Portland Building Leadership Podcast
A look into the leaders shaping Portland’s buildings and infrastructure. Hear practical insights from the people keeping things running.
Portland Building Leadership Podcast
Episode 3: The Technical and People Skills Behind Great Facility Leadership
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What does it take to move from managing facilities to leading operations?
In this episode, Michael Williams talks with Steven Bradshaw of Conrac Solutions about the difference between soft and hard facility management, how technical knowledge and people skills work together in effective facility leadership, and what facility managers can do to prepare for broader leadership roles.
Steven also shares lessons from overseeing operations at the consolidated rental car facility serving Portland International Airport, where uptime, vendor coordination, and team leadership all play a critical role in day-to-day success.
Hello and welcome to the Portland Building Leadership Podcast. In this episode, I sit down with Steven Bradshaw of Conrec Solutions to discuss the difference between soft and hard facility management, how technical expertise and people skills interact in modern FM leadership, and what it takes to move from managing facilities to leading teams and operations. Let's get into it. Steven, thanks so much for jumping on the podcast with me. How's your day going?
SPEAKER_01Going pretty good. Yeah, appreciate it. Thanks for having me on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I've been looking forward to our conversation. Um if you wouldn't mind, would you give the listeners a little bit of a background on what you do with ConRack Solutions and actually what is ConRec? I didn't even realize that was a thing until I started doing research on you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure. It's it's always a little bit of a mouthful, but I'm always happy to kind of say what it is we do for sure. It's it's a little bit of a niche industry, uh, but our company, ConRack Solutions, again, the Conrac, like you mentioned, is short for consolidated renta center. Um, and it's focused at you know airport locations where all the different rental car companies can share and utilize a space local to the airport, whether it's walkable or you know, maybe a bus ride a little bit further away from the terminal. But yeah, it's it's a ultimately a shared space where they're able to have an allocated space based on their you know shares and things like that. And then it's for the turnaround, really. So there's three parts to the building in most cases. You have like the rental car center lobby, which most customers understand, and they rent a car from all the different brands that are at an airport, right? And then they'll go into the parking garage, pick their car up, and they're gone. But the back end of it, where like I like to say, like the meat and potatoes really are is like where they clean the cars. Um, so maybe a 30-minute turnaround, they'll come with a returned dirty car that somebody had, bring it over to the quick turnaround, otherwise known as QTA, and there's fueling, vacuum systems, window washer fluid, there's air nozzles all right there at one station. And then they'll drive through the car wash after they've done all that prep and send it right back over to be rented again. So it's pretty cool. And it's you know, the back end of it, nobody really gets to see. That's where my office is, and it's it's always different every day. So it's fun.
SPEAKER_00Do the rental car companies have a relationship with the airport? They're they're talking directly to you, and you're making sure that they're meeting, you know, security standards and all of that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's it's as a facility management company, so that's the bigger picture of it. That's who we are. And you know, we're kind of the liaison between the airport and the rental car companies in most cases. Some cases it's a direct contract with the airport, it's their facility, we're managing it, then the tenants are the rental car companies. In other cases, we might even own or or build the building, and then we're managing it right from square one. So there's definitely different different aspects to it, and our company has grown so much over the years that you know we've we've gotten into that development side of things, which is really cool. I think actually the very first startup from our company is a cool story. It was Anchorage, Alaska, and company was uh development company, built it, and then the story as I know it is airport turned around and they're like, now we want you to manage this. And we're like, We're not, we're not a facilities company, you know, the people back then, right? And entrepreneur, uh leader of mine, like he even helped me get my start or hired me when I came on to Conract. But he took the opportunity and said, I'll be I'll I'll be the facility manager and started the company basically from there, and then it just grew and grew and grew. And now we manage 17 different locations across the country. So it's been pretty cool to see the growth. I think I was I was at San Francisco first, that's where I'm originally from, and from there uh we were probably about five or six locations, and that was 10, 11 plus years ago, and now that's 17. So lots of growth, which has been cool.
