How Do You Measure Success and Advance Your Career? Chris Payne and Lloyd Richards

Thursday, March 26th, 2015

By Chris Payne, CSS Consultancy (cssconsultancy.com) & FMCC STAG Member. 25 February 2015.

By Lloyd Richards Jr., President JLR Events and Logistics LLC

When starting out in your chosen career, there are often a collection of people who are prepared to mentor and support you; offering the benefit of their wisdom and a mature insight into getting things done. This approach to professional development is common amongst many individuals operating within the Facilities Management industry. But what happens later in your career, when you have advanced to middle management and beyond? Or if you take on the role of an independent consultant? Who will provide you with the leadership, mentoring and development needed for your continuing professional development?

These questions, and a few more, were the recent topic of a webinar organized by the IFMA FM Consultants Council titled “The Coveted Operations/Facility Managers Position: You Got There; How Do You Measure Success and Advance Your Career?”

The host, Lloyd Richards Jr., shared some wisdom on becoming the go-to source and trusted expert in your chosen area, providing some great advice for those who are looking to further their career and establish a positive reputation amongst their peers.

Within Lloyd’s webinar, he talked engagingly about the significance of positioning yourself as the conduit in the middle of management, communicating effectively upwards and downwards to maintain morale and image. He also shared some ways you can gauge your own personal success, adding some ideas to unlock your further career development.

For me though, Lloyd touched upon something that I share his passion for; the importance of relationship management. Many years ago when I started my own career, a respected mentor once advised me that “organizations seldom do businesses with other organizations, instead people do business with people”. The importance of business relationships is encapsulated in this statement and is one of the lessons that have stayed with me, proving time and time again to be valuable in all of my professional interactions.

Lloyd’s webinar expanded more on the topic, addressing the importance of relationship management and demonstrating some of the ways that, as individuals, we can focus on our own behaviors to support a culture of collaboration, integrity and mutual respect.

If you are interested in finding out more about the webinar, a recording is available online at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOMVE5Q58fo_yBfNAxKWylQ.

This is part of a series of webinars, podcasts and whitepapers released by the FMCC to support consultants working within the facilities management sector. If you would like to find out more about forthcoming webinars, or about joining us, you can visit the FMCC’s website at https://fmcc.ifma.org/.

Bloggers Bio:

Chris works in a consulting capacity to help facilities management providers embed more efficient ways of working within their delivery contracts. With a strong focus on innovation, he contributes to improvement activities through the development of frameworks, software systems and technology to capture and incorporate new ways of working that saves cost and enhances operations.
With over 25 years of experience working on the built environment, Chris has comprehensive insight into the construction and maintenance of facilities within a number of industry sectors, including: social housing, critical environments, defence estates, food processing and commercial office space. In recent years, through the successful delivery of consultancy projects, he has helped clients secure more profitable work by moving beyond standard delivery approaches to find new ways of adding value to facility end-users and occupants.
Based near Glasgow in Scotland, he travels extensively to support an international client base.

Lloyd Richards Jr. brings almost 20 years of unique facility and event management experiences. He recently joined the Houston Super Bowl Host Committee and will be the lead on Operations and Logistics for Super Bowl LI in February of 2017. In 2013 he was a member of the NY NJ Super Bowl Host Committee for Super Bowl XLVIII. Richards created his own event consulting and management company, JLR Events and Logistics LLC, and has traveled the country managing events and facilities. The various types of venues have included entertainment venues, stadiums, office spaces, and large temporary structures. He has an MA in Organizational Communication from the University of Illinois.