Ambition Theory: Women in Construction

Doreen Bartoldus is the past national president of the National Association of Women in Construction and one of the 2023 Construction Power 100 for New York City. She is a certified construction manager recognized by the  Construction Management Association of America with the Champion Coins of Excellence award. Doreen is a trailblazer in the construction industry, someone who holds the door open for those coming behind her and has used her influence to make the industry better for the women coming up behind her. 

Highlights 

• How to navigate an industry that wasn’t made for women. 

• The progress that has been made to advance women and the work that still needs to be done. 

• The tools that are essential to advancing to a leadership position. 

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Getting more women into leadership roles is important for every industry but especially for manufacturing. The sector lags behind others in terms of representation, particularly in the C-Suite. What does it take to attract women to the industrial space? What can companies do to retain these women? What guidance do current women leaders have for the next generation to improve their chances for a successful career in manufacturing? Kristin Graybill shares the results of the Manufacturers Alliance Research report called In Her Own Words: Breaking The Glass Ceiling Is Good For Business.  

Highlights 

• The real story behind Rosie The Riveter 

• How to be more intentional with your hiring and interview process

• The return on investment of having a strong culture 

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Sponsorship is one of the most powerful tools to advance women in the construction industry. Once you learn about this concept, it’s easy to want to implement it. But it isn’t always straightforward. There’s no sign-up sheet or 3-step plan; it’s a mutually beneficial relationship. Rachael Ferrera from Zachry Construction unpacks how sponsorship has shown up for her over her 15-year career - even though she couldn’t recognize it then. She shares how she’s intentionally leveraging these relationships and sponsoring the next generation of leaders. 

Highlights 

• How sponsorship creates value for a company. 

• What a Sponsorship - Protegé relationship looks like.

• How you can sponsor the next generation of leaders. 

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There’s a labor shortage in the construction industry today, which has started a trend of companies wanting to attract more women. While the motivation may have started with getting more people in the door, the truth is that women bring a ton of value to the industry. Today, much of this value is untapped and isn’t leveraged. Dr. Tim Taylor from the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) talks about the findings of their research report In her own words: improving project outcomes. 

Highlights 

• The value that women bring to the job site. 

• How women influence the culture of job sites 

• The return on investment of having women on your project team 

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It's actually not all about the money. Well, salary might get women in the door. What they really want as they progress is a clear path to career advancement.

This episode is an excerpt from Ambition Theory and the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) Building Better Report.  

Highlights:  

• What women want when they are looking for career opportunities 

• Why women don’t advance at the same rate as the men they work with 

• What you can do to retain women at your company 

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The best way to start implementing sponsorship as a tool to advance women is to start by modeling sponsorship behaviors. Cultural transformation is really about behavior change, and all it takes is one person to start, and others will follow. 

This episode is an excerpt from Ambition Theory and the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) Building Better Report.  

Highlights:  

• The mindset shift from mentorship to sponsorship 

• What sponsorship behavior looks like 

• The quick wins companies can get when they start implementing these behaviors 

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Investing in your women employees' leadership development is an excellent retention tool. But knowing what kind of training you should invest in can get overwhelming. 

Andrea Janzen reads a Forbes Coaches Council article in this episode to show you the difference between 1:1 and group coaching. 

Highlights:  

• The difference between coaching and traditional leadership training  

• The outcomes you can expect when you invest in coaching 

• How to set up employees for success in a coaching program 

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Transactional leadership involves providing direction, giving praise, and offering critical feedback. On the other hand, transformational leadership involves sharing a vision and inspiring people to contribute to that vision. In the construction industry, you need to leverage both styles of leadership. 

Andrea Janzen reads a Forbes Coaches Council article in this episode to show you how to leverage your transformational leadership skills to motivate your team. 

