In this video, we're going to talk about
the five strategies to being a successful construction project manager. You're
going to love this content, I'm going to leave you with some references,
and I'm really hoping that you get a lot out of this so that you don't
get stuck into non-value added work. I am going to talk to you about what will happen
if you don't focus on these key concepts, what the greatest asset is for a project manager and
how you can leverage that relationship. The key behaviors that every PM should know, understand
and master, and what the rallying cry is for a pm. What is the main focus of a PM that if they
focus on that, they'll be highly successful. So that's what we're doing. By the end of this
video, you'll have a clear understanding of what a PM is and what a PM does in order to be highly
successful as a construction project manager. So I think we all know that being a project manager in
construction is really about leading the team. The title really couldn't be any better, the project,
and there's a manager and you put that together, project manager. So what does a project manager
do? They manage the entire project. I will say a couple things. They also manage if they're brought
in at that point, the procurement of that project site or the sales and acquisition, meaning
they went and interviewed and were a part of the proposal and winning that project. They're
a part of the design and pre-construction phase, the construction phase and the closeout
and warranty phase, which thank God for project managers because who wants to do that? But
really it's just from all the way from the start to the finish. Superintendents may be brought in
hopefully halfway through for the pre-construction effort and they may leave at the end of the job,
but the PM owns this project from the beginning to the end. And so this project manager really is the
orchestrator of the entire project. Why do I say this? You're like, Jay Money. I totally already
knew this. Why are you talking to me right now? Because I think we've lost a little bit of this
in the industry. I think people have started to think, oh, as a project manager, I do office work,
I do paperwork, or I answer emails, and they don't see the grand vision of what a project manager
can actually be. And in fact, let me tell you something that's super real. I don't mean this
flippantly. I'm not saying this passing by I'm not saying this lightly. Like I swear a lot of
PMs in our industry today have become professional email. I don't even know that's that the practices
ugly and the word describing it's ugly. We can't have this happen. I literally go to project
sites and the PM is disengaged, not leading, abdicating his responsibilities and literally
stuck behind a computer even during meetings. This ought not to be, we cannot head down this
road. So let's anchor back to what a project manager always was and always should be. So
first and foremost, I love the concept of PMs and superintendents being equal. If your company
doesn't particularly believe that, I leave that to you. I'm just telling you the pattern that
I believe we should anchor back to is that a PM and a superintendent are equal positions where
their combined efforts are more together than if they were separate and individual and focusing
on individual outcomes, right? 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? Has to be a dynamic
relationship. That's why when I go to projects, if they're not getting along, first thing, hey,
you too, love you. You're going to lunch every week. Oh, well, we can take some. Nope, you're
not covering work. Go get to know each other, build that relationship. You two are key to
this project's success. So first and foremost, as a project manager, we got to win over that
superintendent. If you've got a dis- and this goes for business owners, supervisors, anyone
you got to PM and a super not getting along, nothing else matters until we get that fixed. It's
like Steven Covey said, he said, if the oxygen was sucked out of the room, what would you do? I'd
like run people over and get to where I could breathe again, right? Nothing's more important
until that problem is fixed. Same thing with PM's and super's. Nothing else is more important until
that problem is fixed. So PM's first and foremost, win over that superintendent, give to that
superintendent, help that superintendent have influence with that superintendent, and then
everything else will flow from there. The other thing that I think is super cool are the five
key behaviors of a leader. This is like project management 101, and if you mix this also with
one of the other videos, the step-by-step guide on how to run a construction project, man, you've
got like a killer formula for success. So let's go over these five. First and foremost, number one,
project managers build the team. What happens after building the team only matters if you have
a good team because however good your team is, how good you'll execute the project. So yes, the
PM is going to assemble that team and help win that project. Yes, that project manager is going
to work in design and pre-construction. Yes, that PM is going to supervise that project during
the actual construction phase, but the first step in all of it is to build that team. So go get
that team, recruit that team, onboard that team and build that team. Here's some references for
you. First, the five behaviors is written in a book called The Motive by Patrick Lencioni, building the
Team, that's going to happen in a book called The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and a book called
The Wisdom of Teams. These two references will really get you by every pm should read all of
Patrick Lencioni's books in my opinion. Literally, if somebody said, I want a series of books that tie
into how to be a PM and really do a killer job, those books, that series is what they would've
come up with. So all of Patrick Lencioni's books from the table groom, okay, so first thing, build
the team. Number two is you're going to have to have hard conversations. Some people think they're
like, I'm going to go once I'm a pm, I'll be able to sit in my cushy office and boss people around.