SPEAKER_00Tell me more about the difference between soft FM and hard FM.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's uh kind of a funny phrase that's come across my my table here. For hard hard FM is something you can physically punch, and if you if you punch something associated with soft FM, you're punching a person, and that's not a good idea. So think about it as more of that service base. So soft FM is your custodial service, your sweeping, um your landscape management or anything like that. And then thinking about hard FM is more your equipment base. So anything related to in our industry is like the fuel systems, the vacuum producers, the car washes, all that equipment and that maintenance is more your hard FM. Whereas again, soft FM is that service-based. Um a good way to even think about it is security. Security would have cameras and exit gates and things like that, where that would be hard FM, but then security would also have patrol, which is a person patrolling the facility, and that would be soft FM. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Is there a different approach required when you're dealing with soft FM aspects of the facility rather than hard FM?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure. I mean, we tend to have to meet face to face with vendors, come up with like quality control processes for where, you know, and custodial again being an example, just because it's like the biggest one, right? You have they're managing or they're they're cleaning your whole facility. So having a quality control aspect there is they're looking at everything across the facility that's related to like you know, the pathways, the restrooms, the break rooms, everything like that. Um, and hard FM, I mean it's super technical. Like that's not to say, even like as an FM, I had managed that as well. So again, pulling from the different people in our company, it really just helped take that knowledge from one to the other and kind of focus it, right? Um, I talked about like relationships, right? Like, that's a big thing in my work and life career, and so it rolled pretty easily as to me being uh soft FM operations manager where I'm dealing with people. Um not to say either like you're gonna deal with technicians and things like that that are gonna be working on equipment in Hard FM, um, but you're looking at like the asset management piece of it, the longevity of a system, tracking those specifics, the replacement, uh value, and things like that, that definitely come into effect in Hard FM. So they definitely are different and have both of their challenges for sure.
SPEAKER_00So it sounds like to be great as a soft FM it requires the people skills, and to be great at the as a hard FM is technical skills, and that's probably oversimplification. Both require technical, both require people. But is that kind of a way of looking at the difference between the two?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I would say so.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Now, do you feel like you learned the people skills just from interacting with the people? Are there specific courses in school or books or leaders that you've looked up to and learned from? How did you learn these the soft skills that being a soft FM requires?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, could probably go back to my childhood, right? I'm I'm the last of seven boys, so it was it was a fun childhood for sure. And we've got I got I look up to all my brothers, um parents as well. So, like having a big family definitely opened up for you know different interactions with friends and activities and whatnot. And then just yeah, all the way through school, college, into my events work that I did. Um worked closely with uh a lot of kind of retired personnel when I was at Stanford University doing some events management there for like different games, um, like football games and all kinds of the softball. Uh so with that, I remember one of the guest services guys, he said something to me as I took my position with Conrack. He was like, I already know you're gonna do a great job because you have the ability to make people all feel a part of a team. And I don't know, that always stuck with me. Um and I guess I've carried it through that operations team that I have now and really tried to uplift the team that I have to really become leaders, and it's also coming from my own mentors in the company. You know, I've had a lot of different peers to look up to, current managers have done a great job, and I really just enjoy working with them, and they've allowed me to become the person I am in the leadership role that I'm in. So yeah, I mean, it just goes from that relationships all the way back to that piece for sure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, it sounds like between your childhood and it it really sounds like kind of the personality uh traits that you have have lent yourself to this relationship builder uh approach that that really goes a long way with the soft and the soft FM side of things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. You can definitely say I'm an extrovert, and a great woman is an introvert, but it's you know that's how it goes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's how it goes, right? It's one or the other. Um so when you were before you moved into this object manager role, you were uh I don't know, not just a normal FM, but you were you were an FM here at the uh PDX correct, correct?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So what did it what did you have to do? I mean, did you feel like it was a I don't I don't know if weakness is too strong of a word, but it sounds like the personality side is a strength of yours. How how is it for the technical side?
SPEAKER_01I mean, I think it works there too. Um I feel like I gained a ton of knowledge just from shadowing like vendors, you know, I could have a vendor come out and they'd be working on a car wash, and I'd be right there kind of asking questions and getting that firsthand knowledge, which I think is awesomely unique to an FM. Like as you work with different vendors, you know, you might not be an electrician certified or anything like that, but you're gonna watch somebody do their work, and not to say you're nitpicking the work, but you're you're genuinely curious. And um I, you know, past uh employee that worked with me, like he said the same thing. He was just like, Yeah, like I feel like I've learned everything from fueling to electrical to car wash, and you know, the list goes on, and we have a lot of like water treatment here too. Um, I remember bringing my dad by here when he came to visit and showing him around, and we were inside this big reverse osmosis room, and it was really, really cool. And he's a mechanical engineer, so he loved it. You know, he was nerding out with me about all the different things, and it was it was a lot of fun. So, yeah, you know, there's just so many different ways to learn as an FM, and I think one of them is learning from that technical side of things for sure.
