Construction Trailblazers: Paving The Way to Excellence

[00:00:00] Welcome to Construction Trailblazers, paving the way to excellence.

The podcast where we cut through the noise to uncover what truly drives success in the building industry. I'm Samantha C. Prestidge, your guide in simplifying operations and helping you make managing your team simpler. You can explore our past episodes at constructiontrailblazers. com and start your journey to excellence.

So today we're speaking with Irene Walsh Garcia, a resilient leader with over 25 years of experience breaking barriers in construction. From her early days as an electrician to stepping into estimator and senior project manager roles, she has learned some hard lessons. Navigating project chaos.

Advocating for herself and bridging that gap between office and field operations, which we all know is not easy. Now, as the founder of Successful Women in Construction, she's on a mission to help women in the industry own [00:01:00] their worth, lead with confidence, and build thriving careers. Because when women succeed in construction, or anywhere, everyone wins.

All right, so Irene, how would you describe your experience in the industry so far? Not just your career background, but from that emotional and personal perspective, what have been the biggest challenges and the most exciting wins?

Irene Walsh Garcia: So certainly my biggest challenge was my original project being the project manager on a 60 story high rise with no previous management experience was a tremendous undertaking.

It was through their project and certainly on subsequent projects that I experienced not just tremendous professional growth, but tremendous personal growth. And in order to meet the demands. Of that project in the month since I had to grow as a person to, to really to dig deep to realize what my resources are to just to have a better understanding of people and how they operate, not just the building blocks of [00:02:00] the physical construction.

So, and I am I am immensely grateful for those experiences. I would not be the person I am today without those experiences.

Samantha C Prestidge: Wow. Now, okay, let's, let's dive into that a little bit more because that's some awesome on the job training. And you obviously have this amazing competence and confidence to execute really well on that project.

But that's certainly not how we want everyone to experience their first project manager role. So throw us a, or give us a little bit more insight into like how it felt just being thrown into the deep end like that.

Irene Walsh Garcia: Terrifying

to put it in one word. And it was, it kind of happened over time. It wasn't like, oh, hey, you don't know what you're doing.

You should definitely be the project manager on this. It was like, hey, you estimated this project start getting this middle together, submittals together. Start getting you know, start the coordination process, you know, our, our coordinator will be with you. You're not on your own. Just, you know, just start doing [00:03:00] those things.

And all of those things were bringing you to me as well. But I, I kind of just, just went with it, right? I'm like, okay, just one step at a time, started doing those things and I'm like, okay, that's it. And I just kept doing that. Like there was no one else who ever stepped in to be the project manager on that project.

And so, you know, more and more challenges came up and I continue to step up and there continued not to be an experienced project manager to step in and and. Oddly enough, surprisingly enough, because I didn't expect this, everyone liked what I was doing. Like the general contractor, you know, was happy with me.

My, my foremen were, were, were okay with me. There can be a little more challenging. It, it went okay. Like, like that was, you know, I kept waiting for someone to announce to the room that I didn't belong there and that didn't happen. And I, and I attribute that to a couple of things. One, certainly I came from a field.

So I immediately had a certain level of respect from the field, and so I knew how the parts went together. I just didn't [00:04:00] know all the paperwork, and negotiating, and just, I guess the stress got, you know, got to figure that out pretty quickly. So I didn't, there were certain things I didn't know, but I had certain things that I did know, and, and I just kept doing

it.

Samantha C Prestidge: Wow. So it sounds like we, you had a really great foundation of some of the soft skills of just understanding the field and understanding what they needed to succeed. And we're just missing some of the, the technical skills on the paperwork side then. So going back to, in, our intro for you, we, we mentioned how you had to learn to advocate for yourself.

Sounds like on that first project, You had that respect. So where along the lines did you feel, Oh, I've got to advocate for myself here as, as a woman in the industry.

Irene Walsh Garcia: In a couple of different ways. The first big part was just getting paid properly. When I left the field for the office, I lost my union package.