No, no, you're not. The higher you get in the organizational structure, the harder the things
get. Meaning 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, and so you don't have
to say the thing hard, but you do have to have the hard conversations. And so great PMs will
build that team and have those hard conversations because you ain't going to build that team unless
you're able to have those hard conversations and do those hard things. Number three, and this
is huge. Leaders, PM's, manage, coach and mentor their direct reports. That means whether you
think they want it or not, whether you think they need it or not, whether they asked for it or
not, whether somebody told you to do it or not, it is your job to manage. Yes, I said that. Mentor
and coach, your direct reports. Everybody wants to be managed. Everybody wants to be mentored.
Everybody wants to be coached, even if they don't think they do. The worst thing you can do with an
employee is leave them alone and just trust them to get it done. We don't do that. We connect, we
mentor, we support, we train, we purchase training for and we build up our people. That's it. We
are builders of people who build things. Let me just say that again for PMs, we are builders of-
Oh, not we. I'm not currently a project manager. I'm not that cool. You're cool, I'm not cool.
Project managers build people that build things, okay? So once you've built the team, you're having
hard conversations and you're managing mentoring and your coaching direct reports. The fourth thing
is remarkable meetings. There's a book Death by Meeting, and also another video on this YouTube
channel that we can link you to that really does a good job of explaining how to run remarkable
meetings. But a good PM, no dumb meetings, no garbage meetings. Every meeting from the strategic
planning and procurement meeting to the trade partner, weekly, tactical to the foreman, huddle
to the actual worker huddle, the crew preparation, huddle, your OAC meeting, your team meeting. They
should all be focused, interesting. And there should be conflict, meaning that there's actually
something you're getting done and they should be somewhat entertaining and people should want to
go to them because that's where you really bring those teams together. I used to say as a project
director, if I can get the team in a meeting, I got 'em. There's nothing I can't do after
that. As long as I can get 'em all together, I can shape the culture, I can shape behaviors,
I can build the team, I can build trust. We can craft plan together. We can weigh in, we can
buy in, we can solve problems. But until we get that team in a room in good meetings, we can't do
any of that. It's siloed, chaos. And number five, scale communication. 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.
If something needs to be said, the PM and then secondarily, the superintendent say it. And I
love the metric people don't start to listen until you've said it seven times. Until you've said
it seven times, people are not going to retain it. So as soon as you think you've started, good
communication, keep pushing, there's more to go. All right, so I got a question for you, and this
is for you. How are you going to get the other videos that talk about meetings and teaming and
all this cool content if you don't hit subscribe, what's holding you back? All you got to do is move
the mouse and click the button. I know you want to. I almost, okay, I see it. Thank you. Awesome.
Hit subscribe. We got more videos for you, specific for your role. All right, now back on
content. So once you really adopt those five key behaviors, I've got some warnings for you,
things that you should look out for if you really want to be effective. First and foremost,
stay away from emails as much as you can, and back to back meetings. Now, I know what you're
saying. You're like, Jay Money, I just subscribed to your channel and now I'm going to unsubscribe.
No, don't. No, no, don't unsubscribe yet. What I mean is this. Yes, you need emails every now and
then. Yes, you need emails for documentation. Yes, you need emails for certain CYA situations.
Yes, you need emails for clear instruction, but you don't need emails for everything. And
I bet you could cut out at least half of your email traffic. If you can cover it in a meeting,
a phone call, a text or in person, and you don't have to send an email, do it. If you wouldn't send
a letter, like an actual hand type handwritten, hand typed or typed printed letter to a person and
wait for the delivery of it, then don't send it in an email. So emails are one of the single biggest
wastes of time that you could possibly ever get into it. Please don't become one of those email
warriors and waste all of your time. Second, back to back meetings. As a PM you're in the office
lot. You're doing a lot of work. You're prepping for the team. Love it. Got it. 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. And you'll waste time and you'll be stuck at the office. So give yourself a buffer, prepare the
meeting, do the meeting, and then have a buffer at the end of the meeting to really finish it up and
finish these things in one piece flow. And lastly, I just want to say, don't handcuff yourself with
budgets. We got to have budgets. We've got to have control of our finances. But you know what most
budgets are? They're a wild cuss word guess. And so really in most instances, it's the amount of
money that we're allowed to spend before getting further permission. 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. So why do you write contracts so that we have
the resources, then the people to build it, get people what they need? Why are you in charge
of procurement, so that we can get the materials that we need? Why are you in charge of RFI so
we can get the information that we need? One of your tasks as a PM is to get people what they
need. Please don't handcuff yourself and only get people what they need based on a budget. If they
need it, get it. A project manager needs to know this phrase, this question really well, and this
is not insulting at all. What do you need to the field engineer? 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. 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. And it's your job to orchestrate the project
to get them what they need and in order to get the owner what they need, you got to get the
people doing it what they need. That's your job to create that value stream, that flow, and that
end product. And so I think you're going to love this other video on the step-by-step process on
how to run a successful construction project. I had a good time. Please like and subscribe so
you can get this other content. On we go.
