This is Rebecca taking a quiet and satisfied moment. She managed somehow to put 50 of her organisation young professionals on a course called Coach for Results. She believed in it though had to persuade hard to get the Board to go for it. She had skin in the game, her reputation. It’s worked, most completed the course and they are now shining lights in the business and they are talking to their friends about how good it’s here. The Board are delighted and Rebecca’s stock has shot up. So, she’s taking a quiet moment to savour it. For the first time in ages she feels she has made a difference.

Early in my career I noticed the best cars in the car park belonged to the managers. So I got into management as fast as I could. But I wasn’t trained for management, nor was anyone else so I pushed hard and got promoted. Constantly pushing hard wasn’t good for me, the people I managed, my organisation or industry. If you want to be a successful manager or train up great managers in your company I have got an incredibly useful tool for you.

People skills rarely feature in established routes to construction’s professional qualifications and it is from this gap that many industry problems arise. We are plugging that gap and scaling up to change the construction industry, Anne Okafor explains how. But first let’s talk about Command and control: construction’s outdated leadership style…