And so, and they are like, Hey, you're a junior estimator at [00:05:00] this point, this is what we're willing to pay you. And at that point, I didn't have enough confidence to negotiate what they offered me. The, it says 2005, things were getting slow in the industry. If I would try to get another opportunity as an electrician, I would have waited 18 months.

And so I said, I took it, I took it and they said, well, we'll renegotiate in six months. We'll give you a raise. We'll go from there. So I went with it. And then as they're piling more and more on me, as this project is getting harder and harder and I have less and less support every six months I got a raise and You know, and that wasn't standard.

You know, for a little, for a minute, they're all like, hey, we don't normally do this. I said, it doesn't matter what you normally do. What you're asking me to do is not normal as far as I was concerned. And so and, and I didn't ask for a raise. I told them I needed to get paid more if they wanted me to continue doing what I was doing.

So that was to me, an important distinction. that this wasn't like, Oh, please pay me more. It was, this is what I need to [00:06:00] make if you want me to continue doing this work. And, and they knew they needed to, they knew that they needed me to complete the project. They knew what they were asking was way above and beyond what the current role was supposed to be.

So they continued to give me raise every six months until they doubled my salary by the end of their project.

Samantha C Prestidge: That's an incredible success story that I, I know for a fact, a lot of people might be a little bit jealous of, because they haven't experienced that. And I love what you said there of like, you weren't asking, you were very clear on, this is the value that I'm bringing.

Here's the objectives you're asking me to meet. And so this isn't some, you know, big demand. But it's also I'm not requesting this, either this will happen, or you're willing to walk away. And that's probably what I would assume a lot of people are. Afraid to have that boundary of like you're going to walk away if this is not meeting your needs, right?

And so a lot of your work is coaching Women, is that a big thing to have to work on that with them of like you've got to be willing to walk [00:07:00] away

Irene Walsh Garcia: Yes. Yes.

And

you know because a lot of women come into the industry and they Continue doing what they had always done. They're working hard They're, they're very prepared.

They're, you know, doing all the things that they were taught to do before coming into the industry. The piece that they're missing is that they expect that they're automatically going to get that A, you know, or that promotion because that they're doing the things that have been set out for them to do.

Unfortunately, if you're not advocating for yourself, if you're not making it clear to your boss before your next review, what you need in that role. you will likely lose out to the person who is having those conversations. And oftentimes, you know, we're being evaluated by men in those positions. And so they're likely, you know, take it or leave it are going to be probably more chummy with our male counterpart or male colleague in those positions.

And they're there, maybe they're grinding beers after work, whatever they're doing, golfing, whatever they're [00:08:00] bonding. And they're, he's, he's whispering in the boss's ear, Hey, I'd really like that promotion, or I think I really earned this or or just touting their own accomplishments, making it clear what they've contributed to the team all along and having those those conversations throughout the year, and you have to be actively having those conversations actively engaging and having sit down, you know, many reviews, if you will, throughout the year before that main review so that you're not disappointed at that point, and you've already set the expectation before you've sat down.

Samantha C Prestidge: Wow. First off the simplicity of just like, this is what needs to happen. I think also though, yeah, you could be a little bit jealous that they're getting beers and they're being a little buddy buddy, but certain friendships are going to happen no matter what. And there's people will gravitate toward other people that feel similar that they can already see some commonalities with.

And so instead of just accepting that situation or, you know, You know, being jealous and complaining about it. It's like, okay, what can you do to take initiative? What can you do to make sure that you're [00:09:00] not being left behind? So , you said earlier that you came from the fields, you had that respect already.

You also just understood what the field needed. So going a little back to like gender stereotypes there, we are seeing more and more women in field roles, but generally, women enter the industry in more office based roles. Typically when people work in the office,, they don't see what's going on in the field. And so whenever they don't have the information they need, they're like, oh, the field is doing this again.

