–promise an outcome they cannot deliver in order to demonstrate that an employee’s perspective matters.
“There is a significant difference between saying, ‘there is nothing I can do, so there is no point in telling me,’ and saying, ‘I may not control the outcome, but I want to understand what you are experiencing and I will make sure your perspective is represented,’” Krause emphasized. “I believe it is part of my job to create opportunities for employees to continue speaking up. If the team is speaking, then I am learning.”
One of the most valuable lessons from Krause’s career is that leadership is not something a person finishes learning. “Someone may enter a leadership position with a particular understanding of what the role requires: you need to make decisions, solve problems, keep operations moving, and make sure the work gets done,” shared Krause.
“However, I have also come to learn that leadership is more about understanding people, creating an environment where employees are comfortable contributing ideas, knowing when to step forward and when to let someone else lead, and continuing to learn about yourself in the process,” says Krause.
For facilities professionals developing their own leadership skills, Krause’s experience offers several useful questions to consider in order to prioritize your own areas of skill development:
- How well do you understand the work being performed by the people you lead? When was the last time you asked someone on your team to teach you something?
- Do your employees have meaningful opportunities to tell you what they think, including when you may not be able to give them the answer they want?
- How do you show up for your team when circumstances become difficult?
- How has being a leader changed the way you understand yourself, your team, and your responsibility to the people around you?
Strong facilities operations depend on technical knowledge, effective systems, and established processes. They also depend on leaders who are willing to listen, learn, build trusted relationships, and remain present for their teams.