There’s a demand for qualified leaders in the construction industry, and our guest for this episode has dedicated herself to meeting that demand by unleashing the potential of women in leadership positions. Mentors guide up-and-coming professionals, using their experience to help develop a (usually younger) mentee. Sponsors, on the other hand, advocate on behalf of their mentees and help them advance in their careers by being proactive with those in positions of power. In this episode, we learn how to be an effective sponsor for up-and-coming leaders in the construction industry to help eliminate the leadership shortage.

Transcript:

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00:08
Speaker 1
All right, it's morning huddle time. Good morning. I'm not saying it works. I wish you, Godspeed with all of that. I think that's really nice. You know, I'm not sure what kind of success you're gonna have with that today, because the world, my friend, has changed. Right? Latin American construction workers, they have different needs.

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00:28
Speaker 2
They have completely different.

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00:30
Speaker 3
These awards have a huge, like, criteria that you have to fill out. And they usually have a community service or community relations portion, you know, the.

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00:40
Speaker 2
Most productive with a high performance value. And, you know, sometimes it's 11 o' clock at night.

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00:48
Speaker 1
Funny, isn't? Yeah, not for me.

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00:51
Speaker 2
Not for me.

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00:52
Speaker 1
At 11 o', clock, I am guaranteed to be snoring. So foreign. Good morning. It's morning huddle time. We're here for season four. I am psyched. We've got three months of amazing guests that Stacy helped us to hook up with I. Her, I guess just her charm. She's. She's incredible at getting people to agree to come hang out with us. It's so wonderful that we have today Andrea Jansen, who's joining us from Ambition Theory. And Andrea, how are you today?

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01:30
Speaker 2
Oh, I am fantastic. Thank you so much for inviting me onto the morning huddle.

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01:35
Speaker 1
Yeah, we are so glad to have you. You're very welcome. And Stacy, how are you?

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01:40
Speaker 3
I'm doing great. I'm really excited about today's topic. I'm super passionate about mentorship and sponsorship, and I can't wait to hear what you have to say, especially, you know, people first joining the industry and navigating that in their careers and all that stuff and how they can get help and guidance throughout their careers.

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01:59
Speaker 2
So it's going to be great.

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02:01
Speaker 1
Agreed. I'm fired up. I'm also, I'm sitting here thinking, like, I can't believe that it's been already nine or ten weeks or something like that since were last on. Usually we take 8 off, but this time I think we took 9 or 10 off. And I was really getting used to having nothing going on Tuesday mornings. So. But no, I'm, so I'm. I'm really excited to be back in action. This feels more normal to me to have this going on every week. So Stacy is, as always, going to lead the conversation on the live chat. For those of you who are joining us live, if you are not joining us live. Thank you. Think about joining us live next time if you're in a position to do so. It's 9:00am Eastern here on LinkedIn Live. And then, of course, we're getting Stacy.

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02:55
Speaker 1
We have so many people downloading on Apple and Spotify now. I keep watching those statistics. They're going through the roof. It's really exciting to watch people joining us that way. But I do miss having so many people joining us in person. I want, I want more people in person.

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03:11
Speaker 2
Yeah, definitely.

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03:12
Speaker 1
You know, it's, it brings a lot to the Q and A. But look forward to the Q and A here in, you know, 20 minutes or so. And I'm going to jump right in with Andrea if that's good with you. Stacy, we'll see you in a bit.

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03:24
Speaker 2
Sounds good.

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03:25
Speaker 1
See you. Thanks. All right, Andrea, let's get to the business of talking about sponsorship and mentorship and what it's all about. And I think I'm, you know, embarrassed to admit that, you know, it wasn't until we had you, Stacy said, you know, hey, we've got Andrea joining us for this that I started looking into this and thought, oh, man, I wasn't really sure of the difference myself. So tell us a little bit about what mentorship is, what sponsorship is, how they really differ.

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03:52
Speaker 2
So don't feel bad about not knowing the difference. Most people don't know the difference. And actually, most people use the word mentorship to describe both mentorship and sponsorship. So we don't really say the word sponsorship out loud, and we don't necessarily need to. And I'll explain the difference. And I want to say thank you for inviting me to talk about this topic because this is my absolute favorite topic to teach about. And it's the topic if people, if women in the construction industry or companies that want to get more women into leadership positions, if they implement one thing, this is the thing that's going to get them the results the fastest. So I'm so excited to talk about this today.