And vice versa with the field often, they don't see what's going on in the office. So they're like, man, the office didn't do this or they forgot this piece. And connecting those dots is usually something that a lot of people have to work on and so with the women's work with that are mostly an office based positions, is there some work that needs to happen for them to understand really what the field is doing and what they have to contend with? Is that part of your coaching, of having that big picture thought?

Irene Walsh Garcia: Yes, absolutely. And that goes for the men and women in the office who went the college route, [00:10:00] right? And now all of a sudden they're on a job site, they're running a project or assisting on a project and they're having miscommunications with the field. And again, this is happening for men and women, but the way a man responds to that and the way a woman responds to that are completely different.

A lot of times a woman, Either she'll hopefully ask, start asking the questions, right? And hopefully she's in an environment where those questions are supported. She's able to get answers and reason her way through it. And hopefully she has an opportunity to spend time in the field so that she sees what's going on.

She sees how the projects are being built and can establish a better foundation. I feel a lot of times, you know, the guys, They're acting like they know the thing when they don't know the thing right there. They're better at like pulling it off. And just, you know, well, I know, or, you know, that's just the way it is.

Or, you know, so the really that the primary thing is just having the conversations with the field with an open mind. Bring curiosity to it. And generally, the few guys they want their project [00:11:00] managers to have a better understanding of what they're going through. So they will answer the questions like as long as you respect them and give them a certain level of reverence.

I guess it's like they're the ones that are putting the project together. They're putting making all the all the pieces work. They'll answer whatever questions you want. And and they can be, you know, fully, fully reasonable and respectful to that as long as Again, you're giving them the respect, you're, you're supporting what they're doing, and you're respecting their efforts.

Samantha C Prestidge: Man, I think that's such an advantage though, when you can have the humility of understanding, okay, I don't know what I need to know in order to succeed in this role, so I'm going to go ask the questions. And so often, , we're afraid to look weak or to look dumb in a certain area, so we don't want to ask those questions, which is what a lot of guys do.

And, you know, there are women that do that as well. And that's when you can have just A lot of miscommunication in a project can go sideways because you want to fake it to make it. So you move forward without.

So for people [00:12:00] that are stepping into new project management roles, is that really like the first mindset shift that they need to have is to just be comfortable asking questions or is there something else that you'd recommend for them to really succeed?

Irene Walsh Garcia: I think, you know, being, being resourceful, is huge and realizing that how you treat people goes a long way and in being you acting with integrity in everything that you do, I witnessed enough project managers screaming yelling on the phone with either their foreman or vendors or distributors or whomever and thinking that that was the way to get what they wanted.

That is a very short term solution. And anyone who has a child knows what it is to be get frustrated, right? And you, you don't know the answer. You don't know how to move the situation forward. And it might, you might wanna yell, right? 'cause you're just like right there. But you know, that, like, that is shutting down relationships that may again, get you the short term result, but is not getting any sort of long-term results.

But a lot of [00:13:00] people do that one 'cause they just, they just want the next thing to happen. But they're not, but they're afraid to admit that they don't know or that they made a mistake. Or any of those things. So if you're if we're coming from that place, you're more likely to get defensive and to start the yelling.

I realized early on that yelling screaming was not going to get me what I wanted. I'm not quite five foot four, so I'm not going to physically intimidate anyone. I needed people, right? I needed people to want to help me. So when I when I spoke with my vendors, when I spoke with my team, You know, I did so in a respectful way.

But also just, you know, in, in a, let's do this as a team type of thing. Like, we're in this together. Let's figure out a solution together. I, I don't know, you know, everything. I'm not going to pretend, but I'm kind of the facilitator more than anything else. Working between the different parties to get everyone the end result that they want.

Samantha C Prestidge: Oh, man, I'm five foot one. So I also understand that you [00:14:00] don't always look or feel intimidating walking into a room. So it's okay, what are the other strengths? What are the other things I can leverage to make things happen? And that team aspect, that's something people appreciate it just okay, how can we do this together?

