5 Strategies for Construction Project Manager Success

List all your current PM activities and categorize them as leadership-oriented or administrative. Initial reflection on current role and identifying key aspects that can be categorized as leadership vs administrative.

“Project manager really is the orchestrator of the entire project.”

Identify tasks that are primarily administrative and explore strategies for delegation or automation. Focus on how to reframe expectations to align with more strategic goals.

“Don't get stuck into non-value added work.”

Establish a consistent meeting time to foster communication and build rapport. Leveraging Social Influence: The importance of regular PM-Superintendent interaction.

“You too, love you. You're going to lunch every week.”

Identify a current project challenge and brainstorm solutions with the superintendent. Addressing communication in context.

“Superintendent pm they got to be close. They got to be tight. They have to be working together so that again, the sum of their efforts together are much more than any of them could have produced individually and added together, right?”

Plan and execute a team-building activity to foster collaboration and improve team dynamics. Focus on improving overall team dynamics.

“Project managers build the team.”

Identify a difficult conversation you've been avoiding and prepare a strategy for addressing it. Focus on the framing effect to enable and promote confidence.

“As a PM now you get to have that hard conversation. You get to go have that discussion. You get to go terminate that employee. You get to go do those hard things”

Start a mentorship program for one direct report. Focus on building relationships and overall performance.

“Leaders, PM's, manage, coach and mentor their direct reports.”

Follow the instructions in 'Death by Meeting' to restructure all meetings. Focus on improving overall team performance.

“But a good PM, no dumb meetings, no garbage meetings.”

Repetition. Driving clarity and focus to promote alignment and overall improvement.

“So the PM makes sure to drive communication, clarity on what we're doing, why we're doing it, what does the customer want, when are we supposed to be finished? How are we going to get there over and over and over again.”

Set a goal to decrease time spent on email by half, focusing on alternative communication methods. Focus on alternative communication methods.

“Emails are one of the single biggest wastes of time that you could possibly ever get into it.”

Always schedule buffers before and after all meetings. Focus on one piece flow.

“Do not get backed into back to back meetings. If you do, all of your assignments will be pushed to the end of the day and it will take you twice or three times as long to remember what in the world you're supposed to do.”

When possible, get the team what they need to succeed. Focus on empowering the overall team.

“Don't let your team fail because you're so freaked out about a budget. I love the thought that a project manager's main job is to get people what they need.”

Increase frequency of direct contact to better understand their needs. Focus on understanding needs.

“What do you need, superintendent? What do you need? Trade partner, what do you need? And that project manager, the main role is to get people what they need and it get people what they need to do something specific and this is my main message.”

Keep a detailed record of owner feedback and desired outcomes to ensure alignment. Focus on alignment.

“A PM's secret superpower, is to read the owner's mind, to be a psychic, to have telepathic powers. You have secret superpowers that you use to know what the customer wants, how they want it, when they want it, and in what manner they want it.”