Tanya Schneider

I've always stayed curious, and I never carried the mindset that any role was beneath me. I understood early on that every opportunity can be a stepping stone to the next chapter. For example, I started in an administrative position. At the time, no one would have looked at me and predicted that I'd eventually be running flagship projects for Cartier. The path was never a straight line. That early role actually gave me a unique advantage. It helped me understand what each position really focuses on, and now, in my current work, I'm able to speak a language that relates to everybody who's involved in the project, no matter what their capabilities are. I don't think I would have developed that ability if I hadn't started from the bottom and worked my way all the way up to really understand resilience. Over time, I also learned that success isn't about being the loudest voice in the room. It's about being someone that people trust when things get really hard. And in construction, things always are really hard. If you can become the person that is relatable to anyone in the situation, whether that's a subcontractor, an architect, an owner, a CEO, that's where your value is.

I think I would probably tell her not to confuse being respected with becoming hardened. In the construction industry specifically, there can be pressure to adjust your personality to fit the environment, to feel like you deserve a seat at the table. I definitely experienced that earlier in my career. I felt like I had to become tougher, or like I had to know twice as much as every man on that job site to be taken seriously. And while being prepared and educated is important, I eventually realized that my real strengths weren't about knowing everything - they were about communication, collaboration, and really leaning into my gut on what I felt was right or wrong. I would also tell her not to be intimidated by what you don't know, because your biggest tool in your tool belt is asking questions, staying observant, and being reliable. You're not expected to know everything at all times. That's why you have partners, and that's why there's a collaboration component to building a job. You have your architect, you have your contractor, you have your subcontractors. You're not meant to need to know all that information, you just need to know how to leverage it. And understand that your perspective, even if you don't know everything, has value. You're bringing something to the table. The industry is changing, too. There's more room for women than there used to be, and I think we're starting to see a shift in that you don't need to try as hard to be taken seriously. And that's, I'll tell you, a nice shift in the 20 years I've been doing this.

I'd say being a woman in the industry is more accepted now than it used to be, but when I was in my 20s working in construction, it was definitely more challenging. There was a lot of pressure, especially as a woman, to behave a certain way or to downplay parts of myself just to be taken seriously. I definitely fell into that at times. Over time, though, I realized that some of my strongest leadership qualities actually came from the things that aren't always traditionally valued in that environment - things like emotional intelligence, collaboration, and intuition. Those qualities ended up being real assets, not liabilities. What I've learned is to stay observant, be reliable, and trust that your perspective has value. As the industry evolves, the way people work together is changing too. There's more openness to different leadership styles, and I think women are bringing a really important layer to that shift, especially in how we build trust and collaborate on teams.

Integrity and authenticity, hands down. They kind of go hand-in-hand. For a long time, I thought success meant I would have to mold myself into a certain version. But the older I've gotten, the more I realize that as long as I am sincere and honest, that goes so much further, because eventually people start to see through that facade. So, if you are just who you are, unapologetically, I strive to be valued for being hardworking and driven, but I also show respect and kindness to anyone that I work with, to anyone that's interacting with me. I always remember that construction, at its core, is a hands-on, humanitarian job. It's people using their bare hands to build something. So, when you take away the humanity component of that, it really hurts the job site mentality, the overall vibe of the job. If you remember that there are actual humans working on this job, and there's actual people that are involved in this, it really gives you that edge. People want to finish for you. They want to do your job, they want to make you happy. So, for me, staying authentic to myself and staying humane really, unfortunately, distinguishes me in the industry. It shouldn't, but it does.