Eric Anderton opens this solo episode of Construction Genius with a confession. Sometimes he’s a lousy listener. He’s already judged the person talking and he’s working out his reply, so he misses what they know.
If you own a construction company, that habit costs you money. In this episode Eric covers why leaders stop listening and the active listening habits he uses to stay in the conversation.
Think of the one person on your team you struggle to listen to. Keep them in mind as you read.
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Why Construction Leadership Depends on Listening
An owner’s job is to run a sustainably profitable business. That happens when your people build projects safely, productively and with high quality. Your part is to clear the obstacles out of their way.
You can’t clear an obstacle you don’t know about. Your project managers and superintendents see problems and opportunities you can’t, because you aren’t in every project at their level of detail.
Miscommunication between the field and the office happens on every project you build. So does conflict between a sub and the GC, or between the owner and your team. Your people know about it before you do.
What Poor Listening Costs a Construction Company Owner
Dismiss your people’s explanations and you lose their expertise. That shows up in your profitability.
It shows up in retention too. Your best people want to feel valued, and Eric points out there are plenty of construction jobs right now.
“I promise you that people who are not listened to eventually will go and find someone who will listen to them.”
How to Listen to the Person Who Irritates You
Picture the person who gets a physical reaction out of you the minute they walk into the room. Sometimes you can’t even say why. And that person might be your best project manager, or the superintendent who rallies his foremen to build projects profitably.
Eric reminds himself that every person he works with is deeply interesting. Each one brings a lifetime of experience and abilities he doesn’t have.
He borrows a line from C.S. Lewis. “There are no ordinary people.”
You hired your PMs, superintendents and estimators because you believed they could contribute. If you don’t believe that anymore, why are they in your business?
Pride Keeps Leaders From Listening
When you don’t listen, you tell people you don’t value them. Eric says a lot of the time the cause is pride. We put our own opinion above everyone else’s and lack the humility to hear them out.
“A lot of the reason why we don’t listen is because we’re too proud.”
Active Listening Skills for Construction Owners
Breathe Through the Resistance
You’ll feel it in your body when you want to stop listening. Eric takes a deep breath. Then he balls up the toes on his right foot and tells himself, “Ground yourself.”
The small discomfort clears his head so he can focus on the person talking. He describes the same habit in his book, Construction Genius.
Remind Yourself You Might Be Wrong
When Eric starts to disagree, he reminds himself he might be wrong. His judgment has been right in situations like this before. Today, on this project, in this situation, with this person, it might not be.
Ask Questions and Let Silence Work
Test your assumptions with questions. Start with, “Can you help me understand why you have that perspective?” Then follow with “What do you mean?” and “Tell me more.”
Give people time to answer. The first answer may only start the explanation, so ask again before you jump in with yours.
Don’t fill every silence. Let it do the heavy lifting while they think.
Listen for the Business Implications
Run what you hear through the way you run the business. Listen for revenue, cost, safety, productivity, schedule, quality and relationship issues.
That framework tells you which roadblocks you need to help your people remove.
Read Body Language in Project Meetings
Eric comes back to Hemingway. “Most people never listen, nor do they observe.” Listening includes what you see in the room.
Here’s his example. Your PM is explaining why the project is behind schedule. The superintendent’s body language says he isn’t buying it.
If you respect the PM and have issues with the super, you’ll want to accept the explanation and ignore the body language. Don’t.
Turn to the superintendent and open with Eric’s line. “Hey, correct me if I’m wrong here, but it doesn’t seem that you’re on the same page with the PM.”
Give the super the floor. Then let the PM respond, and watch both of them while they talk.
You may surface a conflict that needs to be dealt with. Your PM and your super have to work together to make money on the job, so get it in the open.
How to Fix a Reputation as a Bad Listener
Maybe you’ve spent years shutting people down and jumping to solutions before you heard the problem. Your people will need evidence that you’ve changed.
Name the behavior. Maybe it’s interrupting, or dismissing people, or cutting them off before they finish. Apologize for it, tell them what you’re working to change and then show it in your meetings.
How to Take Criticism as a Leader
The hardest test comes when someone criticizes you. Eric’s first instinct is to defend himself.
What works for him is to breathe through the resistance and say thank you when they’re done. In that moment, the other person may be testing whether you’ll listen. You can come back later and explain yourself.
Your Listening Challenge for This Week
You’ll sit in a meeting this week with someone you don’t like listening to. Or an issue will come up where you’ll want to jump to a conclusion.
Pick the person you tend to dismiss and remember why you hired them. Put your phone away and turn from the screen. When you feel the resistance, breathe through it.
Ask questions until you understand, and watch their body language. Before you give your conclusion, explain their position back to them, including why they hold it. Check that you got it right.
Your company is full of people with experience and insight you don’t have. Will you hear it in your next meeting?
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👉 More from Construction Genius
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