← Construction Leaders Podcast
Construction Leaders Podcast
Leading with Resilience and Empathy in the Construction Industry
00:26:11
Loading summary
Transcript21 lines
- [00:03]
Carly Trout
Welcome to today's episode of the Construction Leaders podcast, where we'll dive into the challenges and rewards of authentic leadership in the high stakes, high pressure world of construction. Whether you're managing a team on a job site or leading a multifaceted program, effective leadership and clear, transparent communication are the pillars of success in an industry where deadlines, budgets, and safety are on the line. How do you stay true to your leadership style, ensure your team remains motivated and engaged, and lead with confidence through even the toughest of challenges? To talk about just that, Nick and I are very excited to welcome Marcia Alvarado to the podcast. Marcia is a structural engineer, a professional model, activist, former NCAA athlete, and the creative mind behind the Alvarado experience. She now works with both individuals and businesses to inspire them to thrive authentically through innovative services in speaking, consulting, leadership, and fashion. Marcia, welcome to the podcast.
- [01:11]
Marcia Alvarado
Thank you so much for having me, Carly and Nick. I'm excited to be here.
- [01:16]
Carly Trout
So let's get started. It sounds like you've had an incredible journey and have been in a lot of different roles. So can we start off if you could give our listeners a brief history of your background and ultimately what inspired you to step into leadership development?
- [01:32]
Marcia Alvarado
Yes, of course. So I grew up in a military household, and we, we moved around a lot. And I think, you know, at around seven or eight years old, I picked up a basketball. And that was probably one of the first times that I felt more into myself than any other part of my life. I played basketball as a kid on the streets until I found organized basketball with actually other women and played in my high school teams and got a really great opportunity to go to college and play on scholarship. And so I got to start my engineering career at the University of Louisville and play basketball at the same time. It was not for the faint of heart. It was very challenging. And I had a lot of people, you know, tell me that it was going to be pretty tough and that I would consider changing my major because of the workload, you know, and I was new to the environment, the campus, the lifestyle, but I, I had a lot of belief in myself, and I took a lot of those statements and kind of just ignored them and just continued to press forward in terms of studying engineering and playing basketball. I did finish a degree in civil engineering four and a half years later, playing basketball all four years. So that was, you know, a milestone in itself. And then I started my career in New York City. I always wanted to be in New York. When I got exposed to it in my college years, and so I really wanted to be, you know, just where all the tall buildings were. And that's when I really focused, focused on like, okay, I want to build buildings, I want to design buildings, I want to be a part of that built environment. And so I got a chance to start my career there. And I did a lot of renovation work and a lot of forensic work on a lot of the old schools built in the 20s and 30s. So a big part of my workflow was coordinating and managing projects and coordinating with contractors and the owners and, you know, essentially doing small structural engineering scope of works within existing buildings. Right. And opening here, you know, checking a loading analysis here for a floor. A lot of the schools were doing restructuring in terms of trying to bring, you know, multiple principals in and changing the dynamics of the school to make it more accessible and user friendly for education in the 21st century. Looking at swimming pools in the basement, that wasn't part of the dynamic of the education system. So there was a lot of restructuring of those old schools that we had to do from that. I came back to Florida to be closer to my family back in, in about 2008. And I, I got back and I got to work on a lot of different types of markets over the past eight or, you know, eight to 10 years, from federal to healthcare to multifamily to aviation. I worked at two different companies and got a lot of exposure to different types of buildings. And I think that made me kind of more of a renaissance, you know, woman. And so when I moved into business development, I was able to understand the pros and cons of each market and be able to communicate to architects, communicate to developers about the challenges or the opportunities to be able to serve them. And so in every aspect, I think it's interesting because I didn't recognize the leadership that I was building at the time. I was building it right? And I think that's something that goes beyond. When you start looking at the layers of your life, right, you start reflecting back. And if you take time to reflect, like, you start noticing when you started making decisions for yourself, when you weren't able to make decisions, and what leadership skills styles you had at different points of your life. Being a shooting guard, I was one of the ones that's like, I willing to win or lose the game with the ball in my hands at the end of the game. Like, that is a very unique position where most people on the team are like, you