September 3rd Journal Column
Dave Stitt explains why it is important to look after your employees and what led him to become an inspirational performance coach
I think I was typical of the people in the construction industry who need help.
I’m not just talking about any kind of help, but specifically help with people and team performance. Through a mixture of engineering skills, hard work and determination, with a sprinkling of good luck thrown in; I became what some firms call “a leader”.
What qualified me to be a leader? Some technical skill, grit and determination? Other than that, probably not much.
I had started off as a trainee civil engineer at 16. Signs of ability led to me becoming a senior engineer, some success in that role led to a promotion to manager and so on. I was not trained to manage people or build teams and on reflection I was rubbish at it.
From what I see, very few of the people who rise through the ranks, graduates or otherwise, find themselves in charge of groups of individuals actually think about their teams. The result is that, while we may achieve some successes in what we do, optimum team performance is a rarity.
When I meet people who are in the position of “leader” or “manager”, I ask them how they would feel if they found out their team was less than 50% effective. You can imagine the responses I get, in terms of disbelieving looks, words and upset.
More often than not when they are shown how to assess their own teams, they find there is a significant performance gap.
And yet all the talk in construction is about procurement, with many clients now reverting to buying on price. They are missing the point. We need to look at the teams which make up our businesses if we are to prosper and start to offer more for less.
If you ask me what is causing this performance gap, my experience tells me that the answer is simple: people just don’t even think about “team”. It simply isn’t on the radar.
We have good, skilled people with loads of energy in our industry. We need to start thinking about how they are working together, in teams, if we are to prosper in these challenging times and provide more for less for customers.
Dave Stitt will be working with project leaders, managers and other people from the construction industry at “More For Less – Are You missing the Point?” a Constructing Excellence in the North East event at Allergate House, Belmont Business Park, Durham from 8.30am to 1pm on Tuesday, November 9. To register for the event please contact Leanne McAngus on 0191 374 0233 or leanne@cene.org.uk