Breaking Crazy!

The Six Human Needs and the “Crazy Eight”: How Construction Leaders Stop Losing It under Pressure

If you’re like me, you either have been “a little crazy” at times, or you’ve worked with someone who can go from calm to volcanic in about three seconds. And I don’t mean that as an insult. I mean that as a reality check. Construction will back you up against the wall so often that if you don’t have a system for your emotions, your emotions will run the system.

I’m bringing this up because I’ve watched good people lose credibility in one meeting. I’ve watched a relationship with a trade partner get damaged in thirty seconds. I’ve watched owners decide they don’t trust a team not because the team couldn’t build, but because the leader couldn’t regulate. And I’ve also lived it. There have been times I’ve walked away from a moment thinking, Jason… you lost today. You didn’t lose the schedule. You didn’t lose a bid. You lost your composure, and that’s a more expensive loss than most people realize.

This episode is about two concepts that snapped together for me like a light bulb: the six human needs and what I call the “crazy eight.” When you see how these work, you can finally understand why you react the way you do, why jobsite pressure triggers you, and how to stay in control when everything around you is pushing you toward the edge.

Why We Get Backed Up Against the Wall

In construction, pressure is not a season. It’s the weather. You’ve got contracts, schedule milestones, money on the line, trade partners pushing, owners’ negotiating, internal expectations, staffing gaps, and constant uncertainty. And the problem is not that pressure exists. The problem is how we respond to it.

Most of the blowups I’ve seen on project sites don’t come from evil intent. They come from a leader who is operating out of fear—fear of losing control, fear of looking incompetent, fear of losing approval, fear of losing money, fear of losing certainty. That fear shows up as anger, sarcasm, shutdown, or even that weird oscillation where someone apologizes and then snaps again five minutes later.

If you’ve ever thought, why am I acting like this, or why is my superintendent acting like this, you’re about to get a framework that actually explains it.

Losing the Meeting, Then Losing the Trust

I want to tell you a story that hit me hard. A friend of mine an incredible field leader was running a massive project, about $180 million. Multiple phases, multiple buildings, complexity everywhere. He was in a trade partner meeting, and the mason was not performing. Excuses started flying. The room got tense. And my buddy lost it. He berated that mason in front of everyone.

After the meeting, when the adrenaline wore off, the mason walked by the office and my buddy said something that still rings in my ears: “I lost today.”

That’s the key. The real loss wasn’t just emotional. It was operational. It damaged credibility. It weakened trust. It strained relationships. And in construction, strained relationships create friction, and friction kills flow. If you care about Lean, if you care about reliability, if you care about LeanTakt, then you should care deeply about emotional discipline because your leadership behavior either stabilizes the system or destabilizes it.

You’re Not “Crazy” You’re Unmet

Here’s the turning point for me. Two weeks ago, my wife looked at me and said, “Jason, you’re being grumpy. You’re short with the kids. What is going on?” And I gave her the speech I’ve heard construction people give a thousand times: deadlines, pressure, business, and responsibilities. And she asked me one question that shut me up in a good way. She said, “Are you doing this to give and serve and have fun, or are you trapped in some imaginary deadline and trying to prove something?”

She was right. I had shifted my internal focus. I had moved from contribution and growth into significance and certainty. I was worried about clients, money, downloads, comments, approval. And because those needs are shaky and external, my mood became shaky and external. That’s when I realized this isn’t just personal. This is a construction leadership problem.

The Six Human Needs: What’s Driving You on the Job Site?

These concepts are widely known (Tony Robbins teaches them), but the way they apply to construction is where it gets powerful. The six human needs are:

Certainty, variety, significance, love and connection, growth, and contribution.

Think about certainty on a jobsite. Will we make the schedule? Will the owner approve this change? Will we keep the team staffed? Will I get blamed? Will I hit my bonus? Certainty is stability, predictability, security.

Variety is the need for change, stimulation, and newness. Some people get bored easily. Some people crave a new project, a new challenge, a new environment.

Significance is the need to feel important, respected, valued, and recognized. In construction, this often shows up as title, authority, being right, being the hero, and being the one who “saved the job.”

Love and connection is belonging. It’s being part of the team. It’s feeling like people are with you, not against you.

Growth is learning. Improving. Developing. Becoming better.

Contribution is giving. Serving. Creating value beyond yourself.

Now here’s where it becomes practical. Most people have all six needs, but they prioritize two. And if your top two are certainty and significance, you are at high risk for the cycle I’m about to describe because those needs depend heavily on factors you do not control.

The “Crazy Eight”: Why Leaders Swing From Sad to Mad

When one of your key needs gets threatened—especially certainty or significance you can enter a loop I call the “crazy eight.” Picture an infinity symbol. On one side is sad. On the other side is mad. You don’t stay sad long because the nervous system can’t tolerate it. So you swing to anger. Then you feel regret or shame and swing back to sadness. Then you swing back to anger again.

Sad. Mad. Sad. Mad.

On a project site, this looks like a superintendent who shuts down, then explodes. A PM who gets quiet and resentful, then lashes out in an email. A foreman who pouts, then throws tools, then apologizes, then does it again. The cycle damages relationships, destroys trust, and creates emotional whiplash for the team.

