Steve Wild: A Career In Property

In the latest of our Property Leadership interviews, Philip Foster from Ocean Edge Executive Search talks to Steve Wild Managing Director of Lampton Services about running a successful property company wholly owned by a local authority. Steve discusses his career journey which has straddled both the private and public sector and shares his thoughts on what makes an effective leader.

Firstly, please tell me about Lampton and your role in the organisation.

Lampton is part of a series of companies owned by the London Borough of Hounslow that provide a range of services to local residents from managing leisure centres to collecting waste and undertaking repairs in council homes. I’m Managing Director within the Lampton Group responsible for homes, repairs and maintenance, which is a significant part of the group in terms of both income and head count.

The organisation has impressive satisfaction results, how have you achieved or advanced this?

Our success is down to the whole team from the senior management to the staff on the ground delivering the service, our whole ethos is all about working together effectively and being solution focused. We have a stable senior management structure, and we are very clear on what is important to our customers. We know resident satisfaction is based around how quickly we can get in, solve a repair and what kind of condition we leave the property in, so the management team have put a big focus on productivity. We hold weekly reviews to clearly articulate what the goals are, to get everybody to buy in, to make that happen and then that process cascades down. We have a really dedicated planning team who are on top of managing all the resources to ensure the operatives have the right materials to get the job done.

How did you get involved in the property sector?

I’ve had a non-stereotypical career path really that has been more opportunity led than considered career progression! After graduating with a degree in quantity surveying, I worked as a consultant project manager for many years. I got my RICS professional qualification before moving into the client side and then worked as a project director in a development company. I then crossed over to the public sector and spent a terrific year with the London Borough of Newham. I loved it and the experience really opened my eyes to how my skills could impact on people most in need. I then spent several more years in the private sector in development before the opportunity with Lampton came up and I grabbed the opportunity. It’s a great company with great people, and with one foot in the public and one foot in the private sector I think it makes us quite dynamic.

In your current role, you’ve got lots of different people that you have to bring on board with you to achieve a similar goal. Can you tell me about your leadership style?

I’ve worked for lots of different managers with different styles and learnt a lot from them and these experiences have formed my leadership style. I think I’m very much a hands-off manager, I’m more goal orientated and would rather put time and energy into driving the organisation forward by understanding what it is that we’re trying to achieve, and making sure everybody is on the same path working towards the same goals. My leadership style is also based on being very factual, open and transparent. I’m a keen advocate of relying on data rather than hearsay and ensuring that staff know they can always talk to me. Something that has been important to me during my career is never asking someone to do something you’re not prepared to do yourself.

How do you find working in the public sector and what have you brought from your private sector experience to give Lampton a more commercial edge?

I think there are a lot of misconceptions about the public sector, but until you’ve worked in it, you don’t really understand the level of commitment and drive amongst staff; there is a common theme that drives everybody as we’re all working with public money. Coming from the private sector side I’d like to think I bring a commercial approach to finding creative solutions and trying to be innovative in the way that we go about things. I’ve spent most of my career working for small and medium sized private enterprises so I hope I bring more of an entrepreneurial outlook to work within a local authority framework.

What do you see as the major challenges facing the public sector?

I see two main challenges. Firstly the attraction and the retention of good quality people is always a constant. We employ around 1200 people from lifeguards to HGV drivers and there is always a constant search for talent. Added to this is the new regulator and the pressure that it is putting on not just housing but the wider organisation is having a dramatic impact on local authorities.

Is there any advice that you would give anyone looking to progress their career?

I think many people want to climb the corporate ladder too fast and set out a career path with a timeline. I would say just be more relaxed in terms of that progression, because at the end of the day, if you’re committed and you’re developing yourself and you’re putting yourself in the right environment, natural talent and natural leadership will come through and it will get recognised. The successful people that I look up to have a natural kind of inquisitiveness, they’re not afraid to make mistakes or ask questions and they will go and find out a solution.

I would also recommend taking time to build relationships, especially earlier in your career as you will come across people again. Overall, I would say just have fun and enjoy life, don’t be so obsessed about work. It is part of you but not the whole you.

Listen to the full interview on our Property Leadership series of podcasts. Ocean Edge Executive Search provides award-winning recruitment services to social housing, local authorities and the wider property sector. To find your next role, or to discuss your hiring needs please contact Philip Foster on philipfoster@oceanedge.biz or call 023 8000 1153.