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04:32
Speaker 2
So I don't know about you, but for my whole career, ever since I was probably a teenager, people said you need to find a mentor if you want to be successful. And so I did, like most people, and I spent hours just talking to people about what it takes to be successful, how they became successful. And to be honest, after a while, I was kind of like hitting my head against the wall because it wasn't working. And really, there's this interesting unconscious bias that shows up on how men and women are mentored. And it's different. And I'll explain the difference. So mentorship is really about getting advice. So say you're that, you know, that junior person. You're up and coming. You're like, I want to get to that next level. You go find that mentor.

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05:15
Speaker 2
So that's either a senior person in your company or in the industry. They don't need to be in your company. You meet them, they, you know, will share stories, they'll maybe tell, give you some advice, drop some names of who you should talk to about the thing that you want to learn. And then you go back to your desk or your office or your job site and you're like, okay, I'm all inspired. I'm going to do this. I'm going to invest in myself. And you're like, okay, I read the book, I heard the story. You know what? If I call that person that you mentioned, they're not going to recognize the number. They're going to think it's spam. So they're not going to pick up. You know, same thing with the email.

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05:51
Speaker 2
They're not going to reply because they have no idea who I am. So at the end of the day, it's up to you, the mentee, to implement, you know, what you've learned. The onus to take action is on you, the junior person.

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06:04
Speaker 1
So that's a slow go. I mean, it's, and it's very daunting. And to your point, you are met with a lot of resistance. And, you know, even if you do have the courage to do that outreach, which is by itself a mountain, the amount of obstacles that are thrown in your way, precisely because to your point, it's very difficult to get somebody to pay attention to you when you don't come in with some sort of, you know, some sort of support.

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06:36
Speaker 2
Yeah, exactly. And so sponsorship, on the other hand, is where you're that junior person. You want to learn that thing, you ask the senior person. And I'll give the example of business development, because that's a key skill that people need to learn in the construction industry. You need to understand how does the business of construction work. That's usually a skill that you need to get to that next level of leadership. So I'll give you an example of a sponsorship situation. So you go to that senior person, you're like, I want to learn how to. How the business works. And that senior person is like, you know what? I have a meeting with the VP of Sales and Business development tomorrow. Why don't you come along with me? So you, as that junior person, you get that exposure. You get to meet that vp.

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07:18
Speaker 2
You get to learn about that thing. You need to learn directly from that senior person. Then they get to know you. You start to build that relationship and that person knows. This person wants to, you know, learn this skill. They want to get to the next level, they're motivated. And then typically in a sponsoring relationship, it's like, okay, you know what, in two weeks, I am pitching a new client. Come along, protege. That's what we use to describe that junior person in this relationship. Come along. And you know What? I'm presenting 20 slides. You take the first five. I'll be here. I can step in if you screw it up. But. But we'll do this together. And really, it's that onus to take action is on both people.

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07:59
Speaker 2
And if you think about who's going to progress faster, is it the person that's preparing and reading all the books or the person that's kind of thrown in with that person to guide them and learning it as they go?

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08:12
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. Well, I think there's no substitute for experience and Trial by Fire, you know, and all those types. I mean, I think it's a good combination. I'd also recommend reading the books, but I agree that certainly getting the hands on experience is going to advance you faster. And so I want to bring this back to the thought of unconscious bias and how the experience differs between men and women. And you know, these aren't just your opinions. These are. This comes from data. I know that you're a data collector. It's a part of what ambition theory does. So tell me, what's the difference between men's experience and women's experience in this and point to that data.

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09:10
Speaker 2
Yeah, so that's a great question. So typically women are mentored. So women are given advice, prepared to the opport, prepared for that opportunity. And men are typically sponsored. And again, like I want to reiterate, this isn't my opinion. This is based on years of research. And the cool thing is we are. And this happens in every industry. It's not just construction. We're actually gathering more data right now so that we can actually quantify this experience for women specifically working in the construction industry. So we will have that in a couple of weeks. But that's typically how it plays out in the unconscious bias. And it's one thing I do want to say is people never do this on purpose. They don't even realize they're teaching. They're treating men and women differently. And it's actually out of really good intentions.

