Globally, construction is one of the most costly and risky industries there is. It is also technically demanding and commonly involves long time frames.
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A plethora of professionals and building contractors are involved with every project, and without proper leadership, there is always the threat of failure.
But with an experienced and dedicated leader maintaining channels of communication and collaboration, and ensuring schedules and budgets are kept, the promise of success is sustained.
Of course, there will always be ups and downs, and there will be obstacles along the way. But the challenge for any leader will be to avert conflict even when it is clear that different parties have underlying interests that compete with one another.
The Challenges and Benefits of Leadership
Learning to lead in an effective manner is a challenge that comes with huge demands.
For me, the most potent challenges are balancing my technical abilities and leadership skills, and doing whatever I can to revolutionize the construction-based MEP Engineering industry and help to disrupt the traditional, somewhat anachronistic nature of the construction industry as a whole.
It’s not enough to lead by example or simply provide answers that everyone must follow. Rather, great leaders encourage their team to come up with their own solutions so they can perform at the very highest level.
In other words, it’s about influencing people rather than attempting to control them.
Leadership vs Management in the Construction Industry, a report by U.S. and U.K. researchers Dean Kashiwagi, Charles Egbu, J. Kovel, and William Badger, argues that leadership structures are more efficient than typical management-based arrangements.
They propose that leadership-orientated processes might minimize many of the efficiencies of the construction industry since they found, during their research, that the management process is a direct contributor to deliver process inefficiencies.
Management and leadership-based systems are direct opposites, even though many people confuse the two.
While construction management is considered necessary in construction environments that are commodity and price-based, the leadership versus management research found it to be an obstacle to improving value and efficiency.
The question is, will leadership-based education accelerate the implementation of a delivery environment for construction that is performance based?
As John C. Maxwell states, “To be a leader, one must not only be out in front, but also have people intentionally coming behind, following the lead, and acting on the leader’s vision without coercion.” They need to influence people rather than control them.
Leaders also need to be flexible, efficient, and to elicit trust. Good leaders don’t have to say a lot and, in Maxwell’s words, they “don’t do work.” What they do is to hire the best people to work for them, and empower them by helping to develop their own leadership skills.
Additionally, team work is hugely important in the construction industry because of the inter-disciplinary nature of the work, and the fact that members of the broader team work for many different companies.
After all, a team isn’t going to win if the different team members have different agendas. But streamlining processes and automating repetitive tasks will definitely have a positive impact.
How Good Leaders Can Improve the Construction Industry
There are books that talk about ways the best leaders can make everyone smarter, and this applies to every industry, including construction. But how?
Undoubtedly, the best tactical leadership guide I’ve ever come across is the award-winning Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and why the Rest Don’twhich is a major revision (75% new) of the business classic, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish.
It shows exactly how a company can be run successfully using the leadership methodology discussed above.
While it rarely happens overnight, four key issues to scaling up are:
1. People
It’s vital to have the right team with the right core values. Ultimately, you need to attract the right people and keep them.
2. Strategy
This needs to be truly differentiated from companies you compete with and it must matter to your customers (or potential customers.)
3. Execution
The drive to deliver must be there and the execution must be flawless, regardless of obstacles. “Those who pulse faster, grow faster,” says Verne Harnish.
4. Cash
You need plenty. A business that is either under-capitalized at the start or runs out of cash while scaling up is doomed.
Capability and Scaling Up
One of the primary barriers to successfully scaling up is a lack of sufficient leaders who are capable of leading the business or organization.
I lead a team of more than 30 mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection engineers from our company headquarters in New York City, and from our integrated Chicago Engineering firm. And I’ve led more than 1,000 projects across the U.S. as well as in Singapore and Malaysia. I couldn’t have done it without scaling up.
But I also concentrate on managing my own time, which involves lots of client and internal meetings as well as site meetings.
I try to stack multiple meetings back-to-back on a single day rather than spreading them through the week, and I re-prioritize on a daily basis, ensuring I get the most important things done first.
Finding the Best People to Work With
In the construction industry, you can’t choose everyone you work with, simply because many team members on a particular project, including sub-contractors, come from different companies.
But you can hire smart and ensure that you work with the best people in-house. You can also work with top grade vendors in your own particular supply chain.
Topgrading
When it comes to hiring, Topgrading is the most awesome method, and I have relied on this approach to get New York Engineers where it is today.
Essentially, Topgrading is a screening system developed by Bradford D. Smart, author of the book, Topgrading, and it teaches those in business to hire, promote, assess, and coach those who will be truly high performers in their fields.
It is used to identify the best people for the job (A players), and it involves identifying strengths and weaknesses and finding the best person for a particular job – someone who will be likely to improve in the areas they already excel in.
So what has your experience been in the construction industry and how does leadership fit in? Let us know.