Baseball Analogies to Help Improve Your Team

Angie Simon, CEO of Western Allied Mechanical, a $110 million mechanical and design-build contractor. She is also the first female president of SMACNA National in its 77-year history.

In this episode of the Construction Brothers podcast, Angie dives into how communication within team sports mimics the communication necessary to build a successful construction team. “There is a lot of tie-in between construction and sports,” says Angie. “So much of construction is about teamwork.”

Angie talks about communication, project management and diversity within the construction industry, and also addresses the workforce shortage within the trades and the steps she’s already taking to tackle this challenge head-on. 

“In baseball, my talent skills are maybe not as high as they should be, but I have a good baseball IQ,” says Angie. “When I got into construction, to say the same thing, I’m a mechanical engineer, but I really didn’t know construction, but I also respected my team so much,” she continues.

“What I’m trying to teach my young project engineers right out of college is ‘you may have a degree, but you really don’t know what we do out in the field,’” says Angie. “You may be the captain, the person running the project, but your team is more important than you are.”

Listen to the full podcast.