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09:56
Speaker 2
So for women it's the unconscious bias is I want her to be successful, I want her to do really well. I want to support her and I want to make sure that she's ready for when that opportunity arises so that she knocks it out of the park so that she does a really great job. So that's kind of the intention around it. Whereas for men it's typically about like, you know what, let's throw them in. They can figure it out as they go. And the key to doing that, like it's great to take those risks because you need to take risks to grow. But the benefit of having that sponsor is that they have skin in the game too. So if something goes completely wrong when you're taking that risk, they are in it with you.

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10:39
Speaker 2
So they can guide you to, they can help you pick up the pieces. If something goes wrong, they can help you navigate the politics of it. You have that person with you. Whereas in a mentoring relationship, if you're taking that big risk and it goes really wrong, the mentor is not, they don't have skin in the game. If they gave you that advice, you did. It completely did not go well. Nothing happens to the mentor. And the opposite is also true. If they give you some amazing advice and you follow it and it's a great, like you deliver really well, the mentor is not in it with you, so they don't get the credit either.

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11:16
Speaker 1
Wow, wow, wow. So something just happened in my brain as you were talking through that and that I, something kind of clicked in. Is that it actually through what you said is, you know, it's good intentions. It's this real desire to help this woman to be successful. But maybe this almost treating that woman with kid gloves instead of throwing them right into the, to the mix. Almost like being overprotective of the women that you're trying to help is actually hurting them. You know, you're by trying to protect them from failure, you're keeping them from being. And I can, this all makes sense because I can totally socially. Right. It's, it is ingrained. Speaking as, you know, a middle aged guy. Right.

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12:10
Speaker 1
I, I would say it has been ingrained as a Gen Xer growing up for sure that like, you know, I was definitely to be more deferential toward women. I was taught, I was taught to like open the door for women and be nice to women and you know, women, you have to treat women special and extra nice, you know, and things along those lines. And so psychologically I could totally see how we are. When I say we, I mean people who look like me, people we are failing to challenge or failing to throw people to throw women right in the fire. Like, and again, if I thought of a, of a male, right. Of a guy, my. A younger male, I'd be like, yeah, throw them into the fire. What the hell, See what happens.

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13:03
Speaker 1
And, and that is actually a strategic advantage for that person. That is fascinating. But then it's also sponsoring. So talk about being a good sponsor for a minute. Like, how do I. You talk about having your skin in the game. How do I, how do It in a. In the most supportive way possible where they're really set up for success.

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13:23
Speaker 2
So before I answer that question, I just want to go back to this epiphany that I just watched you have, which is pretty awesome. But when another thing, the. It's not just like men are kind of like being protected above women and preparing the women. It's really, it doesn't matter if you're a man or woman that is sponsoring or it's really. The behavior is on who that junior person is. So women will prepare other women too. And that is something like, I find myself getting stuck in these mentoring conversations and I'm like, you know what? Like, we know. And I'm going to segue this to like, how you actually shift the mindset to that opportunity. So because women do the same thing, it's not men versus women. It's just like you said, how we're socialized, right. And it's just, it's nobody's fault.

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14:10
Speaker 2
It just is. And once you know that is just the society and the culture that we're in, you can move forward. So how to be a good sponsor is. It's really about. The first thing is actually slowing down a little bit because the key about sponsors. Spot the difference between sponsorship and mentorship. You can give advice all day long, but you as that senior person that sponsor or that men, if you're a mentor, you can give advice all day long. But there's no skin in the game, right? Like, nothing's going to happen to you if you give that bad advice. And if you give. If somebody isn't really that. That great because you're aligning your reputation with theirs. So the first step is slow down, get to know the person and ask yourself the question, like, am I comfortable aligning my reputation with theirs?

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14:59
Speaker 2
And so understanding, like, ask a lot of questions like, what are their goals? Almost like, take A step back, do a bird's eye view. Like, what are they good at their job? Like, what are people saying about them? Like, what is their reputation? Because you want to just gather a little bit of information and ask yourself, like, am I comfortable aligning my reputation with theirs? And it doesn't have to take a long time. It can happen really quickly. Like, you just, you want to connect with us, that person and really kind of make that decision. Are we going to go for this together? And you don't explicitly usually ask it. It's like it's kind of this dance of human behavior. You're kind of. So if you're looking for that sponsor, that's what you do.

