Keep Your Presence of Mind – War Series #1

Keep Your Presence of Mind: Staying Calm and Methodical in Difficult Construction Situations

There’s a moment in every hard situation where you lose it twice. First you lose your presence of mind. Then you lose the situation. The order matters, and that’s why Jason Schroeder leans on a simple quote that he treats like an operating command for leaders: “Always keep your presence of mind in battle.” Construction isn’t battle in the literal sense, but it is absolutely a high-pressure environment where stress, urgency, and consequences converge. When leaders panic, the job doesn’t just stay difficult it gets worse. When leaders stay calm, the team can stabilize, make decisions, and protect people.

Most leaders don’t intend to become frantic. It just happens. The phone starts ringing, someone’s yelling, something is wrong in the field, and the body reacts before the brain has a chance to think. That’s why presence of mind isn’t a personality trait. It’s a skill. And like any skill, it can be trained with method, repetition, and a system to fall back on when your emotions want to drive.

The Moment Pressure Hits: Why Leaders Lose the Situation Before They Lose the Plan

Pressure narrows attention. It speeds up breathing. It turns decision-making into impulse. And when the leader’s brain goes into protection mode, they often do one of two things: they either freeze and avoid, or they explode and overreact. Neither is leadership. Both are fear trying to regain control.

Jason’s point is not that fear is shameful. Fear is human. Presence of mind is what you do next. It’s the ability to slow down just enough to see reality, to name facts, and to choose the next right action instead of the loudest action. This is also why teams sometimes feel unsafe even when the plan is technically “fine.” They can sense when leadership is not stable. They can feel frantic decision-making, changing direction, emotional correction, and inconsistent standards. The system failed them; they didn’t fail the system. When a leader hasn’t been trained to respond methodically under stress, the environment becomes unpredictable, and unpredictability is where incidents and rework live.

Presence of Mind Is a Production Strategy

A calm leader doesn’t just look better. A calm leader protects outcomes. Calm protects safety because the leader takes time to verify conditions instead of rushing into risk. Calm protects quality because the leader checks alignment, tolerances, and readiness instead of “making it work.” Calm protects the schedule because the leader chooses corrective actions that actually solve the problem instead of creating three new problems downstream.

This is also where flow comes in. If you want stability, you need leaders who can stabilize situations. LeanTakt and Takt depend on consistent handoffs and disciplined responses. When panic runs the job, the rhythm breaks. When leaders keep their presence of mind, the system stays stable enough to keep moving.

The Civil Alignment Story: Slow Down, Double-Check, and Win With Accuracy

Jason shares a civil alignment story that every builder will recognize. Something was off five inches. In the civil world, five inches is not “close enough.” Five inches can cascade into the next layout, the next installation, the next interface, and suddenly you’ve built a very expensive mistake that nobody can easily undo.

The important part of the story is not the five inches. It’s the response. The team slowed down, checked surveys, verified the control points, and took the time to confirm the truth before proceeding. That is the presence of mind. It’s the discipline to say, “We are not compounding this error.” It’s the ability to resist the schedule pressure long enough to protect the project from long-term damage. A panicked leader pushes forward and hopes. A calm leader verifies and prevents.

The Backhoe Tip-Over Story: Calm Leadership, Checklists, and Calling in Help

Jason also shares a story about a backhoe tip-over. When equipment goes over, the jobsite energy spikes instantly. People crowd. People talk. People guess. Leaders feel pressure to “do something” immediately. That’s exactly when poor decisions get made. The presence of mind in that moment looks like a method. It looks like securing the area. Checking for injuries. Confirming hazards. Establishing control. Calling the right experts. Using a checklist mindset instead of improvisation. The goal isn’t speed. The goal is safe recovery without making the incident worse. That’s the point: calm leadership doesn’t delay action. Calm leadership chooses the correct action.

What Panic Looks Like on Jobsites: Frantic Motion That Makes It Worse

Panic often shows up as motion without thought. Leaders start barking orders, changing direction, issuing contradictory instructions, or blaming people. Sometimes panic shows up as anger. Sometimes it shows up as frantic over-communication. Sometimes it shows up as silence and avoidance. But in every form, panic has a common outcome: it increases variation. And variation is expensive. Variation creates rework. Variation creates safety exposure. Variation creates confusion. This is why the presence of mind is not “soft.” It’s a stabilizing force that protects the system.

What “Presence of Mind” Really Means: Focus, Method, and Leveraging Team Wisdom

Jason defines presence of mind in practical terms. It is focus, method, and the ability to leverage the team. Leaders under pressure often try to carry everything alone. They stop asking questions. They stop listening. They try to become the answer.

