We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cory Fisk. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cory below.
Alright, Cory thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry
It is not necessarily the biggest trend that I see in the Construction Industry, but it is a trend I hope spreads like wildfire……and needs to be implemented right now!
We have a tremendous number of construction workers that left the industry during the complicated, COVID era. We have a tremendous number of experienced construction workers getting ready to retire within the next 2 to 8 years. With them, leaves some of the things that we admire, desire, and need in order to keep the industry alive. The old school ways of work ethic, quality workmanship, secrets of the trades. We cannot skip experience – we need to find ways to lean on the power of experience already served and identify a new way of educating and supporting our incoming workforce.
If we look at the facts:
Construction is hard & can be hard on your body, which may result in earlier retirements – this does not mean that people are done working.
Construction has muted our teaching skill by requiring us to keep things close to our chest to keep our job.
Construction requires people who know what they are doing & have specific applied experience.
Those retiring from construction unions are finding retirements not being managed properly and fear for younger contributing generations that may not have enough money to live on without supplementing income.
This creates an incredible opportunity for the construction industry. Most people, don’t want to stop working – they just want to reduce their workload. A “retired” construction worker moving to a mentorship position allows them to experience variety in their work, still bring home some, reduce the number of work hours, provide valuable quality control while on the project site and give a wellness check and listening ear to others without the fear of judgement or criticism. This also offers the company the opportunity to hire two for the price of one – paying a mid-level position to hire both a seasoned professional at a reduced timeframe and an entry level individual being mentored.
A company or project mentor requires some training. Re-learning how to teach through generational story-telling, breaking information down for their student, learning how to detect the difference between mental wellness and mental health and knowing when to step in and when to step away. The positive influence and attitude of a mentor can be almost like a Wal-Mart greeter making your shopping ….or working experience….happy, fun, energizing, and grateful. All reasons companies should want their employees engaging in performance for the company.
Construction Management Online uses the combination of mentorship, comprehension of learning styles, thinking patterns and intentional, strategic curriculum development to create the success of learning while you work. Using a multitude of different modalities, Construction Management Online provides company mentorship while teaching project specific technical construction management concepts while implementing “Real World” scenarios through observation, learning in motion, implementation and practical application in the moment.
The wisdom of our experienced workforce needs to be captured before it is too late. Implementing strategies to help support the training of these individuals will be key so they can learn how to interface with generational communication challenges, different ethic and moral virtues, and possibly develop some gratitude, compassion, empathy and patience. I believe we will be able to develop a workforce that loves their work, despite how hard it is by being able to model the potential growth of the career path, and one day, see themselves as a teach of the future.
Cory, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My dad was an owner/operator & it gave me a front row seat into the Construction Industry. I worked every summer as a laborer to earn money for college to become a horse girl – little did I know I would fall in love with Construction!
After working two years in the field as a laborer, a Texas Aggie Alumni heard a fellow Aggie was working in the field & offered me a job as an assistant construction manager. I jumped at the chance & it changed my life forever. I worked the next 10 to 12 years in Construction Management & then through personal changes & challenges, the introduction of two bouncing baby boys & a divorce, I shifted to teaching construction at the local community college.
Construction can be hard and being a woman has not always been met with encouragement and open doors. However, the life lessons of resilience, fortitude, and the comprehension of transitioning my diverse skills learned in life and career have come full circle in my new role as a Construction Mentor – more commonly known as a Construction Management or Career Coach. Because of the diverse background of being a laborer, equipment operator, licensed contractor, field engineer, CM, PM Facility Director, and Executive Director of Construction while concurrently teaching as a Construction Management Technology Professor for over 20+ years, I am able to address almost every aspect of the construction industry – all wrapped up into a one stop shop. I am now in a career I love and being able to help others find their purpose, passion, worth and capabilities is second only to knowing, I’m doing it for the industry I have come to love so much.
The evidence is in the love and appreciation I am shown from those who go through my programs. I have have helped more than 4,000 students learn about Construction Management. My passion is to help people reach their full potential and discover the amazing opportunities in the construction industry. As your coach & mentor, I will guide you through a life-changing process, helping you see what you’re capable of and start on the perfect career path in construction management.
