Leadership Traits and Skills of a Construction Leader
As a construction leader, it is imperative for a person to develop skills that will help him or her succeed in leadership. I would like to develop into a construction leader, making effective decisions and influencing growth at all levels of leadership that I will serve. Research shows that many construction leaders have failed in their leadership areas in the last thirty years. People peg the reasons to their failure to different atrocities that they committed during their leadership times but these events do not sufficiently justify the failure (Meng, Berger, Gower & Heyman, 2012). The reality is that leaders often fail due to poor leadership traits and qualities, which in turn run down their leadership decisions. For me to develop into a leader who will influence growth in my area, I must develop skills and traits that will make me to stand out in the area. This paper analyzes the leadership traits that I need to develop in order to become an effective and visionary construction leader. I ought to develop good attitude management traits, communication and soft mental traits, decision-making and strategic management, Administration and planning skills as part of my personality in order to attain my vision.
The failure of other leaders in the industry occurred due to their lack of visionary and self-development traits that greatly influence success for leaders. In order for me to become an effective and growth-driven leader, I ought to develop attitude traits and skills, communication skills, soft mental skills, vision and decision-making skills, confidence, and integrity. When a leader develops these qualities, he/she become an all-round leadership personality capable of handling any eventualities. I figure a leader with these qualities as an indispensable asset as he/ she can be entrusted with sensitive decisions at any time and he can help solve challenges in many situations. A leader with these qualities will be a visionary figure and will influence any organization to grow due to his revolutionary attitude (Mouchi, Olabode, & Ramachandra, 2001).
Initially, I ought to develop attitude traits and skills in order for me to be effective as a construction leader. Attitude traits and skills involve basic intrinsic values that influence one’s decisions and judgments in leadership (Mouchi, Olabode, & Ramachandra, 2001). These are the most essential qualities of a good construction leader as they determine the positional personality of a leader and their ability to harmonize their environments internally and settle down to make valuable decisions for the organization. The basic attitude trait is self-awareness. Self-awareness is the ability of a leader to know their personality, strengths, and weaknesses in order for them to make valuable decisions and control their weak areas. Self-awareness is imperative because lack of it is the first step to the failure of many people. Research shows that most of the people who failed in their leadership did so because they did not understand their abilities and their weaknesses (Svara, 2009). Backstrom, Ingelsson & Wiklund (2011) supports this argument by noting that a construction leader must have an intrinsic attitude to inspire action. In leadership, action is the basic ingredient. In fact, lack of an attitude makes one fail in learning which an essential part of a construction leader is. A construction leader must expect changes as the construction industry is diverse and calls for the construction leader to widen their learning scope. Attitude and action traits help a construction leader to expect changes including quantity changes, plan changes, and project alterations. In strategic management, attitude towards the minor changes that occur to projects determines the level of growth of a leader. A construction leader must thus develop irresistible attitude skills in order to succeed in his/ her work. Svara (2009) asserts that optimism and integrity also form the intrinsic attitude traits that an individual must have when developing into a good construction leader in the industry. In construction, projects come up well but few of the projects fail. In some cases, they fail when the leader has put in so much effort that they can give up. Most leaders fail due to their inability to rise from such failures. Attitude traits and skills are important for a construction leader because they need to make strategic and positional decisions whose quality depends expressly on their integrity and optimism. Many organizations will trust me with their projects and their resources. The use of the resources can be either the intended use or divergent use, which in turn defines the outcomes from the projects. To that level, integrity is an imperative quality as a construction leader (McGeorge, Palmer, & Zou, 2013). Decision-making is one of the basic elements of a leader at any level and a quality decision is driven by integrity.
Furthermore, as a construction leader, I ought to develop communication and soft mental skills because they affect the daily operations and transition of activities during the project undertakings. In construction leadership, individual effort does not drive most of the activities. In most cases, activities are driven by the cooperation and group dynamics of the people working on the projects (Schoemaker, Krupp, and Howland, 2013). However, with many people working on the same project, chances of replication of duties and results are very high. As a construction leader, this is the gap that I ought to bridge through effective communication skills. Directing the people and assigning duties and roles well through communication will help the projects to develop to the required levels. In decision-making, steps and undertakings must trickle down to all people involved in the projects. A construction leader must develop good communication skills to pass such information effectively. Schoemaker, Krupp, and Howland (2013) supports this position by noting that internal skills made through constant interaction with life situations form the soft skills that are imperative for the success of a construction leader. I ought to develop the soft skills in order for me to flourish as a construction leader as it will help in the achievement of my career goals. Presentation skills are imperative as the soft mental skills in a construction leader. I must develop the ability to present my ideas and projects in a systematic and procedural manner so that the project managers and employers get a feeling of quality. Through constant development of quality presentations, I will grow in my leadership thus; I endeavor to develop the presentation skills. In essence, clarity and confidence also amounts to the soft skills that I ought to develop in order to be effective in construction leadership (Odusami, 2002). In most cases, construction leaders fail because they do not present their ideas well. Unclear presentations mean that the construction leaders cannot be trusted to deliver quality projects. At the same time, when presenting my ideas, I will need to be confident. Research shows that when an idea is presented to a third party, they believe it only if the owner of the idea does. At the same time, the only way I can convince people to believe in my idea is through my confidence when presenting the idea hence I will need to develop a high confidence level to success as a construction leader.
