The importance of saying No
The infrastructure industry across Australia and New Zealand is experiencing busy times. A significant pipeline of projects means that the supply chain is busy committing their people to delivering work for their clients. This is challenging as competing priorities and commitments make it harder to deliver quality work that meets client’s timeframes and budgets.
The risk of overcommitting is real for consultants and constructors in a market for of opportunities. The challenge when we overcommit is that we don’t deliver our best people and quality work to our clients. This may not have significant implications in the short term but long term it impacts on our reputation and ability to gain repeat work and referrals from our clients.
At BRS, we have been working on being intentional in our approach to committing to work. This includes ensuring our go/no go process is right, we select people who have capacity to deliver the work and also make sure we say no where we don’t have the time or capability to deliver great outcomes for our clients. This is challenging but something that we want to continue to get better at. Dan Sullivan (the entrepreneur’s coach) has a great equation around describing this which is:
Messes = Obligation without Commitment
This equation reminds us of the importance of not saying yes to things that we are not committed to. This is a work in progress for many of us as we tend to look to put our clients and others first. However, we are not doing the right thing by them and us by overcommitting or feeling obligated with little intention of following through. Something to think about as we continue to work in a busy market full of opportunities!
We took time out to celebrate BRS turning 9!
We had a terrific day starting with an adventure room where we worked in small teams to solve challenging problems. It is great experience we would highly recommend to others to do with their teams and colleagues. It requires you to work and think differently which was perfect for us prior to having a terrific team lunch to celebrate our nine-year achievement.
It is amazing to reflect on the journey and how quickly it has crept up on us. It has been nine years of working with great clients on great projects delivering outstanding outcomes. This has been across Australia and New Zealand filled with lots of variety, challenges, learnings and achievements.
A special thank you to our team, our clients and our supporters across over the journey to date. This support has been critical to our success and enjoyment in continuing to learn and grow with our clients.
We look forward to continuing to provide outstanding infrastructure advisory support to your people, organisations and projects over the coming years.
The importance of self care as a leader
One of the interesting trends that we are seeing at BRS across the infrastructure industry at the moment is the pressure on leaders at all levels to deliver many projects, pursue bids and opportunities, manage staff and drive sustainable returns for their organisations. This juggling of many balls is challenging at the best of times and can impact on leader’s self-care and well-being over the medium to longer term.
This “placing of the oxygen mask on yourself” first as a leader is really important place to start when looking at your leadership effectiveness. What habits and practices set you up for success? What habits and practices don’t? This self reflection is important for all leaders when looking at how they plan, prioritise, delegate, and coach their teams to successful outcomes.
The important assets of energy and confidence are what your team pick up from you as a leader. When we are not practising self-care, we tend to impact on these two important assets which is noticed by your team, organisation and clients. Providing coaching support to your leaders around this is important to ensure they can sustainably continue to lead effectively in their roles.
BRS can assist in this space through our coaching and leadership programs. We would be happy to discuss your project, organisation or individual needs around this and other topics that improve the capability and capacity of your leaders.
Featured Case Study
Commercial Acumen Training and Project Management Training
Edward River Council
BRS was engaged by Edward River Council to design and deliver two bespoke training programmes that were rolled out to 80 staff:
- Commercial acumen training which focused on developing the commercial capability of Council staff at a foundation level; and
- Project management training that would build on the learnings from the foundation program to help the Council deliver high performing projects for their community.
Read more
Our Recent Blogs
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Good relationships with your supply chain are critical to large project delivery success
17 JUL 2018
Kym Williams // Managing Director
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The importance of building and maintaining your confidence as a leader
12 JUL 2018
Kym Williams // Managing Director
“The truth is that all of us are already 100% self-disciplined – to our existing set of habits”
