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Facilities Manager | july/august 2014 | 15 terpretations with clear and specific instructions and information on the front end. • Watch your tone—most workplace conflicts are due to how people say things, not what they say. • Use the right body language—your pos- ture, gestures, and facial expressions support or contradict your message in a similar manner to your tone. ENCOURAGE EMPLOYEES TO STRETCH If you can identify an underutilized skill or talent, there is a real opportunity to help employees break the compliance mode and become higher perform- ing, more motivated contributors. Be prepared to invest some resources in developing the skill. An investment sends the signal that the employee is important and implies there will be an expectation to apply the new or improved skills for the good of the organization and the institution. This expectation is really an invitation for the employee to stretch personally and professionally, and is the beginning of empowerment. Done effectively, it can instill confidence and trust—leading to sustained improvement and excellence in place of compliance. Management consultant Carol Kinsey Goman offers this perspective: "If you help people develop the confidence that they have marketable skills, then they can choose whether they're going to stay with your organization or leave. When they choose to stay, you get commit- ment. If people feel 'I'm staying with this organization because I have no other options,' you will get compliance. But you're never going to make it to the top with compliant employees. You need their commitment." In short, there are numerous bound- aries that inhibit creativity and produc- tivity for some of our organizations. Some are real and immovable, and some are not. Empowering employees is a key first step to begin to move, even eliminate, some boundaries that restrict our success. Breaking through the compliance-oriented culture by ad- dressing poor work place attitudes can elevate the performance and status of the organization. The process is typical- ly individual in nature and done person by person. With genuine leadership, positive effects can become contagious, drawing others into the flow. From there, engaged, committed, creative employees can discover new methods and paths to success. Then it can truly be said that we are using the entire field. Joe Whitefield is executive director of facilities services at Middle Tennessee University, Murfreesboro, TN. He can be reached at joe.whitefield@mtsu.edu. Kids deserve to learn and grow in school buildings that are clean, safe and leak-free. That's why you need Tremco Roofing and Building Maintenance. We've been preventing and solving roofing problems for our education customers for decades. So students can focus on opening their minds instead of their umbrellas. Guess Which One Doesn't Belong at a Desk. A C B D To learn more about how Tremco Roofing can provide you with roofing and weatherproofing peace of mind, visit tremcoroofing.com. © 2014 Tremco Incorporated. Join us at the 2014 Annual Conference and Exhibition, Booth #111