What got you to this role is usually a set of winning habits: expertise, speed, high standards, and the need to be right. As your scope grows, those same strengths can become liabilities: jumping in too fast, solving instead of coaching, or polishing work that others should own. The shift is brutal but simple: your success is no longer your personal performance; it’s the capability you build around you.

Goldsmith’s line is a prompt to look for “successful” behaviors with hidden costs. Ask for blunt input: What do I do that makes your job harder? What do I do that makes you hesitate? Notice your triggers: tight deadlines, executive pressure, or a mistake you could fix yourself faster. Each time you take over, you may gain short-term control while quietly teaching the Team to wait.

Make the change concrete. Choose one habit to stop for two weeks—like interrupting, rescuing, or rewriting. Replace it with a scripted alternative: ask one clarifying question, align on “done,” and let them decide how to do it. Track it with a weekly 1–10 rating from the Team and an accountability partner to ensure the new habit sticks.

Replace one outdated leadership habit with a coached alternative and measure the change weekly.

Skanska is among the largest and most financially sound construction and development companies in the United States. It serves clients in transportation, power, industrial, water and wastewater, healthcare, education, sports, data centers, government, aviation, and commercial facilities. These are projects where reliability and long-term performance matter.

The United States is Skanska’s single largest market, with work in almost all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. More than 7,000 employees support teams that plan, manage, and deliver projects using deep expertise across construction, management, development, architecture, and engineering. From hospitals and stadiums to tunnels, bridges, airports, and corporate headquarters, the goal is to create infrastructure that heals, moves, entertains, and energizes communities.

Skanska’s approach is guided by a Code of Conduct and Supplier Code of Conduct that set expectations for ethical, transparent partnerships. Its values emphasize being better together, caring for life, committing to customers, and acting ethically and openly, which also underpins inclusion and diversity efforts. With roots in a small fishing village in southern Sweden more than 125 years ago, Skanska pairs a long history with modern standards for safety, sustainability, and people development.

Skanska pairs nationwide scale with ethics, expertise, and values-driven building that strengthens communities.

The White House is piloting a new digital permitting tool to speed routine infrastructure work by standardizing how agencies conduct NEPA reviews and use categorical exclusions. For highway safety fixes, bridge rehabs, utility hardening, and water upgrades, the promise is simpler: fewer stalls between concept, approval, and notice to proceed.

For contractors, the shift pulls permitting into the front end of estimating. Expect more requests for GIS layers, right-of-way limits, environmental commitments, and mitigation plans before pricing is finalized. When owners can see approvals moving in real time, they will push earlier submittals, tighter design freezes, and clearer accountability for scope changes that would trigger a deeper review.

Winning teams will build permit-ready packages. Assign a permitting lead in preconstruction, map constraints early, pre-negotiate staging and haul routes, and align utility relocations with the review calendar. Standardize your documentation so that each new project starts from a proven template rather than a blank page.

Submit permit-ready packages early to lock schedules and reduce risk.

New trade actions and tougher immigration enforcement are colliding on U.S. homebuilding sites. Tariffs can raise the delivered cost of lumber, appliances, and mechanical equipment, while uncertainty around jobsite enforcement can thin crews and slow inspections. Builders are hearing it first from subs: shorter bid hold times, higher mobilization costs, and less willingness to commit to aggressive schedules.

The squeeze is forcing a shift in how projects are priced and planned. More contracts are adding escalation language, and more buyers are being steered toward standardized plans that use fewer unique parts. Some builders are delaying starts until key packages are secured, while others are leaning harder on panelization and factory-built components to reduce onsite labor risk.

The best operators are treating this like a supply chain and staffing problem, not a headline. Identify tariff-exposed SKUs, lock alternates, and buy long-lead items earlier. On labor, tighten compliance, retain core crews, and cross-train supervisors so production is not dependent on a single trade being short-staffed.

Lock long-lead materials early and stabilize crews to protect schedules.

Ice, snow, and meltwater can quickly turn a normal walkway into a hazard, especially on steel, plywood, ladders, and steps. The goal is simple: slow down and stay in control.

Before you start a task, take 30 seconds to check your route. Look for glare ice, packed snow, hoses, cords, rebar caps, and materials that have drifted into walk paths. If you find it, fix it or flag it. Clear as you go, keep walkways open, and don’t step over stuff that should be moved.

Use appropriate footwear for the conditions, and remove snow and mud at the entry. On slick spots, take short steps and keep your weight over your feet. Keep one hand free when walking, and use handrails when they’re there. Don’t carry loads that block your view; get a cart or a second set of hands.

If an access point can’t be made safe, stop and tell your supervisor. No schedule is worth a broken wrist or worse. What slick areas have you seen on this site since yesterday?