December 10, 2024 • 36 mins
We had such an incredible year, that we decided to share some of the key insights from our 2024 guests. Leadership isn't just about solving today's problems. It's about building an organization that can thrive long into the future and through any type of transition. Discover some of the best advice and practices from top leaders in the built environment. Enjoy this year-end wrap-up as you start planning for 2025.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello and welcome to the final episode of Season 2 Built In.
(00:05):
I'm Scott Winstead, FMI Consulting President.
We had such an incredible year that we thought we'd go back and do a wrap up highlighting
just a few of the key insights shared by our external guests.
I will say that it was hard to narrow them down to only a few.
If you'd like to go back and listen to any of the full episodes, you can find them all
on our website at fmicorp.com forward slash podcast.
(00:29):
It isn't just about solving today's problems.
It's about building the enterprise to thrive long and in the future.
In this clip, Bob Euler, former CEO of MWH, walks us through his four levels of leadership
for managing daily challenges to shaping the future of the enterprise.
He challenges leaders to really understand the trade off between the urgent and the important.
(00:50):
And his framework emphasizes that starting with the big picture at the enterprise level
and working backward to ensure that every action contributes to a meaningful outcome is critical.
And specifically, it's a proxy for how CEOs and leadership teams should be spending their
time as the only ones in the organization tasked with and rewarded for driving the future
(01:10):
growth and success of the enterprise.
So I came up with an arbitrary foundation of levels of thinking or levels of time spent.
Level one is just the exchange of information, problems, issues that come to a CEO on a daily
basis.
It's almost the operations talking to you.
(01:32):
And it's pretty demanding because the bigger the operation, the more time is spent in that
area.
I call that level one, just arbitrarily.
Level two is where you basically take issues, problems or challenges, and you sit down and
try to develop a plan, a short-term plan to either avoid the problem in the future or
(01:58):
accelerate the benefit of whatever's happening.
So it's planning.
It's futuristic, where level one is almost historical.
Level two is short-term plan.
And then there's level three, which I call the intermediate zone, which is the three
to five years, where hopefully as CEO, we're having a vision, you have some initiatives
(02:21):
that you've started to try to get you to where you need to be.
And you're basically looking at these initiatives and trying to nurture them in the organization.
And because they're small and because they're not particularly powerful, the CEO has to
be the pusher of those initiatives.
And this is what I call level three, the short-term evolution of the plan.
(02:46):
But truthfully, we should as CEOs start with level four, which to me is the enterprise
and trying to create a more valuable enterprise for the shareholders and a more favorable
environment for people, especially in a people business as such.
(03:06):
So that's visionary stuff.
That's what should be our capital base, how many shareholders should we have and what
geography should we play in?
Should we be one, two, or three sectors?
Why not?
And it's the foundation of what the enterprise is going to be in the future.
And this is the one that I try to get CEOs to pay attention to by asking them to write
(03:32):
an article in the Wall Street Journal or whatever, which would describe five years from now,
their success.
What was their legacy?
What did they accomplish?
How would they measure it?
And therefore, they could articulate it.
And I think it's very important to actually start from there and work backwards.
(03:53):
And I know that this is level one, two, three, and four.
I could talk for a day about them.
The news that I have a colleague who worked for me for five or eight years who's writing
a book right now called Injuring Behavior Change.
I think Gary Sanderson will be coming out later this year.
We'll probably go into more detail about what we just talked about.
(04:14):
You've shared that a lot of times that exercise or that assignment is harder for CEOs to do
than you might think it is to just think out five years and starting with the end of mind,
write it as if it's in the present tense, but it's five years out and then reverse
engineer it.
And it's not as easy to do as hard as they say.
Yeah, that's a great comment.
Not easy to implement and it's not easy to declare.
(04:35):
And when you declare, you actually put yourself, you put a target up on yourself as to whether
that's really what you can do and whether you can accomplish it.
So that's a little risky.
As far as CEO declare what they think it ought to be, there'll be some people that are unhappy
with that and some people that are saying, wait a minute, that changes our power structure.
(04:57):
That's true.
And so it can cause consternation.
One of the things that I find really interesting when you talk about the four levels, you can
sit down with the CEO and explain this and they get it.
They get it completely.
They may not like it or they may like it.
It doesn't matter.
But one of the things they find themselves is not being able to change their time management.
(05:20):
That the truth is that level one is demanding, comes to them.
They won't have to do a thing, there's a line outside.
Level two, the same way if it's serious problems, you're in the planning phase.
But nobody except the board of directors is talking to you about level four and level
three.
And therefore you don't have a constant demand unless you prioritize your time to do it.
(05:44):
And one of the ways that I try to do this with CEOs is ask them to look back.
In other words, look back over a month or look back over a couple of weeks.
And ask yourself, what levels did I spend my time in?
Where did I drive the meeting versus I was taken to the meeting?
That I was an audience rather than a driver of it.
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And by the way, you cannot ignore level one and two either.
It's just a matter of time management.
And it's very challenging because it's self-discipline.
Leadership is about creating opportunities for others to grow and thrive.
For organizations that depend on talent as their core and only primary resource, developing
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people isn't just a priority.
It's a competitive advantage.
In this clip, Les Hisco, CEO of Shaw-Mitt Design and Construction, shares how his company
has built a culture centered around talent development.
From leadership development programs and sponsored initiatives to innovative training
programs like Shaw-Mitt U, Les highlights practical ways to nurture growth and create
opportunities for team members.
(06:49):
This approach doesn't just drive performance, it fosters a culture of belonging and excellence.
I'm just coming back from a two-day offsite with 25 folks that have been in a leadership
development program for the last 18 months for us.
The last two days was the culmination of that leadership development program.
And everybody together, we flew them all in from around the country, did a great session.
(07:15):
The culmination of the program is them to present their action learning projects to
us, which are real company issues to solve.
And what's kind of amazing is the issues that are chosen, or issues we've been, we and
everyone of my peers that run construct grams, we're all dealing with the same issues.
And to hear these folks with new ideas and fresh energy and more modern ways of thinking
(07:39):
about how to solve these problems was really exciting.
So we run leadership development programs.
So I think probably seven or so years ago, I hired a chief people officer and she's
phenomenal, Mary Ann Monti.
And she reports directly to me and I've elevated talent to the highest level.
To really say talent is what we have, right?
(08:01):
We don't own equipment and we don't own buildings.
We have talent, right?
That's all right.
That's what we have.
That's our resource.
And so a lot of work along the way, we kind of annually, you know, we went to a focal
point once a year reviews, but then we spread talent both in the spring we'll do the, we've
separated kind of the incentive piece from the development piece.
(08:23):
So in March, you get your review, which talks all about development.
And then in September, you get the financial component of that and have another conversation
about that.
But then all these touch points we put in a platform called Shama U.
And it's interesting for years, we had something called Shama U, the letter U like university.
And it was a pretty standard curriculum based training platform, minimum requirements.
(08:46):
You take these classes and now it's actually her platform is called Shama U Y O U.
So Shama U, you own your development.
I'm really proud of our kind of diversity numbers at the company.
And you know, we're 30% or 31% women in an industry that's an average of 10.
Wow.
