Leading Growth through Building People

Southwest Airlines disrupted the airline industry by a relentless focus on building their people around a culture of fun, hard work, and hands-on leadership.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture

The contractors who truly have that same level of focus on their people and culture will dominate the industry tomorrow. 

Leadership Tools: Leading Growth Through a Focus on Building People. Quotes by Mikel Bowman, General Manager and Safety Specialist at Turner Mining Group and Herb Kelleher, Founder of Southwest Airlines.

Mikel Bowman from Turner Mining Group in an excellent video by Aaron Witt commented:

“We are more of a people company that does mining services.” 


Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan in the book Execution comment that:

“Leaders need to commit as much as 40 percent of their time and emotional energy, in one form or another, to selecting, appraising, and developing people.” 


You can see through the daily posts by leaders like Keaton Turner what spending this kind of time on people really looks like. These posts aren’t marketing fluff and can’t be faked. There is no way that doesn’t translate into long-term sustainable growth.  

We are at a major inflection point in the industry, including a major shortage of talent along with evolving project delivery methods and rapidly accelerating technologies.  


How much of your time did you spend on developing people last week? What’s your plan this week?




Weekly Percent Planned Complete (PPC) and Project Performance
Improving the project planning and delivery process starts with improving predictability around the schedule. Nearly every Superintendent and Foreman is familiar with the Short-Interval-Plan (SIP) and typically fill one out weekly looking ahead 1+ weeks.
Continuous Improvement - Takes or Saves Time
I am too busy to learn to improve the process! This statement is only funny because it is so true. It is one of the first mindsets you have to break within yourself and then within your team if you want to achieve consistent operational excellence.
Accelerating Retirement & Succession
Today, succession planning is more important for contractors than any time in recent history.