know, you see them on the court, they're like, here, get rid of the ball, get Rid of the ball. I don't want to have the ball, right? Like, I don't want to be the one making the decision to shoot the ball and take all that risk on myself. That's a very unique leadership quality in certain people versus moving into engineering and deciding, okay, I'm okay being out in the field with no experience communicating to contractors about how we're going to solve this problem, right? That shaped a lot of my project management skills and my leadership skills in terms of managing projects and communicating with people. So that was unique in itself. Now, you mentioned fashion model. And so I can't let that go, right? Like, 11 years ago, I had got to a point where I had reached a milestone in getting my professional engineering license. And so at that point I was thinking to myself, okay, what's the next goal? I was very goal posted in my twenties. It was like, this is how you become an engineer. Here's the step by step process. So at that point, I was like, okay, what's next? And so I thought about it internally. But I also recognized that I had built myself into some form of an influencer before I became like a social media influencer, right? I was always known as being very well dressed. You know, in terms of my presentation. I had really good style in the menswear world. And so a lot of people would give me compliments. And I was like, maybe I could turn this into another source of revenue and income, right? And that's when I decided to put myself in front of the camera and try my hand at, you know, being a model, which in the definition, in my world, it's. It's just a person who is able to sell something to another human being by not using necessarily the words, but using imagery, right? Photography. When you flip through the magazine, and I'm dating myself now, when you flip through the magazine, like, why do you stop on certain pages, right? What is motivating, what is captivating about this image? That was something that was very intriguing to me. When I was young. I used to read gq, you know, and I would look at all the clothing and the styles and. And just understand about how to present myself and finding my own style. And so that took many years. But when I felt comfortable enough, I put myself in front of the camera and I got really surprised at how much I felt like I knew myself. I started to uncover more layers of myself that were very uncomfortable. And so the idea of being a model to make some extra money or maybe get some free clothes out of some deals ended up turning into, holy crap. I have more work to work on myself. And so the next few years, I focused on, wow. Like, if I can master the art of emotion on command in front of a camera, that is going to be very powerful in the rest of my life, in everything that I do. And so that became more of a goal. And it was a chaos, right? Fashion and doing fashion shows like it is chaos behind the screens and behind the curtains. There's so much commotion. There's so much chaos. It seems like nobody plans for anything until the moment you go out on the Runway and they're moving models in the lineup every second, right up until you walk out. And it just seemed like, why are we not planning ahead? My brain kind of went into this as an engineer. I'm like, there's so many things we can do before we get to this point, but that's not. The creative minds of a lot of fashion designers, right, are looking and making decisions right up into the second that you walk out on stage. And so that was super interesting and tapped in another side of my brain that I had to reconcile, right? So now I had this engineering world where you're planning out years in advance to another lifestyle where everything goes right up into the last second and you perform. And so that challenged me to work on myself and be okay with the chaos. And I think full circle now, today, as I move into, like, speaking and coaching other people, like, that dynamic of not having control is a part of now my leadership, right? You have to be very nimble. You have to be willing to change every day. Your schedule can't be perfect if you don't get to all the things in your schedule in that day because of unforeseen things that come in. You have to be okay with that, and you have to learn how to find, you know, peace in that chaos. And I think that's one of the biggest things that came out of my learning and leadership from the fashion world. So a lot of different aspects, but I think they all marry into something that I am today. And I think one of the biggest takeaways is that each unique person has those stories for themselves. And that's where, you know, the authentic vitality comes in, into understanding yourself and understanding how those pieces of your life are all coming together. And there's a lot of self reflection that goes into that, and that's not easy. So that's the part of the process that I want to help people and empower them to look within themselves and to really figure out a way to bring all of themselves to the table in any capacity.
- [09:38]
Nick Soto
Yeah, I love the way you say that. And we asked you to speak as part of our emerging Leaders program here at cmaa and you talked to them about a lot of emphasizing the leadership. But why is that so critical in construction and engineering? And maybe some examples of why and how you managed to make that as part of your coaching and leadership path?