This is someone that is a is willing to support me succeed. I want to help them succeed. All right, let's, let's move forward together. So with yelling and screaming those, I'm going back to the child thing. I have two kids, right? I have a five year old and an almost three year old and. It's like, I do not reward their temper tantrums.

So why is it, as adults, would you put up with someone else yelling and screaming at you? Like, let's push back a little bit on that, first of all, and not give in to the temper tantrum. You're not going to do it for a five year old screaming for a lollipop in the store. We're not going to do it for a grown adult when we're working on a project with serious money on the line.

Going back to one of your, that first project you had with the six story high rise and Projects after that you said that you realized early on that [00:15:00] yelling and screaming were not going to work So if we can be a little bit vulnerable Were there moments where you tried to do that and maybe try to do a little bit more like your male counterparts?

Irene Walsh Garcia: Kind of I wasn't yelling or screaming, but I was like determined to be right and and I Realized it was a losing battle. I was on a hotel expansion and renovation was about a 10 million project and I was butting heads with my general foreman, like big time, butting heads and, and we kept just, and, and I, I was walking to the job and I was literally praying in my head, like, please show me a different way.

I knew that what I was doing wasn't working because he would escalate the situation that I would escalate back and he would escalate. And I'm like. And I could see all of a sudden that like if I if I escalated again, then that was gonna be his response. And I realized as as the boss, as the project manager on this project.

It was my job to set the tone, and it was my job [00:16:00] ultimately to de escalate the situation, and that was the only path forward. And as I got to the job site trailer, and my general foreman was sitting there, and I, I said, Jim, I, you know, we gotta talk. And so I, I explained. Where I was coming from and I said, look, I said, I don't think either one of us wants to continue this project.

The way it's been going. I said, I, I'm willing to step back, you know, on what and points, you know, A, B and C. If, if that, if that allows you more space and more room to do what you need to do. And I said, and this is what I need. And I think if we can come to an agreement, Okay. Then we don't have to have this back and forth all the time.

And we can have a more successful project. And ultimately he agreed. We shook hands and we were able to continue on with the project.

Samantha C Prestidge: Wow, was he a little bit taken back at like the calmness of your approach there?

Irene Walsh Garcia: He might have been he might have been because like it had been pretty [00:17:00] rough For maybe a month at that point and I know my stomach was you know doing flip flops as I every morning I was on that job site and I wasn't looking forward to it and I'm thinking myself He can't be enjoying this and and I and I just I realized I said I There's two ways.

There's two ways this can go. Either continues going the wrong way or we do, of course, correct. And I had to I had to be okay with not being right. I had to be okay with, you know, hat in hand. I'm willing to do things differently if you are, and then that's what we did.

Samantha C Prestidge: And that goes back to what we said earlier.

There's humility when you're in a new role or not even if you're in a new role because there are CEOs that have been in their role for 20 years. And part of what makes them successful is that humility and being willing to just work with the other person. But the side to that, that makes it a little bit easier to be humble that I'm hearing from you is clarity.

You were clear on what the, what the project needed, what at least you could step away from X, Y, Z for yourself, as long as he was able to meet these other things that you know, you need [00:18:00] to succeed on this project and succeed on this role. And so many people are missing that clarity piece and going back to when we look at family relationships.

This also just reminds me of like when my husband and I argue, there are things I know that he might be really triggered about and if I jump in with him on that, we're not going to resolve anything and then I'm also going to have to feel the need to apologize for how I act. So the selfish thing there is okay, how can I deescalate so that I'm not wrong.

In this situation, and so I can remain right and I can remain, you know, a little bit on my high horse sometimes, but also just because you're right. No one enjoys the arguments. We don't want to continue moving forward with that. So kudos to how you approach that. Okay. So going back to, we also said in our intro that when women succeed in construction or really anywhere in the workplace, everyone wins.