Highlights:  

• Why do employees not take initiative 

• The difference between internal and external motivations 

• How to leverage your employees' internal motivations so that they can become self-motivated 

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In 2019, Andrea Janzen wrote a series of articles in the Forbes Coaches Council about the difference between sponsorship and mentorship. The hypothesis then was that sponsorship, not mentorship, would become the answer to advancing women in the construction industry. Fast forward to today, and Ambition Theory and the National Center for Construction Education and Research have quantitative research that validates this. In this episode, Andrea Janzen shares how you can start implementing sponsorship at your company. 

Highlights:  

• The difference between sponsorship and mentorship 

• How to build a sponsorship culture 

• Why sponsorship needs to start at the top 

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In 2019, Andrea Janzen wrote an article in the Forbes Coaches Council about the difference between sponsorship and mentorship. The hypothesis then was that sponsorship, not mentorship, would become the answer to advancing women in the construction industry. Fast forward to today, and Ambition Theory and the National Center for Construction Education and Research have quantitative research that shows that sponsorship happens half as often as mentorship for women in construction. In this episode, Andrea Janzen reads the original article about where this idea came from. 

You can learn more about our quantitative research report by going to buildingbetterreport.com. 

Highlights:  

• The difference between sponsorship and mentorship 

• How men and women are mentored differently 

• How to find sponsorship for yourself 

• How to begin sponsoring others 

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Liz Wiseman is a New York Times bestselling author and executive advisor. Her books include Multipliers, The Multiplier Effect, Rookie Smarts, and Impact Players. She is the Founder of the Wiseman Group and a leading global authority on leadership.

Highlights 

• What a multiplier is and how they make everyone smarter 

• What a diminisher is and how to manage our accidental diminisher behaviors like being a rescuer or a big idea person

• What to do when your leadership style is different than everyone else in your company 

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Dr. Paul Hickey studies gender diversity in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction leadership. Paul studies women’s industry representation and identifies methods to improve diversity. 

Highlights:  

• What Linked In tells us about the path to leadership for women. 

• Women face greater obstacles than their male counterparts in career advancement. 

• Women’s path requires extra rungs on the corporate ladder, more frequent job changes, and a greater accumulation of education and connections.

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Ambition Theory partnered with the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) on Building Better: Women In Construction Study. Many Women In Construction initiatives celebrate the contributions of women in the industry, which is important. This session aims to take things a step further–we’re focused on ways to take action and drive real change. Tim Taylor, the Director of Research for NCCER dives into the results of the study. 

Highlights 

• Explore and examine the results of our study

• Hear the experiences of real women working in construction

• Provide tangible steps individuals and organizations can take immediately

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Angelo Suntres is the author of the book The Human Side Of Construction. He has represented both contractors and owners and understands the struggles from both sides of the fence. Angelo believes that focusing on the human principles of connection, including effective communication and fostering healthy relationships, is a critical part of ensuring a successful future for the construction industry.

Highlights: 

• Why relationships matter in the construction industry and how to build them. 

• Transactional vs. transformational leadership behaviours and how this links to business success. 

• The generational gap in construction. 

• And why trust is the biggest problem facing the industry today. 

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Jerry Naranjo, the CEO of Naranjo Civil Constructors, is a passionate, engaging, innovative, and heart-centered business leader with over 30 years of experience. He has been a pioneer in the civil construction industry in Colorado, leading his firm to build some of the state’s most iconic and innovative river restoration projects. Jerry is a trusted advisor to employees, and clients alike, guiding them with insights on business matters, scaling, operations, organizational management, visionary leadership, and relentless execution. His unique roadmap to success is based in positivity, authentic relationships, and replacing goals with actions.

Highlights: 

• Why company culture is one of the most important things in business. 

• How to attract and retain high-performing talent. 

• What it’s like to be a heart-centered leader in the construction industry. 

