What 20 Years in Engineering Taught Me About Leadership - Deborah Nutt

"I failed my chartership first time around. That was a catastrophe. How dare they?"

Not exactly the polished response you'd expect from someone who's now Senior Director at Arcadis, managing major flood defence schemes along the Thames. But Deborah Nutt's refreshing honesty about professional setbacks reveals something most of us in construction and engineering know but rarely admit: the path to senior roles is messier than anyone lets on.

After two decades at the same firm, progressing from project manager to senior director, Nutt has learned what actually makes leaders effective in our industry. Spoiler alert: it's not what the management books tell you.

Why Your Team Won't Follow Perfect Leaders

"What makes a great leader is their followership," Nutt explains. "If you've got a team of people who don't want to follow you, you may consider yourself to be the greatest leader, but you're not leading anyone."

It's a brutal reality check for anyone who's ever wondered why their technically brilliant project managers struggle when promoted to leadership roles. You can have all the NEC4 accreditation in the world, but if your team doesn't buy into your approach, you're leading nobody.

This hits differently in construction where hierarchies are traditionally rigid and "because I said so" used to be enough. Not anymore. With skills shortages across the sector, people have choices. They'll work for leaders who admit when they're wrong, not those who pretend they never are.

Nutt's approach centres on authenticity - but not the corporate buzzword version. "It's wearing your heart on your sleeve. You have to make sure you're wearing the right sleeve, so to speak. But it's about being true to yourself and challenging things when you think they're not right."

The Persistence Playbook (When Everything Goes Wrong)

Let's talk about those failures. After bombing her first chartership attempt, Nutt didn't just dust herself off and try again. She took the feedback seriously, regrouped for six months, then came back stronger.

Same story with her failed partner interview. "I came home, I cried, I kicked the wall. But then again, on reflection, some of the things they were giving me in the feedback were correct."

The second attempt? "One of the strongest interviews they'd had in that session."

This isn't about blind persistence - it's intelligent adaptation. Take the feedback, work out what went wrong, fix it, then try again. We do this instinctively with failed concrete pours or structural problems, but somehow forget it applies to career development too.

Making Flexibility Work on Building Sites

Here's where it gets interesting for our industry. Everyone talks about flexible working, but how do you manage a construction site remotely? Nutt's team at Arcadis found ways to make it work, even on major infrastructure projects.

"To attract the diversity, make it so that people don't have to work 7am till 6pm because they might have childcare," she argues. It's not about letting people work from their kitchen table when they should be on site. It's about questioning whether every role really needs those traditional hours.

The TEAM2100 Programme she manages involves refurbishing Thames flood defences from the Estuary to Teddington. Complex, safety-critical work that can't be compromised. But the planning, commercial management, and coordination? Much of that can be done flexibly.

"We've got to make it equitable for everybody. That flexibility needs to be there not just for women, but for men, for everyone. Because that's how you're getting the equity - you're giving men and women the opportunity to do both."

It's about equity over equality - recognising that different people need different support to do their best work, rather than treating everyone identically.

The Reality Check on Diversity

Twenty years in the industry gives Nutt a perspective most diversity consultants lack. She's seen what actually works versus what sounds good in presentations.

"We're diverse. Are we inclusive? There's a difference. And it's the inclusive bit that prompts the conversation."

Arcadis committed to 40% women representation globally - ambitious for any engineering firm. But their approach goes beyond recruitment targets. They've introduced mandatory bystander training, global sponsorship programmes, and specific support recognising that challenges vary across different groups.

The goal isn't permanent diversity initiatives. "The goal is to not need them. The goal is that it's embedded in our culture. That it is just part of our way of life."

For site managers and project directors dealing with diverse teams, Nutt's philosophy is practical: "I am a firm believer that people generally do not get out of bed in the morning to upset somebody. That's not what they want to do."

Assume good intent first. When someone makes a mistake or causes offence, there are two responses: they apologise and change, or they don't care and you know where you stand. Either way, you can deal with it appropriately.

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