ULI NEXT recently held a forum with Mark Farmer and Alex Griffiths to explore the role of influencing skills within their personal career and roles as urban environment leaders.  

Alex Griffiths, Associate Director at consultancy firm Mace, shared how his past experience as a Royal Engineers Officer shaped his personal interest in leadership and how he has applied this to the workplace.  

During his time in the army as an Operations Officer and Project Manager, Alex was responsible for leading the life cycle of a multi-task construction project over a 10-month period in which he successfully planned and managed personnel, training, equipment and logistics. 

Taking a cerebral view, Alex took a deep dive into the anatomy of the brain to demonstrate its different functions and how these affect leadership skills. By looking at the crisis, limbic and neo-cortex functions of the brain, Alex outlined the different reasons why we do things.  

• Crisis, the reptilian part of our brain, allows us to react to situations that may not have been foreseen – an important part in a fast-moving industry such as construction and real estate. 
• Limbic, the function which allows us to question the reasoning behind certain actions, allows leaders to pull together coherent strategies that benefit the long-term success of a teams and projects performance. 
• Neo-cortex – the ‘what?’ part of our brain. Alex explained how this was crucial in helping leaders shape projects and interrogate the purpose and reasons. 

According to Alex, “leadership is all about eliciting cooperation” and “doing your bit for the team”. At the heart of each successful project, whether small or large, is a team leader who is willing to take on any tasks that they may delegate elsewhere. Ultimately, it is all about seeing the world through the eyes of those you seek to influence and taking full ownership. Where this is a genuine relationship, it is important to build on rapport. Where there are areas that require development, leaders must identify ‘currencies’ to exchange in order to influence the successful continuity and leadership. 

Mark Farmer, CEO of CAST Consultancy, followed on from Alex and shared insights into his extensive experience in leadership roles as the Government’s Champion for Modern Methods of Construction and founder of a consultancy firm. Mark began his career as a quantity surveyor and rose through the ranks at EC Harris, an international consultancy, where he was faced with a rather unique situation: how does a 26-year old associate influence team members who are considerably older than himself? 

Mark said this was down to three things: 

1. Empathy – the ability to create trusting and lasting relationships with team members
2. Authenticity – being yourself, which in turn helps gain trust from the wider team
3. Ability – have the knowledge and expertise to successfully execute any tasks, no matter how  big or small 

The key to any successful leader is knowledge. Mark explained: “If you have the technical expertise, the rest will follow”. As you build trust with clients, influence follows, which then opens up a whole host of network opportunities. Realising this opportunity has allowed Mark to build a profile for himself in the industry as an expert on all things construction and in particular modern methods of construction (MMC). 

Backed by his strong technical expertise, Mark was commissioned by the Government in 2016 to write the well-known ‘Modernise or Die’ report to identify key failings and opportunities in the British construction industry. Whilst writing the report, Mark realised that this was bigger than anything he had ever done – ripping away his comfort blanket which was laid upon him by his successes.  

Mark used his strong leadership skills to influence and empathise with civil servants – not an easy task! He achieved this by adopting a ‘negative currency’, a theme explained earlier in Alex’s presentation in which you recognise that “if things don’t change, the industry will remain dysfunctional”. As most know, the report was a massive success and proved to be hugely influential, providing Mark with the opportunity to influence industry change and promote modernisation. 

ULI NEXT is a leadership programme open to urban realm professionals between the ages of 35 and 45. All members within this age group are welcome to join and all you need to do is update your member profile with your date of birth. Find out more here. 

Author: Billy Moran, Blackstock Consulting