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15:39
Speaker 2
If you're that protege who's looking for that person, that can open the door for you. It's about pausing for a second and maybe thinking, it's not maybe about me. Actually get curious about them. Think about, like, what are their goals? Try to figure out what they are trying to achieve and think about, like, the kind of value that you can bring to them. And really, you need to actually prove yourself that, like, you know what, I have a good reputation. Like, if you create this opportunity for me, I'm not going to screw it up. Like, I'm going to deliver. Because if you go down in a sponsored relationship, both people go down. But if you're like extremely successful, both people get the credit for that. So slowing down is the first thing.

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16:22
Speaker 2
The second thing is really about shifting, like, not getting caught in the advice trap. Because we as humans, we love talking about ourselves too, right? So yeah, because we're all like, everybody's going to get stuck into this bias, right? So that junior person is going to come and say, please tell me all the advice, tell me all the stories. They're going to ask you for it. So you have to recognize this. Be like, you know what, Like, I could tell you a short story. But then shift your thinking to like, what opportunities do I have access to that I could bring this person along? And it could be as simple as, like, you know what, I'm going to a conference next week. Usually only the senior leaders go to the conference.

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17:05
Speaker 2
I will buy an extra ticket and bring this person along to the conference. And that them getting that exposure to the industry, the connections, you can, they can say hi, they can meet other people. That is going to teach them a lot than any, you know, advice that you're going to get them. So it could be simple. Things like that could be bringing them along to that meeting. It could be Making an introduction, it could be talking about them when they're not there. So if you think about like the decisions of like how people get promoted, like how do companies decide who gets promoted? Those conversations are happening when you, as the person who wants to get promoted are not in the room. And often it's like two levels above you that are making that decision.

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17:53
Speaker 2
So your boss may not necessarily be in that room and might be at that higher level. So having those people that can influence at that level, that's another thing that a sponsor can do. And when one place where people get really stuck is as the junior person, you're like, how do I add value to this senior executives world? Right. It's like how I don't. I'm junior in my career. I don't know a lot. The really interesting thing, especially in construction and especially if you're in a bigger company, if you think about it, executives and senior leaders, they can't know what is going on site at every project or even if you're in the office, they can't have their hands in everything.

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18:35
Speaker 2
But what you can do is you can be there, eyes and ears on the ground, so you can be looking at like what is happening here. And you can kind of tell them the things that are not in the formal reporting, the formal weekly reports, all of the things that get documented. There's all these other stuff going on. Like maybe there's a, you know, the client's a little bit mad, so you can tell, you can share that information and that's really helpful for that executive. So kind of recognizing as that junior person, you do really bring a lot of value. And as that senior person, having relationships with people that are junior to you, it gives you access to so much more information. So it really is a win when this is working properly, it's a win for everybody.

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19:18
Speaker 2
And it doesn't actually take a lot of time.

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19:22
Speaker 1
I really love this concept as a. On both ends of it. Right. I have mentors in my life who, if I think about it through a different lens, I'm sure have sponsored me.

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19:35
Speaker 2
Yeah.

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19:36
Speaker 1
And, and I have people in my life that I have that I've definite. I am like Mr. Advice. So I'm like, oh, no, you know that. But, but I see exactly what you mean. And I, I would really have to kind of, you know, think through each of those relationships. I'm sure I've been sponsoring some and I can think of some instances in particular that I've been sponsoring. But I've always done that thoughtlessly. And I'm sure my biases have been at work.

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20:11
Speaker 1
So I want to bring that back just one last time here with the idea that, you know, when we have to recognize that we have biases, one of the biases that we are likely to have, regardless of who you are, which I thought was really useful to think about as well, is that we've, we may have been socialized to not throw, you know, I don't know, to not. To not challenge women to the extent that they could or should be challenged and to maybe not sponsor and instead just get in the advice trap with these women that we're hoping to help be successful in general. I, I know this was probably a question you've answered a thousand times, and I want to be clear. I'm not, I am the choir here, right? Like, I'm not opposed to that.

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21:05
Speaker 1
But I have to ask the question regardless. Why should we have a vested interest in helping to elevate women in the construction industry? Aside from just in the spirit of equity, in the spirit of, you know, doing the right thing. What, what, why should we really want to do this?

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21:26
Speaker 3
Yeah.

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21:26
Speaker 2
So 100% agree. Because what we, what I found, what I've observed is that the, oh, it's the right thing to do. It's not a strong enough motivation. Right. Because it's going to take resources, it's going to take time and like, is there going to be a return on this?