We were 11% people of color in an industry that's an average of three.
(09:08):
So I'm really happy with the numbers.
But our people said, we feel, we feel like we belong here.
So belonging is really high.
They said, but I don't know if we feel like we have the same opportunities.
We've created a lot of work around that.
We run this program called sponsorship, which every one of my team, my executive leadership
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team, we call the ELT, we all have a sponsor.
And our job very different from management coaching, mentoring, sponsoring is the true
champion of people.
And so we've got, you know, 30 or 40 people in that program right now that have sponsors.
I'm in the process right now.
So my COO, my chief people officer and me, we took 10 each of these folks and we're doing
(09:53):
check ins with them.
I got on a call the other day, a couple of days ago, they wanted to say, how sponsorship
working for you?
And it's clear that sponsorship is different from coaching or mentorship to you.
And she said, very, very clear.
And she goes, I've been promoted twice since I've been in the program for a year.
So I feel like it's working for me.
And I asked him, do you have access to the leader of your group or function?
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Do you feel like you're getting pushed on opportunities that people know who you are
enough to propose you on a stretch opportunity?
And I'm here in great feedback.
It's the third iteration of the sponsorship program we run.
So we do that.
We do have a mentorship software where that pairs people to kind of try to eliminate some
bias from the system.
(10:38):
How will people fit best together as MentorMentee?
We have a mentorship program.
We do a ton of training, developing around how to be a good manager, how to be a good
leader, how to have good conversations, all those things.
So yeah, there's a lot, a lot, a lot there.
And we do, we do value talent as really all we got.
A great explanation, less of the investment, not just in dollars, but in time and executive
(11:00):
time and leadership's time in people and in the talent.
And it's so many things that you touched on.
Two follow up questions, one of which around the sponsorship program.
How did you first come up with identifying and picking sponsors?
Great question.
So we, we run an annual talent review process and it's, you know, it's not an unusual process.
(11:22):
It's a nine box process, potential and performance.
So every region goes through their people, you know, we talk about their, where, where
they kind of fall and in our kind of talent matrix, if you will.
And we then, you know, you get your, your top right box, which is really high potential
and really high performance, you know, those are your absolute all stars.
(11:46):
And then you kind of lay or overlay and really the sponsorship program is to his really for,
I'd say our underserved population, if he will, who are the folks that need more championing?
Who are the folks that need that?
And it's, it's pretty easy to create that, that list.
And, you know, so as we've done it, at first it was only the 10 of us on the ELT that had
(12:10):
sponsors and what I'll call sponsorship 1.0.
Sponsorship 2.0 expanded it.
We gave a couple of us to sponsors and, you know, and then sponsorship 3.0.
We went down into the SLTE to get 20, 25 more sponsors so that we could expand the program
and actually do more with folks.
(12:31):
And so we're super proud of it.
Our people love it.
These check-ins are new, the ones I'm doing over the last maybe month I've been doing
them.
I think I've done about five.
They're wonderful conversations and they're folks that I don't really know that personally.
So I get on this call and like, first of all, how's sponsorship working for you?
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How's your sponsor?
Are they making time for you?
And when they make time for you, do you feel like it's a different time than you get anywhere
else?
Like, and the answers have been, yes.
And so I, you know, we had to coach all the sponsors on how to be a sponsor.
So this is some training required there.
I was just, and I got to know these folks on the call going like, hey, I got promoted
two times or yeah, no, I'm, I'm my one, one female superintendent just finished a very
(13:17):
successful turn of over a $100 million K through 12 school.
And I had my call over a couple of days ago and she said, I just got named on my, my own.
She was the number two on that school.
I just got named on my own ground up school and I'm nervous, but my sponsor feels like
I'm ready and put me forward and, and I'm going to go do it.
(13:38):
Great organizations don't just attract talent, they cultivate it in a performance driven
culture.
Rewarding top talent isn't just about recognition and financial rewards.
It's about empowering them with greater responsibility, autonomy and growth opportunities.
In this clip, Mike Hootke CEO of Hensel Phillips shares how his company's robust development
programs focus on both leadership and technical training and moving toward a competency based
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model.
Mike highlights how tailoring development for high potential leaders creates transformative
growth opportunities for 360 reviews and coaching to customize the development programs.
It's a strategy designed to build the next generation of impactful enterprise level leaders.
So our development program process is 100% performance based model.
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So we are very focused on rewarding the top talent both financially, but also with more
responsibility and more autonomy and authority too.
And so it's really fostering the best of the best along the way.
So we have a pretty robust program that focuses both on the leadership development side, but
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also the technical training side.
We are moving towards more of a well defined competency based model that I think our people
will be able to even thrive at a greater level than they have in the past.
And so we are moving that direction very excited about that.
And then we do most of our training internally.
(15:07):
And so we have great resources that help our people get all the training and tools and
necessary skill sets that they need.
But then when we do get to the high potential talent development, leadership development,
we use outside resources.
We do 360 reviews, we do coaching, and it's really just bringing in different ways of
(15:31):
looking at the person as opposed to them fitting into a system, right?
That says everybody's exactly the same.
And these are the six things that you need to be successful.
Those become very customized at a certain level when we're trying to develop that next
generation of future leaders of the company.
And so that's been exciting to see too, because we've seen some great benefits from that.
(15:57):
Progress in any industry begins with creating a culture where everyone feels like they belong.
As Mary Tiker explains, CEO of Tiker, there's a profound difference between feeling welcome
and feeling like you belong.
A distinction that is especially critical for women in the construction industry.
In this clip, Mary shares how Tiker is fostering belonging through initiatives like mentoring,
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outreach, and intentional community building efforts.
From launching a women and operations group to organizing programs like women build for
habitat for humanity, Mary highlights the power of creating spaces where women can connect,
share experiences, and thrive.
She also explores the importance of allyship, inclusive leadership, and addressing the subtle
barriers that impact women's participation in the workplace.
(16:40):
One of the barriers is having women actually feel like they belong here.
There's an observation someone made, what a difference there is between feeling welcome
and feeling like you belong.
So welcome would be that you're a guest in my house and you're welcome.
And belonging would be you live here.
So trying to have women feel like they belong is a big deal in this industry.
And there's one of the centerpiece challenges is that there's some dimension of critical
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mass that is hard to come up with.
And so if you're the only woman on a crew, or you're the only woman on a team, then you
pretty much all the time are inventing for yourself, how is it that I sit in here and
what am I supposed to be doing?
And if you're actually got some company or some models or some people to share your experiences
with it becomes a less isolated experience.
So just the simple fact of how comfortable do you feel at work?
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And does this feel like a place that you should be?
I think has something to do with finding ways to have numbers come together.
So at Ticard, I started a women in operations group about 10 years ago for the simple fact
that I looked around and we didn't really have very many, because I had started out feeling
like I was raised thinking that women can do anything men can do.
My dad was super encouraging that way.
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So I never had thought of it as my topic or my issue, but simply looking and saying,
oh, there aren't any, and what are we going to do about that?
And so I gathered up the women that we did have and asked them that same question is
what are some things that we can do to overcome the issues that we have here?
One of the centerpiece items was mentoring, and so the two things that we decided to spend
time on were mentoring and outreach.