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Kat Von Kamrath and Laura Beneteau have worked in the construction industry for about ten years.  A couple of years ago, each of their company’s employee resource groups discussed how standard-issue safety vests don’t fit women’s bodies very well. Kat is in the US, and Laura is in Canada, and they both brought this issue up with senior management and got the go-ahead to order some new vests. It turned out that it wasn’t that straightforward. 

Highlights: 

• The importance of having personal protective equipment that fits.

• The impact on psychological safety and a feeling of belonging. 

• Two different paths lead to the same result: having safety vests that fit. 

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Kathryn Hart guides others to pursue fulfilling and intentional career paths within the architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. As founder and host at Space to Build, she advises others on navigating their roles on and off-site, leads community discussions on the real questions women have in our industry, and shares honest dialogue with women in roles across the industry.

Highlights:

• The value that younger millennials and Gen Z bring to the construction industry.
• How you can connect and build relationships in unconventional ways.
• The unfortunate truth is that women don’t always support other women.

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Tonia Rivers is a military spouse and mother of three with seventeen years of experience in the construction industry. She is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Mothers in Construction, which is committed to elevating the voice of mothers in the industry. Tonia is also the owner and president of WLS Construction Consultants LLC, a construction consulting firm that provides mentorship and training to young professionals and small and disadvantaged business entities.

Highlights:

• The challenges of being a mother in the construction industry.
• How companies can accommodate working mothers.
• The unique skills that mothers bring to the table contribute to the success of everyone.

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Marius Tawembe is a strategic, charismatic, and results-driven construction management professional with a proven ability to build strong, effective teams and inspire people to be better and make a difference.

Highlights:

• Marius’s strategy for building and developing high-performing teams and the skills he looks for when hiring.
• How to leverage people's strengths beyond their technical abilities.
• Why emotional intelligence is the skill you need to develop if you want to rise to a leadership role.

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Emily Soloby, the founder of Juno Jones, has been on a mission to help women from the beginning of her career. In 2009, she and her husband Ryan took over a small truck and heavy equipment safety training firm, which she has helped grow into a national business. During her years there, she noticed the footwear problem—there wasn’t any! Determined to create safety boots that she’d actually want to wear, Emily assembled a powerhouse team of designers, consultants, and industry experts to bring Juno Jones to life.

Highlights:

• Why having shoes that fit is important to have a sense of belonging.
• How Juno Jones got off the ground
• Hear stories of the incredible women who wear Juno Jones Safety Boots.

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Myrna Layton and Chelcea Driscoll are both safety professionals who participated in Ambition Theory’s Leadership Accelerator Program. In this conversation, we talk about the difference between enforcing safety and building a safety culture.

Highlights:

• Using influence over enforcement to promote a safety culture.
• Why networking and relationship building is important and how to get started.
• What can happen when you get out of your comfort zone.
• Focusing on transformational leadership abilities can help you stand out and get noticed.

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Kathryn Coulter works as a control specialist on new installations and upgrades of automation equipment. She was the only woman in her department for many years, but that has recently changed.

Highlights:

• The challenges Kathryn faced when pursuing an apprenticeship straight out of high school.
• How persevering and not giving up on her dream led to her eventually becoming an electrician and even better opportunities for career advancement
• Why relationships matter
• What it means to be a leader
• What it was like for her to have a woman manager after 15 years of being the only woman on the team.

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Whenever we speak to men who want to be better allies in the workplace, they’re often unsure about what they can do to help. David Smith and Brad Johnson are the co-authors of the books Athena Rising: How And Why Men Should Mentor Women and Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies For Women In The Workplace.

Highlights:

• The barriers women face on the path to leadership include the double bind and the prove-it-again bias.
• Why sponsorship is one of the best tools for allies and how to start sponsoring women today.
• How to speak up when somebody says something inappropriate in a professional setting.

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Almost half of women in the construction industry have never had a woman role model or manager. They’ve never seen a real-life example of a woman in a leadership position in their company. Ambition Theory wants to change this. In our Leadership Foundations Program, we invite past participants to share how they’ve applied their learnings and the results that they’ve got for their companies. Simona Nicolescu, Jennifer Cross, and Cheryl Philibert joined us in June of 2022 to share their leadership journeys.

