Although it’s natural to want to emulate a leader you look up to, it is more effective to develop your own leadership strategy based on your personal strengths. This advice was at the heart of spotlight speaker Mickey Bergman’s presentation Monday morning at ISSA Show North America 2024, taking place through Thursday, Nov. 21, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.

Bergman is the CEO of Global Reach, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing home Americans who are wrongly held abroad, whether by criminal gangs, terrorist groups, or foreign governments. Global Reach provides its services free-of-charge and works for the hostages’ families, not the U.S. government.

Bergman focused his presentation on the release of U.S. journalist Danny Fenster, managing editor of the magazine Frontier Myanmar, which focuses on news of the southeast Asian country. Myanmar’s democratically elected government was taken over by the country’s military in a February 2021 coup.

In May 2021, Fenster was leaving Myanmar to visit his family in the Detroit area when he was detained at the airport. He was able to text his family, who in turn began to work with Bergman to negotiate his release.

Fenster was released six months later through the efforts of Global Reach and former United Nations Ambassador and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. During the six months he was held, Fenster was charged with sedition and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Bergman recalled the challenges of bringing Fenster home to the U.S., including a lack of clearance from the U.S. State Department. Bergman and Richardson met with the military leader of Myanmar under the pretense of providing COVID-19 vaccines for the country’s children. In their first visit, they were unsuccessful in their attempt to free Fenster. During a second attempt, they left behind a note for the military leader, appealing to his character.

The negotiating team expected the military leader to have an aggressive personality, but their research revealed that he was a soft-spoken person who was insecure about criticism from his colleagues. The letter, which was sympathetic to the situation the military leader found himself in, led to successful negotiations, with the leader agreeing to release Fenster after a few weeks.

Bergman credited business practices using emotional intelligence for successfully moving the negotiations along. He said these same practices can lead to business success. Emotional intelligence best practices include an awareness of your counterpart’s point of view, an ability to control your emotions, and a respect for all personality types.

“There is no right or wrong personality for leadership,” Bergman said, advising the education session attendees to be authentic. “You need to figure out who you genuinely are, not who you want to be. Once you figure that out, lean into it.”

Staying compliant with labor laws
Coming on the heels of a national election, the ISSA Show provided perfect timing for an update on various laws and regulations related to the cleaning industry. John Nothdurft, the ISSA Director of Government Affairs, gave a presentation on staying compliant with labor laws.

Although politicians have been under pressure to act on labor issues, Congress has been in gridlock for the past few years. Most of the issues, such as overtime pay thresholds, are not new and have ended up in the courts.

The Obama administration was the first to deal with overtime pay thresholds, which is the amount of money a salaried employee can make and still qualify for overtime pay. The Biden administration updated the Obama administration’s original thresholds, which were lowered by the Trump Administration. Under the current administration, salaried workers who make less than US$56,000 a year qualify for overtime pay (up from the previous threshold of $35,568).

However, last week a judge in Texas overturned the latest threshold. Nothdurft said he is skeptical that the Trump administration will seek to reinstate the $56,000 threshold.

Many labor laws are regulated under state laws rather than federal laws, such as mandatory paid sick leave, and mandatory harassment training. In fact, California and Washington require harassment training specific to the cleaning industry, as professional cleaners are at high risk of harassment since they often work alone at night.

Planned minimum wage increases are another issue that have come under state, rather than federal, regulation. Nothdurft reviewed states that are scheduled to raise their minimum wage in 2025: Alaska ($13), Arizona ($14.70), Colorado ($14.81), Connecticut ($16.35), Delaware ($15), Illinois ($15), Maine ($14.65), Michigan ($10.56 in January, then $12.48 in February), Missouri ($13.75), Montana ($10.55), Nebraska ($13.50), New Jersey ($15.49), New York ($16.50 for New York City and Long Island, $15.50 for the rest of the state), Ohio ($10.70) Oklahoma ($9), Rhode Island ($15), South Dakota ($11.50), Vermont ($14.01), Virginia ($13.50), Washington ($16.66, $20.76 in Seattle, $20.17 in SeaTac).

Nothdurft said ISSA does not endorse political candidates and works with both Democrats and Republicans. However, he encouraged cleaning professionals to make their views known to pollical leaders. With nearly 4 million cleaning workers and 1.2 million janitorial services in the U.S. (one in 40 U.S. workers are involved in cleaning) the industry needs to make its voice heard.

“They say if you’re not on the table you’re on the menu. I think for too long the cleaning industry was on the menu,” he said.

The cleaning industry is facing a pace of employee turnover that is 50 to 75% higher than historic patterns, said Jim Flieler, Charlotte Products vice president of brand development in his session, Transition in the Workplace­—How to Motivate and Capture the Knowledge Retiring in Your Business and Transfer to New Staff and Generations, at the ISSA Show 2024.

Poor work-life balance, insufficient pay and/or benefits, lack of career growth or opportunities, inadequate recognition or rewards, better job opportunities elsewhere, monotonous work, fear about the company’s growth strategy, burnout, and ineffective managements are all causes of employee attrition.

The benefits of employee retention include better process efficiency, lower costs and higher employee productivity, higher morale, lower costs, lower turnover, better experience for your customers, and greater productivity overall.

So how do you motivate others to clean someone else’s mess?

Fieler offered a 10-step guide with the necessary components including:

1. Knowledge sharing culture—Develop a consistent training template.
2. Mentoring programs.
3. Documented standard operating procedures (SOP) process & best practices for training efficiencies.
4. Employee incentives—You cannot put a price tag on a smile.
5. Appropriate technology— “AI does not know what a janitor knows,” Flieler said. “And a janitor does not know what AI knows, so it’s the pairing of the two that complement each other.”
6. Facilities and cross training—Knowledge transfer is in demand and priceless. Encourage cross training.
7. Knowledge transfer sessions
8. Continuous learning.
9. Recognition of the legacy of retiring employees.
10. Succession planning—Companies are commonly weak at planning succession.

“If you implement a number of these initial steps, you will achieve what you set out to accomplish, and gain creditability and trust from those soon leaving and those just starting their careers,” Flieler said.