I think a lot of companies still struggle with embracing diversity, especially now. There's just a lot of We see a lot of headlines of certain companies dropping DEI [00:19:00] initiatives. My approach to diversity is always like, Hey, you want diversification of thought. You want different perspectives. So the companies that are kind of pushing against diversity?

What are the challenges that maybe they're facing as a result or what's the competitive edge they're losing out on?

Irene Walsh Garcia: Great question. So a couple of different things. We like when we, and I think part of it is there is a lack of understanding of what D. E. I. is and what it can do for companies and everything that it is is a positive for a company because the thing is, ultimately, you are hiring the most qualified person.

The difference when you have good practices in place is you're better able to recognize the more qualified person. So instead of automatically looking for. You know, right? You're going to naturally relate to people with a similar background that that's just human nature, and sometimes we let that that connection or that [00:20:00] relation to that person override other parts of the say their resume or the interview, and you're like, Well, you're connecting with this person, and you're ignoring the fact that, well, I don't know.

Maybe they don't have experience, or maybe they've been job hopping or any of the other things that might be a red flag if you didn't feel some sort of like connection with them because, you know, maybe you hang out in the same neighborhood or whatever that looks like. What DEI does is it changes the lens so that you're truly able to look at a person's qualifications.

Without needing to relate to that person to have hung out in the same neighborhood as that person to have a lot of shared experiences with that person. And when you have people with different backgrounds and different experiences, but with good experiences. You are going to have a better team and a people they're going to maybe challenge what's going on in the company in a positive way and just contribute it in a different way.

What I've seen [00:21:00] time and time again within construction organizations is that everyone at the top has a very similar shared experience. And then they're sitting around and they're, they want the good all day. It's like, well, we used to make 20 or 25 percent on our projects and we're not doing it anymore.

And I don't understand why. And they, they want to be able to do things the way they've always done them, and they're not open to doing it in a different way because they don't have anyone in there who can, like, share a different experience of what worked for them, or hey, maybe have you considered this other thing that, like, is just not part of their lived experience and therefore is not On the menu for them to discover and the thing is when you look to create a place again with an active DEI program, you are allowing your people to thrive.

You are supporting them no matter who they are. You're supporting them. You're listening to them. You're allowing them to bring their true selves to the table, [00:22:00] to the conversations, they do better, the company does better. If you're in a place that does not support those types of things, people are shutting down, they're not bringing their real selves, they're doing the bare minimum to get by because they're not in an environment that supports them.

That's not good for anyone.

Samantha C Prestidge: Oh, man. Yeah. And then you're just frustrated. And because maybe you don't have that humility to look at yourself and see how you contributed to the situation, you're just placing the fault on everyone else. You're going to be stuck in that high turnover.

And it's also going back to what are those red flags in, in that interview. So we have a, for our listeners, we have a hiring and interviewing playbook that really helps you develop what those questions are to bring out the green and red flags for people. So you can look beyond some of the stuff that's just on the resume or Someone that has a little charisma and they just smile a lot.

And you feel good in the interview. And then they start and you're like, who the heck did I hire? . Okay. Those, those are amazing benefits for the company and for the teams that obviously then have this great domino effect into the [00:23:00] revenue and bottom line for company. Let's look at also on the individual level.

For the clients that you work with, for any listeners that are maybe interested, break down really how you work with them. And then what are the benefits they see? What are they seeing as far as that professional and personal growth?

Irene Walsh Garcia: So the first thing I do with my clients is we get really clear on what they want.

I found a lot of the times that there's a disconnect on what they truly want and what they think they want. And so those two things are not lined up. They're generally pursuing opportunities that are not a great fit. So that, that is always the first step getting clear. Cause you know, we have these stories we tell ourselves about what we should be doing or what we, you know, what someone else thinks we should be doing.

