Few women want to be involved in construction work especially as project managers considering it involves a lot of field work hence making it hectic.
However some who have been involved in pursuing projects they have been outshining men in construction management.
Studies consistently show that women are generally better at that task than men. So why then are most project leader’s men?
In the recent few exhibitions Construction Review have attended we managed to speak with various executives who lead their companies and specifically they were women.
We were lamenting the poor performance of many, if not most, of the large, complex projects. (By large, I mean projects over 10,000 person-hours/18 months or spend of $10 million and up.) I was explaining that statistically, more than 75 percent of these projects will fail to meet their schedule and/or budget.
And when they fail, they fail big, overshooting their budgets by an average of 55 percent. Considering that this problem is endemic to most of The Fortune 1000, all told, these failures cost the typical Fortune 1000 company an average of $160 million per year.
Really? The majority of executives leading these big projects are men. And if 75 percent of projects are performing so poorly, a lot more of them should be nodding their heads in agreement, right?
The male bias
Studies show that the women can be able to see the risk that men are unable to see and they are able to take action on the same compared to men.
Men seem to ignore various loopholes hence giving women a upper hand as they are able to guide their actions.
The confidence trap
Another big challenge that men face from women is that they get too confident when managing a project hence making them accommodate huge blunders.
Unlike women each and every thing the notice in a site they take action immediately for they don’t want to make any blunder and hence that makes them deliver right on time and something which is quality.
