This time, let’s take that conversation up the organizational chart and speak to the executives leading those teams.
You have the title.
You have the responsibility.
You have the paycheck and camaraderie you’ve desired from this industry.
But do you have the authority to lead?
And, if you do, are you giving the people below you the authority to lead?
I see large construction companies with Presidents, Executive Vice Presidents, Senior Vice Presidents, Vice Presidents, Project Executives and Regional Leaders. There is certainly no shortage of titles.
Yet I continue to speak with experienced construction professionals who cannot get expedient decisions made.
A Superintendent identifies a problem and recommends a solution. The Project Manager agrees. The Project Executive agrees. The VP agrees.
But nobody has the authority to say yes, no, proceed or stop. Nonetheless, collaborate and solve.
So up it goes.
Meanwhile, the subcontractor waits. The field waits. The Owner waits.
The greater risk is when no one knows why they are waiting, who owns the decision, or when to expect an answer. That is when assumptions are made, confidence erodes, and one unresolved issue can quickly impact cost, schedule and relationships well beyond the tight knit comradery of the upper echelon outside of delivering for the client.
Waiting may be necessary. Uncertainty doesn’t have to be.
What Are We Teaching Our Leaders?
When capable people repeatedly learn that they cannot make decisions, eventually they stop making them.
They start asking permission.
Then they start escalating everything.
Instead of:
“Here is the problem. Here is my recommendation. Here is what we are doing.”
we start hearing:
“Let me check and get back to you.”
And another Project Manager slowly becomes a Project Messenger.
We cannot blame the person if the organization trained them to operate that way.
“Responsibility without authority is not empowerment. It is accountability without control.”
Which Way Does Leadership Flow?
Empowerment Is Not Giving Up Control
Construction companies need controls. There are financial decisions, contractual obligations, safety concerns and risks that absolutely require appropriate oversight.
Empowerment doesn’t mean telling everyone to make whatever decision they want.
It means creating clear guardrails:
You own this decision.
Make this decision and notify me.
This requires approval.
This must be escalated immediately.
The goal should be to push decision-making as close to the work as the risk reasonably allows.
Because construction never stops moving. Every time a decision travels through another person or another level of the organization, time passes, conditions change and the message can change with it. The farther the decision gets from the field, the greater the risk that the person making it is no longer making it based on what is actually happening today.
The Cost Goes Beyond the Project
This is bigger than one delayed decision, one project or one company’s profit margin.
We have a responsibility to hire the right people and then develop them the right way.
Construction needs real men and women who know how to own responsibility, read and understand their contracts, recognize and manage risk, communicate what is happening and make sound decisions based on the circumstances in front of them.
But they don’t develop those skills by continually being told to send every decision up the ladder.
If we don’t allow people to think, decide, make mistakes, learn and be accountable for the outcome, we shouldn’t be surprised when they aren’t ready for greater responsibility.
That cost follows them to the next project, the next position and eventually the next generation they are supposed to lead.
We can hire talented people and unintentionally train the leadership right out of them.
Or we can give them clear expectations, teach them how and why decisions are made, establish the guardrails, hold them accountable and entrust them to lead.
That is how Project Managers become Project Executives. How Superintendents become General Superintendents. How tomorrow’s executives are developed.
Leadership isn’t creating people who know when to ask you for an answer. It is developing people you can entrust to find the right answer, understand the risk, own the decision and be accountable for the result.
Our industry needs more confident, proven leaders. To preserve our future.
The Breistol Method®: Identify It. Address It. Roadmap It.
Sometimes companies know something isn’t working, but they cannot see exactly where the breakdown is occurring.
Is it authority?
Communication?
Trust?
Accountability?
Unclear roles?
A leader who won’t let go?
A manager who isn’t ready to take ownership?
Or simply years of operating a certain way because “that’s how we’ve always done it”?
That is where our work through The Breistol Method® and our facilitated company and team workshops begins.
We bring the right people into the conversation, whether at the Executive Leadership or Project Level, to identify what is really happening, not simply what the organizational chart says should be happening.
We uncover the roadblocks.
We clarify expectations, responsibilities and decision-making authority.
Then, together, we roadmap a practical plan toward the right result.
The important words are together and buy-in.
A roadmap handed down to people is another directive.
A roadmap developed with the people responsible for executing it creates understanding, accountability and ownership.
The goal isn’t to point fingers or determine who is wrong.
It is to ask:
Where are we today?
Where do we need to be?
What is preventing us from getting there?
And what do we need from one another to achieve the right result?
Sometimes the greatest thing an executive can do for the people they lead is simply get out of the way, not by abandoning responsibility, but by giving good people the clarity, authority, trust and accountability to do what you hired them to do.
Build Companies. Build Careers. Reduce Risk.
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