As I prepare to attend the IRMI Construction Risk Conference (CRC) this month, I am excited to be part of the Women in Construction discussion. The theme, "Amplifying Your Voice," has me reflecting on the times I have used mine throughout my career in construction risk management.
Some of those conversations changed the way we worked. Others did not go as I expected. I have left meetings frustrated, replayed conversations long after everyone else had moved on, and lost sleep wondering whether I had missed something important. Sometimes my message was right, but my approach made it harder for others to hear.
My natural tendency is to jump in and let my opinion be heard. When I see a problem, I want to solve it. When I see a risk, I want to address it. That urgency has served me well. It has also taught me some difficult lessons.
Through experience, self-awareness, and studying conflict management and leadership, I learned that I had more choices than I initially recognized. I could choose when to speak, where to have the conversation, and how to present my concern. I could listen first. I could prepare. Those choices gave me more agency, even when I could not control the outcome.
Learning Techniques to Amplify My Voice
Early in my career, I often assumed that identifying a problem and
explaining the solution should be enough. If the facts were clear and the risk was
real, why wouldn't people agree?
Because, people bring more than facts into a conversation. They
bring responsibilities, past experiences, competing priorities, and concerns about
what a proposed change will mean for them. A recommendation that seems obvious to a
risk manager may sound like another expense or disruption to an operations leader
already under pressure to deliver a project.
Listening helped me understand those pressures. It also helped me discover what I did not yet know. Building trust and respect made it easier to have the difficult conversation later, because people had experienced my willingness to understand their work.
I learned to ask myself what I wanted the conversation to accomplish. Did I need a decision, an opportunity to test an idea, or simply a better understanding of the resistance? Being clear about that purpose changed how I prepared.
Sometimes I could wait until another day, gather more information, and speak privately rather than challenge someone in a room full of people. Waiting with a plan could improve my chances of being heard. Of course, an immediate safety concern required an immediate response. Judgment meant recognizing the difference.
I could also ask a trusted adviser to challenge my thinking before I presented it. An advocate could help me understand the audience or make an introduction. I still had to use my own voice, but I did not have to prepare alone.
Giving the Concern a Business Case
Data has been my friend throughout my career. It has helped me move a conversation beyond "I believe this will work" to "Here is what we are seeing, and here is what we can test."
In construction, that means connecting a recommendation to the work. Loss history, claims costs, operational experience, and the financial demands of a project can help explain why a change deserves attention. Revenue and staffing demands also matter when evaluating whether a proposed solution is practical.
I can point to millions of dollars saved through work focused on our processes and our people. Those results gave me evidence to bring into later conversations. They helped demonstrate that investing in safety and leadership could improve how the business performed.
But the dollars were never the whole story. Behind a claim is a person, a family, and a crew affected by what happened. The financial case helped me earn attention; keeping people in the conversation helped me stay clear about why the work mattered.
Preparation also meant being honest about what the data could tell us. I needed to distinguish what we knew from what we hoped would happen. Sometimes the most credible proposal was to test an idea on a smaller scale, learn from the results, and then decide whether to expand it.
That required a different kind of courage: the willingness to let the evidence change my mind.
Relationships Affect the Outcome
The same lessons apply to our relationships with brokers and insurers. The partners we choose influence how our business is understood and presented to the insurance market. They also influence the support we receive when an incident occurs or conditions become difficult.
I want partners who understand our operations well enough to explain our strengths and ask hard questions about our weaknesses. I want people who will help us prepare, communicate honestly, and work through problems with us.
Those relationships develop through conversations long before a difficult claim or renewal. We build them by sharing information, following through, and being willing to discuss concerns while there is still time to address them.
Using our voice in those relationships may mean questioning an assumption about our business, asking for a clearer explanation of a recommendation, or acknowledging that something in our operation needs to improve. Trust makes those conversations more productive. Honest conversations, handled well, can also deepen trust.
Learning from the Conversations That Hurt
Even with preparation, some conversations did not produce the outcome I wanted. Some ideas took years to gain support. Others needed to change. I have had to examine both the resistance I encountered and my own part in the interaction.
