Bill Flemming, president of Skanska USA Building Inc., a worldwide construction management company that, among other things, is completing the extension of the No. 7 subway line in New York City, spoke with The New York Times for “The Corner Office,” the newspaper’s regular Q&A with business leaders.
On making adjustments to his leadership style:
You can change how you do things, but it doesn’t always change who you are. You have to be reminded. When you get a 360 review, it’s often three to five pages long. I boiled it down to about three or four things that I want to focus on, wrote them on a piece of paper and I keep them inside the cover of my tablet notebook.
On getting more from meetings:
Sometimes people will try to change a decision after it’s been made. You can’t leave a meeting with the possibility that that might happen. So you have to have a little more formalized approach, and be clear about what was decided.
I like to conclude meetings with two things. One is: “What do you think of this meeting? Was it time well spent?” And two is: “What’s your commitment to this team? What are you going to commit to doing when you leave this room?”
On his inclination to let others solve problems:
I’ve seen organizations where the boss makes all the decisions. That’s not leadership; that’s a boss. I want to get you to help me figure out what we’ve got to do here. If you’re deeply immersed in the problem or the issue, you probably know a lot more about it than I’m going to know. I can give you some
