Before you can lead a crew, you have to lead yourself: your body, your energy, and the condition of your truck, toolboxes, and work area. These are the last pieces of the foundation, the “who” of being a crew leader.
This is Part 6 of my walk-through of my book Elevating Construction Foremen. If you are just joining, start with Part 1. This part is about foreman health, energy, flow, and keeping your work area clean and organized.
Short answer: Crew leaders need to be healthy, energized, clean, and organized. Your body is one of your most important investments, so exercise, eat right, sleep, manage stress, and care for mental health. Your crew moves at the level of your energy, and flow keeps it high. And great crew leaders are clean and organized to near perfection, because all success begins there.
Why Does a Crew Leader’s Health Matter?
If your body is not in good condition, you may always be a victim to pain, low energy, and unwellness. To be effective at work, you must be healthy and well. Tony Robbins said, “Getting healthy isn’t about willpower. It’s about focus.” And as the saying goes, it’s better to be the oldest person in the gym than the youngest person in the nursing home.
Mike Trulove, one of the contributors to the book, wrote about 2018, when he found himself a mere shell of his past self after two and a half decades in construction. “We have put more into schedule, productivity, safety, risk management, margin, and shorter project durations, but we have never connected those things to the health of our people.” He learned what a healthy diet is and why exercise matters. “Our bodies are 80% water, and if we are not replenishing it with at least 100 ounces per day, our bodies are fighting to manage it.” “I am 46 years old and in the best shape of my life.”
How Can Crew Leaders Take Care of Their Health?
- Exercise every day that ends in Y. A long walk with your dog, a few short chunks of time, or the stairs on site instead of the elevator all count.
- Eat right. Put down the In-N-Out and the McGreasies. Yes, I am talking to myself as I look at the donuts a coworker just brought in.
- Get six to eight hours of sleep, in a bed, preferably. Four hours on the couch and a nap in the truck don’t count.
- Manage stress. Box breathe, do yoga, or hit a punching bag. Just don’t bottle it up. It will kill you.
- Care about mental and physical well-being, yours and your crew’s.
Construction is killing people faster than the military by rates of suicide and opioid addiction in America. Drop the silent macho attitude and help your teammates deal with stress, depression, and substance abuse. It’s okay to not be okay. Treat mental health like a physical injury, and build a crew where people ask for help. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is there any time, and The Mental Health Crisis in Construction goes deeper.
Why Does a Crew Move at the Speed of Its Leader’s Energy?
Your crew will move according to your level of energy, shown in effort, enthusiasm, mood, drive, and pace. That matters more than circumstance, the difficulty of the work, or project conditions. If a crew has good energy, it is unstoppable, and it starts with you.
I worked at Okland Construction for over three years, and Bill Okland’s almost fanatical focus on high-quality architectural concrete is contagious. Raul, their general concrete superintendent in Utah, treats his workers with the utmost respect and mixes that with energy and drive. When Raul is on the job, the workforce seems unstoppable. His jobs always finish on time with good quality. Is it circumstance or energy? I say it’s energy. More in The Energy of the Team.
How Do You Find Energy in Your Work?
First, find your fit. These six areas of working genius, from Patrick Lencioni’s Working Genius model, bring people joy and energy:
| Working genius | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Wonder | You see potential. |
| Invention | You see ideas. |
| Discernment | You assess ideas. |
| Galvanizing | You rally others to act on ideas. |
| Enablement | You help bring ideas to life. |
| Tenacity | You push ideas to completion. |
An unhappy crew with low trust implodes. Happy workers are 13% more productive, yet almost 80% of adults see work as something to be endured, not enjoyed. Happiness grows when we do what we are naturally good at, so do more energy-giving work and less in your areas of weakness.
What Is Flow, and Why Does It Create Energy?
