▶️Leading a dream team that works together smoothly sounds like difficult realistic goals for most bosses in blue collar scenarios. The reason it seems unattainable is because most upper management believes to have the only way to achieve it is by having the team working together until every worker “finds its place”.
The truth is that you can intentionally build dream teams way quicker by using simple basic leadership and project management concepts that lead to Increase Construction Productivity For Your workers
✳️ Keep in mind that today’s workplace is more dynamic than ever before. Workers join and leave companies faster than ever before. This has an impact on productivity in the construction sector which improves productivity rates.
The new work environment needs leaders who will be committed to creating environments that are not only pleasant but inspiring to workers for better construction productivity. Besides that, leadership was pointed out to be the MOST NEEDED skill in the marketplace and the global economy in this era.
⚡In a nutshell, leadership it’s all about communication and how to use it. Simple things like using mobile devices in clear communication can help a lot.
You may feel tempted to pursue temporary fixes for every communication issue (or growth opportunities) you may have with your workers as construction professionals, or maybe you didn’t even know you were not doing it in an optimal way.
This Guide will walk you through simple actions that you can do every day that will send you in the direction of having a great company and team on the construction sites.
1. DECISION MAKING AND PLANNING PROCESS
To begin the journey of unlearning old ideas and learning new ideas to block loss gaps in your company, you need to first decide that you will give these ideas a try and place your people as your priority - at least as an experiment, just to see what happens to improve productivity rates.
▶️WHAT TO DO
take some time to reflect. Is there anything to lose anyway?
▶️WHY?
Deciding means commitment. It is the most significant step for anybody looking to be a better boss, manager, or leader.
▶️RESULT
Deciding to be there for your construction workers, especially under challenging situations, means your focus will no longer be on giving orders to your workers. Instead, the focus will be on observing how you can serve them, so they perform at their peak and improve construction productivity. This counterintuitive teak will generate incredible results in the medium to long term.
2. CREATE A SAFE WORK ENVIRONMENT FOR ALL
When leading a group’s efforts to satisfy customers, your operation must safe experience for everyone. Every boss, manager, supervisor, or leader should praise for physical safety and psychological safety.
▶️WHAT TO DO
As soon as you can, establish that no bullying or unsafe practices should be allowed, not only for the workers safety and wellbeing but also for establishing that your company has STANDARD and CARES about the workers. You establish a vision of the company that has nothing preventing how to improve productivity rates.
▶️WHY?
Leaders have to create safe work environments because workers can only pull resources together when their companies make them feel safe. Without the guarantee of safety or the understanding that your company is a serious one, workers will have no other choice than to expend their energies in trying to protect themselves from the dangers that present at work. Without physical and psychological safety, creativity and productivity levels will drop due to the overall sense of “recklessness” that the absence of safety causes.
▶️RESULT
When workers feel safe, and they trust their leaders at work, they will begin to gain a feeling of importance that will reinforce the relationship they share with their leaders and cooperation. When safety is a solid standard, workers naturally utilize their skills to the fullest capacity and work faster to achieve optimal construction productivity, since there are fewer decisions involved in the work process. Remember: There is only one this to focus on, one way to do things: the safe way. There is only one way to treat your coworkers: the respectful way.
3. GIVE CONTROL NOT ORDERS TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION
Beyond being in charge of the project management or the boss, you must ensure that your employees understand their work on current and future projects. Employees will not understand their work when you only give them orders to follow, but when you give them control and they make themselves the solution to the problems.
▶️WHAT TO DO
In your next job, one thing to do is to try asking your workers to make decisions, or simply as for their opinion about what they think they should do. Invert the ranks and obey them for while. Give them power and collect data. Ask suggestions for improvement. Don't lead from a centralized location, but let most of them be involved in the job done.
▶️WHY?
Control creates access for the workers to grow and strengthen their competence and clarity on the job. When a worker feels they are in control, in a short while, they will begin to think like you (the boss) in the execution of their tasks. You must, however, make sure that control is spread around the ranks and not restricted by some superior workers. When the lowest worker has control, you will be confident that your workers will make the best decisions even in your absence.
▶️RESULT
When your workers know that they are in control, their passion and creativity will be the drive behind their work processes and their construction productivity will skyrocket. Your workers will become active, proactive, and productive thinkers for your company and job site. When you collect data after this step you will find a great increase in labor productivity.
4. CARE ABOUT YOUR BOYS
A manager will order people, so they make more money for the company as a single source of leadership. A leader will inspire people, so they do the right thing by themselves AND for the company.
▶️WHAT TO DO
Take responsibility when things go wrong, and give credit to your workers when things go right.
Acknowledge their efforts, and ask how they’re doing personally off site. Make sure you ask your workers about their plans for the future, offer employee training, and honestly try to help them in their journey. Keep coming up with new materials of conversations to find more about them.
▶️WHY
Our industry needs leaders with new project management skills that care about their people and know how to share the responsibility to ensure they succeed in their job done and construction productivity will increase as a result. And above all, there is a high number of mental illnesses, addiction rates, suicides, and many more problems related to the lack of human connection in the construction industry. Caring for others is, at least, an honorable act.
▶️RESULT
We all can genuinely care about people and take on responsibility for them, but the fundamental requirement that we all need to make this happen is personal sacrifice in real time.
Genuine care, however, can only be taught by example. When the construction workers see the boss’ personal sacrifice example, they will learn to take responsibility for other workers around them and this will result in a work environment where everyone has each other’s back.
When workers care for a sense of belonging emerges and they will naturally take on more responsibility. They will care for each other and safeguard construction project assets by helping to reduce the waste of building materials and construction materials.
5. BE ON YOUR WORKER’S BOOTS
Many construction companies and general contractors in Australia today are on the path of hiring and firing their workers because the bosses in these companies lack empathy for their staff.
When construction workers do not perform as expected and construction productivity takes a dip, bosses are expected to have enough room for empathy to help understand the problem rather than kicking out the workers.
▶️WHAT TO DO
Practice Listening. Listening sounds easy, but not many people do it at all. A quick test for your listening is expressing whatever was said back to the person who said it to check if you got it. Let the person correct you as much as necessary until both of you are sure that the matter is understood. Empathy is almost a natural consequence of listening to people.
▶️WHY?
Leaders need to be empathetic and observe their workers from different perspectives. Leaders and bosses with empathy are first critical of themselves, and they teach their workers to take such stances too.
▶️RESULT
The empathy shown by the top boss gets the workers to be at their natural best because they know that their leaders will not punish them if they are wrong, not have a negative impact on their performance and attitude, but will help them back on their feet. A simple gesture like getting them well rested will show them how great a leader is.
6. UNDERSTAND EACH WORKER’S NEEDS
At every step on the chain of command in any construction company and job site, people’s needs should be prioritized. Instead of hiring and firing, leaders should learn to give their time and energy to the prioritisation of their workers’ needs so that the workers can be truly happy at their job and see them improve productivity rates.
▶️WHAT TO DO
Check what your workers (new ones or old timers) what they want for their careers and what is their plan. If they don’t have one, help them make one. Allocate as much time as necessary so your workers know what they are doing for THEMSELVES as much as they know what they do for the company and construction site.
Embrace technology to facilitate their tasks and duties by enlisting construction technologies and digital tools like project management software and construction management software that will help you be a better leader for them.
▶️WHY?
People cannot be substituted so when bosses prioritise the needs of their workers, it makes the workers trust and relies on the bosses. When bosses give their time and energy to their workers, they are indirectly educating their workers on how teamwork really works.
▶️RESULT
As a rule of thumb, people tend to take care of their company as much as the company takes care of them. When you consistently put in efforts and pursue means to make your employees happy, it signifies that you understand the value they bring to your company and construction site, and then it is easier for your employees to take on responsibilities and work smoothly and construction productivity gets better with time.
7. ALIGN EXPECTATIONS OF THE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT DELIVERY OF ALL CONSTRUCTION PHASES
Intent empowers people to think and exchange ideas; it is a vital resource that you can use to create opportunities for your workers to understand their job and concentrate on successfully executing both small and big tasks.
Of course, we understand that the world is not always a fair place, and people don’t always give as they were given. However, remember that being a giver gives you power. Make sure you’re comfortable asking for your workers efforts if necessary.
▶️WHAT TO DO
Be clear and honest in real time about what your intentions and what you are trying to achieve. Be ready to hold workers accountable and have difficult conversations, if necessary. Establish key performance indicators to measure realistic goals and objectives.
▶️WHY?
Expressing your intent gives the workers a full understanding of what is your vision for the company. Your sharing includes your workers in your company’s processes and allows them to nurture their thoughts and exchange ideas with other workers, as well as understand how they fit in and what is expected.
▶️RESULT
When you give intent, your workers will gradually begin to see that they have to show competence and bring value to their work and improve the overall construction productivity. More intent from the boss to the workers will yield more value from the workers to the clients in form of a better performance. You must, however, fulfill the important role of taking care of other responsibilities by providing every necessary resource for the job.
Explore construction industry opportunities to earn more money
KEEP IN MIND
Having a dream team is not a major difficult task but is a series of small everyday practices.
When your workers see that your words and actions show genuine concern about their welfare, they will cooperate and put their hearts into work. If they don’t, you will be in a position of power to ask them to follow you. Delivering project information in a professional manner will increase productivity.
✳️When workers and everyone on your construction site and company’ chain of command are able to cooperate successfully, it implies that everyone from the bosses down to the lowest workers are happy at work, which reflects on the overall productivity in the construction sector.
When your workers are happy, especially those down the bottom of the rank, most of their reckless attitude at work will reduce drastically, and they will be able to climb up the ladder in no time – which is great for the company and construction work.
Happiness is one big trait that all humans cherish.
When a person is happy, it resonates with other parts of their lives and increases their productivity. It is, therefore, your responsibility as a boss to make your workers happy above every other thing.
