Chapter 7

Leadership Choices
Saima Butt

People love being part of a compelling story, a narrative we can recount to our
friends, family and acquaintances. Think of the number of times that we pass land-
marks with which we have formed more than a passing association; we connect in a
way that endears that project, its outcomes and its people deep in our trails of experi-
ence – these projects become part of our story and, depending on the richness of our
learning, we can find ourselves either holding on to these as stories of an embattled
past or being inspired to create a new vision for our next project.
An industry that still prides itself on hard-nosed pragmatism and an ever-growing
requirement for rigorous processes is experiencing a progressive, and some might
say uneasy, shift towards placing ‘people at the heart’ of what it does. Paradoxically,
it is the human-doing, not the human-being that our attention continues to focus on.
The behavioural competency measures now added to technical competencies have
engendered an audit trail that simply reinforces this focus on what people are doing;
we justify our stories to each other whether people are operating in a team-like, col-
laborative manner by ‘measuring to manage’ their behaviours.
This chapter sets out to provoke thoughts and ideas; to step up a level and look
beyond people’s behaviours as the means of engaging with innovation and change.
We have an opportunity in our industry to catalyse an industry-wide use of innovations
by evoking that one unique human factor: choice.
Motivation to want to adopt new technology is far more sustainable and therefore
resilient than simply telling people that they need to/have to/should have it! Step back
and recall how the massive shift in H&S culture came about through connecting the
individual with what they wanted for their families and friends as they leave and return
home after each working day. How much more compelling a vision that is to hold on
to than just being played stories from the past and being told we have to comply with
more processes.
Figure 7.1 illustrates some of the areas in which we can exercise choice in leader-
ship: of ourselves and those around us. The challenge is to actively listen and identify
with our own values and motivations and be open to sharing these in our interactions
with team members. Fifteen years of coaching and facilitation of project teams across

Construction Manager’s BIM Handbook, First Edition. John Eynon.

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

56
 Leadership Choices 57

Acknowledge what's
working and making the
Nothing new here. Ok... if you & all your teams are working at your difference
I'll carry on as I am! best, consistently improving & fulfilled...

Share it widely

Stand-back from day to day

Think at different levels about

What really matters the most -
Outcome focused rather than
merely output chasing!
S.T.O.P.
Organise your thoughts in a way that makes
sense for you and engages you 100%

Proceed towards delivering those actions that

Are consistent with who you want to be as you
I like what I've read, then: focus on those outcomes

Refer to Leadership Moments mind map:

Cognitive Styles & Behaviours

Use the diversity of your team's

thinking styles to stretch current
Analyse current thinking
paradigms and generate new learning
Leadership Choices styles & behaviours
by
Change Advantage Ltd Re-calibrate actions:
Do more of...
Start doing...
Stop doing...

Refer to Leadership Moments mind map:

Motivation

Step up a level - Identify with & Raise awareness for yourself and your team
connect with Values / Drivers through a coaching approach to conversations

Draft your values as key descriptors in

your team health-checks

For you, your team, your project share these - at

What can I do next? the most profound level you're up for!

Using various techniques:

"Core ideology"
"Logical levels"
Vision & Purpose "VMOST"
Professionally & responsibly
facilitated

Draft your Purpose as what connects

& binds you together to a clear strategic
shared journey

Figure 7.1 Leadership choices mindmap.

BE DO HAVE

Visionary Actions Outcomes

Motivation Behaviours Results

Adapted from Ferrucci, 2004

Figure 7.2 Human being to human doing. Adapted from Ferrucci, 2004.
 58 Construction Manager’s BIM Handbook

Define the desired goal explicitly and state it

in the positive
For what & for who: Your purpose
Congruence / Alignment
Do you know what the goal/outcome will
look, sound and feel like Why: Your values and drivers

Clarity on effort
Can you start and maintain it?
Motivation
Focus of what you do want and not on what
Being outcome focused Clarity on performance
Is it timed and specific so you can measure you don't want Expectancy
it? Theory
Clarity on outcomes
Clarity on intent
Clarity on rewards
Clarity on rewards Goal setting
Reframe the problem as challenges or
opportunities
SMART