The whole time we've been in existence as a group, we've kind of underlined that the
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main point is to do a good job of our day jobs.
And so all of us have to be good at what we do for a living.
And so with that being the table stakes, if we have extra time, what do we want to spend
it on?
Highlighted that recruiting and mentoring were both worth our while.
So mentoring is interesting.
I think there's sometimes been a feeling maybe amongst people and certainly amongst generations
in our industry that women can mentor each other and we can pull ourselves along by our
(18:33):
own bootstraps.
And I think there are outstanding women and we have to keep forming a community.
But it's also true that fabulous men are a significant piece of our mentoring program.
So we started one to sort of say, let's find people who can help you develop in your career.
And many of those people are men just because to point A, there's not as many women leaders
and we need to have leaders mentoring people that want to come along.
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So mentorship is one of the ones that I'm not going to say it's easy to do, but it's
super important to do.
A related piece is thinking about what is the community that we can build among the women
who are here so that they feel not isolated going to that point of feeling like you belong.
And so for instance, in our case, we have a couple of things.
One is a quarterly meeting for women in operations.
(19:15):
For instance, we're getting together for lunch for Women in Construction Week and we'll have
some talks and introduce the new women that have joined us since last time and talk about
that.
We do volunteer projects together.
There's a thing called Women Build where we're going to go build Habitat for Humanity House
sometime this month since it's the women's month.
And so do a few things like that where we build community among the women that are here.
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And part of it is being intentional on job assignments.
It's interesting how we're similar to other construction companies in that we have about
1% women on cruise.
So not very many women are on cruise.
It might be growing.
California Department of Industrial Relations says that there's about 4% women in apprentice
programs and so we might be getting more.
But both of those numbers are truly pathetic.
(19:58):
So if you look at the numbers that we have on cruise, three of the women that we have
are on the same crew.
And that's pretty interesting.
So it turns out there's two sisters and a cousin.
And so they joined up partly because they felt comfortable.
They're like, okay, this is an okay place.
I can talk about the things that I'm seeing as challenges and share my experiences and
feel like I'm going to be treated well.
I like to say that there's more and more awareness even in construction field operations, which
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isn't historically identical to like a retailer banking environment.
There's more and more awareness of kind of treating women respectfully and all the things
that that means.
I think we've overcome all the basic hurdles, but there's still little things that are hard
for people who aren't paying attention.
But if you've got three women on a crew, that's probably not going to be a thing.
And so trying to figure out how do we do staffing and assignments so that women have colleagues
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as well as resources to continue exploring their own experiences and figuring out what
are the things that are going to be barriers for them and is it for everybody else or just
for them?
Is it deal?
There was a woman early in my management career who had reached out for a mentor and
she worked in a different part of the state.
So I traveled down to meet her for breakfast and her, she was a project engineer and had
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wanted to talk about the fact that she felt like the foreman wasn't doing what she said
or following her direction because of her gender.
And I said, well, actually it's probably because you're 22 and he thinks he knows more than
you and he probably does.
And if you talk to the other men that are your same class, I bet they have the exact
same experience.
And it was just a relief for her because that's the thing is you don't know if your experiences
are normal or not.
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So saying, no, that's actually normal for a brand new PE not to have total direction
of the foreman you might want to consider.
So I think just having being able to compare notes going to your point on what's the low
hanging fruit is important.
And the other thing companies can do is to think about what are ways that we can create
community and allow for things or that make women feel more comfortable being part of
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things.
So I've done some allyship conversations both at work and in some industry settings to talk
about all the little things that comprise that.
So for instance, literally making room at the table.
So if you've got a meeting and it doesn't have enough chairs, making sure the women
actually have somewhere to sit.
So you don't walk into a room and find that you have to be standing or going to find your
(22:08):
own seat.
Or if you're standing in the hallway talking and there's a clump of people kind of open
in the circle for a woman to join you.
So there's some little things like that which are just basic physical gestures that indicate
I'm expecting you and you're a normal part of this group.
And that just it's a really interesting how far that kind of thing goes to make women
feel like they belong.
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There's asking opinions.
And so it's one of those things where I hesitate to say that this is all about women because
there's also factors like seniority and other topics.
But there's a lot of women who don't necessarily speak up right away or maybe volunteered their
opinions as readily as some of their male counterparts.
And so just listening and making sure that you've asked people's opinions in the room
who may not have shared them or called on folks, that sort of thing, I think increases
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the amount of participation that women have in the workplace and a way that folks feel
comfortable being part of meetings and part of conversations that are super important
for how this all works.
Construction is an industry like no other.
Dynamic, unpredictable and full of opportunity.
As Tom Gilbane explains, success in this field requires more than just technical expertise.
(23:15):
It demands adaptability, teamwork and a passion for solving complex challenges.
In this clip, Tom highlights the importance of understanding the realities of the job
site no matter your role, whether you're in finance, estimating or accounting.
He captures the essence of what makes construction unique, that every project is different, that
every day brings new challenges, and that every solution depends on the strength of
(23:37):
the team.
What would I tell people?
Get to the field.
See what construction is like if you want to be an accountant, if you want to be an
estimator in the office, if you want to be in finance, still understanding how the industry
works.
The challenge of having 15 different, 20 different trades or subcontractors and bringing
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together, the challenge where something is amiss every day on the job site and how you
have to coordinate and work and build a team, it's a very unique industry.
We don't have a plant and a production line that flows through every day.
You can build 20 K to 12 schools and they're all different.
(24:26):
They have different materials.
The weather is different.
The availability of trades.
The supply chain today, if you don't like challenges, if you don't change every day,
then this isn't an industry to work for.
But if you do like coming together and building a team and working when things get challenging,
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this is the industry to be in.
A lot of good people, a lot of people care about making a difference.
Construction is a high stakes, fast moving industry where challenges arise from every
angle.
There's information, dynamic conditions and the pressure to deliver.
As Bob Murray, former CEO of Bond explains, one of the most significant hurdles isn't
(25:10):
just about navigating these challenges.
It's equipping leaders with the tools they need to be successful.
In this clip, Bob shares how the industry often taps technically proficient individuals
like project managers and estimators for leadership roles, but often adopt providing the necessary
leadership development for them to be successful.
He reflects on his own journey, emphasizing the need for organizations to adopt a strategic
(25:32):
mindset, align their teams and integrate strategy into their DNA.
It's an exploration of what it takes to lead effectively in such a demanding industry and
how strategic clarity can help set the foundation for long term success.
I think construction in general is a very challenging industry.
It's a very dynamic industry where we're placing big bets and making significant commitments
(25:56):
to our clients sometimes on limited information.
So the challenges within our industry, I think are very significant just due to the dynamic
nature of the business and the business model.
When I look back on my particular case, Scott, I would say that some of the challenges that
I've come across, one was probably a personal challenge.
(26:17):
And I think it's a challenging industry has in general.
Our industry has a tendency to run a little bit on the lean side given the financial model
that we work under.
One of the net results of that, I believe, is that we identify people early on who are
very proficient at doing something technical like project management, superintendents,
(26:38):
good estimators.
And because they're technically proficient, we tap them to become leaders.
