Leadership Lessons from a Construction Site

Normally I wouldn’t be caught dead at a construction site (unless of course I happened to be buried under the concrete!).  Last week a few women in Atlanta got together to finish up a Habitat for Humanity home for a young woman and I said “yes” to volunteering with them.  Truth be told, I really wanted the hard hat they promised when they signed me up! And it was an opportunity to connect with other women.  Little did I realize that the most valuable outcome would be the leadership lessons below. The volunteers were mostly executive women, CEO’s of companies as well as non-profits.  Just to make sure we didn’t hurt ourselves (or damage the home too badly), they also had seasoned volunteers available from Habitat for us.  The experience taught me five important leadership lessons.

1)      Any experience can be turned into a leadership lesson – We all go off to leadership academies or seminars to learn about leadership. We read books. We listen to speakers.  What I discovered is that when we engage in any experience and set an intent for it to teach us, it does!  This will help me be more open to the teaching in any situation in front of me.

2)      The importance of a beginner’s mind – Zen Buddhism talks about the importance of having a beginners mind in anything we undertake.  According to Wikipedia, it’s having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would.  Never having done home construction before, I brought a beginner’s mind to the task. There was everything to learn and nothing to prove. It lowered any anxiety level most of us feel when we are in “expert” or “proving” mode and I was able to learn a whole lot more, and have more fun!  I wonder where else in my work I can bring a beginner’s mind attitude.

3)      Push yourself outside your comfort zone and you’ll learn something – Having never done any (even minor) construction work, I had always assumed that it would not be very much fun.  I found out that I actually enjoyed using all the power tools (the electric saw was my favorite). Who knew I was such a power hungry chick? Working with and quickly learning these tools gave me a rush of confidence (and power!).  I discovered that I could probably learn whatever I put my beginner’s mind to.  I also discovered I am pretty good at operating a power saw and recovering from punching a nail in my finger.  I guess I will be more open to trying new things and discovering new strengths.

4)      Managing ourselves is the most important task in teamwork – Contrary to popular myth, teamwork does being with “I”.  At one point during our project which we needed to finish prior to 12pm, and were behind on, my teammate wondered off.  I thought she had gone off to get some water, but when she didn’t return after 10 minutes, the critic in my brain started to work. “Slacker” I thought.  I had a whole tape playing in my mind featuring me as the chief victim in the drama having to do all the work, getting angrier by the minute. Then I started to get mindful and watch myself play out the drama in my head.  When I recognized it for what it was (me feeling good about being a victim), I made a decision to take a deep breath, be more empowered in the situation, and let the blame and anger go.  She soon came back, found me in a cheerful state, and apologized for being away for so long. I had learned an important lesson. Mindfulness can help us manage ourselves. And managing ourselves first is an important step to being a great teammate.

5)      The importance of a mission personally felt – Put together people most of whom don’t know each other, haven’t worked together, aren’t very skilled at the task they are assigned to, and give them a deadline to finish the task.  Recipe for disaster? How often does this work in our organizations? Yet at the Habitat home, we got it all done.  The difference-maker was the mission. That’s because each of us had a very clear desire to impact, and the presence of the young lady who would be living in the home made it personal and tangible. How can we harness this sense of making our organizational missions personal for the people who work in our organizations? Some of the personal branding work I do with my clients helps, because they develop and align their own personal mission with that of the organization.

What a great learning opportunity! What a great team of people I got to know.  And the hard hat turned out to be a bonus! I am humbled by the experience.   What’s next? Replacing the toilet flush in my bathroom. I know I can do it!

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This article was written by Henna Inam, C-level executive coach, global speaker, and author of the book Wired for Disruption. She helps leaders grow their agility to be a force for good and thrive in times of change. They create organizations that drive breakthroughs in innovation, growth, and engagement. In roles including Head E-Innovation and Chief Innovation and Marketing Officer, Henna drove transformation throughout her 20-year corporate career as an executive with Fortune 500 companies. Join the thousands who follow her blog here. Connect on Linkedin.