Thinking inside and 'outside' the box to

Being connected and aware of your Establish 'what' you want to do...
solve the problem
surroundings
Authentic chrisma
Creative problem solving
Will the route map involve a tight process
Being true to you and your purpose
How you are going to do it... and procedure or will it benefit from some
flexibility
Creating a possibility Being Present
Be curious & open
for ideas to emerge
How do you manage the people to get the
job done
Matching and mirroring people in tone,
energy and language to get the best results Rapport
from your conversations What might they need from you to continue
working at their best potential

Take responsibility for the reaction you draw

LEADERSHIP MOMENTS When the outcome is understood and
Know their styles desirable individuals are motivated to flex
Listening with eyes and ears! Communicating Taking Responsibility by their styles to deliver
Change Advantage Ltd
Integrity and transparency Are they motivated by external rewards- £s,
Understanding your people good pension, clear process and promotion
Do you see your way clearly
What motivates them Or are they motivated by internal rewards-
are they valued in others ways other than
Get the picture or keep an eye on things
just money. How they feel around other co-
workers for example
Visually
Or do things get a little foggy
(you prefer to see information)
Do you know your style & what motivates
Keep everything in perspective you?

Look after yourself Big chunk

Individual styles
(See list in main text)
Keep your ear to the ground Small chunk
Which representational systems do you
prefer to communicate in?
Work out which way sounds best Flexing from your preferred style
What's your sense of reality?
Auditory And how do you project it in your
Tune into a good idea or (you prefer to hear information) thinking and talking? Coping behaviour Pro-active v. Re-active
want to sound them out
Cognitive styles & behaviours Noticing stress & strain within the team
Get the buzz about something
Bridging the gap Right people Right place Right time
Like to get the feel of what's going on Team styles
Mind-sets & Group think Incremental vs. Transformational change
Get to grips with things
Feeling Push <> Pull
Feel settled with a solution Management and leadership style Directive <> Non-Directive
Operational <> Strategic
Have a gut feeling about something

Figure 7.3 Leadership moments mindmap.

 Leadership Choices 59

sectors within our industry highlights the innate desire that people have to respond
positively to this challenge.
However, current paradigms get habitually preserved with statements like ‘We’re
only engineers and we don’t do this soft stuff’ or ‘Once I have clear evidence that people
are working collaboratively, then I’ll also be up for change!’ and even ‘People will only
adopt these changes if they are made to through contract conditions, incentivised
targets with pain/gain arrangements – at least that way we can name and shame
them’.
And of course some of the most limiting beliefs come from incumbent managers
who, with an underlying positive intention, nevertheless find themselves responsible
for statements such as ‘If we open that can of worms we’ll never get this thing built – it’s
not broken yet so why fix it?’ often backed up by ‘If you tell our people too much about
what’s going on it’ll throw them’ and the most common one ‘I have to behave like this
at work, I don’t do that sort of thing with my family’.
As far as responding to innovation, change and collaborative working: ‘Well, it’s all
designed to control us and limit our scope to be profitable’ or ‘That’s just a few people
with vested interests looking to force change on us all’ and alarmingly ‘We’ve got on
perfectly well without it before, why change now?’
Many reading the last three paragraphs might comment that such selective anec-
dotes aren’t reflective of our industry, and anyway things are much different now
compared to 15 or even 5 years ago. In fact, the quotes above are taken from work-
shops during the period 2013–15 and across a range of high-profile organisations and
projects working in frameworks featuring partnering, collaborative or integrated team
working. So what is the value in these stories? A rich opportunity to learn about what
drives and motivates such behaviours by inviting people across our industry from our
project teams to connect as people; as human beings first – the human doing then
follows (Figure 7.2).
And that is exactly what project teams experience. When given the opportunity to
richly explore themselves, their values, their motives, people do break through those
limiting paradigms and connect in a way that becomes far more open to sharing
and learning. From this comes the inspiration to set new visions and intent for the
next project. And it is by creating this space that the opportunity comes to take
on board innovations, novel collaborative tools, and to set new exacting standards
for performance. These are driven with energy through a clear team motivation that
goes far beyond the ‘need to have to deliver’; the team and its people want to ful-
fil their mission by seeking out every opportunity to ‘be the change they want to
see’.
By working through the mind map in Figure 7.3, identify some of the choices and
mindset shifts you might want to pursue – be up for those changes. Do what’s consis-
tent with upholding these principles. Have the results you are deserving of!

Reference
Ferrucci, P. (2004) What We May Be. New York: Tarcher/Penguin.