Self-awareness helped me recognize when my urgency was getting ahead of my ability to listen. Studying conflict management helped me understand that my instinctive response was one option among several. Leadership experience taught me to pay attention to what happened after the meeting, including whether I had left enough room for someone else to contribute.
My career has been hard at times. I would not describe every difficult experience as a gift. Some were painful, and some felt unfair. Still, when I look back, I can see how I evolved through them. I became better at preparing, more willing to ask for help, and more thoughtful about how I approached people.
I can also see the time and attention that others invested in me. Their advice, advocacy, and willingness to listen helped me keep moving. The value of an experience was sometimes visible in a business result. Other times, it appeared later in a conversation I handled better or in the support I could offer someone else.
One Brave Moment Can Begin a Change
These experiences are shaping my upcoming book, One Brave Moment. I am exploring how small, intentional acts of courage can change the direction of our work and our lives, and how we learn from what happens next. A brave moment may be asking a question you have been avoiding. It may be admitting that you need more information before making a recommendation. It may be returning to a conversation that went badly and trying again with a different approach.
For construction risk professionals, these moments have practical consequences. A concern raised early can prompt a closer look at a process. A question can reveal information that was missing from a decision. A conversation with a broker can improve how an operational change is explained to an underwriter.
Leaders also shape whether others are willing to take those steps. If we want people to speak up, we have to pay attention to how we respond when they do. Listening, asking questions, and following through give people a reason to bring us the next concern.
As we gather at IRMI CRC to discuss amplifying our voices, I hope we make room for the conversations that did not go well, alongside the ones that changed our careers. There is useful learning in both.
What is one conversation you have been putting off? What could you do now to prepare for it? You may not be able to control the response. You can choose how you begin. That can be your next brave moment.
Opinions expressed in Expert Commentary articles are those of the author and are not necessarily held by the author's employer or IRMI. Expert Commentary articles and other IRMI Online content do not purport to provide legal, accounting, or other professional advice or opinion. If such advice is needed, consult with your attorney, accountant, or other qualified adviser.
As I prepare to attend the IRMI Construction Risk Conference (CRC) this month, I am excited to be part of the Women in Construction discussion. The theme, "Amplifying Your Voice," has me reflecting on the times I have used mine throughout my career in construction risk management.
Some of those conversations changed the way we worked. Others did not go as I expected. I have left meetings frustrated, replayed conversations long after everyone else had moved on, and lost sleep wondering whether I had missed something important. Sometimes my message was right, but my approach made it harder for others to hear.
My natural tendency is to jump in and let my opinion be heard. When I see a problem, I want to solve it. When I see a risk, I want to address it. That urgency has served me well. It has also taught me some difficult lessons.
Through experience, self-awareness, and studying conflict management and leadership, I learned that I had more choices than I initially recognized. I could choose when to speak, where to have the conversation, and how to present my concern. I could listen first. I could prepare. Those choices gave me more agency, even when I could not control the outcome.
Learning Techniques to Amplify My Voice
Early in my career, I often assumed that identifying a problem and explaining the solution should be enough. If the facts were clear and the risk was real, why wouldn't people agree?
Because, people bring more than facts into a conversation. They bring responsibilities, past experiences, competing priorities, and concerns about what a proposed change will mean for them. A recommendation that seems obvious to a risk manager may sound like another expense or disruption to an operations leader already under pressure to deliver a project.
Listening helped me understand those pressures. It also helped me discover what I did not yet know. Building trust and respect made it easier to have the difficult conversation later, because people had experienced my willingness to understand their work.
I learned to ask myself what I wanted the conversation to accomplish. Did I need a decision, an opportunity to test an idea, or simply a better understanding of the resistance? Being clear about that purpose changed how I prepared.
Sometimes I could wait until another day, gather more information, and speak privately rather than challenge someone in a room full of people. Waiting with a plan could improve my chances of being heard. Of course, an immediate safety concern required an immediate response. Judgment meant recognizing the difference.
I could also ask a trusted adviser to challenge my thinking before I presented it. An advocate could help me understand the audience or make an introduction. I still had to use my own voice, but I did not have to prepare alone.