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21:40
Speaker 1
Exactly. When the chips are down?

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21:43
Speaker 2
Right. And the thing about construction, it is a for profit industry. Right. It's not, it's not nonprofit. So we really need to think about, like, what is the business case for this? And it's a really interesting time in the industry because I think most people here are probably feeling the talent shortage. And the reality is right now, if you think like 10, 20 years down the road, there's going to, we're going to be in cases. And I've heard companies say that they're actually in this situation right now. They're like, we pitch for this job. Like, I kind of hope we don't get it because we actually, I'm not sure if we're going to be able to staff it. Like, there's that kind of tension, that kind of stress happening right now. And if you think about it, there's like, we need to recruit, right?

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22:29
Speaker 2
We need more people to come into this industry to deliver all of this work because it's a great business. The work is there, but there's not Enough people to do the work. And that's the place where some companies are at today. And probably in a couple of years more people are going to feel this pain. So I think if you can think about it that way, as this is a way to actually get more labor into the industry, more people leaning. So that's one piece. The second piece is this unique skill set that women bring to the table.

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23:00
Speaker 2
And this I'll try to, I'll do this really quickly, but there's been research that shows like when men are more transactional leaders, so that transactional is more that top down approach, like I'm the boss and I tell you what to do, I delegate the projects and that men veer more towards that side of the spectrum. Women are more transformational, so they are more collaborative. It's about setting that vision, helping people see their strengths, helping them rise to the challenge. So the research says men are more generally transactional, women more transformational. And we've no and I saw you nod. So in the construction industry, more of the leadership, even training, more of the skills that are rewarded are on that side of the spectrum. Spectrum. But with the younger generation, doesn't matter what gender they are.

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23:45
Speaker 2
Whenever you ask the younger generation, it's like, what do you care about? They're like, I want a sense of purpose, I want to grow, I want to contribute. And if you think about what kind of leader are they going to respond to, as the research says, like they respond better to that transformational leader. So having women in the industry, having women in leadership roles, it's just a great way to inspire that younger generation, help them see that sense of purpose. And women can do that naturally. So having more women, that's another reason why, where women can bring that value because it really helps with retention and getting the most out of your employees. Sold.

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24:20
Speaker 1
I agree, totally agree. So I mean, you don't have to convince. I am 100% there with you. I see it in my work as a consultant. One of my primary goals when there are all male leadership teams is to proactively explore opportunities for creating diversity on that team. Because they get better, they get smarter, and you know, if it's a good leadership team, they learn from each other and they adopt some of those characteristics that they see working. So when that woman who it becomes, you know, an executive in that business demonstrates this totally different, just natural take on leadership, it's contagious and that's a really powerful thing. So all right, I'm Going to pull Stacy into the conversation, get some Q and a going here before we wrap. Fantastic discussion, Andrea.

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25:22
Speaker 1
I'm sure the audience has some questions that you can add value to.

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25:28
Speaker 3
Yeah. First off, did you want to share any specific stories of, you know, advocating for people or. I think there was one. A client that you worked with 10 years ago.

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25:43
Speaker 1
Oh, you're talking to me.

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25:45
Speaker 3
Was, was that your story?

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25:47
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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25:49
Speaker 2
For Chad to share this sponsorship story you told me.

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25:53
Speaker 1
I, I, I admitted to Andrew yesterday. I'll do it briefly. I admitted to Andrea yesterday as we did a little prep conversation for this. I was like, you know, I, I, I want to be a sponsor. I enjoy helping people to reach the next rung in their career. I also have to balance that with a bit of a, and I think I'm not alone, but a bit of like a, what I call a hero complex, which is not something that I love about my personality. But, but is there, where there's this sort of desire to, to not just make the impact, but to, you know, just make sure that everybody knows I kind of made the impact, you know, like, that kind of thing. And, and I want to feel really good about myself.

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26:34
Speaker 1
And I think it's important that when we do this stuff that we, that we aren't embarrassed by the fact that. I think Andrea said it beautifully yesterday, was that, you know, I get something from that too. You know, I'm helping to elevate somebody, so it's not just me. Like, look at me being a great helper. You know, I want to publish how much I donated, you know, like, or whatever else. All these, it's all baggage I have in my brain, by the way. It's nobody else's problem but mine. But, but, you know, I think when we help, we, it's okay to win while we help. Right. Because you said it really well today is that we both share in that credit.

