Management Under Construction

About Management Under Construction

We are all constantly under construction In our personal and professional lives we seek to constantly learn and grow, and make better decisions. Together we will explore topics of construction, sustainability, leadership, and business as they apply to various industries and our personal journeys.

Publisher

Dee Davis

Category

business · business · education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

1 Jan 2025

Latest episode

5 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

87 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   5 Oct 2026

   S4 E 13 Leadership and Emotional Intelligence with Jen Brown Part 2

   Leadership, emotional intelligence, intention, business, construction, high achievers, health, trust, leadership development, DISC, positive intelligence, coaching, stress management Dee Davis talks with leadership coach Jen Brown about what it really takes to lead with intention in high-pressure environments, especially construction. The conversation focuses on celebration, self-awareness, communication, delegation, and rest as practical leadership tools, not soft extras. Jen shares how her background in a family construction business, diplomacy, and coaching shaped her approach to leadership development. Together, they explore how high achievers can get stuck on autopilot, why emotional intelligence is essential for trust and delegation, and how leaders can create healthier teams without losing momentum. In this episode: Jen Brown shares how her leadership coaching practice is grounded in self-awareness, communication, and trust. Celebration is reframed as a leadership habit, not a special event, and can be as small as a private reflection, a team breakfast, or a milestone check-in. Dee and Jen discuss how high achievers often skip over wins because they are already focused on the next task. Jen introduces the idea of building an “evidence list” of wins to help leaders see their own growth and resilience over time. The conversation covers how autopilot shows up in leadership through stress reactions, default habits, and unexamined decision-making. Jen explains how emotional intelligence helps leaders notice their own triggers, read others more accurately, and respond instead of react. DISC and positive intelligence are discussed as practical tools for understanding communication styles, stress triggers, and team dynamics. A major theme is delegation, especially how leaders become bottlenecks when they hold on to too much out of fear, identity, or lack of trust. The importance of rest and transition time is emphasized as a safeguard against burnout, poor communication, and strained relationships. The episode closes with a strong case for coaching, accountability, and building other leaders so the work can outlast the current leader. Timestamps00:00 - Jen Brown’s coaching background and why she works with leaders 03:02 - Celebration as a leadership skill, not a parade 06:11 - Building an evidence list of wins and growth 08:34 - Celebrating failure as part of learning 12:18 - What self-celebration can look like in practice 15:15 - Why leaders run on autopilot 18:47 - Recognizing when you are reacting instead of leading 23:56 - A simple pause practice using sensory grounding 29:02 - Making the reset consistent through daily habits 33:46 - Why emotional intelligence is central to real leadership 38:16 - Leading with transparency instead of pretending work and life are separate 40:56 - Why emotional intelligence is not soft when hard decisions are needed 44:52 - Why self-awareness comes before leading others 46:40 - How DISC and positive intelligence create shared language 50:50 - Matching communication style to the person in front of you 53:38 - Closing the feedback loop so people know what success looks like 57:42 - Why mandating is not the same as leadership 61:55 - Bringing teams into change instead of withholding information 63:15 - Helping people understand what “good” looks like 68:26 - Why leaders become bottlenecks and how to prevent it 72:24 - Letting go of control without losing accountability 77:03 - Time, strategy, and the shift from task mode to CEO mode 80:51 - Why transition time matters between work and home 85:48 - The guilt around rest and why burnout is the real cost 90:12 - Modeling rest and care as a leader’s responsibility 93:42 - Ego, legacy, and why no one person should be the only expert 96:54 - How leaders can start building others instead of doing everything themselves 100:53 - Rapid fire leadership takeaways on celebration, autopilot, and delegationNotable quotes “When we don’t stop and reflect the wins, we’re not building evidence along the way.” “Leadership really starts with leading ourselves before we can lead others.” “What does good look like?” Action items Add celebration into project milestones instead of treating it as an afterthought. Build a personal evidence list of wins, growth, and handled challenges. Notice your stress triggers and identify when you are operating on autopilot. Use a brief grounding habit, like fingertip rubbing or hand tension, to interrupt reactive behavior. Ask what outcome you want before responding in a stressful conversation. Close the communication loop by asking what the other person heard and what they will do next. Delegate with clarity: define success, guardrails, and check-in points. Protect rest and transition time as part of the leadership system, not as a reward. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenbrown-coach/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenbrown-coach/) https://www.journeyofgracecoaching.com/ (https://www.journeyofgracecoaching.com/)

2. 

