Facilities management is demanding. Between 24/7 operations, unexpected failures, tight deadlines, and the responsibility of leading a team, it can be easy to put your own well-being on the back burner.
In this episode of Facility Rockstars, Jay Culbert sits down with Jonathan Gendron, Field Engineering Manager at TJX Companies, to talk about the human side of facilities leadership. Jonathan shares why prioritizing mental health has become one of the biggest lessons of his career, how empathy and vulnerability have shaped his leadership style, and why great leaders need to be willing to show up alongside their teams when things get difficult.
Jonathan also reflects on a catastrophic facility failure that cost millions of dollars in lost product, the importance of balancing proactive and reactive maintenance, and his journey from vocational school to a 15-year career spanning biotech, life sciences, power generation, and commercial retail.
For Jonathan, strong facilities leadership ultimately comes down to a few fundamentals: keep learning, own your mistakes, care about your people, and bring the right attitude every day.
Takeaways:
Prioritize your mental health. Facilities professionals are often expected to be everywhere and solve everything. Jonathan believes leaders need to take care of themselves if they expect to effectively take care of their teams.
Never stop learning. Jonathan learns from mentors, leaders, direct reports, certifications, classes, and his own mistakes. Continuous learning keeps both his career and his work from becoming stale.
Turn mistakes into teachable moments. Leaders aren’t flawless. Jonathan believes admitting mistakes and sharing what you learned gives your team permission to do the same and can prevent them from repeating those mistakes.
Empathy is a leadership skill. Understanding that employees have families, health concerns, and challenges outside of work can build trust and morale that people remember.
Be the example you want your team to follow. When Jonathan’s team responded to an emergency at 3:00 AM, he drove two hours to Boston to be there alongside them.
Prepare to be proactive AND reactive. Preventive maintenance matters, but unexpected equipment failures will still happen. Strong facilities teams need a plan for preventing problems and responding when prevention isn’t enough.
Attitude can outweigh credentials. Jonathan’s advice for someone entering facilities is simple: attitude is everything. Experience and credentials matter, but having the right attitude can take you a long way.
Quote of the Show:
“When you genuinely show that you care for your team, they will care for you. And they’ll care for their job as well.”
Links: