The past couple of years, I’ve been exposed to more people than ever before who have confided in me about their dating lives.
And I’ll be honest, it’s not easy for me to just sit and listen.
Because what I hear, over and over again, is justification.
Justifying behavior, they already know, deep down, they don’t want to live with long-term.
“It’s not that bad.”
“It doesn’t happen that often.”
“I’m sure it will get better.”
And I see the same exact pattern in business.
As employers, we justify people’s behavior all the time.
We tell ourselves:
“We’ll deal with it after this project.”
“Others work with them more than I do.”
“It’s manageable for now.”
“It’s not worth reopening the role.”
Until one day, the team starts reacting.
People disengage.
Or worse, they leave.
And then we’re forced to deal with what we chose to justify.
That’s when it becomes clear –
The issue was never unclear. It was unaddressed.
That’s why I naturally draw the analogy between dating for marriage and dating for your next career move.
In both, you are choosing what you’re willing to live with every day.
Justification isn’t inherently bad.
It becomes a problem when it replaces ownership, truth, and action for a mutual better result.
If you sat in my seat for even one week, you’d likely see what I see.
We are not lacking people at the management level in construction.
We lack qualified and committed people.
And “qualified ” has very little to do with technical and constructability knowledge.
It has to do with –
How someone communicates,
How they collaborate,
And how they carry themselves when things don’t go their way.
Every action creates a reaction.
And what most people don’t realize is, their behavior is setting off a chain reaction across a team, a project, and a company, often without them ever seeing it.
That’s where verification matters.
Not assumptions,
Not potential,
And not hope.
This week, Samantha and I had the opportunity to speak with students at Coral Springs High School and Hollywood Hills High School through the Broward County Public School’s Career, Technical, Adult, and Community Education Department (CTACE) about careers in construction.
What stood out wasn’t just the endless opportunities our industry offers, whether someone is just getting started or already entrenched.
What stood out was the need. The need for students to consider these opportunities for themselves as they are gifted to do so and to look within now to see if they were stirred to explore.
There is a reality that when we take the time to look within and tear down the walls in our own lives, we stop bringing those same walls into the workplace.
Sometimes it is not getting into a career to spite someone or getting into a career to impress someone yet not knowing if it was the right choice or not.
Students are now being given the opportunity not only to develop technical skills, but more importantly, to build soft skills, communication, and self-awareness early.
My career started in a vocational program that combined architecture, engineering, and construction.
We didn’t just learn how to design and build. We had to present, compete, collaborate, and be accountable to a team.
That foundation matters more today than ever.
Because today, I see professionals investing years into technical growth but avoiding the very areas that determine long-term success.
Communication,
Behavior,
And self-awareness.
Some resist tools like assessments because they feel labeled or judged.
I see it differently.
They’re not there to define you.
They’re there to develop you. Especially when you accept and manage the findings.
If you want to understand how you communicate, lead, and show up under pressure, we provide verified assessments and guidance to help you see it clearly, not to define you, but to show you your natural giftings and areas that might need to be supported or developed.
Because willingness alone is not enough.
You can be willing to lead, willing to communicate, willing to collaborate.
But if you don’t have the expertise, the awareness, or the discipline to do it well, the outcome will still fall short.
And that’s where most breakdowns happen.
In relationships,
In teams,
And in leadership.
Our heart is to see people succeed in this industry, not just in title or income, but in fulfillment, stability, and balance.
To build careers that work as part of your life and bring purpose to life itself.
To help individuals strengthen the soft skills that ultimately determine whether they can lead, communicate, and build in a way that creates the right results, consistently.
Because construction doesn’t just build structures.
It builds people, teams, and futures.
So, whether you’re dating for marriage, hiring for your company, or deciding your next career move.
Make it different this time by following a process for discovery.
Don’t justify what you already see.
Verify it.
Address it.
Or accept that you’re choosing to live with it, painfully or not. It’s your choice to struggle or settle.
0 Comments