In this episode of Transform Your Workplace, host Brandon Laws talks with Josh Durham, the founder of Gamut Project Solutions and a veteran in the construction field. The discussion explores the concept of agency in leadership and its importance for professional growth. Tune in and gain valuable insight on fostering empowerment in not only yourself but the teams you lead.
GUEST AT A GLANCE
Josh Durham is an expert in the construction industry with over seventeen years of overseeing complex projects worth over $1 billion in various sectors. Josh founded Gamut Project Solutions to offer guidance and support to his clients as they face the high stakes of commercial construction.
A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST
🔊 Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, Sponsored by Xenium HR
🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
📋 In his own words: “The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders.”
THE POWER OF AGENCY
In previous episodes of Transform Your Workplace, we’ve covered three of the Five Foundational Principles: agreements, communication, and leadership. In this episode, it’s all about agency. According to guest Josh Durham, leaders struggle with understanding the importance of this principle. He explained, “At every level, in an organization or in life, if you don’t feel like you have agency, you’re going to really struggle, no matter what.”
Durham reflected on his personal journey: “I’ve gone back and forth in my life, struggling with understanding how much control I really have versus what I don’t.” As he’s grown in both his personal and professional life, he has learned to focus on what he can control instead of being burdened by anxiety over what he can’t.
Durham also emphasized the importance of agency in leadership, saying, “As a leader, if you don’t embody agency in how you lead people, folks are going to feel lost. And if you don’t give agency to the others in your organization, […] they’re going to struggle to be part of a high-performing team as well.” His words underscored the vital role of agency in fostering a cohesive and successful team dynamic.
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Believing in You
“The subtext behind this principle [is to] be your own ally. Don’t sabotage your own objectives because I really believe, whether folks are ready to admit this or not, we are all our own worst enemy, right? […] There’s stuff right now in my life that I am struggling with — how much control I do or don’t have over it. And I have to give myself pep talks even to this day. So I think it’s a timely one to be talking about with you.”
A Faulty View of Agency
“For many of the early years in my career — my professional career — I just kind of believed like, ‘I got bosses, so I’m just going to do whatever they say and hope for the best,’ and I didn’t take full ownership. […] I’ve had folks who have been bad examples for me. The way they operate — I don’t want to operate that way. But then [I’ve had] other folks who have really shown me that if you believe that you have control somewhat over your destiny, here are the kind of things that you can get done.”
Agency’s Effect on Conflict
“If folks don’t feel like they have any control and are operating in that kind of victim or villain mentality, the discussions and conflicts are going to be more escalated and volatile because they don’t feel safe. And when someone doesn’t feel safe, that means their survival instincts kick in — the fight-or-flight portion of the brain is triggered, the sympathetic system — and they’re going to be more combative when there is conflict, right? If folks do feel safe, which means they do feel like they have agency and they have control, and they’re less worried about the things they don’t have control over, their parasympathetic system is going to be triggered, which is where intuitive thought lives in the brain, and calmness, and safeness. And so while there’s still going to be conflict and problems, it’s going to be less volatile.”
Mastering the Processes
“If you’ve got the processes down, you’re going to feel like you have more control and more agency in the business, and that allows you to elevate yourself as a leader. Even if you’re the owner of a company, if everything feels out of control with the processes and the things you need to be good at as an organization, you’re not going to have agency. And so that’s why, particularly in this principle, we’re trying to install a few key tools in these organizations so that the processes are more under control.”
Defining Terms
“Locus of Control refers to an individual’s perception about the underlying main causes of events in their life. More simply put, do you believe that your destiny is controlled by yourself and your actions or by external forces, such as fate, or God, or some powerful deity, or Elon Musk, or whatever? […] So then there are the two types: external locus of control and then internal locus of control. If you have an external locus of control mindset, […] you likely believe that what happens to you is the result of luck, or fate, or is determined by other people instead of yourself. And again, we’ve all been there. And then the opposite of that — when you’re operating with an internal locus of control, you believe that, to a great degree, your own behaviors, actions, and decisions are key factors to determining what happens to you in your life.”
What We Can Control
“When I boil it down, there are two things in this life: there are things that you can control and there are things that you cannot control. […] And I tell you, the list of things we cannot control is a heck of a lot longer than the things that we can control.
The things we can control are our actions and our attitudes that we bring every day.”
LEARN MORE
Find out more about the Foundational Five Series at the Gamut Project Solutions website or connect with Josh Durham directly on LinkedIn.