And no sooner do we do that and they have to start, and their roles change dramatically
at that moment in time, but we don't necessarily put the new tools in their toolkit.
So oftentimes we'll tap people who are technically proficient to become a leader in the organization.
(26:58):
And I think this happened to me as well.
And then we have to find our way as leaders.
And it's bumpy and it's inefficient.
And there's a lot of resets along the way.
So I think developing people, even again, reflecting back on my own journey and learning
how to be an effective leader of an organization is a significant challenge for sure.
And I think a lot of contractors that I work with today through FMI struggle with that
(27:22):
very issue, I would also say that strategy and really recognizing that to sustain our
business we had to understand what we were aiming for.
And we had to align people around a common set of goals and strategies for the organization.
So I think a big challenge for me was adopting a strategic mindset, not just for myself, but
(27:46):
for the organization as a whole.
And I will tell you today.
I mean, Tony Bond is now leading yet another strategic planning initiative for the organization
and he's doing a terrific job, I think, picking up where I tried to leave off where he's
really making strategy part of the company's DNA.
And there's alignment.
People know what the objectives are.
(28:08):
People know what the assignments are.
There's reporting out on strategy progress and accountability.
So I think adopting a strategic mindset was a big challenge for the organization, starting
with me and working its way down through the organization.
But I think we're learning how to do it and we're getting better at it all the time.
And I do think it's a critical key to long-term success for an organization because the markets
(28:31):
are always very quickly changing.
One of my favorite questions to ask us is what advice would they go back and give their
younger selves knowing what they know now?
Wes Snyder, executive vice president of development and infrastructure construction for Brightline
West had one of my favorite answers.
He aptly describes leadership as a balancing act, knowing when to exercise patience and
(28:53):
when to push for growth.
As Wes explains, great organizations create environments where top talent can make mistakes,
can learn and grow within carefully managed guardrails.
In this clip, Wes explores the critical role of emotional intelligence and leadership,
emphasizing the importance of fostering a culture that allows people to stretch beyond
their comfort zones.
(29:13):
As one of my partners and colleagues often says, all development happens at the edge.
He challenges the common notions of readiness, reminding us that no one is ever fully prepared
for the next big opportunity.
It's on the job learning that drives real development.
First the answer that comes to mind is patience.
There are a lot of times and you learn your lessons, which is the contrary to this, about
(29:37):
making mistakes.
And just, are you with an organization that's going to permit you to manage you?
As long as they have control of your mistakes and teaching you, they're not in danger.
And that's a really hard skill or discipline to bring to organizations.
But it's an EQ piece, right, a leadership that, I got top talent here, we know they're
(30:02):
going to make mistakes and we got to let them, but we got to manage it.
And that's how I piece together that I would tell myself to have more patience, but also
tell myself don't quit pushing, right?
Pushing and stretching is the way you keep moving the business, you keep companies going
and in my book, it's about growth and successful growth.
(30:26):
But again, that piece of patience never hurts.
I love the idea.
Are you with a firm that permits you to make mistakes and so long as the company has the
guardrails and the controls in place, you can allow for that.
But I'm always fascinated, recalling a conversation with a CEO that you know.
(30:46):
And we're talking about, he always gets a chuck out of any time he hears somebody in
his organization, some leaders say, well, so and so is not ready.
So and so is not ready for that next whatever it is.
And his response is always, well, were you ready?
And you got promoted into like, did you have it all figured out day one before you actually
showed up for the job?
(31:07):
Nobody is right.
Everybody's learning on the job to some degree.
And so I think there's an element of how do you create a safe enough environment but push
people beyond their comfort zone?
That's where the growth happens.
We've talked about a lot.
I'd love to, you know, since I have you here, I'd love to pick your brain on just the industry
overall.
So if we were to zoom out for a little bit, you know, beyond kind of the companies you've
(31:28):
worked with and just get you to look into your crystal ball and think about, you know, what
do you think the construction industry looks like 10 years from now?
I love that question.
And exiting my past president position at AGC of America, which gave me an opportunity
to see so many more folks and companies and everything.
So it's a, I'm at a stage where I even have more to that answer to answering that question
(31:53):
that I ever had before.
But number one, the generations that are upcoming are as impressive as I've ever seen their desire
and really looking towards being successful in the construction industry is it's, it's
off the charts.
They're definitely displaying what the new generations bring forth.
(32:16):
But I am one that believes that they will take this industry and they will take it on
a track that we in my generation never envisioned.
The technology piece, the construction industry, I'm a fan that make it go faster.
We'll get there, but it needs to go faster.
And you know, if we look five years, 10 years down the road, this gen these generations
(32:39):
are upcoming will be, we'll have some of the best gamers on heavy equipment, right?
We'll have gamers that are operating robotics to put masonry block and so forth.
And that causes me to also remind ourselves that I also see the trend that, you know,
(33:00):
I've been wanting to work to change for so many years that this is a great place to be.
The construction is a great place to work.
It's a great thing to take home to your family when you're a carpenter or operator or whatever
and say, this is what I did today.
And you know, we, we are making progress.
Again, I'm impatient here on these pieces, but we'll get there.
(33:25):
But what I want to really remind everybody is as we push technology, we will even need
more trades to be in the construction industry.
In our country today, we're seeing more growth than we ever have before.
It's not going to stop.
We got to rebuild our entire infrastructure system and in the pace of change is just in
(33:48):
data centers and all of these things.
We're going to see a construction industry is vibrant, robust, it's ever been in its
history.
And for that, we need all the resources to come.
Technology, craft, super smart people and those that really want to be there and do
things that others consider impossible.
(34:09):
I really love the vision that, you know, what's coming out here.
And then last but not least, because I've always been a proponent, I think we're going
to see a much higher use of alternative project delivery systems.
It's a passion of mine.
And we need to, right?
Public agencies are figuring it out.
Again, we got to help them, but there's too much talent, too much expertise and everything
(34:32):
that we got to engage and make a value in the pre-construction design process.
And when we can do that, projects are going to be so much more successful.
I'm not a data fiend on trying to figure out what are successful and what aren't.
I just know there was more contractor involvement in design and pre-construction.
It's successful.
I've lived it my whole life.
(34:53):
And again, tying it all to all the technology and the talent that's coming up, it's going
to be a proven fact as we go.
So in summary, Scott, I just have a really strong passion to see this business be as
vibrant, robust as I said, as ever in its history.
And we got the talent and resources that will be coming together because we're going to
attract it.
(35:14):
This year has been a masterclass in leadership, growth and innovation in the built environment.
And I feel truly privileged to have had the opportunity to talk with each of these industry
leaders.
From fostering belonging and developing talent to embracing challenges and pushing for strategic
clarity, our guests have shared invaluable insights.
A common thread across all these conversations has been the importance of intentional leadership,
(35:36):
whether through mentorship, patience or bold decision making.
As we look ahead to 2025, these lessons remind us that great leadership isn't about having
all the answers.
It's about creating the conditions for others to thrive and help co-create the answer.
We hope these insights have inspired you to reflect on your own leadership journey and
the opportunities to make an even greater impact.
(35:58):
Thank you for joining us for this best of 2024 episode.
And here's to building a better future for the built environment together in 2025.
And as always, please don't forget to like or subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss
another episode.