Highlights:

• The impact on organizational culture is when a company invests in their women employees.
• The difference between sponsorship and mentorship on site.
• What it’s like to move from an office job to a job on-site.
• The value in building relationships across different functions.

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"I didn't believe it."

This is the feedback a male executive at a large construction company shared with us after attending an Ambition Theory workshop last March.

But, after asking just a few women he worked with, he quickly realized their experience aligned with what he learned in the presentation.

His company had invested heavily in recruiting and hiring women and developed a mentorship program and an employee resource group. However, women still weren't advancing at the same rate as men.

He finally understood why. The women's leadership experience was entirely different from that of men in the industry.

Listen to the audio recording of our live series from September 2022.

How Men And Women Can Create Opportunities Together

• Part 1: How to shift from a transactional leadership style to a transformational approach and why this is a critical step to improve employee retention.
• Part 2: Why sponsorship (not mentorship) is the answer to accelerating the path to leadership.
• Part 3: How to make your company's culture more inclusive. Steps that individuals and companies can take to accelerate the path to leadership for women.

Links:

"I didn't believe it."

This is the feedback a male executive at a large construction company shared with us after attending an Ambition Theory workshop last March.

But, after asking just a few women he worked with, he quickly realized their experience aligned with what he learned in the presentation.

His company had invested heavily in recruiting and hiring women and developed a mentorship program and an employee resource group. However, women still weren't advancing at the same rate as men.

He finally understood why. The women's leadership experience was entirely different from that of men in the industry.

Listen to the audio recording of our live series from September 2022.

How Men And Women Can Create Opportunities Together

• Part 1: How to shift from a transactional leadership style to a transformational approach and why this is a critical step to improve employee retention.
• Part 2: Why sponsorship (not mentorship) is the answer to accelerating the path to leadership.
• Part 3: How to make your company's culture more inclusive. Steps that individuals and companies can take to accelerate the path to leadership for women.

Links:

"I didn't believe it."

This is the feedback a male executive at a large construction company shared with us after attending an Ambition Theory workshop last March.

But, after asking just a few women he worked with, he quickly realized their experience aligned with what he learned in the presentation.

His company had invested heavily in recruiting and hiring women, and developed a mentorship program and an employee resource group, but women still weren't advancing at the same rate as men.

He finally understood why. The women's leadership experience was entirely different from that of men in the industry.

Listen to the audio recording of our live series from September 2022.

How Men And Women Can Create Opportunities Together

• Part 1: How to shift from a transactional leadership style to a transformational approach and why this is a critical step to improve employee retention.
• Part 2: Why sponsorship (not mentorship) is the answer to accelerating the path to leadership.
• Part 3: How to make your company's culture more inclusive. Steps that individuals and companies can take to accelerate the path to leadership for women.

Links:

Alexis Clark is the Anchor Business Unit Manager at Hilti North America and is extremely passionate about her work. We talked about the distinct culture at Hilti and what happens when you are a fit and when you aren’t. We also discussed what demonstrating courage in the workplace looks like and how it can lead to exponential growth for companies and your career. 

Highlights:  

- What onboarding for culture looks like at Hilti. 

- What it looks like to be courageous at work. 

- Finding a company with the right cultural fit for you can supercharge your career. 

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Heather and Sarah Cruickshanks are a mother-daughter team who runs L.E. Cruickshanks Sheet Metal. They both started their careers in different industries and are now leaders in the construction industry in Atlantic Canada. 

Highlights  

- The benefits and challenges of running a family business. 

- How their company started as a backyard operation and grew to a multimillion-dollar operation by leveraging a transformational leadership approach. 

- How to transition into the construction industry mid-career. 

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Michael Riegel is the author of the book Build Like The Big Primes, a coach and trainer focused on leadership development in the construction industry.