   28 Sept 2026

   S4 E12 Leading with Intention: Coach Jen Brown part 1

   leadership, business, celebrate wins, high achievers, teams, communication, stress, management How to Lead with Intention: Celebrate Wins and Build Emotional Intelligence Dee Davis welcomes leadership coach Jen Brown to discuss intentional leadership in high-pressure environments like construction. They explore two often-overlooked leadership practices: celebrating progress along the way and building emotional intelligence so leaders can respond thoughtfully rather than react on autopilot. Drawing on her experience in a family construction business, the U.S. Department of State, and leadership coaching, Jen shares practical ways to recognize wins, manage stress, strengthen teams, and communicate with greater clarity. Key topics Build celebration into the work. High-achieving teams can move straight from one task to the next without recognizing progress. Jen recommends including moments of celebration at project milestones—not only at the finish line. Make recognition personal. Some people enjoy public recognition; others prefer a quiet thank-you. Leaders can learn what feels meaningful to each team member. Keep track of progress. Jen suggests creating an evidence list of daily or weekly wins, including moments of growth, effective leadership, and resilience. Learn from what goes wrong. Asking what the team learned from a failure can reveal useful lessons and help build momentum for the next phase. Connect people to the purpose of the work. Dee shares how introducing construction crews to the people who will benefit from a facility can make the work feel more meaningful. Notice autopilot reactions. Stress, avoidance, people pleasing, and holding on to too much work can all become default patterns. Awareness is the first step toward changing them. Use a quick physical reset. Jen shares a simple grounding exercise: rub two fingertips together for about 10 seconds and focus on the sensation before choosing how to respond. Practice emotional intelligence. Self-awareness helps leaders understand their triggers, listen more closely, build trust, and make more thoughtful decisions. Lead through influence, not just authority. Natural leaders can strengthen a team even without a formal leadership title; recognizing and developing them helps build capacity. Communicate for understanding. Having more ways to communicate does not guarantee clarity. Leaders can pause, listen, and check whether their message is landing as intended. Timestamps 00:00 — Jen Brown’s background and the challenges of high-performing leadership 03:02 — Why celebration can be small and still meaningful 04:26 — Recognizing milestones in ways that suit the team 06:15 — Keeping an evidence list of wins 08:34 — Learning from failure 10:44 — Connecting construction work to the people it serves 12:18 — Ways to celebrate yourself 15:15 — Why leaders operate on autopilot 18:47 — Recognizing stress reactions and avoidance 21:39 — Moving from giving answers to empowering the team 23:57 — A simple practice to pause before reacting 25:12 — Using the senses to reset under pressure 27:13 — Grounding techniques and repairing a misstep 29:02 — Building mental fitness into everyday routines 31:20 — Sharing your growth journey with the team 34:16 — Emotional intelligence in day-to-day leadership 37:51 — Transparency, trust, and strategic leadership 40:04 — Recognizing leaders without formal titles 40:56 — Why emotional intelligence supports hard decisions 42:37 — Communication challenges in construction 43:35 — Closing and continuation in the next episode https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenbrown-coach/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenbrown-coach/) https://www.journeyofgracecoaching.com/ (https://www.journeyofgracecoaching.com/)

3. 