Construction Management Online is ready to meet you wherever you are in your career. Whether you are an entry level construction manager needing specific task skills like “How to Write an RFI” or “How to package a Submittal” through our SKILLBUILDER MEMBERSHIP Minicourses, supporting current knowledge through our Vertification Program packaged with 10 comprehensive video series certifications, or step it up into our college level 12 week & 8 week certification programs on CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT ESSENTIALS, Project Planning, & Practical Applications of Construction Management. Our services include Construction Management Consultation, One-on-One, & Group Mentoring & Training. Our unique understanding of how the construction community learns and thinks has been applied to historical comprehension of teaching techniques most likely to accelerate the retention of your employees. Construction Management Online knows what it takes to get you the best bang for your buck and investment in our programs is going to elevate your construction workforce.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
WHEW!!!! This is a hard one to admit. It exposes a weak thread in the reputation I worked so hard to create! As an Agency Construction Manager, I always thought the goal of a project was to “beat” the contractor into submission. Relatively easy task since most of them choose only to look at the drawings instead of read the specifications. (Our industry professionalism has risen significantly to appreciate the importance of ALL construction documents). The idea, especially in low bid contracting is that the contractor was submitting a low bid, knowing they would be able to make their money once the contract was awarded and they could “find” mistakes in the drawings to make up any money that had been left on the table. So, without proper mentorship, I was led to believe we were pitted against each other. I was good at my job but I hated it. Every day, I spent alone on a project, with a sea of men working around me but no one wanting to collaborate, coordinate or communicate. Every day was a fight and instead of being respected for my hard work, I was the “Bitch” on the jobsite.
Until one day, a seasoned General Contractor introduced me to the “Common Goal Approach”. This meant that we could disagree on everything under the sun but had to agree that the one thing we all had in common is the desire for a completed project. Each of us could define success in our own way but in order to reach the common goal – we needed to find what we could agree on. This brought about clarity on the need for everyone to make a fair profit and take fair accountability for their individual/company roles and responsibilities. I now get to manage projects, while educating others, and continually moving the needle towards to successful completion of a construction project.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Life can throw really hard curve balls. Without taking away from anyone else’s tribulations, I know that there are those who have had it worse, and I hold gratitude that I have been given the challenges that I have been given. Nonetheless, it has not been an easy road and many times has required a detour or complete U-Turn in order to continue surviving in the moment. In all that has happened, the most valuable tool I have been able to lean on is the comprehension of reflection.
As a young workforce person – I went where the door was open, the path of least resistance and often the one with the most money being offered. I was VERY lucky, that many of my doors moved in a forward momentum, moving me in alignment with an end goal that was not intentionally or purposefully chosen but has fallen in line with where God meant for me to be. However, as we traverse these doors, I would say that divorce was the most impactful barrier created that took my career off of the tracks and re-set the need to pivot in both life and my career.
I’m actually a hard learner so I had to go through 2 divorces but I don’t really count the first one because it was recognized as a mistake very early (9months in) and was more of a stance between my dad and I. By the way i “won” which just goes to show the importance of maturity necessary when making decisions that will design the rest of our life. By being old enough to live life, being able rely on the tool of reflection now provides wisdom that shows just how important we not take the “easy” path of least resistance but that we focus on the alignment of where we want to be.
My second divorce, from the father of my two boys (ages 2 and 4 yrs old) at the time, of ten years was enough to bring a tidal wave into my life. However, with it came the revelation of serial adultery, bankruptcy, foreclosure, loss of family/friends, the loss of my boys for a short period of time, and the weight of paying $2,500 in child support to a man making $17,000.00 a month. Depression set in and with it came the first time in my life where I felt desperateness like I had never felt before. The constant fighting and the expectation for me to be required to miss my work to be available when our young boys were sick and had to miss school made it almost impossible for me to keep a fast pace, all-hours of the day, 24/7 kinda construction management position. So I had to make a choice. Leave the job, where I made great money but was absorbed by work, commuted 2 hrs each day, and unavailable for my boys during the day ….or take a significant cut in pay (while paying over $2,500 in child support) and become a college professor teaching three nights a week but available the same summer, holidays, etc. as my boys. I chose the second. I have lost over half a million dollars choosing education over the career of becoming a construction manager and Vice-President of some Construction Management firm. However, I won my boys back from the court, they are 21 and 17 now and I would not change a thing in how my life has turned out. At 54 yrs young, I am still a powerhouse of knowledge and with the graduation of my youngest, I have the whole world in front of me!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://constructionmanagementonline.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/constructionmanagement.online?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/constructionmanagementonlinecommunity
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coryfisk7777
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CMOnline.
- Other: http://coryfiskportfolio.com/
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