Author: bradley
-
The Plaza System—and What Happens When It Breaks
You may have read something interesting recently as The Wall Street Journal reported on an event that doesn’t happen very often. This year, 55 cartel leaders were quietly moved out of Mexican prisons and transferred to the United States. These weren’t low-level thugs. These were the heavy weights, the real jefes at the top of Mexico’s largest criminal organizations.…
-
In the War for Talent, Leaders Cannot Make This Unforced Error
Brett Favre may be the simplest example. The NFL had Junior Seau. The NBA has Giannis Antetokounmpo and Victor Wembanyama. MLB has Shohei Ohtani and Xander Bogaerts. Even my low hockey IQ recalls Mark Messier and Jonathan Toews. And it’s not just men—Nadia Comăneci and Martina Navratilova qualify too. All share something: phonetically challenging names.…
-
Where Are You on Your Journey from Good to Excelente?
Leadership comes down to two things: what you do and what you say. Your cultural awareness shapes your actions. Your awareness of language shapes your words. Together, they form the foundation of trust—the core of leadership, teamwork, and retention. When trust is strong, everything else follows. Productivity improves. Safety improves. So does profitability. But trust doesn’t happen by accident.…
-
Leveraging AI to Attract, Train, and Retain Top Hispanic Talent
In yesterday’s episode of The Construction Leadership Podcast (Ep. 485: The Cost of Ignoring AI: How Leaders Risk Failing Their Teams), I argued that leaders who haven’t taken the time to understand artificial intelligence—and develop an informed opinion about it—are putting their teams at risk. Delegating the responsibility of crafting and communicating an AI strategy to the…
-
Building Trust Through Alchemy: What Construction Leaders Can Learn from Advertising’s Wild Card
By a wide margin, my favorite book this year is Alchemy by Rory Sutherland. He’s the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK, one of the world’s largest advertising and marketing agencies. The “alchemy” Sutherland refers to is in the subtitle: The Magic of Original Thinking in a World of Mind-Numbing Conformity. In his witty, sarcastic, and insightful style, Sutherland…
-
The Speed of Trust: The Leadership Mental Model That Improves Every Team In Every Culture
In construction, nepotism is hardly frowned upon—it’s often a talent pipeline that gives businesses continuity, if not consistency. But when it came to listening to the son of Stephen R. Covey, I was hesitant to give him the same benefit of the doubt. I had two reasons. One:The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen…
-
The #1 Leadership Mistake With Hispanic Workers (And What To Do Instead)
There are two young fish swimming along who happen to meet an older fish. The older fish nods at them and says, “Morning boys. How’s the water?” The two young fish swim on for a bit and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and asks, “What the hell is water?” The…
Good to Excelente Newsletter 