If you are new to supervising construction, and you really want to get an idea of what’s required to excel at construction management, you should talk to a superintendent. They occupy a unique place in the construction hierarchy because they are the ones who blend project management with project execution. If there is one person who has their fingers on the pulse of the jobsite, it’s the superintendent. If you were to pick a superintendent’s brain for some valuable advice, it might look something like this:
Nurture Your Passion for Building
At both the beginning and end of your busy day, having a passion for building will provide a wellspring of energy and enthusiasm. Sure, the money might motivate you for a while. And, there’s always a certain amount of ego boost you can get from being in charge. But, those things won’t sustain you in the long-term. Construction is not comfortably predictable, and the uncertainty alone can make for challenging days and sleepless nights. But when you have a passion for building, the obstacles simply become problems to solve on your way to building something you are proud of.
Superintendents spend their days on the front lines as go-betweens. Their job is to blend design intent, and management, with construction.
The plans you start out with will have flaws. The sequencing someone used for estimating won’t always match the sequencing necessary for the resources available at the time you start building. Designs are always going to need changes, and people are always going to be somewhat unpredictable. So if you’re just in it for the money, or the glory, it’s going to get harder and harder for you to sustain enthusiasm.
To nurture your passion for building, feed your curiosity about how things are put together, how processes and methods are changing, how new materials are getting incorporated into new designs, and how new technology is affecting the built environment. Take the time to help others learn about building, and don’t be afraid to let others teach you a thing or two about building.
Dive Into the Details
When your passion for building is keenly stoked, getting into the very fine details of the project is a natural outgrowth of your curiosity. Construction projects have many moving parts, and you need a crystal clear vision of how all those parts go together. Start out by making the project drawings your new favorite reading material. As you pour over them, ask yourself questions about not only how all the pieces are going to fit, but also about who is going to fit them together, and how they are going to do it. As you find the inevitable mistakes and oversights, consider the solutions, and make plans to propose those solutions well in advance of when they are needed.
Allow your deep dive into the details to power your design of an excellent schedule.
Allow your deep dive into the details to power your design of an excellent schedule. Armed with your knowledge of where all the potential roadblocks and dead ends exist, you are in the position of putting together a highly realistic, yet flexible schedule. But, most importantly, you can infuse your schedule with your deep understanding of how all the parts fit together. Then, as you go over the schedule with your employees and subcontractors, you will already know where the opportunities and pitfalls lie. Very few people on the project will take the time to really understand the details; so those who do are naturally in a better position to lead.
Value the Documentation
Even on a small construction project there are thousands of interactions between people along with events associated with materials, equipment, and the environment. It’s rare for a superintendent to minimize the importance of keeping accurate documentation. Only fools tread there, and they do so at their own peril. Some superintendents put it like this, “A log for everything, and everything in a log.” No matter how you choose to account for what happens on a construction project, just make sure you are consistent and thorough.
No matter how you choose to account for what happens on a construction project, just make sure you are consistent and thorough.
Fortunately, there’s an amazing array of tools to help you with your documentation chores. Your smartphone, tablet, the Internet arm you with software, digital logs, voice recording, video recording, photography, and a quick and easy way to share all of your information with whomever you need to share it with.
Communicate Sincerely and Effectively
If you are not an excellent communicator, in all forms, then do what it takes to get better. There is no substitute for clear, concise, and accurate communication between all parties involved in a project. When communication breaks down, projects break down. But, clear, concise, and accurate are just the beginning of effective communication. There is also the need for empathy. When you understand not just the message you are receiving, but also how that message is affected by the sender’s situation at the time, you become better at communicating with that person. Sometimes, using empathy might mean waiting to respond, while at other times it might mean dropping what you’re doing and responding immediately. Sometimes, using empathy could mean being more sensitive to emotional cues, or it could mean adopting a more matter-of-fact posture. The net result of communicating effectively is that all parties understand each other with little opportunity for anyone to misunderstand. When you are sincere in all of your communications, you enhance effective communication by improving trust.
Their job is to blend design intent, and management, with construction.
Superintendents spend their days on the front lines as go-betweens. Their job is to blend design intent, and management, with construction. It’s from this unique vantage point that experienced and professional superintendents can provide advice that goes to the heart of constructing. Their best advice can help anyone who supervises any level of construction.
If you liked this article, here are a few eBooks, webinars, and case studies you may enjoy:
Break Free From the Iron Triangle
Clark Construction Management Study
Career Advancement: Communication, Relationships, and an Executive Call-to-Action
Great article! Thank you!
Thank you!! Many great nuggets in here!!
Great article thank you for this.
I have been in the construction industry for 34 years, with the reputation for being the best there is at my area of expertise. I am 3rd generation, and although born into construction “Royalty” in my field, I started as a helper and worked my way up to project Manager and have owned the company. (My fathers company shut down in the early 80’s. I started mine with 300 dollars to my name.)
At 27 i was made superintendent and then general superintendent of a general contractor from Magnolia, Texas. My boss, the project manager, at the time was a brilliant man who became a friend and mentor named Ben May (RIP) Ben had a style all his own. Everyone who ever met Ben was better for it. He told me when I hired on a great piece of advice. I have trained a a few hundred people since then, at least 50 superintendents, and have shared it with them all. He said there are two types of Supers. They type who does not make it- This is the guy who walks around with an attitude calling people down about gloves or tracking individual journeymen show up times instead of designating and trusting good foremen etc, and closing their eyes and ears to subs and saying “do it by the drawings, whatever they show”. These type do not make it. Architects and engineers, I am sorry to say, are not construction experts. Neither are most superintendents. They have their field, or area of expertise, and then they have subs. There is not enough time in a life time to learn what a guy who has done something for 30 years knows in 5 or six different fields!
So the ones who DO make it, are the ones who are friendly, good people persons with a razor sharp judge of character. They identify which people out of which craft really REALLY knows their chit, and that person becomes their go to guy for any questions pertaining to that field. If your mechanical contractor for instance brings you a problem with the drawings or a better solution than the drawings regarding the ductwork, LISTEN to him, consult your go to guy, have the balls to sign off the drawings and do it the experts way. Also, demand to get your go to guy from each field involved in the schedule making. Do not let your PM hand you a schedule, even though he is your boss, and say make this happen. You get one from your team, and go back to him and if the team says it wont happen, tell him “It wont happen, but here is what we can do weather permitting.” Have a good attitude and show major respect for the helper through general foreman.
Im 24 and in your position. im literally following your footsteps with a mentor just like May. everything you said hits the nail on the head. If you’re lucky enoguh to have a mentor, no matter how much of a dickhead he is. LISTEN to him, hes done it far longer than you and he went through what you are going through. With that being said, take matters into your own hands! in the end you’re there all day everyday, the PM only knows what you tell him. GO BIG OR GO HOME!