Not all construction leadership development programs are effective.
Imagine this scenario.
You’re a construction business owner or general manager. You have some emerging leaders in your organization who show potential but need development before they can take the next step in their responsibilities.
So you send them to a nearby construction leadership training class.
During the class they read about and hear about lots of skills every leader should possess in order to be successful in the industry. Soft skills. Communication techniques. Time management tools. Meeting facilitation strategies.
All good stuff. And for a moment, your emerging leaders come back to the office pumped up and excited about what they have learned.
Then reality sets in again.
As these leaders return to the office or the jobsite, the daily stressors return. Difficult personalities, tight deadlines and unexpected surprises all converge upon these newly trained leaders and immediately all of their learnings vanish. Old habits, patterns, and instincts return. It’s like that time in the classroom never happened.
Does this sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone.
While our industry is blessed with many exceptional leadership training programs to choose from, all too often the learnings that participants come away with fail to take hold once the pressure and pace of daily construction work-life returns.
So, what can construction owners and general managers do to help their leaders hold onto the skills and strategies they learn during training?
This is where leadership coaching can help you ensure your construction leadership development program actually succeeds in developing leaders.
Leadership coaching is about more than simply equipping the client with a suite of skills. It’s about empowering the client to develop the mindset necessary to consistently and effectively apply those skills and be the leader they aspire to be at all times.
At Arrowhead. we have applied a coaching approach to our construction leadership development program because we believe that long-term, sustainable leadership growth is only possible with the strong client buy-in, self-awareness and commitment to change that is central to the coaching process.
Our Coaching-based Approach
Here’s how it works.
The first step in our construction leadership development program is to help each client become more aware of who they are, and their unique strengths and values as a leader.
Next, we work with the client to design and implement a plan for their growth and development – to become the kind of leader they want to be. The kind leader who:
- leverages the unique set of values, strengths and skills they possess
- Identifies (with input from key stakeholders) any blind-spots and opportunities for growth
- Creates action steps to address those blind-spots and opportunities
- Takes total ownership of their plan to grow and pursue their unique development path
- Establishes a system for regular assessment, accountability and course-correction as needed
Unlike most conventional construction leadership training programs, the “self-authored” leadership development plans at the heart of the Arrowhead approach generate the deeper client buy-in and mindset shifts needed to ensure long-term, sustained growth.
What good is a lot of costly classroom time if your leaders fail to retain most of what they were taught only a few days after their training?
Proven Results
Our construction industry clients tell us they experience the difference of our coaching-based construction leadership development program.
They tell us that when they work with Arrowhead they benefit from the strong sense of “presence” their coach brings to every session.
This “presence” facilitates higher levels of engagement and a sense of genuine partnership between coach and client in pursuit of the client’s self-authored leadership goals.
That partnership is what fuels the client’s momentum:
- their acquisition of new skills
- their development of confidence rooted in character
- their clarity of vision and purpose
Learning new skills is an essential part of any construction leadership development program. But it is the acquisition of confidence to apply those skills and the clarity to know how and when to do so that defines the long-term, sustainable value of any investment in leadership development.
A coaching-based approach to leadership development uniquely equips construction leaders to consistently perform with confidence and clarity.
If you’d like to have a conversation about how a coaching-based leadership development program could help your team, please send me an email anytime to sean@arrowheadcoaching.ca.