Flow is the state of being in the zone. It happens when your skill is slightly lower than the challenge at hand and you are completely absorbed, so work spills out without exertion. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced “chick-sent-me-high”), one of the godfathers of positive psychology, identified it and found that happiness is an internal state that can be shifted by introducing flow. That is why we move on to harder Lego sets instead of playing with Duplo our whole lives.
Flow brings complete concentration, clear goals, a transformed sense of time, and a feeling of control. It amplifies dopamine and confidence, which raises performance and fills people with satisfaction. Our Takt Production System is built so crews can find that flow in their zones.
How Clean and Organized Should a Crew Leader Be?
A good crew leader is clean. A good crew leader is organized. I don’t mean kind of clean. I mean near perfection. Your truck should be clean, your toolboxes kept nicely, and your work area 100% clear of trash and debris. Treat your work area like your living room. A messy crew is riddled with waste and delays. More in Clean, Safe, and Organized.
I apprenticed under a great concrete crew leader named Dennis Eckles. He would never place concrete unless it was 100% ready the night before. He would visqueen the adjacent walls and flatwork, sweep the entire area, organize the tools so we could easily bull float and fresno, and even string out the vibrators and cords. On my own side jobs at age 16, I waited until the last minute, and one time I was so unprepared that I lost the slab. That is when I realized what Dennis was showing us. If we are clean, organized, and prepared, our work reflects the same care.
- Always clean as you go.
- Have a spot for everything, and put everything in its place.
- Run 5S daily with your crew: sort, straighten, shine, standardize, and sustain.
- Make your work area as clean as a manufacturing shop floor.
That completes the “who,” the foundation of the leadership pyramid. Once you have poured that foundation, we build up to the “what” of crew leadership in Part 7.
So here is the challenge. Pick one health habit, like 100 ounces of water, a daily walk, or a full night’s sleep, and keep it for 30 days. Then clean your truck and toolboxes tonight, and run 5S with your crew tomorrow morning.
Bottom line: Your crew runs on your health, your energy, and your standards, so take care of yourself and keep everything clean and organized.
If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.
On we go.
Elevating Construction Foremen series:
Previous: Part 5: To-Do Lists, Appearance, and Attitude
Next: Part 7: Onboarding, Communication, and Continuous Reminding
FAQ
Why does health and wellness matter for crew leaders?
To be effective at work, you must be healthy and well. If your body is not in good condition, you may always be a victim to pain, low energy, and unwellness, and crew leaders who lead by example here far exceed those who don’t.
How can a crew leader support mental health on the crew?
Acknowledge the issue instead of keeping the silent macho attitude. It’s okay to not be okay. Treat mental health like a physical injury and create a crew where people ask for help without hesitation.
What is a flow state at work?
Flow is the optimal state of performance, when you are so absorbed in a task that nothing else seems to matter and work spills out without exertion. It happens when the challenge is slightly above your skill level.
How clean should a crew leader keep the work area?
Near perfection. Clean as you go, keep a spot for everything, run 5S daily with your crew, and treat your work area like your living room or a manufacturing shop floor.
People Also Read:
You Have to Stay on Top of Your Health
Mental Health, Feat. Jake & Jason
Energy!
3S & 5S – Sort, Straighten, Sweep, Standardize, Sustain
If you want to learn more we have:
-Takt Virtual Training: (Takt Virtual Training)
-Check out our YouTube channel for more info: (Elevate Construction on YouTube)
-Listen to the Elevate Construction podcast: (Elevate Construction Podcast)
-Check out our training programs and certifications: (Training Programs and Certifications)
-The Takt Book: (The Takt Book on Amazon)
Discover Jason’s Expertise:
Meet Jason Schroeder, the driving force behind Elevate Construction. As the company’s Founder and COO, he’s dedicated to taking construction to new heights. With a wealth of industry experience, he’s crafted the Field Engineer Boot Camp and Superintendent Boot Camp – intensive training programs engineered to cultivate top-tier leaders capable of steering their teams towards success. Jason’s vision? To expand his training initiatives across the nation, empowering construction firms to soar to unprecedented levels of excellence.