Construction Curiosities #45
Take Control of Your Career via Batman Memes
Hey! Happy Saturday! Matt here.
Welcome to this Batman-themed Construction Curiosities newsletter.
This weekly Newsletter explores my Curiosities about the Construction Industry. It's meant to make you think, smile, and become a better, more well-informed Construction Professional.
If you like Construction (and/ or Batman) consider sharing this with your friends.
Summary
This week we will look at:
One Musing: Take Control of Your Career
One Article: No-Car Neighborhoods
One Quote: What I Do
One Meme: Gotham’s OSHA Nightmare
One Musing
This week’s musing is inspired primarily by yesterday’s “Feed Me Your Construction Content” podcast from Joshua & Caroline McMahon with special guest Luke Hill. (Go give it a listen if you haven’t!) This post is about career development and what you should be doing to take control of your own Career path.
I’ll be honest, throughout my career this has been a struggle for me personally. Now I’ve had both the privilege of working on teams that really took time to mentor, develop and coach their folks to the next level and unfortunately, those that don’t. Admittedly I have had the tendency of assuming that my Leaders/ Managers should take note of all the great things I’m doing and recognize/ promote me accordingly.
The unfortunate truth is many managers in the construction industry end up worrying about themselves and their own development/ goals and unfortunately that leaves little time for individual attention and the development of their team.
“And managers aren’t helping. Too worried about their own hides, most managers don’t have time or energy to focus on anyone else’s. In fact, Korn Ferry found that when managers rated themselves on 67 managerial skills, ‘developing others’ came in dead last.”
- Harvard Business Review Article (from below)
So where can you start?
I recently went through a Leadership Development Program at work and through this, we were tasked with creating our own Personal Vision, Mission Statement, and Values. This was actually a bit harder than I expected. You think you know what your Vision is until you have to articulate it into words.
Next use your vision, mission, and values to devise 10, 5, 3, & 1 year plans. How can you know if you are on track unless you have a map of where you are trying to go?
You can then use your Personal Vision, Mission, and Values, and compare them to the company you currently work for to determine if you align. You may realize what you’ve already known deep down inside and it’s time to make a change. This is also a great exercise when evaluating a company you may be looking at joining too.
Share your Yearly Plans with your manager so they know your goals. They can’t help you achieve your goals if they aren’t aware of them. Do your Yearly Plans/ goals align with what the company’s goals are for you?
6 Ways to Take Control of Your Career Development If Your Company Doesn’t Care About It
Not too long ago a mentor gave me this: Harvard Business Review article. He told me to read the 6 things and ask myself 2 questions: Do you feel you could be doing better at them? Could you be avoiding any of them?
Here are the 6 things you can do to take control of your career development from the HBR article. (Go read the article for more information on each item.)
Understand what you’re evaluated on.
Solve for your own blind spots.
Codify your learnings.
Increase your visibility with the C-suite.
Become an expert in an area of increasing importance to your company.
Seek good counsel and mentoring.
So now I give you the same challenge. Read the 6 ways and ask yourself:
Do you feel you could be doing better at them?
Could you be avoiding any of them?
I say all this and tell my story to let you know if you are feeling stuck, you aren’t alone. Lots of other folks have been there too. If you are feeling stuck and want to bounce something off someone. Feel free to reach out: matt@constructionyeti.com
For more on the topic, you can check out CM Mentors Podcast Ep. 4:
Pop Quiz Trivia Question
How much would it cost to build the Bat Cave in real life?
Answer is at the bottom of the Newsletter
One Article
Car-Free Living Takes Off in Car-Centric Cities
In Houston and Charlotte, developers are leveraging micromobility, transit investments and zoning reforms to create walkable projects that omit the parking lot.
Sorry Batman, there’s no where to park the Batmobile
One Quote
One Meme
Everyone have a great weekend!
Trivia Answer
This blog post was from 2018. I bet those construction costs have doubled!