When I think about what has shaped my career in construction, I don’t think first about projects, schedules or budgets. I think about people.
My career took an unexpected turn when I graduated from North Carolina A&T State University with a degree in Architectural Engineering. I originally wanted to pursue architectural engineering, but a last-minute internship in Hartford, Connecticut, introduced me to civil engineering and project management. What started as an opportunity became a career.
When I eventually came to Texas in 2018, I found a natural fit in Construction Services. The projects moved faster and involved more stakeholders, but the fundamentals remained the same: solving problems, building relationships and helping people move a project forward.
Today, a large part of my responsibility is serving our construction site representatives and contract administrators. I often believe they do 90% of the heavy lifting on all our projects. They are closest to the work and carry a tremendous amount of pressure. I see my role as giving them the support, guidance and resources they need to do their jobs well. There are plenty of things that are simply outside our control. Sometimes the most valuable thing I can bring to a project is a calm demeanor and a willingness to listen. And that perspective has shaped how I think about leadership.
To me, leadership is sometimes as simple as being the person who listens, stays calm and helps others work through a difficult situation. I learned this early on in my career working in the public sector. Infrastructure projects can have a very real impact on communities, and people understandably want to know what is happening in their neighborhood and why. I found that much of my value came from being a liaison, explaining what was happening, listening to concerns and helping people feel heard.
That lesson has followed me into the private sector, where the clients may be different and the pace may be faster, but people are people and still want the same things: to be heard, respected and know that their concerns matter.
Construction always comes with pressure. Weather disrupts a schedule, a project inherits problems that were not of its making, priorities change, expectations collide and sometimes you are solving a new problem every day, or possibly the same problem for the tenth time. The key that I have had to learn is knowing what is truly a problem and what can wait. It is also understanding that you cannot do this work alone.
Construction has certainly changed. Communication is faster, documentation is more extensive and projects involve more disciplines and stakeholders than ever. But technology and processes don't replace relationships. If anything, they make strong relationships even more important.
You must respect every position on a project. The client, contractor, inspector, agency, engineer and the site representative all have a role to play. Building respect and trust across those relationships often matters just as much as knowing the technical details. Ultimately, I believe a successful project is more than finishing on time and within budget. It is about how people feel when they walk away from it.
No project is perfect. There will always be problems to solve and expectations to manage. But people remember how you treated them. And that is what I value most about our EHRA Construction Services team—the people. I could not do this work without their support, diligence and willingness to step in and help one another. It is what makes this work worthwhile.
We may measure projects in dollars, days and deliverables, but the work itself is built by people. For me, the responsibility is simple. Serve people well, earn their trust and help them succeed. Success comes from finding a team that you can support and that supports you in return. That is how I believe we build something that lasts.
