My Blog
This blog is for me, it’s my sketch pad where I think things through and work things out. Having worked ‘stuff’ out I think it’s good to declare it, so I am sending it to you. Hopefully you will also find it useful.
Latest Posts
Leadership traits: five rules for effective team management
When balancing the wide-ranging demands of day-to-day work, how can construction leaders build teams well – and keep them motivated?
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How to foster diversity of thought within your company
There’s a lot of talk about diversity and inclusion – here’s a few practical ways to build it and with it your own performance and the culture of your team and company.
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Construction should adopt a coaching style of management to make every person count
Building Magazine published one of my articles back in April, it seems to have struck a chord on LinkedIn with more likes and re-posts than usual. In it I confront the “skills shortage” – a perennial problem, much talked about ever since I joined the industry in 1976. Lots has changed since then; we now have collaborative contracts, BIM and MMC but the default management style remains. Changing that will change everything, here’s how to get started
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The Delegate Leader 2023
“Michael said “I’ve got too much to do and need to get rid of some of it” And Nancy said “Two days on the time management course left me behind on my work and I’ve been catching up since”
Master deep and deliberate delegation and you can forget about time management – here’s how to get started”
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The Systems Leader 2023
John is not making the grade, we need to “performance manage” him – whatever that means!
I wrote this blog post nearly 10 years ago. I was going to change a few words and provide some examples to update it though decided not to as the basic tenet still holds true – for me anyway. What are we going to do about John’s performance?
The Results Leader 2023
On their own few leaders work simultaneously on: the result, themselves and their team – the so called Three Key Factors.
When coaching an executive, I’d often ask “what’s your business result?”. Some respond with incredulity, “Isn’t it obvious Dave?”. It might be to them, more often it’s not, but even if it was, what about everyone else?
Ten years ago, I was steeped in this question and wrote a blog post called The Results Leader. Tomorrow the post is ten years old; it seems as relevant now as it was then so here it is – The Results Leader 2023.
What’s it like at the top these days?
This year I’m adjusting my focus a bit. I’m still coaching leadership teams though looking to do more 121 work with the people right at the top. By all accounts 2023 is going to be a tough year and support is being ramped up for staff, but who is there for the person at the top? They have their business advisors, that’s handled; I’m talking more about them as a person as a human being. If you’re right at the top what’s it like for you?
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Coaching Steve
Steve wanted to work up a strategy for getting his people on board. He mapped out where he thought they were at, and initially decided Nathan was up for the chop. Though it didn’t turn out that way.
This is coaching Steve – an illustration of what coaching is and what coaching isn’t. Includes some insights into leadership and getting people on board and a useful mapping tool.
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Lead with all your colours
We are smart cookies. We can adjust our behaviours to big effect. Though constantly busy, operating at pace, on autopilot our dominant style can become our default style. And when the leaders all unwittingly adopt the same style the effect can be chilling. Once aware, however, you and your team can make some fairly simple adjustments to warm things up. Find out more and how to here.
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Who are you, revisited.
We were talking about values and I took the opportunity to share a distinction I was taught many years ago. Success is about who we are as a human being and who we “be” is informed by our lived values. Here we revisit a blog I wrote seven years ago; circumstances may have changed though the notion is relevant for testing times.
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