«

»

Nov 03

NAWIC Image on Leadership

I opened my mailbox and there was the NAWIC Image,  the award winning publication of the National Associate of Women in Construction.  It is always full of interesting articles highlighting the efforts, causes and issues of NAWIC members and the construction industry.

The current issue is about leadership.  What are the characteristics that you look for in an effective leader?  What is your leadership style?

Debra M. Gregoire, CIT, current NAWIC President lists ten characteristics of an effective leader.  The characteristic that spoke loudest to me was synergy.  Gregoire states that synergy is an important leadership characteristic that occurs when the leader and follower form a partnership to help each other rise to higher levels of achievement than either could achieve alone.

In my opinion, the construction industry definitely needs more synergy.  There are so many participants in the building process.  The owner, architect, contractor, material manufacturer & supplier and the installer to name a few. Sometimes it seems that all entities are working against each other rather than working together, even though everyone is working toward a shared goal.

Who will take the lead in that entourage to create a more synergistic environment?  Some may look toward the architect, or maybe the contractor but the truth is it can be anyone of us along the line.  Just one person putting themselves in anothers shoes and asking what can I do to make their job easier.

Gregoire says, “If you want to be a leader, the good news is that you can do it.   Everyone has the potential, but it cannot be accomplished overnight.”  I think there is a leader in all of us, so Debra M. Gregoire and I want to know… “What are you waiting for?”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>