In this episode of Finance at the Jobsite, Rishi sits down with Mark Smith, Ph.D., organizational psychologist, author of A Better Choice: The Manager’s Guide to Skills-First Hiring, and founder of A Better Choice Hire, to talk about what construction companies keep getting wrong when hiring and promoting leaders.

Mark has spent more than 20 years helping construction and engineering companies improve leadership teams, and he has assessed nearly 1,000 candidates across all levels. In this conversation, he explains why impressive resumes, degrees, job titles, and years of experience often fail to predict real-world leadership success.

They discuss:

• why skills-first hiring matters in construction

• why soft skills like communication, adaptability, and influence are often more important than technical credentials

• how structured interviews outperform gut-feel hiring

• how role-play assessments reveal hard-to-fake leadership signals

• common leadership gaps in project managers, superintendents, and internal promotion candidates

• how small and mid-sized contractors can improve hiring without building a massive HR function

• where AI may change hiring and leadership development over the next 3–5 years

If you hire, coach, or promote leaders in construction, this episode is packed with practical insight.

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#FinanceAtTheJobsite #BeiingHuman #ConstructionLeadership #ConstructionHiring #SkillsFirstHiring #ProjectManagement #Superintendents #LeadershipDevelopment #ConstructionFinance #OrganizationalPsychology

What if the person with the best resume is actually the wrong leadership hire?

In this episode of Finance at the Jobsite, Rishi talks with Mark Smith, Ph.D. — organizational psychologist, author, and founder of A Better Choice Hire — about why construction companies should rely less on degrees, titles, and gut feel, and more on skills-first hiring and realistic leadership assessments.

Mark shares lessons from assessing nearly 1,000 candidates and explains what actually predicts leadership success in construction: communication, adaptability, influence, and the ability to lead in real-world situations.

They cover hiring project managers and superintendents, internal promotions, leadership development, structured interviews, assessment design, and the future of AI in hiring.

Subscribe to the Finance at the Jobsite newsletter here:
https://beiinghuman.com/newsletter-signup/

#Construction #ConstructionManagement #Hiring #Leadership #ConstructionOps #TalentAssessment #SkillsBasedHiring #FinanceAtTheJobsite #BeiingHuman