Giving the Concern a Business Case
Data has been my friend throughout my career. It has helped me move a conversation beyond "I believe this will work" to "Here is what we are seeing, and here is what we can test."
In construction, that means connecting a recommendation to the work. Loss history, claims costs, operational experience, and the financial demands of a project can help explain why a change deserves attention. Revenue and staffing demands also matter when evaluating whether a proposed solution is practical.
I can point to millions of dollars saved through work focused on our processes and our people. Those results gave me evidence to bring into later conversations. They helped demonstrate that investing in safety and leadership could improve how the business performed.
But the dollars were never the whole story. Behind a claim is a person, a family, and a crew affected by what happened. The financial case helped me earn attention; keeping people in the conversation helped me stay clear about why the work mattered.
Preparation also meant being honest about what the data could tell us. I needed to distinguish what we knew from what we hoped would happen. Sometimes the most credible proposal was to test an idea on a smaller scale, learn from the results, and then decide whether to expand it.
That required a different kind of courage: the willingness to let the evidence change my mind.
Relationships Affect the Outcome
The same lessons apply to our relationships with brokers and insurers. The partners we choose influence how our business is understood and presented to the insurance market. They also influence the support we receive when an incident occurs or conditions become difficult.
I want partners who understand our operations well enough to explain our strengths and ask hard questions about our weaknesses. I want people who will help us prepare, communicate honestly, and work through problems with us.
Those relationships develop through conversations long before a difficult claim or renewal. We build them by sharing information, following through, and being willing to discuss concerns while there is still time to address them.
Using our voice in those relationships may mean questioning an assumption about our business, asking for a clearer explanation of a recommendation, or acknowledging that something in our operation needs to improve. Trust makes those conversations more productive. Honest conversations, handled well, can also deepen trust.
Learning from the Conversations That Hurt
Even with preparation, some conversations did not produce the outcome I wanted. Some ideas took years to gain support. Others needed to change. I have had to examine both the resistance I encountered and my own part in the interaction.
Self-awareness helped me recognize when my urgency was getting ahead of my ability to listen. Studying conflict management helped me understand that my instinctive response was one option among several. Leadership experience taught me to pay attention to what happened after the meeting, including whether I had left enough room for someone else to contribute.
My career has been hard at times. I would not describe every difficult experience as a gift. Some were painful, and some felt unfair. Still, when I look back, I can see how I evolved through them. I became better at preparing, more willing to ask for help, and more thoughtful about how I approached people.
I can also see the time and attention that others invested in me. Their advice, advocacy, and willingness to listen helped me keep moving. The value of an experience was sometimes visible in a business result. Other times, it appeared later in a conversation I handled better or in the support I could offer someone else.
One Brave Moment Can Begin a Change
These experiences are shaping my upcoming book, One Brave Moment. I am exploring how small, intentional acts of courage can change the direction of our work and our lives, and how we learn from what happens next. A brave moment may be asking a question you have been avoiding. It may be admitting that you need more information before making a recommendation. It may be returning to a conversation that went badly and trying again with a different approach.
For construction risk professionals, these moments have practical consequences. A concern raised early can prompt a closer look at a process. A question can reveal information that was missing from a decision. A conversation with a broker can improve how an operational change is explained to an underwriter.
Leaders also shape whether others are willing to take those steps. If we want people to speak up, we have to pay attention to how we respond when they do. Listening, asking questions, and following through give people a reason to bring us the next concern.
As we gather at IRMI CRC to discuss amplifying our voices, I hope we make room for the conversations that did not go well, alongside the ones that changed our careers. There is useful learning in both.
What is one conversation you have been putting off? What could you do now to prepare for it? You may not be able to control the response. You can choose how you begin. That can be your next brave moment.
Opinions expressed in Expert Commentary articles are those of the author and are not necessarily held by the author's employer or IRMI. Expert Commentary articles and other IRMI Online content do not purport to provide legal, accounting, or other professional advice or opinion. If such advice is needed, consult with your attorney, accountant, or other qualified adviser.