November 2010

This Month's Features

+	Leadership Book Series
+	FMI's 360 Feedback
Leadership Videos Online
+	Introduction to the Leadership Institute
+	An In-depth Look at the Leadership Institute
+	Leadership Institute Testimonials

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FMI's Executive Coaching

Just as the best athletes have coaches, strong leaders often have coaches as well. In tough times, the need for coaching is even greater. Our FMI coaches bring more than 100 years of combined coaching experience, coupled with specialized industry knowledge, that can help you through these turbulent times.

Click here to learn more about FMI's Executive Coaching.

What FMI Executive Coaching clients are saying:

• "When you have the ability to make change and improvement to someone who affects your business, affects the growth of team members and affects your image – can you afford not to complete something like this? My answer is no!"

• "I already have made a greater contribution to this company as a result of coaching – both from a performance and a supervisory standpoint. In working with my group of a dozen people, they have their subordinates as well; I think it’s important how the impact transcends my group."

The "Practical Tools for Exceptional Leaders" booklet series is designed to help you learn and apply best-of-class leadership principles in your life and within your organization.
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A Letter From Ron Magnus, Managing Director

An ancient Aztec myth tells of the cycle of births and deaths of the world. When the world is destroyed, it's born again, and so on through the creation of a new age. During the first age, the gods created giants from ashes. However, a fight began among the giants. In the end, the sun was knocked from the sky, and in anger, the gods sent jaguars to destroy the giants. In the second age, humans were created as they are now. But the people became corrupt. Furious, the gods sent a hurricane to blow them away. In the third age, drought swept the earth, and finally in a rage, the gods made it rain fire, burning away this version of the world. In the fourth age, the sun was struck down and as it fell, the sky opened up and water flooded the earth. All things were destroyed again.

The construction industry is currently going through its own version of the cycle of death and rebirth as we adjust to the reality of a competitive landscape, fundamentally different from the one we grew to know. When faced with the volatility and uncertainty of our current situation, most leaders find themselves reacting, chasing opportunities too late and spreading themselves too thin. The antidote lies in great strategic leadership – the ability to see the world in a clear-eyed and informed manner that recognizes both risk and opportunity. Organizations that distance themselves from the competition in this market will be full of strategic leaders who have the ability to anticipate and respond to seismic shifts in our industry.

This issue of the Leadership e-Newsletter takes a closer look at the competency of strategic thinking.

Ron Magnus

Who’s Bringing the Food to the Strategy Table?

Jeff Schulz

If you want your backlog to be full and to have the most profitable, sustainable future possible, don’t limit your business development team’s involvement.

Soon organizations trying to achieve sustainable success will rely more heavily on business development personnel to help craft the strategic plan. In fact, business developers will play a greater role in defining the company’s optimum future state than any other corporate function.

Demand-side economics have stalled construction’s momentum. Convincing customers to buy what you sell is going the way of asbestos, the steam engine and carbon paper. Firms that win in the future will excel at creating what the customer envisions — and the way to know what the marketplace is envisioning is by listening to your business development department. The Business Development Impact Cycle is a four-step process designed to actively engage the business development function in crafting your firm’s winning strategy.

Read on to learn how to use your business development department to plan for the future.

Winning in a Tight Economic Market: Learning Your Way to Success

Cynthia Paul and Ken Roper

Learning plans help conceive and then deliver learning. They provide the strategic structure needed to drive skills and applications of the organization.

The level of competition in the industry is higher than it has been for the last several decades. Firms have responded by rightsizing their companies, focusing on work that they have the best chance to win and becoming price-competitive. While those changes help companies respond to the immediate challenges, the long-term question to ask is, “What will it take for companies to be successful as they move forward?”

FMI anticipates that the construction market will be rocky for the remainder of 2009 and into 2010. The level of competition will gradually ease, but for many contractors that might be 12 months or more from now. Architects and engineers will see their market pick up quicker. Regardless if you are an architect, engineer or contractor, next year will be challenging.

Rightsizing generally leaves companies with their best and brightest people. Those people will take on more duties, across a wider range of responsibilities, in order to meet the day-to-day demands of the company. That is true for operations, business development, estimating, pre-construction and administration. Today everyone needs to learn a few new tricks in order to get work done effectively and efficiently.

The strategic question is: How does your organization become a “Learning Organization?” Read on to find out.