- [10:03]
Marcia Alvarado
Well, I think sometimes people think about authenticity as a personality trait. Maybe you're born with it. I don't believe that. I believe that understanding who you are is a first step to being able to understand yourself and be able to be the best person you can in the moment. From a productivity standpoint, from a relationship standpoint, I think authenticity is very important in our industry because at the end of the day, we are dealing with humans, we are dealing with people at every step of the way. Yes, the product is a physical product that's out in the world. Yes, that product is performed and built from engineering and design and inspiration. But at the end of the day, humans are part of every aspect of that project, whether we're typing and building it in software and we're typing in everything using technology. But the, at the end of the day, the human relationships that exist are essentially part of all aspects of the built environment. And when problems arise and when solutions are being presented, I think that's where the human connection really is important. The relationships that you build and the authenticity that you bring. You know, when you build yourself as a leader or, you know, as an engineer, or you're working on a project, there is a lot of trust that has to get built over a certain time. And there's many ways to build trust. And I think it's incumbent upon each of us to work on that for ourselves so that when a problem does arise, we are working with people that we know we're going to be able to trust and we're going to be able to bring the best value to the product, whether it's for the owner or the architect or whoever you're working for. But a lot of that trust, it doesn't come with the fact that, oh, my name says structural engineer and there's a PE behind it. Unfortunately, that's not enough. And that's part of why I think bringing your authentic self to the table and finding unique ways to do it for yourself is important because it's long lasting. I've had so many great relationships with contractors, with architects, that people will come back for more service. Whether that project was a huge success or not, it was the experience that they got while I was working with them. Right. It was the responsiveness. It was the, I'm willing to work with you on this problem. And, you know, I'm a unique structural engineer. When an architect tells me to put a column here, I do everything in my power to try to put that column there. Right. I'm not the one that says, you cannot do this. This is not impossible. And I do a lot of educating. I think that was part of the thing that I did, is I would educate every architect whether they knew about it or not. Here's why. Here's the numbers. Here's the reality of what we're dealing with. You can get this or that. Sometimes engineers, I think, have a tendency to give, you know, their responses, and they don't back it up with education, thinking that either the person that they're speaking to should already know this. And I don't need to explain myself. I've always felt like it. It requires an explanation. I've always educated. Every single time I've worked with a contractor, I go out to the site, hey, here's why the lap needs to exist. Like, this is what's going to happen when it doesn't exist. Those are extra things that I do in my everyday life that build trust, that build a sense of like, okay, we're in this together.
- [13:08]
Carly Trout
So as you're explaining your own personal journey, moving from more of the technical expert to an influential leader, what do you think the number one mindset shift is that would help somebody who's looking to do the same?
- [13:23]
Marcia Alvarado
Yeah. So for a long time, I told you, since I was a kid, I mean, I played with lego. I always wanted to be the one that produced the product. I always wanted to be the one that says, man, I want to design this building. I want to work on this project. I think at some point, some engineers have it and they move into a different space because now they're starting to recognize that they value maybe building people versus building buildings, right? So there became a point in time where I was mentoring a lot of high school students, and I was constantly mentoring while I was doing my technical aspect, right? And so I got to a point where I enjoyed the idea of building people and empowering them and teaching them more than the actual technical aspect. And so that's when my leadership kind of shifted into more business development, because now I was thinking about selling on behalf of the engineers, Right. I want to take these three structural engineers that are on my team, and I want to empower them and and share their successes more than sharing my own. Right. And I think that's where I shifted over into building up my team. Building up either the brand of an organization and really thinking about building up people and teams rather than building the actual physical product anymore. I got to a point where I, you know, from the technical side, it didn't, you know, it's just like basketball. Like, I. I had a lot of opportunity to play overseas when I finished college, and I got to a point where I was like, no, like, I'm so excited to get into engineering. I want to do that more than basketball. Right. And you have to weigh those decisions and you have to be honest with yourself. And so I didn't go on to play in overseas, and I was going to get. Take a major pay cut, honestly, playing women's basketball in overseas in 2005 rather than becoming an engineer in New York City. So money was a motivator and hurry up and getting into building engineering. Building buildings was kind of, you know, the transition. So over time, after about 10 years, I. I started realizing that I was having more fun in building up young kids and team members on my team rather than doing the actual design itself.
- [15:22]
Nick Soto
I love the background of the sports and the modeling because it's such a different perspective as, like, you don't hear that from most construction managers, to be honest, or engineers and. And go Cardinals. That's just for you, you know, supporting your former NCAA athlete background. But talk to me about how it's kind of influenced your coaching and leadership styles, maybe how resilience is relevant there, as well as any advice you'd give to anybody who's coming from the field of construction management or engineering about dealing with setbacks and opportunities for growth.
