Building High Performing Teams with Marcus Bontempelli
Kapitol Conversations EP4 – Marcus Bontempelli unpacks trust, discipline and leadership with David Caputo, Andrew Deveson and Isabelle Pritchard.
When people think about safety in construction, they often picture hard hats, exclusion zones and permit systems.
Those things matter. But they’re only part of the picture.
A genuinely safe workplace also protects psychological health.
That’s why our team recently participated in Psychosocial Training, exploring how psychosocial hazards show up in construction, how they affect people, and what leaders can do to identify and manage them early.
The conversation was about understanding the realities of construction work and recognising when the way work is planned, organised or managed is creating unnecessary pressure.
Because psychological safety doesn’t start with a wellbeing poster. It starts with the work itself.
Construction is a high-performing industry. Deadlines matter. Milestones matter. Clients rely on us to deliver.
But sustained performance doesn’t come from people simply pushing harder.
Anyone who has worked on a major project knows how quickly pressure can build.
A program slips due to weather, design changes or procurement delays. Suddenly a team is trying to recover lost time. Site leaders are coordinating multiple trades, managing client expectations and resolving issues as they emerge. Project coordinators are juggling RFIs, procurement packages, subcontractor queries and reporting requirements.
None of these challenges are unusual.
The risk appears when those pressures become constant.
What starts as a short-term push can gradually become six consecutive Saturdays on site. A project manager working 55-hour weeks. A coordinator answering emails late into the evening because there simply aren’t enough hours in the day.
Over time, fatigue becomes normalised.
That’s where psychosocial hazards begin to emerge.
Psychosocial hazards are aspects of work that can cause psychological harm, including factors such as excessive job demands, low role clarity, poor support, workplace conflict, fatigue and bullying. As part of our broader approach to health and safety in construction, Kapitol treats these hazards with the same rigour as physical safety risks.
One of the most valuable discussions during the training focused on a simple question:
“What has become normal that shouldn’t be?”
It’s an important challenge for our industry.
Late-night emails. Weekend calls. Leave that never gets taken. Teams quietly carrying workloads that exceed what one person can reasonably manage.
These behaviours can slowly become accepted because they’re often linked to good intentions. People care about their projects. They want to help the team. They want to deliver.
But good intentions don’t eliminate risk.
A fatigued supervisor is more likely to miss something important during a site walk.
A project coordinator carrying multiple roles can become overwhelmed and start making mistakes.
A team member experiencing ongoing stress may withdraw from conversations, stop raising concerns or disengage from the people around them.
The impact isn’t just personal.
It affects communication, decision-making, quality and ultimately safety.
That’s why psychosocial risk management is increasingly focused on prevention rather than reaction. The goal is to identify issues early through consultation, observation and data, then address the causes before they become injuries.
One of the strongest messages from the session was that awareness alone isn’t enough.
Training has a role to play, but it doesn’t fix the underlying issue if the work itself remains unchanged.
For example, if a team is experiencing fatigue because a program recovery plan requires extended hours over several weeks, the solution isn’t simply reminding people to look after themselves.
The first question should be whether the work can be redesigned.
Can resources be adjusted?
Can priorities be clarified?
Can workload be redistributed?
Can recovery time be protected?
Kapitol’s psychosocial risk management framework prioritises addressing hazards at their source through work design, resourcing, role clarity and supervision rather than relying solely on individual support measures. This focus on better processes and earlier identification also reflects our broader approach to innovation in the construction industry.
That shift in thinking is important.
It moves the conversation away from asking people to cope better and towards creating work environments that are safer and more sustainable.
Construction leaders have always solved problems.
Psychosocial risk management is no different.
The training focused on practical leadership behaviours that can be applied every day on site and in the office.
That might mean noticing the coordinator who suddenly seems overwhelmed.
It might mean recognising tension developing between project teams and trade partners before it escalates into conflict.
It might mean having a conversation with someone who has been working extended hours for weeks and asking where the pressure is coming from.
Importantly, leaders aren’t expected to diagnose mental health conditions.
Their role is to understand the work.
What’s creating the pressure?
What can be adjusted?
Who needs additional support?
What needs to be escalated?
Psychosocial risks are identified through many of the same methods used to manage physical risks, including consultation, workplace observations, incident trends, workforce feedback and reviews of workload or organisational change.
In many cases, the warning signs are already visible.
The challenge is noticing them early enough to act.
Another key theme from the training was psychological safety itself.
Not as a compliance term.
As a practical part of running a successful project.
The strongest teams are often the teams where people feel comfortable raising issues early.
A graduate who can ask for help before becoming overwhelmed.
A supervisor who can admit a program isn’t working.
A trade partner who feels confident raising a concern before it becomes a problem.
Those conversations don’t happen by accident.
They happen when leaders create environments where bad news can be shared without blame and where people know their concerns will be heard and acted upon.
Consultation remains one of the most effective safety initiatives in construction because the people doing the work are usually the first to see where pressure is building.
At Kapitol, our commitment to safety has always been built around a simple principle: Do No Harm.
That responsibility extends beyond physical hazards.
Psychological health and workplace wellbeing are now recognised as critical parts of creating safe, productive and sustainable workplaces.
Our recent Psychosocial Training wasn’t about adding another item to a compliance checklist.
It was about giving our leaders practical tools to identify pressure, improve communication and create work environments where people can perform at their best without sacrificing their wellbeing.
Because stronger teams aren’t built by expecting people to carry more.
They’re built by understanding people, designing work well and creating the conditions that allow everyone to thrive.
Explore more project stories, ideas and construction industry news from Kapitol.