Or, or maybe we have a story that like tells us we can't do something and so if we are, you know, playing it small and we're only looking for an assistant position, but like our heart really wants that opportunity to be the project manager to be the lead. And but, you know, so [00:24:00] we're there were never if we're conflicted internally conflicted and what we're looking for, we're going to have a problem and we're not going to find the right opportunities.

So that's always number one. And then the other there's a lot of things, but one of them is just it's it's building that muscle of confidence. Like I didn't go from, you know, an unsure junior estimator to, you know, an experienced project manager. In one night, right? Like I, I had, I had to have, you know, experience after experience after experience that helped me grow my confidence and granted, I don't recommend that anyone take on a 60 story high rise as their first project to gain that confidence.

But we can do different things. Like if, if there's something that we know scares us, if there's something that we know there's a little outside our comfort zone, do it. Like just, you know, start with a little thing, start with, Maybe you're afraid of giving a talk, so you have an opportunity, to be a big talk, it doesn't have to be a keynote, but just like, you know, if there's an opportunity to stretch that muscle, do it.

I, I became a certified [00:25:00] scuba diver during my project because it's, it terrified me when I, years ago, the idea of becoming a certified scuba diver terrified me to no end. But halfway through the project I'm like, I can totally scuba dive. And so, so I, I got certified. Not only did I get certified, I got an advanced certification because I had developed that confidence muscle to the point that there really wasn't anything I felt I couldn't do.

But again, you start, you start small and you just keep stretching, keep stretching, keep stretching until it's not really a stretch anymore and it's just your new normal. And I mean, so that that's a lot of the kind of the basis of where I start with my clients is just, you know, growing that confidence muscle and then getting clearer what you want.

It goes on from there. It's a 12 week program is that we go through a lot of different things that I know from my own experience and from previous clients. That is what is needed to succeed and to build that great foundation and to reach for the next level.

Samantha C Prestidge: It sounds like there's so much transformation that can [00:26:00] happen in just 12 weeks.

That's just, that's one quarter, three months, 90 days, but you can learn so much. And I love the concept of just do the thing that scares you. And not that I am, you know, a diversity per se, that's, that's not my. expertise or knowledge base. But I do know, you know, guys grow up, and I see this with my own boys,

and I'm not gonna stop them from doing this, but they grow up having riskier experiences on the playground and just being encouraged to do the thing that scares them more. And so , they have that muscle built up kind of early on in their careers, whereas for us women, we have to be a little bit more intentional about wanting to build that muscle in the first place.

Irene Walsh Garcia: That is that is 100%. I mean, those things, those, those thoughts, those patterns are established very early on. And so again, it's all the things that like we think are holding us back, but they can be unlearned. They can be, you know, new things can be relearned. And that's what we have to do.

Samantha C Prestidge: Yeah, so again, not that we recommend starting with a 60 story high [00:27:00] rise as your first project, but if you were to go back and mentor your younger self during that first job, what's the one piece or the biggest pieces of advice that you'd give your younger self?

Irene Walsh Garcia: That I, that I can do it. I mean, that's kind of the main thing, right? Cause there are so many times when I doubted myself, I wasn't sure again, I was thinking someone's going to find out I didn't belong there. And so just maybe to relax a little bit. Cause you know, it was, it was really stressful, but just, just knowing that like, it's going to turn out and that the lessons learned in this process will help me my entire life that, that, that would have been like.

Oh, yeah, like that would have been a huge piece of information that would have made things easier.

Samantha C Prestidge: . Okay, so for those of the listeners that really appreciate the humble, practical, and sincere approach that you take, what's the best way for them to learn more and connect with you?

Irene Walsh Garcia: The easiest way to find me is on LinkedIn.

Irene Walsh [00:28:00] Garcia. I, you know, I'm happy to, you know, respond to any DM and connect and we can have a conversation and and go from there.

Samantha C Prestidge: Awesome. Okay. Well, this has been such

a pleasure having you on the show. Thanks so much for, for being with us today, Irene.

Irene Walsh Garcia: Thank you very much.