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Learning to Do Things the Right Way: The Construction Mentor

We all cherish the person who has played the role of mentor in our lives. They lead, guide, suggest, and forewarn us.
The presence of great teachers is one of the traditional strengths of the construction industry.

It is a fortunate son or daughter who can recall a childhood guided by the loving hand of a mother and father; Dad teaching his son how to swing a baseball bat or wear in his glove or Mom running alongside her daughter’s bike when the training wheels first come off. Everyone feels great nostalgia for those days when our parents were also our first and best teachers.

Likewise, we all recall with great fondness and appreciation that great teacher – from kindergarten, high school, or even college – who inspired us and steered us to dream bigger or think more broadly than we had before.

Because we cherish these memories, portrayals of the older, wiser guide who instructs the newcomer abound in literature and movies: a trapper teaches a greenhorn how to survive in Jeremiah Johnson, a karate master teaches a boy to believe in himself in The Karate Kid, a veteran catcher tells a hotshot rookie pitcher how to conduct an acceptable interview in Bull Durham. An old Jedi gives a young man a light saber and some sage advice in Star Wars.

In short, we all cherish the person who has played the role of mentor in our lives. They lead, guide, suggest, and forewarn us.

The presence of great teachers is one of the traditional strengths of the construction industry. Because many established companies developed as Father-and-Son operations and because so much of the craft of building a project properly relies on hard-won experience, veterans who know the work are valuable, and those veterans who are eager to show younger employees how to build something right are beyond price.

With the theme of the Mentor in mind, the Construction Industry Newsletter spoke recently to two construction professionals. The men are at different stages of their careers, but both had insights into the role that mentors have played in their lives and in the success of the company for which they each work.

Ted Ferguson

Ted Ferguson is the Vice President of Operations at Gibbs and Register of Winter Garden, Florida. Gibbs and Register is a heavy-civil company that will do around $45-50M in business this year, concentrating their work on hard bid and design/build projects in Orlando, Jacksonville, Clearwater, Sarasota, and Lakeland, Florida. Projects include the on-going revitalization of cities and cityscapes: pedestrian trails, street scapes, landscaping, and sidewalks. Nine pipe crews work on underground utilities, and Gibbs and Register also does work in paving, curb and gutters, small bridges, new road work and reconstruction of older roads.

When asked about the role a mentor played in Ted’s life and what efforts Gibbs and Register makes to teach their younger professionals to do things the right way, here’s what Ted had to say:

“I have been fortunate enough to have several men to look up to as I learned not only the value of hard work, but the proper way to treat other people. That education started with my Dad. When I would finish my calculus homework, he’d sit with me and make me explain why I solved the problem the way I did. We’d spend hours on homework that took me no more than half an hour to complete. Now, years later … as a VP of Operations, I am insistent that the people working under me understand why we do things a certain way. My Dad didn’t promise me that his doggedness would matter to me, but now, years later, I see how important it is.

“My first job out of school was for the founder of American Pile Driving, a remarkable man named Charlie Guild. This was a man who, after his millions were made, went into the field every day, exhibiting the same driven work ethic that made him successful to begin with. Even into his eighties, he was the first man there in the morning. Beyond that, he treated every person out there with the same level of respect and friendliness: a laborer or a company president got the same time and interest from Charlie.

“Sometimes people come along at the right time in life, and a general superintendent named Wes Jaynes likewise taught me how to conduct myself well and how that leads to one representing his company well, also. I worked under Wes on the Jamestown Bridge, a $200M project (and that’s in mid 1980s prices!) in Rhode Island and received just the right amount of freedom on that project to develop confidence with security. Wes held his crew responsible for their decisions and mistakes. But he corrected mistakes without losing respect for us, and he trusted us after those mistakes, too. Like my Dad, he emphasized that we understand why we did something. From Wes, I further learned the great importance of planning, staying organized, and keeping a schedule. A huge crew needs to know that their leader has every step mapped out confidently and correctly, and I took that principle away from the Jamestown Bridge project.

