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FEATURE | ||
Back to Facility Manager
Contents |
The signal-calling general manager of Detroit’s Ford Field took the snap and read a full-out maximum blitz from the very first question. So how does a woman become a top executive at a stadium where the primary tenant is the National Football League Detroit Lions and the main sport is the manly testosterone-laced world of professional football? Remaining composed and standing tall in the pocket, Joan LeMahieu checked off across the line and then reared back and fired her own tight spiral. “I haven’t experienced the position as a man,” she says, “so I can’t really make a comparison between what it is like to be a woman stadium manager versus what one’s experience would be as a male stadium manager.” Blitz beaten. Pass completed perfectly in stride. Touchdown, LeMahieu! Don’t misunderstand Joan LeMahieu. She is only too happy to share her vast experiences with others—men and women—about what is required to work in and succeed at an NFL stadium. But when it comes to labels, well, just leave those on the shelf. Where some might see her as someone blazing trails for women in NFL stadium management, LeMahieu counters that, “I don’t see myself as a trail blazer. I see myself as someone trying to do the best job that I can in whatever situation I have been placed.” And, oh, the situations in which she has been placed.
From Cows To Lions You will also see pride and service throughout the stadium from a workforce well-versed in LeMahieu’s tried-and-true recipe of making the game experience a pleasant and fun one for fans. “So much can be said about the importance of service in our industry,” LeMahieu allows. “Personally, I like to try to foster a culture of storytelling as it relates to service. It’s important to instill a sense of pride in everyone who works for the facility … pride in a job well done, pride in making a guest happy, pride in solving a problem, pride in keeping the restrooms sparkling, pride in serving the most delicious food presented in an artful way.” When LeMahieu becomes aware that her staff has demonstrated pride in their work, she makes it a point to let others know about it. After all, positive storytelling only reinforces positive actions. “One way to instill pride is by sharing often and widely the stories that come to your attention,” she says. “These can be stories of extraordinary efforts on the part of your team members, stories of acts of kindness by your team members, and stories of creative solutions to guest related issues.” Want to know just how seriously LeMahieu takes this issue about exceptional service? Over the years she has collected several file folders with what she calls “Happy Thoughts,” stories about fabulous service provided by team members that have come to her by way of notes, cards and e-mails. LeMahieu has indeed come quite far in her public assembly facility management career. She resides in one of the most gorgeous facilities ever built and can look out on the field as the home team milks the clock to preserve a win. It’s a far cry from the first job she had of milking cows and feeding calves on her family’s dairy farm.
Learning The Language LeMahieu says that while her parents tried very hard to speak English in the home, it was definitely the family’s second language. “So I went to school speaking a bit of an odd version of English,” she says. “My parents were both unable to finish high school because of family economics, but they stressed the importance of education to me. I can remember my mom telling me when I was seven years old that someday, if I studied hard, I could go to college.” Thus motivated, the little girl decided on the spot to become a schoolteacher and made the announcement to a stunned second grade teacher who had just recently bestowed LeMahieu with an “X” in the behavior column. “That was somewhere below a ‘U’ for unsatisfactory,” says LeMahieu. The future teacher went on to attend Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in elementary education. It took LeMahieu all of one year teaching “darling fourth graders” to realize that she was actually in the wrong profession. “I tell my friends now that God blessed every child whose life I have not touched in the past 26 years,” LeMahieu can say with a laugh. During the next decade her career took her to a high-tech company in the Silicon Valley in the marketing and human resources departments. When her husband was transferred to Visalia, California, Joan joined the city’s human resources department and eventually became the department director. Still seeking more, LeMahieu approached her supervisor and the city manager and asked for help in finding another challenge. Within a year, the position of convention center and theaters manager opened up and she applied for the position. Welcome To A New World If it was a challenge LeMahieu wanted, it was the kitchen sink thrown at her in her new job. And that was just in the first week. Consider: “We had a fire in the building (pantry kitchen next to ballroom) that required us to relocate a banquet with less than an hour before our guests arrived,” says LeMahieu, just warming up, so to speak. “Unbeknownst to me we had staff drinking on the job at a Pee Wee Herman event,” she adds. There’s more: “Gang members were displaying colors and got rowdy during a rap concert,” she says. “One of our catering companies was trading services for alcohol with a couple of part-time staffers. Oh, and a staff member took a gun to work.” The result of Week No. 1 was that LeMahieu was exhausted, went to the Walk-In Clinic at 6 p.m. on Friday evening, and there was diagnosed with mononucleosis. Suddenly that job back during college at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and the later one with Technicon Data Systems in the Silicon Valley didn’t look so bad. Heck, for that matter milking cows, driving tractors, painting fences and babysitting the younger children on the farm during childhood looked like the cure for what ailed LeMahieu. An interesting thing happened in those early jobs that not only helped LeMahieu make it through that week of infamy, but also has helped guide her later in her career. On the farm she would learn the meaning of the discipline of working hard. While working for the bank during college, she learned about what it takes to make a business successful while working in the loans department. As an added bonus she learned about the importance of marketing, sales and community relations while working for the branch manager, and she picked up valuable pointers on customer service while on the teller line. She continued absorbing like a sponge while working in the Silicon Valley. “In the marketing department I spent time tracking the sales efforts of the separate regions as well as assisting the marketing staff as they developed various sales and marketing campaigns for the products,” says LeMahieu. “From this I learned the importance of strong client relationships, of looking down the pipeline to try to figure out what pieces of business will close and when, and of understanding and listening to the target audience.” While in the human resources department, LeMahieu learned the importance of having clear and congruent communication with people, a skill she picked up in the marketing department and transferred to her stay in human resources.
