Gary Pyle

From life in the forces to directing operations on the facilities management front-line, Gary Pyle’s career has seen him develop into a leader and mentor, who puts people at the heart of every decision. Whether creating motivation and a sense of purpose in his teams, or becoming a trusted partner for his clients, Gary’s personal transformation and daily decision to choose optimism ensures every challenge is approached as an opportunity. 

How did you get into what you do?

I ’fell’ into FM through my military background but actually started my career in the mining industry.

In 2004, before I left the military, a colleague I’d a good relationship with left the forces to move into facilities management. A few years later, when I was due to leave the military, he called me and invited me to apply and interview for a Group Business Continuity Manager role at DTZ (a real estate investment management business) and that was my start in the world of facilities management. The same connection, who was an ex-RAF Wing Commander, also helped me with my next step with Johnson Controls, providing operations and security services to the BBC. He recognised, as I do, that veterans have a huge range of transferable skills and they’re well suited to not only FM roles, but the built environment more widely.

It's a misconception that the military’s main focus is just being organised and disciplined – the ethos is more “Tell me what and not how.” It implies that you know how to do things, the process part, but the ‘what’ is about how you think, making decisions, having a strategy for what you do and being a leader. It’s think, engage and motivate.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for people making the step from the military to the corporate world is around behaviours rather than skills and competency. In my career I’ve been fortunate to have supportive managers - at Johnson Controls I was encouraged to take an MBA even though I’d not been academic before that. And following this, I and worked on an interim basis for 14 years until I joined Mace in 2021.

What do you enjoy most about your current role at Mace?

I enjoy challenging myself and the biggest thing for me right now is about our people. In many of the interim roles that I’ve worked in, it’s been delivery and not people that have been the focus. So part of coming to Mace was wanting to make a genuine, positive difference for people again – to learn, lead, develop. I think that coaching and mentoring our people, so that they can help our customers, is one of the most rewarding aspects of my role. I also enjoy that Mace really mean it when comes to sustainability and reversing the damage that’s been done to the planet. We advocate responsible business and we can enable clients to deliver just that.

How do you redefine the boundaries of ambition?

I like a quote or two and some stick with me, so when I think about our purpose, priorities and strategy there two quotes that always leap to mind.  One is Henry Ford: “If you do the things you’ve always done, you get the things you’ve always had.” And the other is Winston Churchill’s famous quote on the difference between a pessimist and an optimist: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

I often play these back in my mind and, when you put them together, they help you to see the opportunity rather than the problem in any given situation - and that leads to redefining the boundaries of ambition. I’ve always tried to do things differently, but I used to be the pessimist and so transformed myself over a period of ten years from being problem orientated to being solution focused as part of my facilities management journey. This drive has been re-ignited in me at Mace and I approach every single challenge from that position.

What has been your proudest achievement at Mace so far?

My proudest achievement has been helping to create a highly motivated team who enjoy coming into work. I’m most pleased about influencing and supporting people in doing things well, creating a strong team, winning business, keeping clients happy, turning around problems for clients, and generating success. My small part in that is the influencing the people - of course it’s their achievement but I’ve motivated and lead them into making the most of those opportunities. Often in facilities management, the teams working on the toughest jobs get the least credit – but sometimes they are the best and the hardest working and so recognising that is important. Loyalty, learning, determination and growing together, and instilling those qualities, is an achievement to be proud of.

Why Mace?

I’d been happy working on an interim basis but, for the first time in 14 years in my career, I wanted to work on a permanent basis for Mace because what I’ve found here has been so positive and genuine. At Mace there is a clear commitment to doing things well and making them the best that they can be – in business you don’t always find this intent to do the right thing. At Mace, our people offer that commitment with integrity and are transparent with our customers - and that’s what I like. My model for good FM is based on trust, competency and that we deliver. And at Mace we have our behaviours, capability and competency and that creates trust with our clients

What motivates you every day?

Facilities management makes me happy about being able to get up - it all comes back to people and making a difference for people. If I know one of my tasks is to help people then I’ve made difference that day and on every day.

For me what we enable and support in FM is incredible. From hospitals keeping life support going to simply providing the platform for businesses to do what they do best makes a huge difference. Giving people purpose in their everyday job, so that they understand that they are a step to keeping that life support on or to helping a business grow – it really matters and it’s important to share and recognise that they do a great a job.

What skills do you need to be good at your job?

In terms of skills, leadership – but if I think about what’s needed most it’s about behaviours first. If I had to only choose one element of this, the one behavioural trait that’s most important is emotional intelligence, giving recognition to the team when they do great things, but also showing empathy, compassion and vulnerability when you need to.

What I’ve learned in the last 12 months is that showing vulnerability can really make an impact when you put it into practice. It’s powerful and helps to bring people onside, winning hearts and minds. If you allow someone to see your vulnerability, that side of you – they know you care and that you value them because you trust them enough to share.

Being a chameleon in leadership is important too - so that you can adapt to your situation and what people need from you, to do this you have to have a level of self-awareness, to know your audience, your customer and your market – do that as a leader and on you’re on your way to doing a decent job.

What advice would you give to anyone looking to get into what you do?

My advice is don’t jump into anything; research, learn, and do your homework.

Make sure that the direction you choose fits your profile, your aspiration and your motivation – if it doesn’t it will become clear and obvious later on and that will make it harder for you do it well and to succeed.

I ask my teams to share events and information that they’re interested in and passionate about and, as a Chartered FM Surveyor, I encourage aspiring facilities management professionals to take that course, as not enough people do.

When you find the right thing, show genuine passion and enthusiasm and the world can be your oyster. Pretend passion in sales pitches tends to fall flat, and so, going back to my point about the importance of trust, of being genuine and having integrity – if you have these, you will go further.

What are you passionate about outside of work?

I was very much passionate about adventure training, being a mountain leader and exploring but then suffered from various injuries which cumulatively made that harder to do and so now, if you could whisk me away with the wave of a magic wand, I’d be out rambling in the countryside with a Land Rover and my dog.

I love the Cheshire hills and I’ve spent many happy holidays in the Lake District too – it’s a stunning part of the country and I still go there regularly and enjoy it a lot.