   21 Sept 2026

   S4 E11 Mental Health in Construction REWIND

   mental health, construction, suicide, drug abuse, leadership, stress, crisis, alcohol, human cost, projects, safety Mental Health in Construction: People Before Profit Brad Wyant and Dee Davis discuss why mental health has become a critical issue in the construction industry, drawing on decades of field experience, leadership lessons, and hard statistics. They explore how stress, long hours, shifting schedules, and poor communication can contribute to burnout, substance abuse, and suicide, and they outline practical ways leaders can reduce harm and support their teams. In this episode, Brad and Dee focus on the human cost of construction culture and why better communication and stronger leadership matter just as much as safety gear and compliance. The conversation is grounded in real jobsite experience, with both hosts sharing stories from projects, training, and the pressures that shape daily life in the industry. Key topics Dee Davis shares alarming industry statistics, including suicide rates that are the highest across all industries and far above the national average. Brad Wyant explains how anxiety, stress, and the nonstop pace of construction shaped his interest in mental health awareness and volunteer work. The hosts discuss how substance use, including alcohol, opioids, cocaine, and marijuana, can become a form of self-medication in high-stress jobsite environments. They connect prolonged overtime, demanding schedules, long commutes, and constant travel with burnout, reduced productivity, and strained family life. Dee and Brad talk about how construction culture often normalizes pressure, urgency, and not taking breaks, which can leave workers with little downtime or recovery. The episode examines how technology has changed construction communication, often for the worse, by increasing speed while reducing face-to-face conversation. Dee introduces DISC-style personality awareness and explains how high D, high I, and SC communication styles can collide on a jobsite. Brad and Dee stress that rapport matters, and that personal conversation, trust, and empathy can make difficult business conversations easier and more effective. They argue that the biggest safety threat in the industry is mental health, and that leaders should say no to unrealistic schedules and prolonged overtime. Dee shares a leadership example of helping union laborers find the next job before leaving a project, showing how communication and care reduce stress and build loyalty. Timestamps 00:00 - Opening banter and episode introduction 00:24 - Why mental health is now a major construction industry issue 01:12 - Suicide statistics and why the numbers are so alarming 02:01 - Brad’s personal connection to stress, anxiety, and awareness work 04:14 - Substance abuse, self-medication, and jobsite injury risks 06:31 - Why construction rarely gives people time to celebrate wins or recover 09:54 - Overtime, long hours, commutes, and family separation 12:04 - Never enough: schedule pressure and the constant push for more 13:14 - Why construction people are drawn to change and challenge 16:09 - How Bluebeam and digital tools transformed paperwork and workflows 18:36 - Technology’s pace of change versus construction productivity 20:24 - Training deficits and the industry’s resistance to learning 22:00 - Safety documentation, regulatory burden, and extra stress 23:29 - How communication has changed from face-to-face to digital 24:26 - More ways to communicate, but less actual communication 28:02 - Fast RFI turnaround and the value of responsive remote collaboration 29:06 - Why repeat projects are never truly the same 30:52 - The hardest parts of every job are the first and last 10 percent 33:04 - Stress, health risks, and the Monday morning heart attack pattern 34:09 - A jobsite suicide that changed how Dee viewed the industry 36:36 - Why no one can rely on a single communication style 38:48 - Building rapport before hard conversations arrive 41:01 - DISC personality styles and why construction skews high D 45:16 - How to adapt communication so different personalities can hear you 47:15 - Smart, detail-oriented people still clash under pressure 48:30 - Military habits, urgency, and learning to temper reactions 49:32 - When blunt communication is a style versus a warning sign 52:16 - Why suicide is the single biggest safety threat in construction 53:34 - Standing up to unrealistic schedules and constant overtime 54:45 - Saying mental health out loud and treating it as a safety issue 56:25 - Why training should be prioritized the way elite teams train 57:31 - Personal-life stress and the hidden burden on leaders 58:54 - Owners need to listen when contractors say the load is too much 59:46 - Training people to communicate and supporting their well-being 60:14 - Reputation, pricing, and how difficult clients get priced in 62:54 - Why human beings dying is the real bottom-line issue 64:35 - People who become close under pressure become your real support system 68:11 - Helping every worker line up the next job before the current one ends 70:18 - Closing thoughts: communication, balance, and people before profit Notable quotes “We have more ways of communicating now than we’ve ever had before and we communicate less.” “The single biggest safety threat facing our industry is suicide.” https://www.discprofile.com/what-is-disc (https://www.discprofile.com/what-is-disc) https://www.osha.gov/preventingsuicides (https://www.osha.gov/preventingsuicides) https://hardhatcourage.com/ (https://hardhatcourage.com/)

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

856

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 49 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

58

Social presence

0

YouTube

66

Engagement

32

Contact Management Under Construction

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about Management Under Construction