SPEAKER_00Do you you mentioned like not nitpicking? I could imagine uh a contractor or uh technician, whomever, coming in and doing the work and feeling uncomfortable having the FM who has hired them to do the work looking over their shoulder. How do you approach that and to put them at ease and make make sure that you know you're not um it doesn't feel like the teacher's looking over their shoulder when they're taking the test?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean it's it's definitely approach. It's you start off with genuine hello and conversation, right? And then you're hey, I'm I'm just curious if you, you know, as you're doing this, show me a couple things, and then you might even walk away after that. You know, you're like, I'm not here to sit here and watch you do the whole thing, I'll let you go at it. But uh yeah, like I think it's just that initial engagement. You're really almost setting a little bit of an expectation that I'm genuinely interested and want to know what's going on. Sure. Um, you also really have to look, even going back to the budgeting piece and making sure that you're getting billed for the right things, right? So, you know, that definitely goes into it. Uh, there's been plenty of times where I'm sitting through a bill, and I'm like, that doesn't match up right because we weren't doing that work or so, you know, whatever it is. But yeah, it's again just setting that little bit of an expectation that you're genuinely interested. Um, and it makes them feel comfortable, and they can just kind of go from there.
SPEAKER_00Has it been difficult to delegate and let the FMs do the work now that you've moved into operations and just to stay more hands-off?
SPEAKER_01Um, not so much. I think again, we've got a really great team throughout the whole company that allows for one for mentorship and the mentee, you know, like that training and support system. You know, like I can call, I can call all the way up to our leadership and say, hey, I got something I need to vent to you about, you know, or you know, my my immediate supervisor is you know, I look up to him and I can give him a call anytime and do the same thing. So again, it's even though we're spread out across the country, we're all available to each other when needed. And so yeah, I think it it just helps and works out that way.
SPEAKER_00Sounds like a really healthy uh organization, lots of open communication, support, mentorship.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Um, I mean, it stems from you know two people that were kind of the entrepreneurs of it all, and you know, I still look up to them and you know grateful to them for even having started such a company and essentially creating that environment um to allow us all to be close knit and yeah, work together.
SPEAKER_00As an FM, you were managing the facility, not a team.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was basically a two-person team here. So just honestly, colleagues working on site, handing things off. Uh I managed more of the budget side, so the kind of the white glove approach, and he was supportive in a lot of other different things. Um, and that's how some of our facilities are. There's a small team versus other sites that might have a larger team. Uh just kind of varies, but uh depends on the scope and the you know agreement and everything there about what what we're responsible for. Um, so yeah, it was just just a team of two before, and now I've got a team of four below me.
SPEAKER_00What's managing people like?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean it's it's enjoyable because I think I again like to bring in that collaborative teamwork uh alignment throughout my whole company uh that we've established, right? And uh being able to support anyone that might be looking to move up and move into a different role. Like I'm a big proponent of that. I've had that luckily in my own life to be able to have some tools some of that mentorship. So I like to look at that and see how I can be a good leader uh to anyone that's really interested in making a move up, right? And that collaborative team work I think goes really well with with how I manage people, um, makes everybody feel really inclusive and allows them to speak up. And I think you also really have to deal with some of that personality thing too, which you know is a learning aspect on my end as well. So yeah, a couple different things there.
SPEAKER_00So with the personality aspect, is that by by personality aspect you mean handling the conflict that comes when you've got different personalities in play?
SPEAKER_01Uh it can be that. It could be just the way somebody might approach uh a task, you know, um allowing allowing myself to step back and let people do what they're responsible for doing and holding them accountable for it. Um but also being available to jump in if support is needed, you know. That's I feel like that's that leadership stepping back a little bit of letting people go with the flow, right? Go with their responsibilities.
SPEAKER_00If an FM came to you and said, Steven, I want to move into more of a leadership role, whether that's staying in FM but just leading a larger team or moving into operations, what advice would you give them? What areas would you say these are the traits that make an effective leader?
