Leadership is how expectations are set, decisions are made and the team is guided. When accountability and authority are out of step, or senior stakeholders disagree on what FM should deliver, new hires lack direction and senior appointments carry a high risk of failure. Align stakeholders and match authority to accountability before you search.
Leadership is how expectations are set, decisions are made and communicated, and the Facilities Management team is guided. A team cannot outperform the clarity of its leadership. When leadership is unclear, the effect shows up everywhere else in the function.
What a leadership problem looks like
- Mixed messages from different senior stakeholders
- Decisions that are slow or avoided
- Low trust
- Standards applied inconsistently
- Reactions under pressure that the team learns to work around
Where it usually comes from
- No shared view of what good FM leadership looks like
- Decisions deferred rather than made
- No regular rhythm of communication
- Managers working in silos
- Leaders who are themselves stretched or tired
Why it matters when you hire
Candidates sense leadership inconsistency at interview, which makes strong people harder to attract. Those who join lack direction. For a senior appointment the risk is sharper: if the FM lead carries responsibility without the authority to act, or the board disagrees on what FM is for, a capable hire is set up to fail.
What to do before you recruit
- Agree among senior stakeholders, including finance, HR and operations, what FM must deliver
- Give the role authority to match its accountability: budget, supplier decisions and the right to say no
- Set a regular rhythm for how decisions are made and communicated
- Use scenario-based questions at interview to see how candidates lead under pressure
For senior appointments, our FM Leadership Enablement check tests whether the organisation will let a new leader lead.
Questions to ask yourself
- Which decisions are consistently delayed?
- Where does communication break down?
- Do your senior stakeholders agree on what FM should deliver?
- What happened the last time someone made a sound but unpopular call?
Where to start
The free FM Talent Scan check looks at leadership alongside five other areas of your function and the decision you are facing. It takes about five minutes and tells you plainly whether a full FM Talent Scan is worth doing. If you would rather talk it through, contact us or call 0207 118 4848.
This article is one of six on the areas the check covers: structure, capacity, capability, tools and technology, leadership and culture.