A construction leader also needs to have the required resources allocations skills. Adopting an effective strategy to systematic manage the organization resources will be a vital aspects that will improve the organization productivity and profitability. In most instances, conflicts of interests in an organization are brought about by continuous conflicts between various actors on resource allocations (Kerzner, 2009). Successful managers are also accessed by the manner in which they are in a position of allocating resources in an organization with limited wastage of resources. To manage the allocation of organization resources, a manager need to understand the important of engaging in intensive consultation with other stakeholders in an organization. Consultation plays a vital role in making appropriate and informed decisions on resources allocation and distribution. Despite reducing unnecessary conflict and confusion in an organization, engaging in constructive consultation and interaction is also of essence in reducing unnecessary conflict of interests and confusion among stakeholders. To effectively manage the available resources, the manager should also understand the organization immediate and long-term goals and demand. Before considering allocating resources for long tern projects and activities, reliable managers should considering giving priority to pressing issues in an organization. Understanding the organization priority will also be vital in dealing with budget deficits that may emerge due to poor management of the available resources. In addition, it is the role and responsibility of constructive manager to work out a specific agreement with all contributors and other managers on the most effective and productive means of sharing and allocating the available resources. Consultation with all managers will give every participant in an organization an opportunity of sharing their suggestion regarding the most effective means of distributing organization resources. Resources allocation skills will also be effective i ensuring that adequate resources is set aside for emergence purposes (Paglis & Green, 2002). In most instances, organizations are faced with the various challenges after the allocation of the resources. To address the unplanned expenditure, constructive managers need to set aside some resources to cater for emergence purposes. Intensive consultation between all managers and superiors on the tasks that need to be performed on a specific period will also be of critical importance in facilitating effective allocation of the organization resources. The understanding of organization activities and demands will also be of critical importance in identifying the sources of resources that will be used in specific period of time (Kerzner, 2009).
It is also worthwhile noting that a construction manager should have reliable amount of administrative skills. Despite serving as organization manager a constructive managers have an undertaking of dealing with administrative issues such allocation of duties, organizing meeting and setting strategies on behave of the organization. Studies have so far confirmed that for administrative skills are largely supported by intensive and continuous consultation between managers and other key players in an organization. To succeed in modern economy, a manager should have the required planning skills. Reliable planning skills will be useful in making informed administrative responsibility that will reduce confusion and conflicts in an organization. Planning will also be useful in ensuring that the organization attains its immediate and long-term goals and objectives. It is also the undertaking of a reliable manager to ensure that the organizations adequately staffed to reduce work overload and to ensure that the organization attains its objective in a timely and more effective manner (Kerzner, 2009).
Lastly, Planning is also the undertaking of a reliable manager. In consultation with other players in an organization, a successful manager should understand the most effective means of allocating organization resources in order to improve its productivity and profitability. A reliable administrative skill also helps the manager in making the most appropriate schedule for the organization. A sustainable schedule should have the ability of helping the organization attain its immediate and long-term goals and objective with limited constraints. Administrative skills will also be vital in enabling a manager to have dependable control techniques. In most instances, control techniques helps in ensuring that every activity in an organization is conducted in the most affective and timely manner (Hartman and Ashrafi, 2002).
Therefore based on the above argument it has been demonstrated that an effective and constructive manager required certain skills and competence in order to succeed in modern economy. As a construction manager need to have good attitude management traits, communication and soft mental traits, decision-making and strategic management, Administration and planning skills. Intensive training and consultation between all players in an organization will also be of great important in helping modern managers to prosper in modern integrated economy. Although reliable leaders ought to have various leadership and management skills, some aspects are pivotal in the management of modern business entities are. The skills of managing organization resources will not only be useful in ensuring effective management of the organization resources but will also help in reducing preventable conflict of interests. Essentially, a construction manager who has knowledge of the essential traits and skills that needed in succeeding in the managerial role is has the potential of realizing his or her vision.
References
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