If you are involved in the construction industry, even if you aren’t an excavation or concrete subcontractor, you understand the importance of a building’s foundation. Without a strong foundation, the building structure will eventually fail.

Your business is no different. Without a strong fundamental leadership foundation, your business will eventually fail as well. Fake it until you make it will only last as long as there is more work than people to do it. Last time I checked, there were still quite a few people looking for work.

If you look around at the more successful companies in your trade, you will most likely find strong leaders running the show. My reason for writing this comes from my experience over the past 15 years primarily in the subcontractor role.

Many times, on-site leadership has been more of an indicator to profit and loss than the original budget. If I had to pick the most important factor to a successful project (assuming the estimate is fairly accurate), it is the on-site leadership capability. When a project is well run and well led, positive results generally follow. This is magnified by the impact of the general contractor as he or she is by design, responsible for the performance of all trades. A poorly led subcontractor is much easier to compensate for than the actual “leader” of the project.

A few years ago I was made aware of a project that involved a public project in which the subcontractor was not being paid and pending change order requests were in excess of six figures. The project was almost complete and the subcontractor was not getting any response to his requests for an update on the status of the pending changes and payment. He wrote a letter to the bonding company that held the bond for the job. For obvious reasons, this got the attention of everyone. A meeting with the owner, general contractor and subcontractor was scheduled.

At the meeting the subcontractor discovered that many of the pending changes had been approved by the owner and somehow had been overlooked by the general contractor. Needless to say, the individual in charge of the change management left the meeting looking like he had totally dropped the ball.

This may sound simply like mismanagement or lack of organization, but as leaders, we are ultimately responsible for all those we lead. John Maxwell is well known for his ideal that “Leadership is Influence.” We all influence people or outcomes of their actions. There should have been some type of accountability to the process. This is where I believe most failure occurs. Someone is put into a position to complete certain tasks, and there is little oversight or accountability to make sure that things go as planned. Leaders are responsible for everyone downstream of them, and until we put some time and effort into developing leaders around us, there will be opportunity for the foundation of our business and reputation to be compromised. When was the last time you checked on your foundation? Take a look. Is there a weak link? The question then becomes “whose responsibility it is to fix it?” Leadership is not built in a day, but daily. Where is leadership development on your to do list?

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I have been managing projects for more than 20 years, and one thing that has remained constant over time relates to change management. You better make sure the owner or general contractor knows about additional work and the associated schedule and cost implications.

Full disclosure here: I have learned this lesson the hard way more than once. On occasion, it has been my own downfall in not providing the information in a timely manner. That is fairly easy to correct. The other reason concerns me quite a bit more. What happens if you are working for either a general contractor or consultant and they are not providing the information to the owner in a timely manner, or more importantly, within the requirements of the contract specifications.

If you want your claim to compensation to end abruptly, there is no better way than to fail in meeting the timeframe as set forth in the specifications. Communication is the key here. If there is additional work, notify whomever needs to be notified. Even if you have not put a price to the change, notify the appropriate person(s) that the change is forthcoming with an anticipated date of submission and request acknowledgement that the owner has been notified.

If you are reading this and are involved in this process, you have experienced the time and energy that is involved when change management does not go smoothly. Proper communication will eliminate 90 percent of the problems we potentially deal with. Don’t expect, or depend on other people to have your back. Remember, everyone is already probably doing more than they have time for, so chances are that they will be more focused on watching theirs than watching yours.

I believe that most owners are fair and reasonable and understand the concept of change management. Coming from a civil background, most of the change management I have dealt with, notwithstanding design changes, has been associated with unforeseen conditions. Yes, the kind that delivers absolutely no value to the “visible” end product. That being said, with proper and timely communication, there is seldom significant pushback. Typically it is only to fully understand the “why.” Again, communication has been the key element in processing the change and keeping the project moving forward. Let’s face it, in this demanding economy, especially within the construction industry, we are all being forced to do more with less. Poor change management creates more work, slows down the job and compromises our overall ability to perform productively and efficiently. Communicating the right information, at the right time in the right way will allow you to get more done and in less time.

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I recently finished two tours as a project manager/superintendant on one of the largest construction projects in the Portland area. The owner and general contractor both went over and above in leadership and safety training. The programs offered were not only for the supervision, but for the craft workers as well. What was provided was both content rich and applicable not only to that specific project but for our industry as a whole.

I heard several comments from other trades, as well as from my crews, and although it was mostly positive, there were a few things that bothered me. Let me preface this by saying that the comprehensive program was one of the best I have ever been involved with in the construction arena. The presenters were knowledgeable and well prepared both to deliver the content and field a variety of questions.

What bothered me were comments suggesting that some had never been exposed to this type of training or wish they had more of it. Issues like awareness, teamwork and communication were some of the topics mentioned and are crucial to our success in construction. They are all key factors in completing projects safely and on time.

Although the comments did not surprise me, they reminded me how our people sometimes get sacrificed on the priority list in place of cost and schedule. The fact is that our people are both our greatest asset and our greatest liability. Logic dictates that we put more into developing them than any other part of our business. In reality, we do it when it is convenient and we have the time and money to do it.

As leaders and managers in not only the construction industry, but business as a whole, we are faced with a challenge different than at any other time in history. Those of us in our late thirties and older learned from watching others do it.  We were taught by example. We learned from our mistakes. The new generation is inundated with the Internet and hundreds of cable channels all full of information that though  possibly correct, only provide information and not transformation. I spoke with a senior level project superintendent a few months ago from one of the biggest general contractors in the Portland area. He shared a serious concern about who is currently available and qualified to replace his generation as they look toward retirement.

Don’t let your training room look like the picture above – empty.  The bottom line is this, if we don’t start investing in our people and developing their skills both as leaders and workers, we will end up with an inferior product. It is no different than trying to build a project with only 70 percent of the drawings. You need all the information to do it right. Design-Build can work, but you better have a clear picture of what you want the end product to look like.

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