SPEAKER_01That's a really good question. Um one I can't think I've thought of, but I feel like I can I've answered some about the relationship uh piece of it, you know, networking is huge. Um even, you know, outside of the company itself, I've learned again a ton from the IFMA world and have my own leadership roles in that as the local chapter. Uh so I think just broadening your perspective and understanding of not just FM but operations and you know uh taking some type of leadership course or uh listening in on some type of podcast like this, you know. Uh so definitely just just broadening your your knowledge, I think is a good way to think about it for sure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, rel the relationships aspect, um, which we've gone into a little bit, but then also making sure that you're not too siloed and only seeing your perspective, getting the perspective of others.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And when you talk about networking, I think that can be sometimes intimidating for people because they're like, I don't even know one, what am I supposed to do at a networking event? And then two, sometimes the ROI can feel nebulous. It's like, okay, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna eat some some finger food, and and then what? What would you say if someone was feeling like that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, maybe find someone like me that's a little extroverted and you could uh latch on to, and uh maybe, and then that helps mix and mingle with you know somebody that you know they might know, and then you get to talking, and next thing you know, you got something in common with the next person and the next person. Um also just I don't know, taking that first step really. Um try it out, you know, don't be afraid to try it out. I think uh Bobby LaRon, he said something on the podcast was like the silo thing, like shadowing another FM at their facility can make you learn and at the same time, you know, see something or help them see something that might be done differently. So just giving it a shot, you know. The IFMA community is a really nice, uh supportive community. And I admit I got deeper into it up here in the Portland area. I was part of it in San Francisco, but didn't quite take my own leap and get my own initiative for it, right? And now um maybe got pulled in a little deeper, but uh you know, I'm here and it's it's been really enjoyable. So yeah, just taking that first step, I think, is a good way to think about it for the networking piece. Or finding even a good event. Like there's things from top golf to uh just a simple like uh panel where they're gonna talk about AI or something like that, which you might be interested in. And all you need to do is really come listen to it, maybe grab a bite, and then you can leave. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Shifting gears and talking about you know, boots on the ground, but being at uh would you would are you meeting the same security requirements as folks working at the airport or or not quite?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, not quite. So because we're landside facility, you know, we're right next to the tower, um, next to the runway. You can probably see the facility. You definitely can as you drive. Out of the terminal. Um so yeah, we're we're not we're not anything security based. It'd be nice. I've always thought it'd be really cool to be able to pass through security and get some of that Tillamook ice cream that they got in the you know E terminal there, but yeah, not quite yet.
SPEAKER_00Even though it is landside, it is unique being so in integrated with the airport facility. What's different about that versus just a standard commercial office building?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean I think it really again boils down to relationships. Like you're we're the middle in most cases, we are the middleman between the tenant, which is the rack, and then the port of Portland. We're the voice for the rental car company to go to the port of Portland, or in you know, in this case, uh, or any airport, and an advocate, you know. Um it can also go the other way, you know, we're an advocate for the airport side of things, towards you know what we need the rental car companies to do. Uh so it really goes a little bit of back and forth. Uh, and again, in some cases, it's it's our own contract and our own facility that that we have more ownership of, too. So it really just depends. Um, but again, working closely with you know airport personnel uh across the country and in activations and working with them and seeing what their needs are and their expectations are, it's meeting that too. You know, we want to be able to meet that expectation that they have. Um I think one of the reasons why we got brought into Port of Portland, you know, we were helping with the activation of the site, and it actually wasn't set up to where I think there was a supposed to be an FM on site, and then that changed a little bit closer to the activation. Um, I was you know living close by in San Francisco or not too far, and they called me up and offered me the position up here, and that then created you know the management of it, and ultimately the expectation from the airport is you know, we need to make sure this place is sustainable for the next 15 to 20 years. Um, we've all seen buildings before that should be in great shape at that 15-20-year mark, but they're not because they just weren't taken care of properly. So I definitely set that standard from the beginning um and take pride in that too, and try to take that to the other facilities that we manage as well, and really really hold that same standard. So it's been nice.
