The companies I selected were David Weekly Homes, Power Home Remodeling and Accenture. I picked these companies specifically to look at thriving companies within the construction industry, as that is where my major and current job with a General Contractor relate to. An interesting item I saw was that each company has similar words drawn from their trust index surveys, such as team, people and care. Key items such as these are the foundation of a smooth working company in which employees devote many years to the business.

As a manager, I want to be welcoming to my team members, as I understand being in a position where my higher up is intimidating, causing me to seek less help and less interactions with them. I would like my employees to feel comfortable telling me when they are having problems or needing help. A quote that stuck out to me in Why Did We Ever Get Into HR was “Instead of trying to “fix” a chronic employee weakness, how can we tailor a role that matches and capitalizes on strengths?”, which helps strengthen the idea that if someone is struggling in their work, listening to them and helping understand how to shape their responsibilities to what they are best in is much more beneficial than beating them down for not doing well in an aspect.

A challenging part of having a higher up position is understanding how to have those awkward/tough conversations one on one with employees that are slipping behind in their work or having problems. As talked about in the the book First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently, one must understand using a firm hand with an employee that is acting out of pocket, such as with jokes in the workplace as seen on page 6. But with that in mind, different employees need different interactions to get back in line. A good manager understands how each person is unique and helps them feel understood.