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
The three big reasons why construction needs a coaching management culture
Here’s three big reasons why the construction industry needs a coaching management culture. It’s not only construction. We hear from Gallup’s chairman, Jim Clifford, who has firm views on this based on decades of global research by the analytics giant. The argument for culture change is convincing. We signpost the simple steps to get started…
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We don’t need another hero: Here’s how you can start activating your team
Hero leadership was the order of the day back when I was a young project manager. I thought I was being a hero though people around me whispered ‘he’s a pain in the neck’ and worse. 30 years on things have changed; young professionals don’t want hero bosses, they want to be coached to success. And “The Six Point Focus Plan” is as relevant now as it was then, probably more so…
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Yes, you can refine your management skills. Here are 11 tips
Few cyclists dedicate conscious effort to skill refinement; most get on their bike and ride, some of them very hard and fast. Here, I explore the parallel with managers in the construction industry where the default assumption is they are doing their job optimally and the same for their people. What would skill refinement as a manager look like anyway? Suggestions included…
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“Get out of that f@¡$%&! trench now!”
We have just launched an exciting MOOC on the Chartered Institute of Building’s Academy aimed at enabling young construction professionals to perform better in their jobs, become effective managers and eventually great leaders. At scale and over time this will change the construction industry from the ground up. Though Graham raised an interesting challenge…
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Needed: one project hero and an act of God
One member of a leadership team I was coaching asked “If we were working on the team, what sorts of things would we be doing?” I asked him what he thought. The day after I came up with forty fairly simple things a group of people can do to improve how they work together. Here are three. And a little quiz at the end.
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Quality, it’s about leadership. Right?
If you’re a leader in the construction industry and up for your thinking being challenged, this is for you. This week we’re talking quality and leadership. “Quality”, not your cup of tea? Well hold on, poor quality, and there’s lots of it, is hitting your bottom line and spoiling your reputation and it’s dragging the construction industry down into the dirt. If you are a leader in the construction industry then all you need to know about quality is right here, right now.
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Collaboration? Who’s got time for that?
Collaboration might be back on the government’s agenda following publication of The Construction Playbook, but how prominently does it feature in the typical project director’s mind? It wasn’t on my mind 30 years ago when I was a project manager. There wasn’t a name for it back then, I probably wouldn’t have thought it was important, nor known how to do it and I wouldn’t have had time for it. Things have changed since then, or have they? Who’s got time for collaboration or even The Construction Playbook?
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“If someone had just listened to me, I think I would have got through it”
Six years ago, John had a breakdown. He’s OK now though never returned to work. If someone had listened to him, he’d have got through it. John needed support. I care about leadership team performance though more for the wellbeing of the players and their people and right now some are on the edge. In this post we look at the importance of balancing support with challenge and how to provide both.
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Field guide to the Construction Playbook: Four ways you can prepare for it
The Construction Playbook is the latest Government publication urging reform. Pay attention construction business leaders, this is how the government will be trying to use its purchasing power to change the way you behave.
Read on to find out how to prepare your company for changes that might happen if the Playbook sticks. Or if it doesn’t, you might still set a strategic course for increased capability that is worthwhile whatever happens.
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Why I’m turning up the dial on coaching
Coaching is a partnership to discover new thinking. It’s future focused and optimistic. If you are leading a team in steady state and you have all done what you are doing hundreds of times before then crack on, this is not for you. This is for leadership teams that have something big to deliver in challenging and uncertain times. It’s for people who are up for the messy work of thinking and acting differently together and who are prepared to turn up and do the work. This is what the work looks like.
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