Elevating Construction Foremen – Part 4

Crew leaders cannot become better in a short period of time without massive action and the right influences. Who you spend time with and the habits you keep decide where your career goes.

This is Part 4 of my walk-through of my book Elevating Construction Foremen. If you are just joining, start with Part 1. This part is about foreman career growth: who you associate with, owning your career, and the habit loop.

Short answer: You become who you associate with, so dress, act, read, listen, watch, and befriend the part you want to play. Nobody will own your career for you, so write your own management philosophy, follow the pattern for promotion, and train your replacement. Then master the habit loop of trigger, script, and reward, so the right actions happen every day without a fight.

Do You Become Who You Associate With?

Every person is the average of their five closest friends and their own informational inputs. If your friends and media consumption are mediocre, you will behave in a mediocre way. Jim Rohn said it best: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

I knew a crew leader with a lot of potential. She was sharp, charismatic, and organized, and she was promoted from lead person to crew leader and started making really good money. But she kept hanging out with the wrong people. She missed seven days of work after getting high with her friends and went AWOL. She lost her opportunity due to unreliability, and that pattern still haunts her career. She was promoted, but she was still the average of her five closest friends.

We have all heard the adage to dress the part. We could also say dress, act, read, listen, watch, and befriend the part. Ask yourself:

1. Are your friends the people you want to become, and will they help you get where you want to go?
2. Are your media inputs developing your mind and preparing you for leadership?
3. Are you dressing, acting, talking, handwriting, and appearing the part you want to play?
4. What will you do differently to be prepared for your current and future roles?

Who Owns Your Career?

No one will own or manage your career for you. No, seriously, no one. People will help along the way, but you must speak up, get the training, and map a course to the promotions, pay, and influence you want. Become proficient in as many things as you can, and don’t wait to get the training you need. If you can clearly define why you are working, you can write a mission statement, and it is easier to make a two-degree correction now than a large one later. More on this in Professional Development for Foremen.

Why Write Your Own Management Philosophy?

My friend John Coffman shared a note that I included in the book, abridged from our conversation in Management Approach, Feat. John Coffman. Here is the heart of it:

“It doesn’t matter what you read or what everyone else says. Look back at the people you liked to work for and the people you didn’t. Write down what you want to emulate and what you said you would never do, then synthesize it into a philosophy that explains what you are doing and why. So many people manage by habit and trial. If it works, they do it again, but they don’t know why. That’s just not good enough.

Mine was two typed pages with three sections: my core principles, five short lines; the kind of manager I wanted to be, a positive manager; and how I would walk a team through any project. I kept it in my daytimer until the end of my career. When I wasn’t enjoying the job, I would pull it out, figure out what I was doing wrong, and become a better manager. It has to be personal. If you can’t tell yourself what you’re doing and how, how in the world are you going to inspire anyone to do it like you?”

What Does Owning Your Career Look Like?

I remember Ramon Lugo Cruz from when I worked in Tucson. I consider him a good friend. He was from Mexico, spoke very little English, and was our hoist operator at the research laboratory. I told him that if he learned English, I would train him to be a field engineer. He took night classes, then read the field engineering methods manual, learned AutoCAD, and then Revit. He became a learning machine. He is now a senior field engineer running all the survey operations for a construction company, because he took ownership of his career instead of leaving it to someone else.

What Is the Pattern for Getting Promoted?

Most things in life are about recognizing and mimicking patterns, and there is a pattern for being promoted:

• Master your role, but don’t become so indispensable that you get stuck.
• Train your replacement. This is crucial.
• Expand your influence by giving and serving others.
• Perform in your next role before being promoted.
• Read books and take training at every opportunity.
• Be an impact player. See a need and fill it without being asked.
• Be humble, hungry, and smart, and learn to lead and to follow.
• Read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and Focal Point by Brian Tracy.

What Is the Habit Loop?

A habit is a mentally scripted action that begins with a trigger, happens according to the script, and is reinforced by a chemical reward. Crew leader habits include explaining tasks, filling out pre-task plans, entering time, and planning the next day. Leaders who do not have good habits are liabilities, not blessings. Discipline will always beat mere talent. I wrote about the builder version in The Three Habits of a Builder.

Petticoat-Schmitt Civil Contractors, one of Northeast Florida’s leading civil contractors, is a great example. They have detailed role checklists for every position, boot camps for their crew leaders, and systems for as-builts, survey shots, quality control checklists, and safety start-up forms. When we tour their projects monthly, we never, and I mean never, find a crew leader who is not implementing them.

How Do You Build a Habit That Sticks?