Have you just been promoted into a leadership role in the construction industry? Wondering how to excel in your new role?
You are most probably sitting in your office thinking about what you are going to do in the next three to five years to really nail this next chapter of your career.
To excel as a leader of a construction team, I highly recommend reflecting on the following questions:
What is my compelling vision and mission?
How can I overcome distraction and discouragement and stay focused on my responsibilities?
What are my strengths, and how can I leverage my unique skill set?
What are my top initiatives, and how do I stay accountable for their execution?
How do I ensure to keep working on my personal development?
How do I commit to a strong ethical code?
How do I cultivate a positive relationship with my team members?
How do I have difficult conversations with team members?
How do I moderate conflict?
Sounds overwhelming? Don’t worry, fortunately, there are great resources available to help you navigate that next chapter in your life.
One is the Construction Leadership Dashboard (CLD).
What differentiates a great leader from a mediocre one? It’s the ability to communicate.
What I found in my 20+ years of experience is that engineers are usually specialists in their field, but when they get into leadership roles they suddenly have to work with people and lead a large construction team. They deal with a wide range of personality types, which presents challenges in terms of communication and team culture.
That’s when the CLD comes into play. It is an awesome resource to help newly promoted leaders excel in their new position.
The Construction Leaders Dashboard: your roadmap to leadership success
The CLD enables executives in the construction industry to maximize their leadership impact. It is designed to protect them from distraction and overwhelm and to give them visibility on a number of relevant areas so that they can stay in control, and keep focused on what's most important to their leadership impact and effectiveness.
As a new leader, the CLD will help you clarify eight distinguishing characteristics vital to your success:
- What is your vision?
Great leaders know what they are striving for. They have a big vision of what they want to achieve for their team and themselves. They make their goals and their direction tangible, and they're not afraid to go for big and audacious goals.
- What are your reasons behind your goals?
Where are you in your business at this very moment? There are things that only you can do, that only you can achieve, and there are motivations that are unique to you. And you should know those motivations and be able to tap into them. And that's what great leaders are able to do: they understand their own motivations, their Why, and they allow those motivations to focus their efforts on a daily basis. They realize that they are a unique person in a unique time and place, and as a result, they have a unique opportunity. And this understanding will propel them forward and through the tough times, they will face in their leadership.
- What is your identity?
Great leaders know who they are. They have a clear identity, they understand what it looks like when they are performing and acting at their best and courageously seek to spend as much time as possible being the very best version of themselves. They have a code of ethics that helps them say yes to certain opportunities and behaviors and say no to other opportunities and behaviors. They understand that their life is the sum of the choices they make. What they achieve is not just about what they do, but how they do it. The ends do not justify every means. Great leaders insist on a high level of ethical performance.
- What sets you apart from others?
Great leaders know what sets them apart from others. They're not obsessed with themselves, but they know what they're good at, and they know how their unique skill set impacts on the company that they lead, and how they can make a unique contribution that another person can't necessarily make.
- What are you focusing on every single day?
Great leaders come into the office every single day knowing exactly what they need to do in order to be able to say at the end of the day that it was a good day. They focus on specific tasks, which affect their business on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. In other words, they're focused. They have mastered the art of filtering what's important and what isn't.
- How do you keep yourself accountable?
Great leaders hold themselves accountable. They know their numbers and monitor them, and they know how to identify the right metric, whether it be a leading indicator or a lagging indicator.
- How do you interact with others?
Great leaders understand that relationships are essential to their success. And they are always focused on strengthening those relationships. They value every person they interact with. They treat everyone with respect. They know that they need other people to succeed, and they see themselves as both teachers and students, followers and leaders, mentors and mentees. They are humble and believe that they can learn from everyone.
- Personal Development
Great leaders are lifelong learners. They learn from the past and they think about how to apply their experiences to develop further. They welcome growth opportunities in their relationships, area of expertise, and leadership skills and always strive to develop on a personal level.
Intrigued to learn more?
In Episode 97: How to beat overwhelm and maximize your leadership impact of his podcast Construction Genius, Eric explains each area of the Dashboard, and uses a real-world example to show you how you can take this tool and use it to excel in your leadership role.
Stay tuned for more from Eric about the EAR Framework explaining the three key messages leaders need to ask and how to run kick-ass meetings to get better results.
Eric Anderton has more than two decades of career and entrepreneurial business experience, alongside 25 years of public speaking, small group facilitation and one-on-one mentoring. He is a trusted leadership advisor, executive mentor and expert meeting facilitator for construction companies that range in revenue from $10 million - $1 billion. He has a BA in History and has spent almost 30 years studying ancient and modern history, leadership and strategic principles. Since 2004 he has helped his clients increase profitability by clarifying their business purpose, building strategic plans, developing their best people, systematically innovating through obstacles, and executing their most important priorities.
