Effective Leadership Skills
Introduction
Construction industry comprises the highest percentage of businesses in the United States of America accounting for 12 percent of all American businesses which makes it the biggest construction sector in the world (Attalah, 2006).
The construction sector is among the sectors which are naturally complex and unpredictable in structure. Different from other sectors (e.g. automobile, pharmaceuticals, and household products), construction industry is highly diverse and fragmented. It comprises residential (public and private- sector), industrial, commercial, specialty trades and heavy construction (Love et al, 2002).
The industry’s complex nature coupled with the constantly rising global competition and dynamic variations in business regulations has created relevance and need for highly trained, competent and experienced managers and leaders. Some of the challenges facing leadership professionals in the construction sector include price competition, low profitability, volatile capital costs, inefficiency in supply chain, market conditions’ volatility, geographical constraints, complexity of work, and financial constraints.
Building and civil engineering contracting, project management consulting, public and private client organizations are some of the key areas in the construction industry in which effective management skills are crucial in attaining progress. Competency attributes in construction business management comprises flexibility, intelligence, responsiveness and capacity to deal with rapid change. In addition to adequate training in construction management, there are certain skills that are required to be developed by a construction management leader. The leadership skills are given in broad categories below and described using qualities that define each skill. The role of education is discussed followed by a description of the various skills that are pivotal to leadership in the construction industry business.
Education, Training and Professionalism
Project management and business management are the two main components of education in the construction management education. In relation to education in construction management, a professional should possess the following attributes: distinct and identifiable knowledge or expertise, possess the necessary qualification and accreditation by the relevant body, and recognition and collaboration with other professions (Love et al, 2002). Business knowledge is an additional piece of knowledge that is crucial to success in construction management. Having a good understanding of technological knowledge and application to real life construction experiences is also a necessary addition.
There are three common broad classes or types of leaders. These are innovators, implementers and pacifiers. An innovator is a leader who introduces new ideas, a trait that is most useful in times of crisis. The implementer is the second leadership type whereby focuses on developing new structures and promoting a stable work environment. The pacifier is a leader who provides general guidance to the subordinates. Good technical knowledge is critical for construction managers whose role is to guide their subordinates and explain the nature of the work to the senior management and prospective customers in non-technical way. Organizations identify and recruit individuals who possess both academic qualification and industrial experience in construction management leadership.
Leadership Skills in Construction Business Management
Flexible and Shared Leadership
Flexible leadership is a skill in which a leader shares leadership through delegation of duties and encouragement of team spirit. The leader expresses success and shares responsibility and achievements with partners. Flexible leadership can also be defined by development of relationships with variety of stakeholders based on trust (Youth Development Training and Technical Assistance Resource Center, 2012).
People Skills
A Leader with good people skills is friendly, likable and easy to interact with. He networks and communicates or interacts with everyone in the organization. Through this the leader builds cohesion and harmony between management and subordinates.
Strong Communication
The leader should be able to communicate in an articulate manner clearly understood by every one. The leader also can achieve this through good listening and clear writing. Through effective communication, the organizational goals and expectations are made clear to all the stakeholders (employees, customers, financiers, etc.).
Critical Thinking
The leader should have concrete and conceptual thinking skills and able to focus on important issues. Curiosity and inquisitiveness support this leadership skill. Critical thinking promotes decisiveness and enables faster adjustment of mind for change. In addition, a leader who is a critical thinker expresses confidence in lacking capacity to provide all answers i.e. not proud to consult.
Organizational Management Skill
In this type of skill the leader expresses possession of effective fiscal knowledge, administrative and organizational skill, ability to fundraise in different sectors, and marketing experience.
Connections with stakeholders
In construction management connection to the different partners is useful. A good leader, therefore, must have the capacity to develop connections to important stakeholders. He must build strong and necessary relationships, attract political support, and involve participation of all parties including those who are resistant to changes.
Self-confidence
A good construction management leader is one who visualizes the big picture and stays focused even in times of difficulty. In addition, the willingness to take risk is the other quality that reinforces self-confidence. In show of self-confidence the leader effectively takes credit for achievement in order to create credibility with partners.
Conclusion
Effective and competent construction management leaders must realize and harness the potential of human resources available to them. Personnel are an essential resource in every construction institution (Loosemore, Dainty, & Lingard, 2003). The challenge is in finding qualified people, using them to their maximum potential, leading them towards attaining organizational objectives, training and mentoring them, rewarding them according to performance, and integrating them into the organizational culture. This requires expert knowledge that reflects the latest developments in research and its application in practice, an appreciation of how ICT can be utilized to improve business processes, the ability for oral and written communication within and across professions, and excellent problem solving skills.
In summary, construction managers must be flexible in working effectively in a dynamic environment. The managers should be decisive and not easily distracted by pressure, particularly when experiencing unordinary or unanticipated outcomes (Youth Development Training and Technical Assistance Resource Center, 2012). Construction managers must have the ability to conduct coordination of several events or actions at once as they are solving particular problems. Good spoken and written communication skills are also very important. In addition, managers must be in a position to establish proper working relationships with various professionals from different sectors and within the construction sector. Finally, leadership in construction management must be characterized by established organization ethics, enthusiasm and motivation.
References
Atallah, P. “Building a successful construction company”. Chicago, IL: Kaplan Publishing, Inc.,
2006
Loosemore, M., Dainty, A. & Lingard, H. “Human Resource Management in Construction
Projects”. New York: Spon Press, 2003
Love, P. et al. “Key construction management skills for future success”. Working paper, 49(02).
Monash University, 2002. Retrieved from, buseco.monash.edu.au/mgt/research/working…/wp49-02.pdf
Youth Development Training and Technical Assistance Resource Center. “Leadership skills and
qualities checklist”. Sparkaction.org. National Collaboration for Youth, 2005. Web. Jun.
30, 2012
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