Walk any Canadian jobsite and within an hour you can tell who’s leading it.
You see it in whether crews start on time, are working with a shared sense of purpose, the energy onsite, whether problems get solved quickly or buried, and whether apprentices ask questions or just keep their heads down.
That matters, because at the many construction conferences I’ve attended over the past few months, productivity has consistently ranked among the industry’s top three concerns. The numbers back up the worry.
Statistics Canada found labour productivity in residential construction fell 37.3 per cent between 2001 and 2023 (Watt & Gu, 2026).
Heavy civil work isn’t immune. South of the border, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows productivity in highway, street and bridge construction declined every year from 2021 through 2024.
Meanwhile, even as construction employment grows, qualified workers remain hard to find. Many factors drive project productivity, but one of the most overlooked is leadership onsite and specifically the people we rely on most and train least: our foremen and superintendents.
Transformational leadership is not new but complements the construction model well. It is a people-focused approach that motivates teams, builds skills and accountability and connects day-to-day work to a larger purpose. The idea dates back to the 1970s and has been studied extensively since. On a construction site, it comes down to five things.
<strong>Encourage. Good superintendents notice people: which carpenter is ready for more responsibility, which welder has the fine motor skills necessary to tackle advanced procedures, which apprentice is struggling and then provided with an intervention. Recognition at the morning huddle costs nothing and it goes a long way toward keeping skilled workers from leaving for an extra dollar an hour.
Inspire. Crews work harder when they know why the work matters. The hospital wing opening next spring, the school their kids will attend, the jobs a new mine will bring to the community. That connection buys effort no incentive program can.
Empower. The people closest to the work usually know the fastest, safest way to do it. Ask, “How would you tackle this?” and let them run with it. When every voice on the crew is heard, problems surface early instead of late, and that builds culture. The feeling inside the worker who says ‘ I was heard – my voice was listened to;’ empowers, builds moral and helps build a cohesive team.
Trust. Keep your word, own your mistakes and back your crew when things go sideways. Without trust, the rest rings hollow.
Be present. Transformational leadership doesn’t work from the site trailer. You can’t encourage a crew you rarely see or earn trust from behind a screen. The office work still has to get done, but real leaders spend their time in the field: at the morning huddle, topside during the pour and on the rigs during piling or drilling operations. Problems get solved on the spot and crews feel supported when their leader is there.
Productivity rises where leaders show up, encourage, inspire and teach.
Being a transformational leader is a daily decision to show up, do the work, be the team leader they expect and earn your place.
However, the question to ask is does it actually make a difference?
Canadian researchers Julian Barling and Kevin Kelloway found when supervisors applied this leadership style to safety, workers developed stronger safety habits and experienced fewer injuries (Barling et al., 2002).
The workers were more focused, understood their work and were engaged. While transformational leadership has shown to improve productivity, the crews still need clear schedules, daily direction, defined expectations and accountability. The best leaders provide that structure while knowing their people and keeping the conversation two-way.
Yet most firms invest in training project managers and leave foremen and superintendents to figure out leadership on their own, even though they set the tone for most of the workforce on any jobsite. That is the gap worth closing. If the industry is serious about productivity, leadership training should go to the people who lead crews every morning.
Leadership built on vision rather than control won’t fix every problem on a project. But it gets more out of the people already onsite and in a labour market this tight, that may be the most affordable productivity gain available.
Dr. Lindsay Langill is director of people and strategy with Pacific Pile and Marine. He holds Red Seal certification in two trades and has a bachelor of education and master of arts degree from UBC along with a doctorate from the University of Calgary. He is an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Education at UBC. Send Industry Perspectives Op-Ed comments and column ideas toeditor@dailycommercialnews.com.
