Seeing yourself as a brand and identifying how you want to be seen by others, are fundamental aspects to career profession, according to Central Piling MD Steve Hadley.

Steve was presenting a talk on “Compassionate Leadership in Practice” for the FPS’ Early Careers Group (ECG) session in February which was hosted by David Major from Laing O’Rourke.

The session was attended by members from Expanded, Murphy, Keltbray, Keller, Roger Bullivant, Bachy Soletanche, Bauer Technologies, BAM Ritchies, Cementation Skanska and FK Lowry.

Steve began his presentation by asking why members had chosen to attend this session and the main responses were wanting to learn more about leadership and wanting to hear about a career journey.

So, Steve explained how he has been able to experience different departments within a piling business throughout his career and how important it was in the early stages to be Chartered. He encouraged members to explore and seize opportunities for their development, and to try new roles and experiences, as it helps them grow as individuals.

He then moved onto what it takes to be a leader, explaining that leaders need to be “comfortable with being uncomfortable”. He emphasised that in his experience, caring about your role and your duties is a sign of strength and not weakness, as so often perceived by people.

Steve defined other leadership qualities as:

• Being able to listen to people
• Providing praise, as it helps to motivate
• Being compassionate and flexible to face challenges

Steve was keen to stress that anyone can become a leader, and that it is not title specific. The group were encouraged to get excited about being engaged with their jobs and to welcome honest feedback from colleagues to help them develop. Steve also reminded them that to grow professionally they had to be prepared to sometimes fail.

Throughout the presentation, Steve provided the group with reading material recommendations including “The Chimp Paradox” by Professor Steve Peters and “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell.

Judging from the lively Q&A session, the presentation was extremely well-received. During this part, Steve talked about recognising the triggers for stress and taking yourself out of a situation if required.

For a copy of the presentation, contact David Major on DaMajor@laingorourke.com.