We have grown to five physical offices across three states, but neither Operations, Finance, nor HR wants to own the Facilities and Lease Management seat. Leases are slipping and maintenance costs are out of control. How do we place and staff an unglamorous seat that none of our directors will touch?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When no department head wants to own a seat, the temptation is to leave it floating as a shared duty or assign pieces of it to whoever has spare time. That guarantees failure. If everyone owns facilities, nobody owns facilities, and maintenance bills will continue to spiral.

To resolve this on the Accountability Chart, follow a strict structure-first discipline:

- Place the seat under a single leadership seat. Facilities and leases must sit inside one major functional area, typically Operations or Finance. Do not ask for volunteers. Decide where it logically belongs based on business impact. If physical workspace and lease negotiation are primarily balance sheet and contractual risks, place it under Finance. If it directly impacts field execution, warehousing, and equipment maintenance, place it under Operations.

- Define the five core roles. Keep the roles crisp and outcome-focused. For example: lease negotiation and administration, facility maintenance and vendor oversight, workspace safety and regulatory compliance, physical asset security, and facility operating expense budget.

- Address the Want deficit. You cannot force a senior director to personally change lightbulbs and negotiate HVAC contracts if they lack the Want. That leads to passive neglect. Instead, have the accountable department head place a dedicated facilities manager or outsourced property management vendor in that seat below them.

The leadership team director remains accountable for the scorecard metrics, such as facility budget variance and maintenance downtime, while the operational burden is handled by a specialized resource. The seat is permanently anchored, and single-point accountability is restored.