- [15:58]
Marcia Alvarado
Yeah. I think when I talk to other student athletes, like in our industry, I mean, I think they kind of get it right. They have been, whether it's on a team dynamic or an individual. I think when you're around other coaches in the sporting world, when you're at practice and you're in, you're going through the motions. You have a coach that's coaching different types of people every single day. He's communicating in front of you to different people on the team in a different way. Right. Like, the motivating for me is you can raise your voice, you can yell, you can scream. You can. And I take that as very positive reinforcing. So I would jump up and like, okay, I need to get my butt in gear, versus the person next to me can get that same level of Coaching, and they respond completely differently. That's what I saw as a young child. Whether it was high school, college, I saw that people on my team responded to the same coaching very differently. And I think that's a big, you know, when you move into, you know, much more competitive sports, I mean, coaches get big better and better, right? Like, my high school coach was not as good as my college coach, right? And so you start seeing them change their coaching style, right? They are communicating to different people in different ways. You're pulling some people aside versus some people. They don't have to give as much verbal praise. And so you start seeing the dynamic of, okay, this is somebody who's understands that each person is unique and different and they're going to respond differently. And I think that translates into management as a leader. Like, you cannot give the same level of communication to your entire team, thinking that they're all going to respond the same way. And I think that's one of the biggest things that I have gotten out of sports and understanding that it takes a little bit of time to understand your. Your student athlete, your team member. It's not going to happen. It's going to happen over, you know, six to 12 months of being around them, understanding their dynamic, understanding what motivates them. You can be sitting in 10 to meetings with them over three months, and two of those meetings, this person was really activated and really alive and asking questions and being very alert to, like, okay, this person is activated right now. There must be something we're doing or we're talking about that is exciting to them, right? That's passionate versus, you know, having a operations meeting, and they're just, like, about to, you know, their camera's not even on. Like, those are things you have to notice, you know, and so that you can figure out, you know, is this person on in the right seat of the bus, right, or should I be moving them in a different capacity? And so, as a leader, we have to be conscious to know that for ourselves, but then also see it in others. And I think once you do the work as an individual, it's a little bit easier to see it in others.
- [18:30]
Carly Trout
So we have a fair amount of young professionals who listen to the podcast. So if you were to speak directly to them, maybe they're listening and they want to elevate their leadership game. What would you tell them is the first step that they should take?
- [18:46]
Marcia Alvarado
So the cool thing about the word leadership is it can happen on day one of your engineering career. I think a lot of times people look at others that are in leadership roles and think that's the time that they are working on their leadership. I would tell them. Every aspect of your job that you are being asked to do is a form of leadership in some capacity. Right? If you were asked to print drawings and send them out to a client, that is a very important task. If you are out on the construction field and say, hey, I need you to meet up with this owner and walk him around the site, you are literally taking an opportunity to meet with that person, communicate to them, build some level of trust and then keep them safe. So it's kind of interesting because getting the client's names on the drawings correct is like the biggest form of business development that I can tell a young person to do. It took me two years to get this client and maybe another two years to get the project. And if you don't spell the name right on the drawings, you've just ruined that relationship. And so they need to understand the value of everything that they're doing, every step of the way. And that's the part that I love to share, right? Like they may see me going out to events and conferences and they may see me interacting and having a good time. But I tell them like, you guys are the ones that are backing me up. You guys are supporting me. Because when you guys produce this product or you, you know, you're working with these clients, once we won the project, you guys are the ones that are going to make and break the relationship. It's not going to be me anymore. I just brought them in and so I try to have them focus on every aspect that they're doing throughout their day and understand the value of the relationship for what they're doing. Yes, it's math, yes. It's just, you know, printing a PDF. But there's a reason why your task is very important to the overall development of that client and then obviously the overall development of our business goals.
- [20:34]
Carly Trout
I like that a lot. Just being able to hone your leadership skills no matter what position you're in, no matter what level of the organization, that makes sense.
