Construction sites are some of the hardest environments to work in. And that’s before we even get to the psychological pressure. It’s no wonder that it can lead to aggressive behaviour, frustration and pent-up energy. Talking to Adam Evans, who leads electrical teams on major construction projects, reminded me just how different leadership in construction can look when there is no room for ‘good enough’

He talks us through an example of what a workday can look like for him (it involves being called out of bed at 4am, and that’s the easiest part about it).

One of the threads running through my conversations with Adam is how much changed when he became more aware of his own preferences, and started recognising that other people don’t necessarily think, communicate or work the way he does. (It’s also something we explore through the Team Management Profile (TMP), if you suspect that might be a roadblock for your team too).

We also talked about the challenges of motivating a team beyond money, retaining good people, building a culture, and becoming the guy whose projects people always want to be on. (By the way, if that’s something you’re thinking about too, my Guide to Motivating Your Team is still a useful place to start). Really, about what leadership looks like in construction, an industry so much more complex than the public perception of it.

If you work in construction, whether you’re a project manager, team leader, tradie or work alongside the industry, I think this is a conversation worth hearing.

Towards the end of the episode, we briefly touch on suicide and the troublingly high suicide rate in the construction industry. If you or anyone you know is struggling or the topic brings anything up for you, there is free, confidential support available through TIACS (This Is A Conversation Starter), the mental health counselling service founded by TradeMutt.

If you would like to connect with Adam or read more about his experience, you can find him on LinkedIn.

If some of the challenges Adam and I talk about feel familiar (even if the industry is not), you’ll find more practical support for navigating them, and becoming the leader you want to be under pressure, here.

We often talk about people who are great at what they do, so they are put in a leadership role and given a team of people, without being given any leadership training.

Adam Evans’ career was on this path and over the next few episodes, Juliet is talking with Adam about how his career as an apprentice-chef-turned-electrician changed when he was sent on a leadership course. From a self-described “angry young man” to someone who found a language to talk about how he works, and understand the strengths in difference across his team, Adam has some fascinating insights into the importance of leadership in the construction industry. And there’s the challenge of his mum’s expectations…

In this first episode Adam shares his career path and how building his self-awareness is enabling him to lead a team of young tradies and collaborate with teams across the industry to deliver high profile construction projects.

If you have worked in the construction industry or have shared any of Adam’s experiences in a different industry, we would love to hear from you. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/

And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this and contact Juliet at Big Goals.

If you would like to connect with Adam or read more about his experience, you can find him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamevans1988/.

In our last episode we talked about how we make our values real. In this episode Juliet is talking to Meredith Staib, the CEO of RFDS Queensland, where values are one of the key elements that attract new joiners. If you’ve ever lived in a regional or remote part of Australia, the RFDS will have touched your life or the lives of people around you.

We took Meredith back to the start of her extensive career and some of the challenges of leading. How do you innovate in an organisation with such a strong and established role? How do you keep a large and widely distributed team connected, and how do you stay in touch with what is happening in remote regions for teams delivering a variety of health services? In our conversation, Meredith shares her experiences and insights into leading an organisation that touches so many people’s lives.

Do you have a link with the RFDS? We would love to hear from you about your experiences. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/

And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this and contact Juliet at Big Goals.

If you would like to learn more about the Royal Flying Doctor Service (Queensland) you can find information at https://www.flyingdoctor.org.au/qld/ and you can read more about Meredith’s experience online and on Linkedin.

Most organisations have values, but in so many of these, the staff are probably unable to tell you what they are and there is no tangible expression of them within their workdays.

Values tell you how an organisation wants to work but they only come to life if they are translated into behaviours. In this episode, Juliet is talking with Hope Collins from Hope Collins Advisory about a structured approach to operationalising your values.

Hope is a leadership, sales and culture consultant based in Melbourne, and the creator of The Commitments, a behavioural framework designed to be the missing fourth pillar alongside mission, vision and values. It is designed to help leaders and organisations close the gap between the culture they say they have and the one they actually have.

She's deeply committed to the idea that clear expectations aren't a nice-to-have; they're the whole game.

The Commitments framework enables any organisation to involve their people in translating their values into behaviours. As Hope says, this gives potential new joiners a chance to decide whether they are prepared to demonstrate the behaviours before they join. It also gives existing team members a chance to discuss and agree on how they want to work together.

