Field Leadership Excellence: Developing Your Next Generation of Roofing Leaders

Tue, Jul 08, 2025 at 10:32AM

John Kenney, CPRC, CEO, Cotney Consulting Group

In the roofing industry, leadership isn’t confined to the office or boardroom – it lives and breathes on the jobsite. For every high-performing roofing company, the differentiator often isn’t just pricing, branding or equipment, it’s the strength of the field leadership team. Foremen, superintendents and project leads are the boots-on-the-ground forces that translate plans into performance, ensuring safety, productivity and quality from start to finish.

Yet, too often, field leadership is an afterthought. Talented tradespeople are promoted based on skill, not leadership readiness. The result? Projects suffer from poor communication, low morale, missed deadlines and margin fade. In today’s competitive market, roofing contractors can no longer afford to leave field leadership to chance.

Developing the next generation of field leaders isn’t just smart, it’s essential. This article explores what modern roofing field leadership requires, the consequences of getting it wrong and how to implement a system that builds capable, accountable leaders from the ground up.

Redefining the Role of the Field Leader

For decades, the typical path from crew member to foreman was informal: prove yourself in the field, show up consistently, work hard and eventually, get a truck, a title and a crew to manage. However, as roofing projects have grown more complex and client expectations have risen, the traditional model is no longer enough.

Today’s field leaders are expected to do much more than supervise installation. They coordinate with multiple trades, interpret drawings and specifications, manage production rates, document work for closeout packages, enforce safety standards and communicate between the office and the jobsite. It’s a multifaceted role that requires planning, accountability and leadership maturity.

The best forepersons and superintendents are calm under pressure, clear in their expectations and consistent in their communication. They know how to motivate without micromanaging and correct without causing conflict. These qualities don’t develop independently – they must be identified, nurtured and supported over time.

Core Competencies of High-Performance Field Leaders

To build strong field leadership, roofing contractors must clearly define what success looks like in the role. Here are key competencies that every high-performing field leader should possess:

Planning and scheduling: They must know how to review job documents, plan daily activities and sequence tasks to avoid delays.
Productivity management: Leaders must track crew output and adjust on the fly to meet goals without sacrificing quality.
Safety enforcement: They are responsible for upholding jobsite safety standards and building a culture of safety-first thinking.
Communication: Effective leaders maintain clear, respectful communication with crews, subcontractors, vendors and office staff.
Adaptability: Field conditions change rapidly. Leaders must know how to handle material delays, scope adjustments and unforeseen jobsite conditions.
Delegation: Leaders must balance direct supervision with crew empowerment, developing others while staying accountable.

Few field leaders arrive with all these traits. That’s why investing in their development is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.

The Cost of Poor Field Leadership

The absence of strong field leadership can erode profitability, client trust and employee morale. Projects without adequate oversight often suffer from the following:
Labor inefficiency: Crews stand idle, waiting for direction, materials or clarification on scope.
Rework and callbacks: Quality lapses go unchecked, increasing punch list time and cost.
Safety incidents: Without strong leadership, safety standards are inconsistently enforced, increasing risk.
Schedule slippage: Delays stack up due to poor planning or failure to coordinate with other trades.
Frustrated clients and poor reviews: Jobsite disorganization or communication gaps reflect poorly on the company.

Each issue chips away at profit margins and reputation, often in ways that office-level leadership may not immediately detect. Strong field leadership prevents minor problems from snowballing into costly mistakes.

Building a Development Track for Emerging Leaders

One of the most effective ways to improve field leadership is to treat it like any other critical business function: with structure, training and a pathway for growth. Here’s how to begin building a development track:
Identify future leaders early: Look for crew members with initiative, reliability and good communication. Leadership potential often reveals itself through small behaviors.
Create shadowing opportunities: Pair emerging leaders with experienced forepersons and superintendents to learn firsthand expectations, planning and crew dynamics.
Offer leadership training: Covers communication, time management, conflict resolution and even the basics of job costing. Understanding the business side helps align field performance with company goals.
Define roles and responsibilities: Don’t assume new leaders understand what’s expected. Provide written job descriptions, checklists and performance metrics.
Mentor through mistakes: Leadership development requires patience. Create a culture where mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities, not grounds for dismissal.

Structured development strengthens your leadership pipeline and increases loyalty and job satisfaction by showing field employees a path to grow within the company.

Tools That Support Field Leader Success

Strong leaders need the right tools to execute their responsibilities effectively. Roofing contractors should equip field leaders with resources that enhance planning, communication and accountability, such as:

■ Daily planning sheets or digital tools for tracking tasks, material usage and crew assignments.
■ Photo documentation systems to support quality control and project closeouts.
■ Field-accessible job costing dashboards that show daily progress against budget and labor targets.
■ Standardized jobsite communication templates for safety talks, crew huddles and issue escalation.

Tools that are easy to use and tied to performance expectations empower field leaders rather than overwhelm them.

Accountability Systems That Reinforce Leadership

Clear expectations and follow-through are essential to effective leadership. Roofing companies should implement systems that support both:
Regular progress check-ins: Weekly meetings between field leaders, PMs or operations managers help surface issues early and align expectations.
Job closeout reviews: Analyze what went right and wrong on each project and use that feedback to coach leaders for future improvement.
Performance evaluations: Use defined metrics – on-time delivery, labor efficiency, quality and crew retention – to measure leadership effectiveness.
Corrective pathways: Address performance gaps early and constructively. Document expectations, provide support and set clear improvement goals.

Leadership thrives in environments where success is measured, recognized and continuously improved.

Creating a Leadership Culture at Every Level

Leadership should be visible and valued on every crew, not just those in titled positions. Field leaders set the tone but every team member should understand they have a role in upholding standards. Encourage crews to lead by example: cleaning up after themselves, showing up on time and double-checking their work.

Celebrate leadership behaviors. Recognize forepersons who consistently run organized, productive jobs. Thank crew members who step up to solve problems or train others. Public praise reinforces the company’s values and motivates others to raise their game. When field leadership becomes part of the culture, it doesn’t just improve job outcomes – it elevates the entire company.

Conclusion: Your Reputation is Built in the Field

Ultimately, your clients, suppliers and competitors judge your business not by your mission statement but by what happens on your jobsites. Your field leaders control that narrative every day.

Developing the next generation of roofing leadership requires more than just promotions – it’s a plan. By investing in your forepersons and superintendents, equipping them with the tools and training they need and holding them to clear expectations, you build more than just jobs – you make a resilient, reputable roofing company. The future of your company isn’t just on the horizon. It’s already on the roof.

FRM

John Kenney, CPRC, has over 50 years of experience in the roofing industry. He started his career by working as a roofing apprentice at a family business in the Northeast and worked his way up to operating multiple Top 100 Roofing Contractors. As CEO, John is intimately familiar with all aspects of roofing production, estimating and operations. If you would like further information on this or another subject, you can contact John at jkenney@cotneyconsulting.com.


Bookmark & Share