Hello and welcome to the final episode of Season 2 Built In.
(00:05):
I'm Scott Winstead, FMI Consulting President.
We had such an incredible year that we thought we'd go back and do a wrap up highlighting
just a few of the key insights shared by our external guests.
I will say that it was hard to narrow them down to only a few.
If you'd like to go back and listen to any of the full episodes, you can find them all
on our website at fmicorp.com forward slash podcast.
(00:29):
It isn't just about solving today's problems.
It's about building the enterprise to thrive long and in the future.
In this clip, Bob Euler, former CEO of MWH, walks us through his four levels of leadership
for managing daily challenges to shaping the future of the enterprise.
He challenges leaders to really understand the trade off between the urgent and the important.
(00:50):
And his framework emphasizes that starting with the big picture at the enterprise level
and working backward to ensure that every action contributes to a meaningful outcome is critical.
And specifically, it's a proxy for how CEOs and leadership teams should be spending their
time as the only ones in the organization tasked with and rewarded for driving the future
(01:10):
growth and success of the enterprise.
So I came up with an arbitrary foundation of levels of thinking or levels of time spent.
Level one is just the exchange of information, problems, issues that come to a CEO on a daily
basis.
It's almost the operations talking to you.
(01:32):
And it's pretty demanding because the bigger the operation, the more time is spent in that
area.
I call that level one, just arbitrarily.
Level two is where you basically take issues, problems or challenges, and you sit down and
try to develop a plan, a short-term plan to either avoid the problem in the future or
(01:58):
accelerate the benefit of whatever's happening.
So it's planning.
It's futuristic, where level one is almost historical.
Level two is short-term plan.
And then there's level three, which I call the intermediate zone, which is the three
to five years, where hopefully as CEO, we're having a vision, you have some initiatives
(02:21):
that you've started to try to get you to where you need to be.
And you're basically looking at these initiatives and trying to nurture them in the organization.
And because they're small and because they're not particularly powerful, the CEO has to
be the pusher of those initiatives.
And this is what I call level three, the short-term evolution of the plan.
(02:46):
But truthfully, we should as CEOs start with level four, which to me is the enterprise
and trying to create a more valuable enterprise for the shareholders and a more favorable
environment for people, especially in a people business as such.
(03:06):
So that's visionary stuff.
That's what should be our capital base, how many shareholders should we have and what
geography should we play in?
Should we be one, two, or three sectors?
Why not?
And it's the foundation of what the enterprise is going to be in the future.
And this is the one that I try to get CEOs to pay attention to by asking them to write
(03:32):
an article in the Wall Street Journal or whatever, which would describe five years from now,
their success.
What was their legacy?
What did they accomplish?
How would they measure it?
And therefore, they could articulate it.
And I think it's very important to actually start from there and work backwards.
(03:53):
And I know that this is level one, two, three, and four.
I could talk for a day about them.
The news that I have a colleague who worked for me for five or eight years who's writing
a book right now called Injuring Behavior Change.
I think Gary Sanderson will be coming out later this year.
We'll probably go into more detail about what we just talked about.
(04:14):
You've shared that a lot of times that exercise or that assignment is harder for CEOs to do
than you might think it is to just think out five years and starting with the end of mind,
write it as if it's in the present tense, but it's five years out and then reverse
engineer it.
And it's not as easy to do as hard as they say.
Yeah, that's a great comment.
Not easy to implement and it's not easy to declare.
(04:35):
And when you declare, you actually put yourself, you put a target up on yourself as to whether
that's really what you can do and whether you can accomplish it.
So that's a little risky.
As far as CEO declare what they think it ought to be, there'll be some people that are unhappy
with that and some people that are saying, wait a minute, that changes our power structure.
(04:57):
That's true.
And so it can cause consternation.
One of the things that I find really interesting when you talk about the four levels, you can
sit down with the CEO and explain this and they get it.
They get it completely.
They may not like it or they may like it.
It doesn't matter.
But one of the things they find themselves is not being able to change their time management.
(05:20):
That the truth is that level one is demanding, comes to them.
They won't have to do a thing, there's a line outside.
Level two, the same way if it's serious problems, you're in the planning phase.
But nobody except the board of directors is talking to you about level four and level
three.
And therefore you don't have a constant demand unless you prioritize your time to do it.
(05:44):
And one of the ways that I try to do this with CEOs is ask them to look back.
In other words, look back over a month or look back over a couple of weeks.
And ask yourself, what levels did I spend my time in?
Where did I drive the meeting versus I was taken to the meeting?
That I was an audience rather than a driver of it.
(06:08):
And by the way, you cannot ignore level one and two either.
It's just a matter of time management.
And it's very challenging because it's self-discipline.
Leadership is about creating opportunities for others to grow and thrive.
For organizations that depend on talent as their core and only primary resource, developing
(06:28):
people isn't just a priority.
It's a competitive advantage.
In this clip, Les Hisco, CEO of Shaw-Mitt Design and Construction, shares how his company
has built a culture centered around talent development.
From leadership development programs and sponsored initiatives to innovative training
programs like Shaw-Mitt U, Les highlights practical ways to nurture growth and create
opportunities for team members.
(06:49):
This approach doesn't just drive performance, it fosters a culture of belonging and excellence.
I'm just coming back from a two-day offsite with 25 folks that have been in a leadership
development program for the last 18 months for us.
The last two days was the culmination of that leadership development program.
And everybody together, we flew them all in from around the country, did a great session.
(07:15):
The culmination of the program is them to present their action learning projects to
us, which are real company issues to solve.
And what's kind of amazing is the issues that are chosen, or issues we've been, we and
everyone of my peers that run construct grams, we're all dealing with the same issues.
And to hear these folks with new ideas and fresh energy and more modern ways of thinking
(07:39):
about how to solve these problems was really exciting.
So we run leadership development programs.
So I think probably seven or so years ago, I hired a chief people officer and she's
phenomenal, Mary Ann Monti.
And she reports directly to me and I've elevated talent to the highest level.
To really say talent is what we have, right?
(08:01):
We don't own equipment and we don't own buildings.
We have talent, right?
That's all right.
That's what we have.
That's our resource.
And so a lot of work along the way, we kind of annually, you know, we went to a focal
point once a year reviews, but then we spread talent both in the spring we'll do the, we've
separated kind of the incentive piece from the development piece.
(08:23):
So in March, you get your review, which talks all about development.
And then in September, you get the financial component of that and have another conversation
about that.
But then all these touch points we put in a platform called Shama U.
And it's interesting for years, we had something called Shama U, the letter U like university.
And it was a pretty standard curriculum based training platform, minimum requirements.
(08:46):
You take these classes and now it's actually her platform is called Shama U Y O U.
So Shama U, you own your development.
I'm really proud of our kind of diversity numbers at the company.
And you know, we're 30% or 31% women in an industry that's an average of 10.
Wow.
We were 11% people of color in an industry that's an average of three.
(09:08):
So I'm really happy with the numbers.
But our people said, we feel, we feel like we belong here.
So belonging is really high.
They said, but I don't know if we feel like we have the same opportunities.
We've created a lot of work around that.