Highlights

• The skills required to lead in the construction industry today.
• Some of the differences between how men and women lead.
• The difference between coaching and training and how they deliver value to the industry.

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The priority for most construction companies today is retention.  Susan McCutchan and Nadia Fratantonio from Pomerleau Construction talked about how the transformational approach to leadership is an extremely effective way to attract and retain top talent. It encourages people to be authentic at work, and it allows you to uncover talents on your team. It makes people want to work with you and stay at the company.

Highlights:

• How to leverage people's unconventional talents to bring more value to your team.
• Why cultural fit is more important than technical skills if you want to attract and retain the best talent.
• How to be more authentic at work and encourage your team to do the same.
• How to build up your team's technical skills to ensure you can deliver with excellence.

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Brad Kohl is the President and CEO of Lafarge Western Canada. Lafarge is Canada's largest provider of sustainable construction materials and a member of the global group Holcim.

Highlights:

• Lafarge's strategy to promote women internally to grow and excel within the company.
• The barriers that women face when entering the construction industry.
• How to shift your mindset to lead change in your company.
• Why we can't rely on the past to predict the future.
• Why Lafarge's women in leadership initiatives are always on the executive team's agenda.

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Years of experience and technical knowledge are highly valued in the construction industry, and today we share a different perspective. Phil Diochon and Jill Tremblay from Verge Technologies talk about how they learned about the industry and grew the company by relying on their transformational leadership skills.

Highlights

• How you can learn about the industry quickly.
• They are leveraging communication to build morale and strengthen relationships with their clients.
• Having confidence in your leadership abilities can help you figure out any challenge.

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Lisa Fougere and Laura Hynes from Lindsay Construction took part in the first cohort of our leadership accelerator for women in construction. They shared what it was like to take this program, how they could implement what they learned, and its impact on their company.

I want to say thank you so much to Lisa and Laura for getting out of their comfort zones and coming on the podcast.

Highlights

• Overcoming imposter syndrome
• How to use your voice to bring value to your company
• Why delegating tasks that you’re really good at is what’s required to get you to your next level of leadership.
• The importance of networking within your own company and how to do it authentically.

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Jennifer Cross shares what it’s like when you take 1:1 coaching with Ambition Theory. During her coaching program, Jennifer successfully transitioned into the commercial construction industry. For her the secret to exponential growth started by answering the question what drives your ambition and finding a company that aligns with her personal values.

We talked about the future of work and how a new perspective on ‘going back to the office’ can change the way we view construction projects.

Highlights

- Why Jennifer decided to enter the commercial construction industry 25 years into her career.

- How to get crystal clear on your long-term career vision.

- How to network in an authentic way

- How to attract opportunities

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Both parents are in leadership roles; they love their careers, have kids, and have a strong marriage. You’ve probably seen people like this and wonder how they do it all. In this episode, we interviewed Dr. Vanessa and Pat Sweet, who have been redefining gender roles as professionals and parents since they started dating in university.

This was recorded live as part of our 2021 International Women’s Day series called Rising to the Challenge: Taking on the social norms and stereotypes that impede careers and business.

Highlights

● Pat and Vanessa shared the process that allowed them to rise to leadership while navigating multiple moves.

● How to align your personal values so you can rise faster professionally.

● The process they go through as a family to make big decisions.

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Lisa Laronde, president of Powell Contracting, didn’t start working in the construction industry or become president the same way peers have. Lisa teases out how to launch into higher positions while making the world a better place. Through personal experience, Lisa shows how transformational leadership created exponential growth in each company division soon after she took leadership.

Highlights:

• How to choose between jobs and industries
• What to do when shifting from administration to operations roles
• How networking shifts influence to vault careers and revenue
• Why curiosity and listening are more powerful than expertise in the construction industry

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Nadine Speirs is the owner of Metal Depot a supplier of metal roofing and wall panels as well as a full-service custom fabrication shop in Winnipeg Manitoba. The majority of the team is female and there is very little employee turnover at the company. Her competitors often give her referrals because Metal Depot’s products and services are just that good. In this episode Nadine shares:

- How she unintentionally built an all-female team.