How do you translate your values into behaviours? We would love to hear from you about what has worked and what is still a work in progress with your team. You can share your experiences and ask questions here.

And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this and contact Juliet at Big Goals.

If you would like to learn more about Hope Collins and The Commitments, you can email her at hopecollinsadvisory@gmail.com or you can message her on Linkedin www.linkedin.com/in/hopercollins

"The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change their entire life purely by changing their perspective." Ben Crowe

In this fourth and final episode of our Book Club Edition, we wrap up our discussion of Ben Crowe's Where the Light Gets In by looking at how we shift our perspectives on success and happiness and how a focus on helping and serving others almost always helps and serves us too.

When we shift our perspective from a focus on “I” to a focus on “we”, we are leading. Focusing on how we show up, on happiness, and on helping others succeed creates intrinsic motivators that we can control and helps us rely less on things like status and titles that are often out of our control. Choosing the meaning we give to our past and staying anchored in the present also helps.

If you haven’t read the book, don’t worry you don’t need it. But can we recommend you put it on your reading or listening list, as we think it really does have the power to change how you see yourself, how you deal with the world and how you lead.

We would love to hear what you thought of this series. What has been most useful or challenging? Have you read the book? If so, what are your key takeaways? We would love to hear about your experiences.

You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/

And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this and contact Juliet at Big Goals.

If you would like to learn more about what Antoanela does and work with her, you can find her here.

"The story of your life is not your life. It is your story." John Barth.

In this third episode of our Book Club Edition, we continue our discussion of Ben Crowe's Where the Light Gets In. We discuss the value in shifting our perspective as we own our story and focus on who we are rather than the persona we create. This is linked to another shift Ben talks about when we redefine success, so we focus on being the best we can be and on creating meaning in our life rather than focusing on external motivators.

If you haven’t read the book, don’t worry you don’t need it. But can we recommend you put it on your reading or listening list, as we think it really does have the power to change how you see yourself, how you deal with the world and how you lead.

We would love to hear how this episode lands with you. Choosing to change how we interpret the things that have happened in our past can be confronting and difficult. Similarly, redefining success in our lives can be challenging but so rewarding. We would love to hear about your experiences.

You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/

And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this and contact Juliet at Big Goals.

If you would like to learn more about what Antoanela does and work with her, you can find her here.

“The single greatest predictor of happiness is the quality of our connections.” - Ben Crowe, Where The Light Gets In

In this episode, we continue our discussion of the perspective shifts set out in Juliet’s favourite leadership book, Where The Light Gets In by Ben Crowe. We look at how important connection is and how difficult it can be to create and maintain. Part of this is the dual nature of trust and the need for us as leaders to be vulnerable so we enable our team members to do the same. This is an aspect of leadership we know so many people struggle with because they think they may appear as weak or unskilled, however it is fundamental to building a strong team.

If you haven’t read the book, don’t worry, you don’t need it. But can we recommend you put it on your reading or listening list, as we think it really does have the power to change how you see yourself, how you deal with the world and how you lead.

We would love to hear from you about how you tackle building connections with and within your team. How do you show vulnerability with your team and what happens when you do? You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/

And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this and contact with Juliet at Big Goals.

If you would like to learn more about what Antoanela does and work with her, you can find her here.

It’s been a while since we said farewell to Kristy-Lee, however we haven’t been standing still. We have been working out what we want the podcast to offer and how it can help people grow their skills and confidence to lead and influence.

As our first project we will be digging into the wisdom within one of Juliet’s favourite leadership books over the coming weeks. Juliet and Antoanela Safca will be discussing how we can apply this wisdom in growing ourselves and leading our teams.

The book? It’s Where the Light Gets In by Ben Crowe and in this first episode, Juliet and Antoanela are discussing the perspective shifts Ben explores and some of the key themes of the book. We are also exploring how expectations shape us and some of the ways we can deal with these. And we talk about the fine line between caring for people and changing ourselves to meet their expectations (hello people pleasers!)

If you haven’t read the book, don’t worry, you don’t need it. But can we recommend you put it on your reading or listening list as we think it really does have the power to change how you see yourself, how you deal with the world and how you lead.

We would love to hear from you about what you think about perspective shifts and how you deal with expectations, both your own and others’. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/

And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can contact Juliet at Big Goals.

If you would like to learn more about what Antoanela does and work with her, you can find her here.