National Academy of Construction
Recognizing Industry Leaders in Engineering and Construction Since 1999
The National Academy of Construction (NAC) sponsored a panel entitled “Leading People: Essentials for Small Businesses to Thrive and Grow” at the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) Small Business Conference (SBC) held in New Orleans.
This Executive Insight summarizes the major points from the NAC “Get The kNACK” podcast series on “Leadership in Construction — Learn From NAC Masters.”
Putting together the various ingredients or tips according to a recipe can yield a delicious meal.
Life cycle asset management is an area of growing focus and importance across all industries.
Does humor have a place in the work environment?
Strategic business objectives represent the fundamental business drivers in a well-executed program.
Trust is the currency of relationships and, by extension, the management of people.
This insight is written from a tipped perspective toward an owner organization.
Turnarounds are a real element of the engineering and construction industry.
Effective asset management and operations are the lifeblood of any business. The old adage of “Grow or die” applies universally, so all work must be executed to deliver business success or the business will not be competitive and eventually will cease to exist.
The following wisdom-based leadership competencies were collected from a survey of NAC members. The foundation is to define leadership through the most widely held wisdoms and their underlying logic. Wisdom is gained through experience, understanding, insight, common sense, and intelligent reflection.
The regular review of projects by individuals outside the direct project execution team is a core aspect of effective project management. This core management process and its objectives are essential to deliver the client’s outcomes contractually committed and the anticipated company profits expected when the contract began.
While many executives and their boards give lip service to succession planning, the conversation they are actually having is about ensuring that a trusted lieutenant will step in immediately after a personal emergency has taken place (the bus has finally been hit, someone’s accepted an offer to serve the country, a spouse has a remarkable opportunity) to make sure the troops don’t go AWOL.
For the first 20 percent of my career, I believed engineering and construction was a technical career. Then a revelation took place: I realized engineering and construction is all about people. This is the “Holy Shift” when you recognize it’s not about technical skills, it’s not about you. It’s all about your people. Your people are the one sustainable competitive advantage your business has.
The phrase “win work, do work, make profit” can be used to describe the engineering and construction business, but perhaps simplifies what can become complex. The purpose of this Executive Insight is to help guide the business process when there is a risk of losing sight of the simple fundamentals expressed in the phrase.
Making a decision on your own is relatively straightforward. You already know the answer and will decide about the best course of action or you will research the problem, consult with subject matter experts, reflect on your options, and then decide about the best course of action to take. In either case, the decision is yours and yours alone. You live and die by the consequences.
Leadership is one of the greatest challenges and opportunities facing engineering and construction managers. It is an industry challenge but equally a challenge for each of us and our firms. Its time is now, as we face growing challenges of complexity and scale as well as an uncertain external environment. Productivity remains lackluster; this is not the hallmark of a leader.
This Executive Insight briefly looks at owner's "rules of the road" to ensure that a program management contracting (PMC) approach on large, complex programs delivers expected results. It is primarily focused on activities which should occur prior to and immediately after program initiation while addressing fundamental management challenges during the execution phase.
Many organizational transformation programs fail to recognize that the nature of the transformational program and, therefore, the tools and techniques used, must in themselves “transform” throughout the course of the program.
Behavioral change is just one change dimension associated with organizational transformation. Other dimensions include new tools, new process development, and new skill training, all which happen in parallel. In addition, each has influence. These, in turn, are effected by the behavioral change dimension.
A team building session was held with about 120 members of the management team. While highly successful in achieving its primary objective, the lessons learned by one “Company” are instructional with respect to many of the attributes of good project management.
The importance of strategic business objectives cannot be overstated. Selecting the right ones is critical to the success and survival of all organizations.
Governance is the structure and process to control operations and changes to performance objectives. In large programs governance is separate and distinct from management thinking and practice.
Key Points: Audit findings represent a good project preparation and review checklist, and this checklist makes the auditor's job easier.
The expression goes that “we learn through our mistakes.” But do we? Equally important, do others learn through our mistakes or is “history destined to repeat itself”?
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