- Why focusing on beautiful products allows her company to stand out from competitors.

- How she’s built a culture of trust and loyalty that allows her to work remotely from places like Mexico and Spain.

Sandra Benson is Global Head of Industry Transformation at Procore Technologies and on the board of The National Institute of Building Sciences. She got here, by being her authentic self. In this episode Sandra shares:

- How she made the decision to leave her role as the Worldwide Head of Engineering, Construction and Real Estate at Amazon Web Services.

- Why she believes sponsorship is more powerful than mentorship.

- How being her authentic self led to incredible opportunities to influence the construction industry as a whole.

The construction industry is booming, but there aren’t enough skilled professionals to do all of the work. In this episode, we explore the difference between mentorship (giving advice) and sponsorship (giving opportunities) and why mentorship programs don’t actually accelerate women into leadership positions in the construction industry. Learn what to do instead if you want to fully leverage the existing female talent in your company.

The construction industry is booming, but there aren’t enough skilled professionals to do all of the work. This episode explores the difference between transactional and transformational leadership models. Why the construction industry needs more transformational leaders and why the current system fails to develop these skills.

Jennifer Todd is the founder and president of LMS General Contractors, she’s been featured on the cover of Construction Business Owner Magazine, was the Engineering News Records Top 25 Newsmakers of 2020 and one of ENR’s top 20 under 40.

During this interactive live podcast, Jennifer shared:

● How she entered the construction industry as an admin assistant and rose through the ranks to become a CEO.

● Why building relationships is just as important as managing projects in the construction industry.

● How to overcome challenges and setbacks in your career.

● How women can get started in the industry as an employee or as an entrepreneur.

● How she approaches failure so she can bounce back and keep moving forward.

The YWCA Change Project has developed Gender Inclusion training to support male leaders in the trades. During this interactive live podcast, you will learn:

● Why trying to change women is not the answer, and why we need to shift culture instead.

● How the YWCA came up with a curriculum focusing on male supervisors as a means to make the industry more inclusive to women.

● What employers can do to support leaders to make their teams more inclusive.

This interview includes 3 different perspectives:

Participant: Jeremy Tucker, Operations Superintendent, Lindsay Construction

Facilitator: Stephen Law YWCA Shift Change Program Facilitator

Strategy and culture change: Tracy Boyer Shift Change Coordinator, YWCA Halifax

Ashley Kielbratowski is the co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Harbr, a construction tech company that greatly improves source data collection for fast and accurate invoice approvals.

Harbr was founded in 2016 their clients and partners include CBRE, Paul Davis, Golf Town, Killam REIT, Foresight Atlantic, MacInnes Cooper, and the NSLC.

Ashley shares:

- How she became a founder in the construction tech space.

- Why trust and transparency are important in the construction process and how Harbr has automated this.

- How Harbr is using text messages to empower contractors to get paid for their work faster.

Mara is the Director of Design and Construction at Urban Capital Property Group, the company behind Reina Condos, the first all-female development in Canada.

Mara shares:

• How a Toronto Life magazine article called ‘Condo Kings’ inspired the idea for Reina.
• What’s different from being the only woman on the team to working as part of an all-female team in real estate and construction.
• What she thinks is going to happen with the culture on site when construction begins.

Annette Lindy started her career as an Architect in Berlin at the same time as the wall came down. Before finding her dream job in business development, she worked as an architect in Europe and Canada. Annette shares: 

• How she merges beauty + connecting with people in her job every day.
• What to do when you’ve accomplished all of the right things in your career but still feel miserable.
• How to be brave and take risks in your career.
• How the business development and sales cycle works in architectural products