And when people are trapped in that loop, they often try to break it through numbing. Sometimes that’s alcohol. Sometimes it’s gambling. Sometimes it’s endless scrolling. Sometimes it’s workaholism. Sometimes it’s worse. That part isn’t funny. It’s tragic. And it’s one reason leadership development in construction has to include emotional skill, not just production skill.

The Problem with the Top Four Needs: You Don’t Control Them

Here’s the hard truth: you cannot fully control certainty, variety, significance, or love and connection. You can influence them, but you can’t command them.

• You cannot force the owner to approve something.
• You cannot force trade partners to perform.
• You cannot force someone to respect you.
• You cannot force people to connect with you the way you want.

But you can control growth and contribution. You can choose to learn. You can choose to serve. You can choose to reframe your day around improvement and giving.

That’s the strategic move. When a leader shifts their identity from “I need to be respected and safe” to “I’m here to grow and contribute,” they stop being controlled by external chaos. They stop being held hostage by the meeting, the email, the owner’s tone, the trade partner’s attitude. They get their power back.

And once a leader gets their power back, the team stabilizes. The project stabilizes. The culture stabilizes.

How This Applies to Lean Construction and LeanTakt

If you want flow, you must reduce variation. Emotional blowups are variation. They create rework, mistrust, defensive communication, and hidden constraints. They cause people to stop telling the truth. They make foremen avoid the superintendent. They make trade partners hedge and protect themselves. They make planning unreliable. And then everyone wonders why Lean doesn’t stick.

LeanTakt is not just a scheduling technique. It’s a commitment to stability, reliable handoffs, and trust-based coordination. Leaders who live in the crazy eight cannot sustain LeanTakt. Leaders who operate from growth and contribution can.

That’s why this isn’t a “soft” topic. It’s hard operations.

How to Stay Out of the Crazy Eight on a Jobsite

The first step is awareness. When you feel the surge, ask yourself one question: which need feels threatened right now? Is it certainty, because you’re afraid of losing schedule or money? Is it significance, because someone disrespected you? Is it love and connection, because you feel alone on the project? Name it. If you can name it, you can manage it.

The second step is choosing a controllable focus. In that moment, deliberately pivot to growth and contribution. Ask, what can I learn here? What can I give here? What would a calm, grounded leader do to serve the outcome?

The third step is reinforcement. You don’t “willpower” your way out of patterns under stress. You build a system. For me, I put reminders where I will see them. I use prompts that bring me back to purpose. Some people use morning routines, meditation, accountability partners, coaching, or structured reflection. The method matters less than the consistency. You need leverage and reinforcement, or you’ll revert under pressure.

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

A Small Bullet Section That Helps in Real Life

When you feel yourself entering the sad–mad loop on a project, these quick resets help without turning your day into a therapy session:

• Take thirty seconds and label the threatened need: certainty, significance, connection, or variety.
• Ask one contribution question: “What outcome serves the team and the project right now?”
• Choose one growth action: learn, clarify, coach, or align then move.

That’s not fluff. That’s leadership under pressure.

Dignity, Effectiveness, and a Better Construction Culture

At Elevate Construction, our mission is not to make people “act nicer.” Our mission is to build leaders and systems that create a better construction experience for workers, foremen, field engineers, superintendents, and companies. Emotional regulation is part of that because people deserve stability. People deserve clarity. People deserve leaders who don’t turn stress into damage.

If you want to change the industry, start where you have the most influence: your own mindset, your own reactions, your own leadership standards. When leaders stop “losing it,” the whole project gets safer, calmer, more predictable, and more capable of flow.

Your Challenge

Here’s your challenge this week: identify your top two human needs, and then watch yourself on the jobsite when one of them gets threatened. The moment you feel the surge, pivot to growth and contribution. Do it once. Then do it again. That’s how new leadership patterns are built one choice at a time, under real pressure.

As Marcus Aurelius wrote, “You have power over your mind not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

FAQs

What are the six human needs and why do they matter in construction?
The six human needs are certainty, variety, significance, love and connection, growth, and contribution. They matter because jobsite pressure often threatens the first four, triggering emotional reactions that damage trust and disrupt project flow.

What is the “crazy eight” cycle?
It’s a loop where people swing between sadness and anger when a key need feels threatened. Leaders can bounce from shutdown to outburst and back again, which creates instability for teams and projects.

How do I know which human needs drive me most?
Most people prioritize two needs more than the others. If you frequently feel triggered by disrespect, you may be driven by significance. If you feel triggered by uncertainty and risk, certainty may be high for you. Awareness is the first step to control.

How does this connect to Lean and LeanTakt?
Lean and LeanTakt depend on stability, trust, reliable communication, and consistent execution. Emotional blowups create variation, hidden constraints, defensive behavior, and unreliable planning directly harming flow.

What’s one practical thing I can do today to stay out of the cycle?
When you feel triggered, name the threatened need and deliberately pivot to growth and contribution by asking, “What can I learn here?” and “How can I serve the team and the outcome right now?”