The presence of mind is the opposite. It is the ability to pause and ask, “What are the facts?” “What is the right thing?” “Who needs to be here?” “What’s the next best step?” It’s the discipline to bring in expertise, to use checklists, and to create a clear sequence instead of improvising. This is where leadership becomes a system. You are not relying on mood. You are relying on a method.

What Causes Leaders to Lose Presence of Mind

• Fear of consequences that triggers rushing, avoidance, or emotional decision-making.
• Anger and frustration that turns correction into chaos instead of coaching and problem-solving.
• Trying to solve everything alone instead of calling in the right expertise quickly.
• Acting on assumptions instead of verifying facts, conditions, and readiness.
• Feeling schedule pressure so intensely that accuracy and safety get treated as optional.

Practice, Not Theory: How Leaders Build Calm Through Hard Situations

You don’t build calm by hoping you’ll be calm. You build calm by practicing responses ahead of time. Leaders should have a method for emergencies and difficult situations the same way they have a method for planning meetings. You decide in advance what your first moves are: secure safety, confirm facts, identify hazards, call the right people, and communicate clearly.

Jason also ties this to courage. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is regaining control when you lose your nerve and taking the next right step anyway. Leaders will have shaky moments. Presence of mind is how you recover and lead forward.

How to Respond in the Moment: Slow Down, Use Checklists, and Ask the Right Questions

Jason’s advice is practical: slow down a little bit. Not enough to become passive. Enough to become accurate. When the pressure spikes, choose method over impulse. You can treat the situation like PDCA in real time: plan your next step, do it, check the result, adjust. That’s how you keep a difficult situation from turning into a disaster.

How to Practice Calm, Methodical Leadership

• Slow down just enough to verify facts and conditions before you commit to action.
• Use a checklist mindset for incidents: secure the area, confirm injuries, identify hazards, and call the right help.
• Ask “What’s the right thing?” and “What’s the next best step?” instead of reacting to noise.
• Leverage the team’s wisdom by bringing in expertise early rather than carrying it alone.
• Communicate clearly and consistently so the workforce has stability, not whiplash.

Flow and Stability Connection: Calm Leadership Enables Reliable Handoffs

There’s a direct line between calm leadership and flow. Calm leaders protect standards. They protect zones. They protect readiness. They prevent compounding errors. They remove roadblocks methodically. That’s how you keep the system stable enough for Takt to work and for LeanTakt principles to deliver real results.

When leaders lose presence of mind, the project becomes reaction-based. Reaction-based projects always create more work-in-process, more inventory, more trade damage, and more stress. Calm doesn’t eliminate problems, but it prevents problems from multiplying.

Connect to Mission

At Elevate Construction, the goal is stability projects where field teams can plan, schedule, and flow without burnout. Jason Schroeder teaches systems that protect people, because respect for people is a production strategy. Presence of mind fits that mission because calm leadership reduces exposure. It reduces risk. It reduces rework. It protects families by preventing the chaos that leads to weekend pushes and constant emergency mode.

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

Conclusion

Here’s the challenge: stop waiting for hard situations to teach you the lesson the painful way. Train yourself now. Decide what your method is. Practice slowing down. Practice verifying facts. Practice calling in help. Practice using checklists. Practice asking the right questions when your emotions want to drive.

Because the quote Jason anchors this episode with is not motivational it’s operational: “Always keep your presence of mind in battle.” Keep it on your tongue when pressure hits. Calm is not a weakness. Calm is controlled. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What does “presence of mind” mean in construction leadership?
It means staying calm and focused under pressure so you can see facts, choose methodical actions, and lead the team without creating chaos.

How do I stay calm during an incident or near miss?
Slow down slightly, secure safety first, verify facts, use a checklist mindset, and bring in the right expertise. Calm action protects people better than frantic action.

Why is slowing down sometimes the fastest way to go faster?
Because rushing creates compounding errors. Verifying alignment, readiness, and hazards prevents rework and incidents that cost far more time than a brief pause.

How does calm leadership connect to LeanTakt and Takt?
Flow requires stability and reliable handoffs. Calm leaders protect standards and remove roadblocks methodically, which helps maintain rhythm and reduces variation.

What should I do if I feel myself losing control emotionally?
Pause, breathe, and move to facts. Ask, “What is true?” and “What is the next best step?” Then communicate clearly and re-engage the team with method, not emotion.