- Posted by Tim Faller on March 3, 2010
Not enough has been said about leadership on the job site. Project manager, lead carpenter, and site superintendent all imply a role of leadership. But when it comes down to it more emphasis is put on tech skills and getting the job done than leadership. However, good leadership will result in better productivity with less effort.
There are essentially two extremes of leadership and one middle of the road type. It won’t be hard to see that I favor the middle of the road, but we have to see the extremes to appreciate the right course of action.
Authoritarian: The first is what we call authoritarian. This is the person that not only barks orders, but expects everyone to jump. They typically do not listen to input and will think and sometime say, “It’s my way or the highway.” Making it more complicated is the fact that this type of leadership is often conveyed not in words, because most people are smart enough not to say those things, but in attitude and actions. This type of leader will get instantiations results, a large amount of work gets done while they are present, and are often able to achieve goals by hard work. However, they often lose good staff members, stifle creativity and limit growth to what they can handle alone. All of which are not conducive to a company growing.
Laissez-faire: The second type is the polar extreme: laissez-faire. This essentially means “hands off”. The style is represented by a leader that simply allows the employees to work independently, gives little or no guidance and is often couched in terms like “I trust them completely”. This style can be good for highly self motivated people and works well in highly creative areas. It also offers a great deal of freedom which many enjoy. Unfortunately there is a downside. The leader may not really trust them and becomes extremely stressed about their work, while the employee feels that all is well. Often goals, like a budget, are not met because of a lack of involvement by the leader. And some are insecure, not knowing if they are performing to the leader’s standards or not.
At this point an old saying comes to mind that I believe is only half true. “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Most flies will enjoy, in fact, take advantage of the honey unless there is some teeth in it. This leads me to the third type of leader, authoritative or a coach.
Authoritative or coach: This is a leader that has a good nature, is comfortable with people, builds report easily, but also holds people accountable for commitments. This person gives clear directions; confirms that people know what is expected; achieves agreement and then holds people accountable for their performance. The benefits of this style are clear. Goals are reached because of the attention to results. Morale stays high because the leader knows their people and the work place is fun. Self motivated people get the chance to excel while others get the direction and guidance they need. But most importantly people are productive to the leader’s standard, even when the leader is not around, allowing growth to occur independent of the energy of the leader.
Tim Faller of Westerly, Rhode Island, founded Field Training Services in 1999, a firm committed to training production staff in good job-site management and helping companies develop production systems that produce profit. For 12 years, Tim worked at Hopkins & Porter Construction in Potomac, Maryland, where he started as lead carpenter, became production manager and then helped begin the New Homes division. Based on his extensive experience, Tim has conducted many successful lead carpenter training programs across the country. He is the author of The Lead Carpenter Handbook: The Complete Hands-on Guide to Successful Job-Site Management and the Lead Carpenter Audiobook. www.leadcarpenter.com