We run this program called sponsorship, which every one of my team, my executive leadership
(09:30):
team, we call the ELT, we all have a sponsor.
And our job very different from management coaching, mentoring, sponsoring is the true
champion of people.
And so we've got, you know, 30 or 40 people in that program right now that have sponsors.
I'm in the process right now.
So my COO, my chief people officer and me, we took 10 each of these folks and we're doing
(09:53):
check ins with them.
I got on a call the other day, a couple of days ago, they wanted to say, how sponsorship
working for you?
And it's clear that sponsorship is different from coaching or mentorship to you.
And she said, very, very clear.
And she goes, I've been promoted twice since I've been in the program for a year.
So I feel like it's working for me.
And I asked him, do you have access to the leader of your group or function?
(10:17):
Do you feel like you're getting pushed on opportunities that people know who you are
enough to propose you on a stretch opportunity?
And I'm here in great feedback.
It's the third iteration of the sponsorship program we run.
So we do that.
We do have a mentorship software where that pairs people to kind of try to eliminate some
bias from the system.
(10:38):
How will people fit best together as MentorMentee?
We have a mentorship program.
We do a ton of training, developing around how to be a good manager, how to be a good
leader, how to have good conversations, all those things.
So yeah, there's a lot, a lot, a lot there.
And we do, we do value talent as really all we got.
A great explanation, less of the investment, not just in dollars, but in time and executive
(11:00):
time and leadership's time in people and in the talent.
And it's so many things that you touched on.
Two follow up questions, one of which around the sponsorship program.
How did you first come up with identifying and picking sponsors?
Great question.
So we, we run an annual talent review process and it's, you know, it's not an unusual process.
(11:22):
It's a nine box process, potential and performance.
So every region goes through their people, you know, we talk about their, where, where
they kind of fall and in our kind of talent matrix, if you will.
And we then, you know, you get your, your top right box, which is really high potential
and really high performance, you know, those are your absolute all stars.
(11:46):
And then you kind of lay or overlay and really the sponsorship program is to his really for,
I'd say our underserved population, if he will, who are the folks that need more championing?
Who are the folks that need that?
And it's, it's pretty easy to create that, that list.
And, you know, so as we've done it, at first it was only the 10 of us on the ELT that had
(12:10):
sponsors and what I'll call sponsorship 1.0.
Sponsorship 2.0 expanded it.
We gave a couple of us to sponsors and, you know, and then sponsorship 3.0.
We went down into the SLTE to get 20, 25 more sponsors so that we could expand the program
and actually do more with folks.
(12:31):
And so we're super proud of it.
Our people love it.
These check-ins are new, the ones I'm doing over the last maybe month I've been doing
them.
I think I've done about five.
They're wonderful conversations and they're folks that I don't really know that personally.
So I get on this call and like, first of all, how's sponsorship working for you?
(12:51):
How's your sponsor?
Are they making time for you?
And when they make time for you, do you feel like it's a different time than you get anywhere
else?
Like, and the answers have been, yes.
And so I, you know, we had to coach all the sponsors on how to be a sponsor.
So this is some training required there.
I was just, and I got to know these folks on the call going like, hey, I got promoted
two times or yeah, no, I'm, I'm my one, one female superintendent just finished a very
(13:17):
successful turn of over a $100 million K through 12 school.
And I had my call over a couple of days ago and she said, I just got named on my, my own.
She was the number two on that school.
I just got named on my own ground up school and I'm nervous, but my sponsor feels like
I'm ready and put me forward and, and I'm going to go do it.
(13:38):
Great organizations don't just attract talent, they cultivate it in a performance driven
culture.
Rewarding top talent isn't just about recognition and financial rewards.
It's about empowering them with greater responsibility, autonomy and growth opportunities.
In this clip, Mike Hootke CEO of Hensel Phillips shares how his company's robust development
programs focus on both leadership and technical training and moving toward a competency based
(14:01):
model.
Mike highlights how tailoring development for high potential leaders creates transformative
growth opportunities for 360 reviews and coaching to customize the development programs.
It's a strategy designed to build the next generation of impactful enterprise level leaders.
So our development program process is 100% performance based model.
(14:23):
So we are very focused on rewarding the top talent both financially, but also with more
responsibility and more autonomy and authority too.
And so it's really fostering the best of the best along the way.
So we have a pretty robust program that focuses both on the leadership development side, but
(14:45):
also the technical training side.
We are moving towards more of a well defined competency based model that I think our people
will be able to even thrive at a greater level than they have in the past.
And so we are moving that direction very excited about that.
And then we do most of our training internally.
(15:07):
And so we have great resources that help our people get all the training and tools and
necessary skill sets that they need.
But then when we do get to the high potential talent development, leadership development,
we use outside resources.
We do 360 reviews, we do coaching, and it's really just bringing in different ways of
(15:31):
looking at the person as opposed to them fitting into a system, right?
That says everybody's exactly the same.
And these are the six things that you need to be successful.
Those become very customized at a certain level when we're trying to develop that next
generation of future leaders of the company.
And so that's been exciting to see too, because we've seen some great benefits from that.
(15:57):
Progress in any industry begins with creating a culture where everyone feels like they belong.
As Mary Tiker explains, CEO of Tiker, there's a profound difference between feeling welcome
and feeling like you belong.
A distinction that is especially critical for women in the construction industry.
In this clip, Mary shares how Tiker is fostering belonging through initiatives like mentoring,
(16:18):
outreach, and intentional community building efforts.
From launching a women and operations group to organizing programs like women build for
habitat for humanity, Mary highlights the power of creating spaces where women can connect,
share experiences, and thrive.
She also explores the importance of allyship, inclusive leadership, and addressing the subtle
barriers that impact women's participation in the workplace.
(16:40):
One of the barriers is having women actually feel like they belong here.
There's an observation someone made, what a difference there is between feeling welcome
and feeling like you belong.
So welcome would be that you're a guest in my house and you're welcome.
And belonging would be you live here.
So trying to have women feel like they belong is a big deal in this industry.
And there's one of the centerpiece challenges is that there's some dimension of critical
(17:03):
mass that is hard to come up with.
And so if you're the only woman on a crew, or you're the only woman on a team, then you
pretty much all the time are inventing for yourself, how is it that I sit in here and
what am I supposed to be doing?
And if you're actually got some company or some models or some people to share your experiences
with it becomes a less isolated experience.
So just the simple fact of how comfortable do you feel at work?
(17:26):
And does this feel like a place that you should be?
I think has something to do with finding ways to have numbers come together.
So at Ticard, I started a women in operations group about 10 years ago for the simple fact
that I looked around and we didn't really have very many, because I had started out feeling
like I was raised thinking that women can do anything men can do.
My dad was super encouraging that way.
(17:46):
So I never had thought of it as my topic or my issue, but simply looking and saying,
oh, there aren't any, and what are we going to do about that?
And so I gathered up the women that we did have and asked them that same question is
what are some things that we can do to overcome the issues that we have here?
One of the centerpiece items was mentoring, and so the two things that we decided to spend
time on were mentoring and outreach.
The whole time we've been in existence as a group, we've kind of underlined that the
(18:09):
main point is to do a good job of our day jobs.
And so all of us have to be good at what we do for a living.
