Training Construction Employees – Part 4
So far, in this five-part series on Training Construction Employees we’ve covered:
Stepping up your game through employee training.
How to hang new information on established knowledge.
Ways to provide foundational in-house training.
This fourth part of the series focuses on instilling power skills in your employees. This can be compared to giving your team members the means to put many arrows in their quivers, thus giving them more opportunities to hit the mark.
Instill Power Skills – the Definition
There was a time when power skills were referred to as soft skills. Teaching these soft skills was also typically limited to those in leadership roles. Today, both the teaching and use of power skills must be spread across all employees in your construction business. The following list is an example of some of the power skills your employees and, therefore, your construction business will benefit from.
Ability to work under pressure
Active listening
Adaptability
Attention to detail
Coachability
Coaching and mentoring others
Conflict management
Emotional intelligence
Enthusiasm
Goal setting capability
Growth mindset
Humility
Intercultural communication
Patience
Persuasion
Presentation skills
Risk management
Self-motivation
Taking Initiative
Time management
Trustworthiness
Instilling power skills in your employees across the board is effective. It allows your employees to gain confidence, grow apace with your business, and better serve your clients.
Instill Power Skills – An Example
In this example, the power skill that needs to be instilled is time management.
The types of tools you can include or choose from in training for this skill include:
Participate in modeling – allow your team to see how it’s done.
Supply a workshop or class – conduct or pay for training on the subject.
Provide coaches or mentors to employees who request help.
Assign a reading or video training to be completed by a specific date.
Provide work schedule templates or digital reminders.
Have employees participate in a one-week time-tracking exercise. This will allow them to see how their time is used daily. (This can come in a written list or a time-tracking app.)
Give constructive feedback.
Kick off the formal training time with a fun time management challenge described below.
The time management challenge.
Employees gather in one room and then are broken into small groups. Each group is given the same list of activities that must be completed within ten minutes. Each activity on the list is weighted by assigning them a certain number of points. (Imitating the idea that some activities have more value than others.) Be sure the employees are given a time management challenge by ensuring that the total activities listed will take longer than ten minutes. It’s then up to each group to collect as many points as possible within the ten-minute limit.
The tasks included on the list don’t have to be work-related. In fact, by making the tasks silly or frivolous, you can still teach the principles involved in a fun way, making participation more enjoyable. Some examples of tasks might include making a paper airplane that flies, finding a hidden object in the room, catching a dropped dollar bill, making a person bridge across two chairs, giving each person in their group a new work nickname, drawing a picture of a dog while blindfolded, building a tower from red solo cups, making a necklace using string and pasta, make a fan from paper, flipping a coin until it comes up heads at least three times, sorting various kinds of pasta into groups, deciding on an appropriate team name, solving a small puzzle. Depending on your business and the employees included in the exercise, you can think of various tasks to include on the lists provided.
This activity is suitable for more reasons than you might at first see.
It asks the employees to work together, emphasizing teamwork. (Including office and field workers in each group can be beneficial.)
Employees need to communicate to win the challenge by accumulating the most points of any group.
The employees are forced to balance the list of challenges against their time limit. They’re asked to prioritize which activities have the most value against which activities they can reasonably complete in a limited time. (Try including a task on the list that obviously can’t be completed within ten minutes.)
The leader of this challenge must adequately balance the time limit, activities, and points awarded. Be sure each group has the items needed to complete the challenge. Make the winning (or losing) of this challenge fun with fake awards or goofy gifts.
Instill Power Skills – Building The Framework
Including power skills in your fundamental in-house training framework and calendar is as essential as the training provided for other skills.
It means providing materials, classes, workshops, or other training methods with as much emphasis as is put on any other type of training.
No matter which of the power skills you determine to focus on, the framework is much the same as the example above concerning time management training. Simply tweak it for the desired skill. For example, when training for the skill of active listening, the framework looks like this.
Participate in modeling – allow your team to see how it’s done.
Supply a workshop or class – conduct or pay for training on the subject.
Provide coaches or mentors to employees who request help.
Assign a reading or video training to be completed by a specific date.
Provide a list of examples of what can distort active listening – such as personal filters, assumptions, judgments, and beliefs.
Supply employees with information about active listening techniques – like reflecting, asking open-ended questions, seeking clarification, and watching body language.
Give constructive feedback.
Kick off the formal training time with fun, active listening games.
Playing games to learn more.
Perhaps you thought the games you played as a child were about activity, laughter, and fun. They were. They were also about training you to listen actively. It is time to bring those games back to life for the same reasons – have fun and learn about actively listening.
Start by playing the simple game of Telephone (in which whispering ear to ear around the group is bound to distort the original phrase or sentence.) It’s goofy and fun, yet proves that active listening and plain speaking are the preferred ways of passing on information.
Move on to the next step of playing one or more of these pay-attention types of games.
Mother May I – Or Boss May I 😉
Musical Chairs
Red Light, Green Light
Simon Says – BTW, in this article, you’ll find a fun list of 200 Simon Says commands.
Follow up with a simple game of Hot or Cold. One person leaves the room, and those remaining agree on a particular object that the absent person will find when he returns. Everyone gives instructions – you’re hot or cold – when directing the returning person to the chosen object. Active listening and teamwork are part of the fun and the learning.
Use a similar framework to provide training for your employees on any of the power skills listed above. It is similar to having a template that saves you time, money, and headaches. Ask a teacher if you have trouble thinking of a fun activity to “get the party started.” Search online for things like “teaching students about goal setting,” “risk management,” or “patience,” and so on.
Instill Power Skills – As Opportunity Arises
Planning for and executing training in the power skills arena is imperative. At the same time, it is essential to be on the lookout for those teachable moments that frequently arise on the jobsite, in the office, while gathered for a meal, while driving to the next project, or any time you or the other leaders in your construction company are with employees.
Power skills usually develop through life experiences, practice, and self-reflection. And they can be honed. They are intangible and subjective qualities that cannot be measured or quantified like hard skills, yet they are noticed – especially if they’re missing.
Most of the power skills listed above fall into one of these categories:
Powerful communication skills
Strong team building and collaborative skills
Impressive flexibility and adaptability
Critical thinking and problem-solving abilities
This shorter list can help you focus on the types of power skills that each employee needs to be taught or allowed to hone.
Instill Power Skills – Final Thoughts
Incorporate mentorship, cross-training, and team learning to give your employees more power skills training. Remember to offer opportunities for practice, reflection, and feedback.
What’s Next? The final portion of this 5-part series concerning Training Construction Employees focuses on Leveraging Microlearning.
Ambitious Construction Contractors look to The Profit Constructors to provide advocacy in dealing with:
Clients and customers
Employees and subcontractors
Vendors and service providers
Governmental entities
Working with The Profit Constructors gives Construction Contractors the means to organize their operations in ways that help them:
Remain informed
Avoid hassles
Reduce risks
Be future-ready
Ready for action? Or want to know more? Get in touch today to schedule a complimentary discovery call. 866-629-7735
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