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27:15
Speaker 1
So when I sponsor somebody, when I put my social capital on the line and sponsor somebody who wins and becomes wildly successful, we're both winners in that story.

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27:27
Speaker 2
And in your story, Chad, the best part about it is, like, you help this person get into an executive leadership role and just calling you out, you own a consulting business, so having part of my job really benefits you. Just, there was a lot in it for you in this situation. Totally was a true win. Because honestly, if that person did a bad job, like, the whole company is going down. Right?

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27:51
Speaker 1
That's right.

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27:52
Speaker 2
They're like, okay, we did this because.

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27:54
Speaker 1
No, I saw this person and I was like, this person will be fantastic. They happen to be a woman. This is a win, you know? Yeah. So there's risk too.

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28:04
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah.

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28:06
Speaker 3
So how often do you think you should be meeting with your sponsor?

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28:12
Speaker 2
Oh, that is a great question. So a lot of companies, a lot of organizations have formal mentorship programs where it's like, we have a contract, we have goals, there's a schedule of how often we meet. And it's very time consuming, especially because a lot of these programs are for women. Like, they pair a junior woman with a senior level woman. And if you think about that woman, there's not that many. Like, she's got to do her job. She's got to, like, overcome all these obstacles. And she's got a me for coffee like, every month with someone, it's a lot of time. The reality of sponsorship, it can be so fast. You actually don't have to meet a lot. And that is the key about, like, really understanding what are their goals, what are my goals, how can I build that trust?

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28:55
Speaker 2
And when you have that trust there, like, it goes really fast. You don't have to meet with them. Like, you don't need to be sitting there talking about advice. It's just kind of like keeping them in the loop a little bit. I'll give you an example, literally, of, like, people sponsor me all the time. So I'll give you an example. I did a speaking engagement a couple months ago, met someone, attended in the audience, they reached out. Later, we had a conversation on Zoom. So I'm thinking about, like, the speaking agent was an hour. We had a 30 minute Zoom call. Then I got an email last week from conference organizer that they are, you know, on the board of this organization asking if I can come and do a talk for them.

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29:38
Speaker 2
And if you think about, like that time, like, that person put their reputation on the line for me when they were making that recommendation. But the amount of time we met was very short. But because we kind of like, in that conversation got to know each other, we built that trust and we realized, like, we're in it together. Right? Like, I have to rise to the challenge and kind of connect with this organization, deliver something to them, and it's that way. So it's really. I love the sponsorship model because it is a lot less time consuming, but it's really about that trust and that mutual relationship and knowing that, like, I can call this person if things are kind of going, you know, this comfort, something's not feeling great.

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30:22
Speaker 2
I can go back and call my person and we're going to figure it out together because there's that mutual benefit. So that's what I love about the relationship.

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30:31
Speaker 3
So leading off of that, like, the comfortability. So I act as a sponsor a lot to younger generations, high school to college level. And I notice, I don't know if they're intimidated or like you were saying, it's early in their career, so they don't know how to open up and ask questions, or maybe they don't even know what to ask. How do you get the younger generation to open up? Because once you know you're building your relationship with your sponsor, obviously 10 years, 15 years into it, you will call the sponsor for help and you have that relationship. Whereas when you're first starting out with your sponsor, you don't have that relationship yet. So you might feel a little uncomfortable. But how do you kind of pull that out?

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31:19
Speaker 2
I think sometimes it's going back to simple things, like, can you connect on another level? Like, oh, do you like their shirt? Like, compliment them on their shirt? And like, just start the conversation that way. Because you'd be amazed by when you can be authentic with someone, when you could kind of, like, take the walls down, how you can connect and how that relationship evolves and where that kind of those things come out. I think it's like sometimes letting go of this, like, here's the five steps, and just being authentic and really building that human connection with them.

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31:52
Speaker 3
So just getting a little bit more personal instead of focusing on the career part of it.

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31:58
Speaker 2
Okay. Yeah.

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32:01
Speaker 3
Okay. And then lastly, question about. I wanted to talk about the survey that you had coming up. I know a lot of women in the industry, or just the industry in general, have issues with competing with other industries and being flexible and offering those type of opportunities. So you had some type of survey to come? That's coming up and feel free to share.