And so with that being the table stakes, if we have extra time, what do we want to spend
it on?
Highlighted that recruiting and mentoring were both worth our while.
So mentoring is interesting.
I think there's sometimes been a feeling maybe amongst people and certainly amongst generations
in our industry that women can mentor each other and we can pull ourselves along by our
(18:33):
own bootstraps.
And I think there are outstanding women and we have to keep forming a community.
But it's also true that fabulous men are a significant piece of our mentoring program.
So we started one to sort of say, let's find people who can help you develop in your career.
And many of those people are men just because to point A, there's not as many women leaders
and we need to have leaders mentoring people that want to come along.
(18:55):
So mentorship is one of the ones that I'm not going to say it's easy to do, but it's
super important to do.
A related piece is thinking about what is the community that we can build among the women
who are here so that they feel not isolated going to that point of feeling like you belong.
And so for instance, in our case, we have a couple of things.
One is a quarterly meeting for women in operations.
(19:15):
For instance, we're getting together for lunch for Women in Construction Week and we'll have
some talks and introduce the new women that have joined us since last time and talk about
that.
We do volunteer projects together.
There's a thing called Women Build where we're going to go build Habitat for Humanity House
sometime this month since it's the women's month.
And so do a few things like that where we build community among the women that are here.
(19:35):
And part of it is being intentional on job assignments.
It's interesting how we're similar to other construction companies in that we have about
1% women on cruise.
So not very many women are on cruise.
It might be growing.
California Department of Industrial Relations says that there's about 4% women in apprentice
programs and so we might be getting more.
But both of those numbers are truly pathetic.
(19:58):
So if you look at the numbers that we have on cruise, three of the women that we have
are on the same crew.
And that's pretty interesting.
So it turns out there's two sisters and a cousin.
And so they joined up partly because they felt comfortable.
They're like, okay, this is an okay place.
I can talk about the things that I'm seeing as challenges and share my experiences and
feel like I'm going to be treated well.
I like to say that there's more and more awareness even in construction field operations, which
(20:22):
isn't historically identical to like a retailer banking environment.
There's more and more awareness of kind of treating women respectfully and all the things
that that means.
I think we've overcome all the basic hurdles, but there's still little things that are hard
for people who aren't paying attention.
But if you've got three women on a crew, that's probably not going to be a thing.
And so trying to figure out how do we do staffing and assignments so that women have colleagues
(20:44):
as well as resources to continue exploring their own experiences and figuring out what
are the things that are going to be barriers for them and is it for everybody else or just
for them?
Is it deal?
There was a woman early in my management career who had reached out for a mentor and
she worked in a different part of the state.
So I traveled down to meet her for breakfast and her, she was a project engineer and had
(21:05):
wanted to talk about the fact that she felt like the foreman wasn't doing what she said
or following her direction because of her gender.
And I said, well, actually it's probably because you're 22 and he thinks he knows more than
you and he probably does.
And if you talk to the other men that are your same class, I bet they have the exact
same experience.
And it was just a relief for her because that's the thing is you don't know if your experiences
are normal or not.
(21:26):
So saying, no, that's actually normal for a brand new PE not to have total direction
of the foreman you might want to consider.
So I think just having being able to compare notes going to your point on what's the low
hanging fruit is important.
And the other thing companies can do is to think about what are ways that we can create
community and allow for things or that make women feel more comfortable being part of
(21:47):
things.
So I've done some allyship conversations both at work and in some industry settings to talk
about all the little things that comprise that.
So for instance, literally making room at the table.
So if you've got a meeting and it doesn't have enough chairs, making sure the women
actually have somewhere to sit.
So you don't walk into a room and find that you have to be standing or going to find your
(22:08):
own seat.
Or if you're standing in the hallway talking and there's a clump of people kind of open
in the circle for a woman to join you.
So there's some little things like that which are just basic physical gestures that indicate
I'm expecting you and you're a normal part of this group.
And that just it's a really interesting how far that kind of thing goes to make women
feel like they belong.
(22:28):
There's asking opinions.
And so it's one of those things where I hesitate to say that this is all about women because
there's also factors like seniority and other topics.
But there's a lot of women who don't necessarily speak up right away or maybe volunteered their
opinions as readily as some of their male counterparts.
And so just listening and making sure that you've asked people's opinions in the room
who may not have shared them or called on folks, that sort of thing, I think increases
(22:53):
the amount of participation that women have in the workplace and a way that folks feel
comfortable being part of meetings and part of conversations that are super important
for how this all works.
Construction is an industry like no other.
Dynamic, unpredictable and full of opportunity.
As Tom Gilbane explains, success in this field requires more than just technical expertise.
(23:15):
It demands adaptability, teamwork and a passion for solving complex challenges.
In this clip, Tom highlights the importance of understanding the realities of the job
site no matter your role, whether you're in finance, estimating or accounting.
He captures the essence of what makes construction unique, that every project is different, that
every day brings new challenges, and that every solution depends on the strength of
(23:37):
the team.
What would I tell people?
Get to the field.
See what construction is like if you want to be an accountant, if you want to be an
estimator in the office, if you want to be in finance, still understanding how the industry
works.
The challenge of having 15 different, 20 different trades or subcontractors and bringing
(24:04):
together, the challenge where something is amiss every day on the job site and how you
have to coordinate and work and build a team, it's a very unique industry.
We don't have a plant and a production line that flows through every day.
You can build 20 K to 12 schools and they're all different.
(24:26):
They have different materials.
The weather is different.
The availability of trades.
The supply chain today, if you don't like challenges, if you don't change every day,
then this isn't an industry to work for.
But if you do like coming together and building a team and working when things get challenging,
(24:49):
this is the industry to be in.
A lot of good people, a lot of people care about making a difference.
Construction is a high stakes, fast moving industry where challenges arise from every
angle.
There's information, dynamic conditions and the pressure to deliver.
As Bob Murray, former CEO of Bond explains, one of the most significant hurdles isn't
(25:10):
just about navigating these challenges.
It's equipping leaders with the tools they need to be successful.
In this clip, Bob shares how the industry often taps technically proficient individuals
like project managers and estimators for leadership roles, but often adopt providing the necessary
leadership development for them to be successful.
He reflects on his own journey, emphasizing the need for organizations to adopt a strategic
(25:32):
mindset, align their teams and integrate strategy into their DNA.
It's an exploration of what it takes to lead effectively in such a demanding industry and
how strategic clarity can help set the foundation for long term success.
I think construction in general is a very challenging industry.
It's a very dynamic industry where we're placing big bets and making significant commitments
(25:56):
to our clients sometimes on limited information.
So the challenges within our industry, I think are very significant just due to the dynamic
nature of the business and the business model.
When I look back on my particular case, Scott, I would say that some of the challenges that
I've come across, one was probably a personal challenge.
(26:17):
And I think it's a challenging industry has in general.
Our industry has a tendency to run a little bit on the lean side given the financial model
that we work under.
One of the net results of that, I believe, is that we identify people early on who are
very proficient at doing something technical like project management, superintendents,
(26:38):
good estimators.
And because they're technically proficient, we tap them to become leaders.
And no sooner do we do that and they have to start, and their roles change dramatically
at that moment in time, but we don't necessarily put the new tools in their toolkit.