“At Gibbs and Register, I work directly with Rex Huffman, the company President, and I continue to learn from a man with more than a decade more experience than I have. I hope I am presenting a model worth following to the 7 managers who work directly for me as well as the crews they direct. I consciously encourage my men to claim responsibility and to take pride in their work, and I hope that I am exhibiting other useful traits as well.

“And while Gibbs and Register doesn’t have a formal mentoring program, we make an effort to teach each other along the way. We have quarterly sessions when all the PMs gather to learn about different subjects: contracts, conflict, accounting. We can share successes and warn each other by recounting mistakes we’ve made.

“Finally, all the PMs and Supers gather each Thursday in a management meeting we call Rocks in the Road. We talk about what’s going on in our projects, schedule the crews, and anticipate problems. In other words, we look ahead, plan, get ready, and do our best to act to avoid rocks in the road rather than react after the wheels come off.”

Chuck Hall

Chuck Hall represents what is best and most hopeful about the construction industry. A young man still in his twenties, Chuck works for Turnberry Ltd., having followed his father to that prestigious builder of luxury residential properties. Turnberry Ltd and Turnberry Residential have been building custom homes and condominium villages for forty years and works in Florida, Las Vegas, the Bahamas, Houston, TX, and in the Arlington, Virginia area. The Construction Industry Newsletter met Chuck when he applied for and received a Scholarship for Students in Construction, which is an academic scholarship which Kimmel & Associates awards to students of promise across the country who are pursuing a degree relevant to and a career in construction. Though early in his own career, Chuck offered many insights into the role a strong mentor can play in a young builder’s development; along the way, he provided anyone reading this interview with hope for the future of the business by reminding us that there are thousands of dedicated and talented young people who will one day assume leadership positions in the construction industry.

When asked about the role a mentor played in Chuck’s life and what effort Turnberry makes to teach their younger professionals to do things the right way, here’s what Chuck had to say:

“Growing up, I was always involved hands-on with projects around the house: an addition to our house, a new driveway, even my father's honey-do list. My father, Bud Hall, is the Senior Vice President of Construction at Turnberry Residential, and I visited his project sites all the time with him. As I got older, I became intrigued that as we drove around town, he could point to something and say “I built that” about someone’s home, and I felt his pride in providing someone with the home where they lived.

“Just recounting that story makes it is easy for me to see that my father is also my mentor. I took the lessons of childhood and wanted to follow in his footsteps, and now that I’m an Assistant Project Manager for Turnberry, our always strong relationship is deeper now that I do some of the same work he did.

“From my father – and from many others in the construction industry – I developed a work ethic that allows me to push myself: attending school at Florida International in my native South Florida, I worked as many hours as possible for Langan Engineering, the Tower Group and then Turnberry while earning my Bachelor’s degree in Construction Management and continued to work full-time as I pursued my Master’s degree. Prior to earning my Bachelor's, I joined Turnberry and have enjoyed my five years here, starting as a Junior Project Engineer and taking on responsibility as it comes. Now I am an Assistant Project Manager on a luxurious, high-rise condominium.

“All along the way, I have had the chance to work with my father on occasion; though the majority of our contact at work is indirect, I see the same dedication, pride, and hard work in the team I work with as my father has always exhibited. We function well as a team, and the various departments – finance, legal, sales, construction - feed off each other’s information and effort and further each other’s knowledge. We educate, drive, and encourage each other, and self-aggrandizement does not lead one to succeed at Turnberry.

“In addition to the wonderful model my father has provided, I have worked with three talented and conscientious Project Managers who have all given me the confidence that comes with their trust and assurance that we’re a team, we work together to find a way to make our projects and Turnberry successful. Along the way, I gain knowledge and earn responsibility, and the team is always there to support and instruct.

“From childhood on, my experiences inside the construction industry have been edifying and fulfilling. I definitely don’t plan on leaving the industry. In fact, I can even see staying with Turnberry my whole career: the opportunity and the growth are there. I feel very blessed to be at Turnberry.”

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