The most skilled installer on a job site is not always the most effective foreman — and that distinction was at the heart of the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors—National Association (PHCC) Educational Foundation’s annual Creating Super Foremen workshop, held May 1–2 at Milwaukee Tool’s headquarters in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Twenty-four field leaders from across the country gathered for the intensive two-day program, which challenged them to rethink the very nature of their role on the job.

Purdue University Professor Emeritus Kirk Alter provided instruction for the program and challenged attendees to stop solving problems with their tools. While the instinct to jump in and get work done is often what earns a tradesperson the foreman title in the first place, Alter argued that same instinct can be precisely what holds foremen back from being truly effective leaders. “Most foremen want to solve problems by leading the way with their tools in their hand and end up doing the work themselves,” Alter said. “Your job as a foreman is actually to be like a shepherd and lead from the back of the pack, spending time teaching your field crews, and making sure that they have all the resources, materials, tools and information they need to work as efficiently as they possibly can.”

That shepherd analogy became a theme for the workshop’s focus on servant leadership, a management philosophy that defines a leader’s primary job as removing obstacles and enabling others to do their best work. Attendees explored how great foremen ask better questions, plan more deliberately, and consistently put their crew’s needs ahead of their own impulse to be the “hero” with the answer. Rather than telling workers what to do or stepping in to do it themselves, servant leaders ask what is getting in the way of their crews and then fix that.

The workshop translated that philosophy into concrete field management skills. Participants worked through productivity tracking and ways foremen can identify problems through numbers rather than intuition. Attendees also tackled the cultural and interpersonal dimensions of field leadership. The class confronted the entrenched “us vs. them” tension between field crews and the office, challenging foremen to see themselves as members of the management team rather than a high-end field worker. Discussions on mentorship, emotional intelligence, and communication reinforced that a foreman’s most powerful tool is not a wrench — it is the ability to develop the people around them and build a team that doesn’t need rescuing.

Milwaukee Tool sponsored and hosted the class at their headquarters in Brookfield, Wisconsin. “We believe that investing in the people who work in the trades is just as important as investing in the tools they use,” said Ron Shanaver, Milwaukee Tool national account manager. “Hosting the PHCC Foremen Workshop is a natural extension of that commitment, and we are honored to be part of developing the next generation of field leaders.”

The PHCC Educational Foundation conducts the Foremen Workshop and its Essentials of Project Management class once per year, with one-day versions of the training offered in partnership with various PHCC state chapters at other times. See the Foundation web site for more information at https://phccfoundation.org.