- [20:41]
Marcia Alvarado
I do have a personality where I like to talk. I know it's a unique for a structural engineer, but when I was in New York and I was just an entry level engineer, when I worked with people in the team, I was working in an office with like a hundred people, full service architects, engineers. Anytime there was a task, when I had to work with a person via email that was in the office, we would email, we would chat, right? But I Got up from my cubicle and I walked over to them and I would be like, hey, you know, this detail that you asked me to work on, like, ask them questions. Like, I did a lot of things in person very early on because that was my way of Learning. Emailing back 500 emails to try to get to a solution was something that I thought was like, this is asinine when I can just walk over and talk to them. So I have found that getting up out of my seat and making an effort to build a connection, 15 minute conversation here, 2 minute conversation there, like, that builds up over time to the point where now you start seeing it reciprocated now. Now that person starts coming over to you instead of writing you an email and asking for, hey, Marcy, I need you to go to this site. And that became something that was really easy for me. I know it's sometimes challenging, brother, but looking for opportunities to do that shows that you're unique and different and that you're willing to kind of put yourself out there. And I have seen a lot of young people now do it. And it's so funny to watch them do it now in my office. They'll come by my office, they'll stand by the door and like, hey, how's everything going? You know, And I'm like, I'm good. Thank you for asking. Right. Like, because these are things that I did. Or they'll start introducing themselves to new associates in the office, whether they're working with them or not. I saw that from one of my ace students that was hired at my last company, and I started recognizing, wow, she is a leader. She's already day one as a drainage engineer talking to people that an architect that she would never, you know, would work with. But it didn't matter. We were all in the same space. And so when I started seeing that impact, it made me very happy because I'm like, okay, like, that's how you start. Your leadership from day one is just building relationships with other people.
- [22:43]
Nick Soto
Well, I think the bigger question is, were they able to get the architect to agree with the engineer? And if that's the case, how do they do it? Because that's a really tough question. But we actually only have time for one question left here for you, and that's really about giving your final thought on one leadership lesson. You want every construction professional to take away from this conversation. What would that be?
- [23:06]
Marcia Alvarado
I think construction is something that is taken for granted in this world. And so I think one of the things that I want people to take away with is that we have our own little industry in our niche and inside our world. It can be very challenging and very stressful. And so I think one of the things I would want everyone to take away is that we need to all give each other grace while we're working on these projects. I think one of the biggest things that happened that helps stabilize, at least from my perspective, some of the industry is, is Covid. Unfortunately, as much of a horrific time period it was, there was a lot of empathy. When we would get on zoom meetings from all of our homes and try to still solve these problems and build these buildings, I started having contractors ask me, can you please get to this rfi? Rather than, you know, having a lot more of the demanding like this has to happen or we're going to stop construction. So I think having a little bit more empathy, knowing that outside of our industry, not that many people know how many different types of people it takes to put a building together or build a road or build a bridge. And so we just have to step back and realize that we are keeping our civilization going and we need to give each other inside our industry a lot more grace.
- [24:16]
Nick Soto
It's definitely organized chaos.
- [24:20]
Marcia Alvarado
It'd be a fashion show in New York Fashion Week, but it's definitely organized chaos, right?
- [24:25]
Nick Soto
Yeah.
- [24:26]
Marcia Alvarado
We try to relate the two. Is this even saying it out loud? You know, people are going to be like, I don't even believe you. I'm like, really? Come with?
- [24:33]
Nick Soto
No. It's so unique. We love it. And I want to thank you for sharing your incredible journey and insights on authentic leadership and building meaningful connections and leading with confidence. You're a true testament to the power of showing up as your true self and inspiring others to do the same. I look forward to your partnership with CMAA and hearing more about you in the future. But our listeners don't have to wait to connect with you, Marcia. They can visit theavarado experience.com that's again. T H E A L V A R A D O E A x p e r-I e n c e.com we really do appreciate you and looking forward to hearing more. But that's a wrap on today's episode of the Construction Leaders podcast. And coming up on our next podcast, Jim McConnell is going to speak to us about construction sites becoming more connected and the line between physical and digital security and how it's blurring. So on the next episode, we're going to explore coverage on construction security, security and learning how to integrate cyber security. With on site protection and how it's revolutionizing safety, preventing threats, and keeping projects secure in the digital age. Thank you for tuning in. And if you found today's conversation valuable, make sure you download or subscribe to the podcast on social media. You can also follow us at cmaahq. Don't forget to leave us a review with your thoughts and let us know what you'd like to hear on an upcoming podcast. On behalf of cmaa, I'm Nick Soto with Carly Trout. Thank you for listening.