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32:24
Speaker 2
Yeah, we are doing a survey. We partnered with the national center for Construction Education and Research to do a survey. We're going deep on sponsorship. So this is for women only, so please fill it out. If you're here, we'd love to include your opinion. It closes on February 13th. And then the second piece that has come up through a lot of our clients and just engagement with the industry. Is this question about flexibility because of the talent shortage? If you look at the landscape, there's so many flexible work options available, and construction has been a little bit late to the game on figuring that out. And the reality is like you are building something. So a lot of them, you have to physically be there. And I don't know if anyone's cracked that nut yet.

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33:07
Speaker 2
So we have a second piece of the survey where we're getting really curious about flexibility and what could that possibly look like in the construction industry. So, please.

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33:19
Speaker 1
Yeah, I spent a lot of time. So one of the things that I've been doing just in the past year has been really surprising. I spent a lot of time doing these studies inside companies, just inside the business about sort of stress management. And, you know, there are common set of common threads that are constantly the source of high stress. Lack of flexibility in the construction industry is, you know, and some companies are losing relatively substantial people out of the industry because they're just saying, you know, we. And, and again, it's the balance of women doing that to men is much higher. Women. And so we. It is, we've. It would be unbelievable to get to some solution for that works for everybody.

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34:10
Speaker 2
Yeah. And so we will be releasing the results of this in a report. We'll have some live events that will be. That you can come to that are free during Women in Construction Week. So that's the. In March, the week of International Women's Day.

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34:22
Speaker 1
Beautiful, wonderful stuff. Thank you so much. This has been a fantastic conversation. Certainly enlightening for me, which I always love, are I feel like I learn way more from these things than any other learning activity I do. And Andrea, you've been a wealth of information. So thank you so much for coming on and being with us this morning. Anything to say before parting ways?

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34:55
Speaker 2
No, I just want to say thank you for having me. Thank you for everyone in the audience for being curious and open. And I want to just encourage you to lean into that curiosity and keep staying open to new ideas.

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35:07
Speaker 3
And how can people get in contact with you if they.

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35:10
Speaker 2
So they can find us. We have a podcast so you can listen to our podcast. It's called Ambition Theory, Women in Construction. You can go to our website, ambition theory.com you can connect with ambition theory on LinkedIn. You connect with me, Andrea Jansen on LinkedIn. So I'd love to say hi and connect with you.

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35:28
Speaker 3
Great. Thank you so much.

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35:30
Speaker 1
Yeah, Andrea, thank you. All right, Stacy, let's wrap up and talk a little bit about next week. So first things first, I just like to remind people that we stream live on LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook on Tuesdays at 9am Eastern. But be sure to check us out on recorded shows if those times that time doesn't work for you. If you want to go back and binge on all the previous episodes, the easiest places to do that are Apple Podcast, Spotify and then YouTube. Also email us to be added to our weekly mailing list. Stacy h.steeltoe com.com Stacy will get you hooked up so that way you're not reliant on just that LinkedIn invite. But you can expect an email every week that comes across with some cool content recording from last week and a link to sign up for the next one live.

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36:22
Speaker 1
If that's something you'd like to do next week, we have a friend of mine, Trey Farmer, who is an architect down in Texas and has a fantastic conversation planned around passive house design, which is really the latest in, you know, design standards to meet net zero and even net positive buildings. That'll be a really technical discussion but also one that anybody can follow along with. He's, he really has a great way of bringing concepts down to earth. So with all of that in terms of preparation, Stacy, is there anything I've missed? Is there anything you want to hit on? Do you have a tip for us? Do you have a, do you have a steel toe communication?

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37:05
Speaker 3
I completely do not have a tip today.

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37:09
Speaker 1
Tip number one, have a tip. It's, it's all good.

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37:14
Speaker 3
Yeah, I'll be sure next week.

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37:16
Speaker 1
Is there anything that I've missed, Stacy?

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37:20
Speaker 3
No, I think that's it. It's just like you said. If you're not on the email list, please send me an email and we'll get that out to you. We do a recap too so we try to keep our shows short and sweet. We know you guys are busy so if you can't watch the show we at least do a little write up recap in the email.

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37:39
Speaker 1
So awesome. Which we so we will see you all next week 9am and we'll do so for the next 11 weeks hereafter. We look forward to seeing you soon. Thanks everybody.

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