The Risks of Vision and Strong Leadership

The strongest leaders at all levels in construction have a clear vision of where they are headed and are relentlessly focused on achieving their goals. They align their teams tightly around the vision, goals, and strategy. This may introduce risks.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

 

Leadership Tools: Tunnel Vision and Strong Leadership equals Failure. Example: The 1978 United Flight 173.

This is absolutely the leadership required to bring a project out of the ground, set up a new department such as prefab, enter a new market, launch a new branch office or found a contracting business.  

As a contractor grows the leadership styles must also adapt along with the entire team dynamics. The airline industry has learned this through many failures including United Flight 173.  

It would be too easy to blame the captain, but similar incidents had occurred in the past. Root Cause Analysis pointed to deeper cultural and training issues. There hasn’t be an incident like this since.  

Our mission is to help contractors build stronger businesses for the next generation. We spend a significant amount of our time helping prepare leadership teams for succession and have learned many lessons along the way.  

Every failed succession we have seen has been a failure of talent not being properly aligned and not a failure of available capital or deal structure.  

Learn more




Working Like an Owner
Success in anything significant can never be guaranteed, but there are many things you can do that will nearly guarantee failure. If you do the following consistently, without any expectation in return, you will see opportunities open for you.
Construction Labor Budget - Alternate Perspective
Improving craft labor productivity in construction will significantly reduce risk while providing a long-term competitive advantage for the contractor and every team member. This alternate labor budget perspective shows different opportunities.
Accounting and Finance (Similarities, Differences, and Integration)
For a growing contractor, understanding the differences between accounting and finance is often a challenge. The two functions are related but very different.