Twenty years ago, the landscape of construction looked very different – predominately men running all aspects of the business, today women are an important part of changing the “norms” of what use to be.
Since joining the construction industry in 2002 it’s exciting to see the changes that women have brought to all aspects of construction including working in the field and taking leadership roles within their firms. Why have women quickly changed the industry? Because the value women bring in terms of emotional intelligence and compassion teamed with mental toughness make them the perfect leaders for the next generations who are entering the workforce.
With the ever-changing landscape of generations entering the workforce, the ideologic of showing up to work and doing your job to make the company successful has drastically changed. Today, the next generations need to see their purpose and connection to the bigger picture of the company, and they want to not just read the core values on the wall but see them enforced day-to-day. Women are naturals at making connections whether it is with co-workers or in their personal lives, so it’s no surprise the positive impact women bring to our cultures that have quickly changed from task-oriented to connection-oriented.
There is still a level of toughness that goes into difficult business decisions such as budget cuts, strategic direction, and ensuring you have the right people in the right positions in addition to the meaningful culture the generations expect. That’s where women come in strong, we naturally make tough decisions, but do so in a way that often contain more compassion in the delivery of the messages. Gone are the days of task performance-based environments, multi-level hierarchy, and competitive department work environments. Research shows that the higher a person gets within an organization, the lower their natural empathy goes, so while our workforces take on a more collaborative and mentorship focus, together both women and men can make a well-rounded organization by blending the two traditional leadership styles together.
If you don’t have women on your leadership team, you are missing key perspectives that can change a point of view and make your culture even stronger than before. I have seen first-hand the positive changes that our culture has experienced because we have simply brought more diverse ideas on how to make our workforce more successful than before!