Becoming a leader is easy, but being an effective one takes a lot more effort and dedication.
Construction leaders not only need the same skills a project manager has, but they also need extensive knowledge about the construction industry. This means that they have to be more strategic and analytical when it comes managing people and projects.
Here are some tips on how to become an effective leader, in the ever-changing world of construction.
1. Communicate
Proper communication is important in all types of jobs. Without it, your company will be prone to mistakes. Regardless if the news is good or bad, you as the leader needs to hear it.
Promote communication in your team. Not only will it create trust, it will also improve your team’s confidence.
There are lots of ways or tools that can help you have a smooth communication within your team. You just have to find what works for you.
2. Be Observant and Cognizant
As a leader, it is your role to be observant and in a way, recognize problems even before they happen. A construction leader needs more work in this matter because the work that you are managing is physical. You literally have to see most of the problems in person in order to resolve it.
It is your duty to ask questions and be familiar with the different roles of your team. That way, you can assign them properly and have an idea on how long it will take them to finish their job.
Since the construction industry always have new practices, new tools or new trainings, it is also your duty to be educated about those. Having knowledge about these things, gives you the foresight of where a possible problem might come from and how to solve it.
3. Be Flexible
As I have mentioned above, the construction industry always have changes to it. That’s why you need to be flexible with your plans.
A construction leader doesn’t make a plan once. It’s always a continuous revising and developing of plans, while at the same time, focusing on the main goal of finishing the project just as how the clients want it. Even minor changes on a project can cause a domino effect to the rest of the plan. It is then your role to inform and coordinate with the different people i.e. engineers, architects, etc., about these changes.
4. Use Technology to Monitor Costs and Budget
Gone are the days where you have to manually calculate everything with a pen, paper and calculator. Besides, with the many things that you have to think about as a leader, you can’t always keep tabs on the different invoices that you’re going to receive.
There are lots of accounting that you can use to track costs. By using technology construction project, you will have less time spent on calculating and more time on the tasks that needs your attention.
5. Automate
In every time management tips, there’s always automate what you can automate. You don’t have all the time to answer emails and phone calls, or spend most of your time doing reports. There are tools that you only have to put data in as they occur and it will automatically create a report for you. This way, you can make sure that you have the right report sent to the right people on the right time… without thinking too much about it.
One word that comes to mind when you say leader is responsibility. Everything will become your responsibility. More so when you are a construction leader because you also have to ensure your team and client’s safety. That is why you need to create plans and steps to ensure that everything will work properly and efficiently. Always keep yourself educated with the new trainings and technology to improve how you deal with managing your team and the project as a whole.