Did you happen to notice that just a few of these would be invaluable skills once LeMahieu made her way into a public assembly management career? Maybe those Pee Wee Herman events wouldn’t be so bad after all.
Early Influences “These people were immensely helpful to me,” she says. “I even spent two days at the Santa Clara Convention Center with Bruce and each of his key staff members asking questions, observing and taking notes. I was ready for that interview, thanks to a great deal of help from those already in the industry. “Early in my career in the business, I was blessed with so many who helped me in a variety of ways. For people to help me while I was preparing for my interview before even getting the job … I found that people in our industry were incredibly helpful and willing to share information.” While at the City of Visalia, LeMahieu worked under the leadership of Ted Gaebler, who has a national reputation as “the most entrepreneurial city manager in America.” Under Gaebler, LeMahieu learned about listening to the client, the importance of various ways of measuring the success of a business and more. LeMahieu later moved to the Monona Terrace Convention Center in Madison, Wisconsin, and her sphere of influence widened.
Warren Buckley later would become a mentor who guided LeMahieu into teaching at the Public Assembly Facility Management School at Oglebay. Others she cites for their encouragement and advice include Ray Ward, Dexter King, Ray Ritari, Bill DiCarlo, Carol Darby, Jay Green, Bob Hunter, Kevin Twohig, Carole Curtin, David Meek, Sandra O’Toole, Joe Davis, Dave Petersen, Scott Jenkins and, “really, the list goes on and on. We really have an incredibly supportive network of people associated with the IAAM. I have rarely called upon someone who wouldn’t take the time to help me with information or problem solving.”
Time To Return The Favor Just as certain as she will be at Ford Field on Thanksgiving Day for the traditional home football game, LeMahieu is certain of the advice she would lend others to prepare them for success in a demanding and often-times physically and mentally draining industry. It should be noted that LeMahieu’s keys to success were in response to a question about the advice or counsel she would offer women who aspire to work in an NFL stadium like she does. In true fashion, LeMahieu clarified before replying that these tips are as applicable to men. While true, it is fascinating to note that the next two Super Bowls will be played at venues where women are the managers. Detroit gets the Super Bowl in 2006, while the 2005 Super Bowl will be played at the ALLTEL Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, a facility whose manager is Tracey Evans. For now, LeMahieu is exactly where she wants to be. “Working in this industry is really a joy for me,” she says. “Seeing people enjoy themselves at events because of the entertainment that I have been a small part of making happen is just very rewarding.” With that attitude for service, don’t expect LeMahieu to make a career audible anytime soon. For her, coming to work every day is clearly a first-and-goal, and soon to be another touchdown. |
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© 2002-2004 International Association of Assembly Managers 635 Fritz Dr. Coppell, TX 75019 USA Phone: 972/906-7441 Fax: 972/906-7418 |
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Finally, while with the City of Visalia, LeMahieu spent time in the areas of staff recruitment, employee development, management training, compensation, pension and benefits administration, EEO/Affirmative Action, labor relations and conflict resolution. “I had the privilege of receiving extensive training in personal and professional development for work teams and continued my study of management/ leadership and the work culture,” she says.