SPEAKER_00Now, with you mentioned having a tight turnaround, 30-minute turnaround. I can I can imagine that when things go wrong and that uh it interrupts that turnaround, that's a big uh a big problem. How does that change your approach when you know that one uh like proactively if we can stop things from breaking, uh we're gonna save ourselves a lot of stress. But then also in the moment when you're like, okay, we gotta get this fixed ASAP so we can get this machine back and running.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um I mean, there's definitely preventative maintenance measures that everybody's aware of, right? They're gonna help, they're gonna sustain a system appropriately. Um and one thing can lead to another thing, can lead to another thing, and another thing. Um, just even just a small example, like where a reclaim system in case it's two pumps in a sump pump pit, and there's a screen that's covering those pumps to help filter out any debris from getting sucked up in there and ultimately going through the reclaim system. But those screens started failing, causing the pumps to suck up dirt and debris, then it got even pushed into the reclaim system and your filters and things like that. And it causes more callouts, it causes you know water needing to be used. So being able to establish that preventative maintenance definitely helps prevent the bigger issue, right? And sustaining the facility. I think when you do have something that's more of a tight turnaround, like you mentioned, with the 30 minutes, like we are expected to help in any operational case, uh, any facility as FMs. So, for instance, here at a power outage, it's gonna take everything offline for however long, pop back on. Sometimes it's just a quick power bump, and the systems don't all reboot, some of them do, but you gotta come in, you gotta act, you gotta check your checklist, and having those standard operating procedures too is another way of doing it, right? Like we have people that come to the facility from the maintenance side of things, and they will have to turn on all these different areas or have access to a specific area to turn something on. So, on our side, we've actually created a uh standard operating procedure map, and it's just a checklist, right? Check the vacuums, check the car washes, check the fueling, and it's detrimental to the rental car companies because they're just running, like it's a constant flow, 24-7 facility, you know, something like that that happens and it takes everything offline, they're losing their productivity, and you know, that's why for us, we just want to be quick to react, and having those procedures in place definitely helped.
SPEAKER_00What has been the biggest like oh no moment?
SPEAKER_01I love the question because you know, there's we've over the years of our company of everybody's got a story. I mean, even any FM and any facility, they've got a story. Um keeps the job interesting as long as everybody's safe, right? And you know, you're able to share that across different facilities. Um, so yeah, there's operationally, I'd say the biggest oh no moment is when something like those sump pits and those pumps stop pumping water and it drains all the water out of the 2,000-gallon tanks. There's one of those per wash bay, and they're actually tied together at this facility. So, like if they drain out, I've lost either one through four or I've lost five through twelve because those are actually tied together, or then 13 through 16. So, like those sections is definitely the middle one where you lose the most, you know. Yeah, it's like, oh no, and we gotta get in there and make sure everything gets rebooted and basically flip on the water and start running water through it. So operationally, I'd say that's one of the big ones. Fueling is another one. Um, if I've had, I think the first year, it's always the first year, you know, when you're burning in the whole facility, right? And there is a couple different issues with the fueling, got them worked out, but they took fueling offline for you know days, at least for a couple of the rows. Um, and it really just impacts again the rental car companies and their operations. Um so yeah, definitely those are on the operational side. It's a another big oh no moment is you know, people that shouldn't be at the facility getting in the cars and uh crashing into things. Oh, I don't know how yeah, well, yeah, definitely have had there's damage that occurs uh in certain situations that you know could be preventable. Um, but it's just people people that shouldn't be here and doing things they shouldn't be doing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Is that that just goes back to keeping security measures tight and whatnot?
SPEAKER_01Yep. Yeah, we've got like we've got all the security gates, all the systems in place, and even overnight security, and really, you know, it's you just get certain people that come to airports that just shouldn't be at the airport, and you know, they might find their way into a certain location that they shouldn't be in and cause some issues.
SPEAKER_00Yep, and now they're behind the wheel of this car that doesn't belong to them. Yep, for sure. Steven, this has been really great. I appreciate you taking the time to chat with me and and give some uh a deeper dive into the difference between soft FM and hard FM work and talking about leadership. Uh yeah, thank you for for the conversation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate it as well. I've been looking forward to this um and glad to be able to get on get on my first podcast. So excited to see see what happens and see how it turns out. So yeah, thanks again. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for listening to the Portland Building Leadership Podcast. Follow the show for more conversations like this. We'll be back soon.