Mark Whittaker
People shouldn’t assume that their natural personality traits will make them a good manager or that they can pick up the skills on the job. Becoming a manager is an evolving process.
Mark Whittaker is IWFM chair and general manager at Thomson FM
I was recently interviewed by 300 North, who are recruitment experts in the sector. They asked me what skills are required at multiple levels of seniority both for the sector and those working in it to thrive.
In terms of general skills, the importance of effective soft skills has really grown, enabling FM’s to manage people and to understand their wellbeing better. Soft skills have been a key strength within the sector because the practicalities of trying to manage people remotely has been so challenging. Tied to soft skills is the ability to manage people.
A slight bugbear of mine is that people are often put into management roles without having received any training on how to be a manager. In my working life, I've had absolutely brilliant managers who have been empathetic and caring, with a keen desire to develop people. I’ve also had poor managers that didn't have the skill sets to be really effective in their role or were able to relate to people.
People shouldn’t assume that their natural personality traits will make them a good manager or that they can pick up the skills on the job. Becoming a manager is an evolving process and I think it’s really important that we understand that and provide training rather than just seeing how people ‘get on’.
Having soft skills is essential but we also need to upskill in technical areas that matter. Undoubtedly, being equipped to procure, implement and manage technology is high up on the list of necessary skills. People in our sector, historically at least, have not been speedy adopters of technology nor have they been particularly savvy about data capture and analytics. However, these are vital skills to have.
In my consultancy work we support clients who say, “all my asset data is on a spreadsheet” or “it’s in that folder behind me” – and it’s not necessarily even recorded within a CAFM system. Things are changing though. More people understand the potential of technology such as sensors and BMS systems – and other data-rich tools. Having the data is the first step but we need to become better at interpreting it meaningfully and implementing it impactfully.