So oftentimes we'll tap people who are technically proficient to become a leader in the organization.
(26:58):
And I think this happened to me as well.
And then we have to find our way as leaders.
And it's bumpy and it's inefficient.
And there's a lot of resets along the way.
So I think developing people, even again, reflecting back on my own journey and learning
how to be an effective leader of an organization is a significant challenge for sure.
And I think a lot of contractors that I work with today through FMI struggle with that
(27:22):
very issue, I would also say that strategy and really recognizing that to sustain our
business we had to understand what we were aiming for.
And we had to align people around a common set of goals and strategies for the organization.
So I think a big challenge for me was adopting a strategic mindset, not just for myself, but
(27:46):
for the organization as a whole.
And I will tell you today.
I mean, Tony Bond is now leading yet another strategic planning initiative for the organization
and he's doing a terrific job, I think, picking up where I tried to leave off where he's
really making strategy part of the company's DNA.
And there's alignment.
People know what the objectives are.
(28:08):
People know what the assignments are.
There's reporting out on strategy progress and accountability.
So I think adopting a strategic mindset was a big challenge for the organization, starting
with me and working its way down through the organization.
But I think we're learning how to do it and we're getting better at it all the time.
And I do think it's a critical key to long-term success for an organization because the markets
(28:31):
are always very quickly changing.
One of my favorite questions to ask us is what advice would they go back and give their
younger selves knowing what they know now?
Wes Snyder, executive vice president of development and infrastructure construction for Brightline
West had one of my favorite answers.
He aptly describes leadership as a balancing act, knowing when to exercise patience and
(28:53):
when to push for growth.
As Wes explains, great organizations create environments where top talent can make mistakes,
can learn and grow within carefully managed guardrails.
In this clip, Wes explores the critical role of emotional intelligence and leadership,
emphasizing the importance of fostering a culture that allows people to stretch beyond
their comfort zones.
(29:13):
As one of my partners and colleagues often says, all development happens at the edge.
He challenges the common notions of readiness, reminding us that no one is ever fully prepared
for the next big opportunity.
It's on the job learning that drives real development.
First the answer that comes to mind is patience.
There are a lot of times and you learn your lessons, which is the contrary to this, about
(29:37):
making mistakes.
And just, are you with an organization that's going to permit you to manage you?
As long as they have control of your mistakes and teaching you, they're not in danger.
And that's a really hard skill or discipline to bring to organizations.
But it's an EQ piece, right, a leadership that, I got top talent here, we know they're
(30:02):
going to make mistakes and we got to let them, but we got to manage it.
And that's how I piece together that I would tell myself to have more patience, but also
tell myself don't quit pushing, right?
Pushing and stretching is the way you keep moving the business, you keep companies going
and in my book, it's about growth and successful growth.
(30:26):
But again, that piece of patience never hurts.
I love the idea.
Are you with a firm that permits you to make mistakes and so long as the company has the
guardrails and the controls in place, you can allow for that.
But I'm always fascinated, recalling a conversation with a CEO that you know.
(30:46):
And we're talking about, he always gets a chuck out of any time he hears somebody in
his organization, some leaders say, well, so and so is not ready.
So and so is not ready for that next whatever it is.
And his response is always, well, were you ready?
And you got promoted into like, did you have it all figured out day one before you actually
showed up for the job?
(31:07):
Nobody is right.
Everybody's learning on the job to some degree.
And so I think there's an element of how do you create a safe enough environment but push
people beyond their comfort zone?
That's where the growth happens.
We've talked about a lot.
I'd love to, you know, since I have you here, I'd love to pick your brain on just the industry
overall.
So if we were to zoom out for a little bit, you know, beyond kind of the companies you've
(31:28):
worked with and just get you to look into your crystal ball and think about, you know, what
do you think the construction industry looks like 10 years from now?
I love that question.
And exiting my past president position at AGC of America, which gave me an opportunity
to see so many more folks and companies and everything.
So it's a, I'm at a stage where I even have more to that answer to answering that question
(31:53):
that I ever had before.
But number one, the generations that are upcoming are as impressive as I've ever seen their desire
and really looking towards being successful in the construction industry is it's, it's
off the charts.
They're definitely displaying what the new generations bring forth.
(32:16):
But I am one that believes that they will take this industry and they will take it on
a track that we in my generation never envisioned.
The technology piece, the construction industry, I'm a fan that make it go faster.
We'll get there, but it needs to go faster.
And you know, if we look five years, 10 years down the road, this gen these generations
(32:39):
are upcoming will be, we'll have some of the best gamers on heavy equipment, right?
We'll have gamers that are operating robotics to put masonry block and so forth.
And that causes me to also remind ourselves that I also see the trend that, you know,
(33:00):
I've been wanting to work to change for so many years that this is a great place to be.
The construction is a great place to work.
It's a great thing to take home to your family when you're a carpenter or operator or whatever
and say, this is what I did today.
And you know, we, we are making progress.
Again, I'm impatient here on these pieces, but we'll get there.
(33:25):
But what I want to really remind everybody is as we push technology, we will even need
more trades to be in the construction industry.
In our country today, we're seeing more growth than we ever have before.
It's not going to stop.
We got to rebuild our entire infrastructure system and in the pace of change is just in
(33:48):
data centers and all of these things.
We're going to see a construction industry is vibrant, robust, it's ever been in its
history.
And for that, we need all the resources to come.
Technology, craft, super smart people and those that really want to be there and do
things that others consider impossible.
(34:09):
I really love the vision that, you know, what's coming out here.
And then last but not least, because I've always been a proponent, I think we're going
to see a much higher use of alternative project delivery systems.
It's a passion of mine.
And we need to, right?
Public agencies are figuring it out.
Again, we got to help them, but there's too much talent, too much expertise and everything
(34:32):
that we got to engage and make a value in the pre-construction design process.
And when we can do that, projects are going to be so much more successful.
I'm not a data fiend on trying to figure out what are successful and what aren't.
I just know there was more contractor involvement in design and pre-construction.
It's successful.
I've lived it my whole life.
(34:53):
And again, tying it all to all the technology and the talent that's coming up, it's going
to be a proven fact as we go.
So in summary, Scott, I just have a really strong passion to see this business be as
vibrant, robust as I said, as ever in its history.
And we got the talent and resources that will be coming together because we're going to
attract it.
(35:14):
This year has been a masterclass in leadership, growth and innovation in the built environment.
And I feel truly privileged to have had the opportunity to talk with each of these industry
leaders.
From fostering belonging and developing talent to embracing challenges and pushing for strategic
clarity, our guests have shared invaluable insights.
A common thread across all these conversations has been the importance of intentional leadership,
(35:36):
whether through mentorship, patience or bold decision making.
As we look ahead to 2025, these lessons remind us that great leadership isn't about having
all the answers.
It's about creating the conditions for others to thrive and help co-create the answer.
We hope these insights have inspired you to reflect on your own leadership journey and
the opportunities to make an even greater impact.
(35:58):
Thank you for joining us for this best of 2024 episode.
And here's to building a better future for the built environment together in 2025.
And as always, please don't forget to like or subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss
another episode.
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