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Giving Your Company a Plan for Success
What makes John typical is that he is hardworking, liked by most of his workers and customers, stays busy most of the year, and seems to always be looking to expand his company but just hasn't found the right time or needed amount of resources. When John asked me to help him grow his business the first question I asked was, "Do you have a business plan?" John's answer was consistent with most contractors, "I've never had the time to develop one." Typical!
Taking your business to greater achievements without a business plan is akin to taking your family on a vacation to no where in particular and not realizing when you have arrived at your destination. OK, OK, maybe that is a bit dramatic. The only saving grace about the failed vacation trip is that you probably didn't flirt with financial disaster. Conversely, you are clearly raising the likelihood of such a financial catastrophe if you do not have a business plan for your company.
I have been working with contractors (like the fictitious John addressed above) for more than twenty years and it continues to amaze me how many contractors are working, some very successfully, on borrowed time. This statement should not intimidate you as much as it should motivate you to pull a plan together for your business that provides direction, believable action steps, and measurements to assist in the "map reading."
While there can be much to include in building a business plan, let me share with you the three primary sections. First, there is the direction that the company sets out to follow. The direction certainly embraces the vision of the contractor for his or her business. Questions such as, "Where are we going? What markets do we want to move into? and, How big do we want to become?" are all questions that should be honestly discussed and answered within this first section.
Business planning looks at the future through more quantifiable lenses. It incorporates a strategic focus, i.e. "Where are we going?", and puts more tangible steps in place. Most of the better contractors I work with have a burning desire to quantify where they are going to direct the company. They set financial objectives, they specify the markets they want to dominate, and they set targets of accomplishments that objectively state where they are going to be at specific points in the future. This might also include how much volume of production they want to contract for during the year such as total yards of concrete poured or finished or square feet of formwork or perhaps how many pavers to install on a weekly or monthly basis.
The direction set out by the business plan should clearly state what markets will be entered or maintained, what resources will be needed to meet the market objectives including the type of workers and equipment, and what the financial requirements to secure such resources will be. The financial requirements will require the creation of a budget, something that many contractors wait way too long to create.
Once the direction is developed it is then critical to create action steps to bring the plans to life. Thus a second section of the business plan is the section that most contractors have little problem creating. This is the tactical effort that most contractors are more comfortable committing to. The key here is to create action steps that are believable. Believable does not suggest that the steps should be easy, but rather, that the steps are justified due to the amount of experience, type of resources, and a method for deployment that the leaders all understand and are committed to.
One brief example of action steps in place might be the decision to add another service to your business. For instance, let us look at a flatwork concrete contractor who is adding concrete counter tops to their field of services. The action steps might include the following list of items.
- Identify best market for concrete counter top opportunities.
- Review current clients with potential for concrete counter tops.
- Determine needed expertise for forming, pouring, and finishing counter tops.
- Determine needed tools and equipment for concrete counter tops.
- Set realistic goals for concrete counter top revenue for first three years. (Determine optimum profit potential.)
- Purchase needed equipment and tools.
- Hire needed workers for selling and producing concrete counter tops or train existing employees to do.
- Look at marketing strategies and needed marketing budget to support new sales.
- Make the monitoring of concrete counter top revenues, gross margin, etc. part of the company's overall effort to monitor business.
The actionable steps outlined above are completely different than how many contractors make the decision to add a service. Far too many contractors make the decision on the fly, almost as a knee jerk response to one customer that has a need. While there are spontaneous decisions to add a service that work out, such decisions more often leave a contractor having purchased tools and equipment that are rarely used in the future.
The third section of a business plan requires more consistency on the part of the contractor. Reading the financials for a business has become a recognized need for successful contractors. More than reading their Profit & Loss Statements or studying their Balance Statements, successful contractors incorporate this third business plan component to create monitoring processes that measure the success of their business objectives. Once again it will take some very practical measurements that can be easily tracked.
While you can measure just about anything you want, consider the following targets that might signal if your business planning efforts are taking the company in the right direction.
- Gross Profit for each job completed.
- Percentage material use against estimate.
- Percentage hours worked against estimate.
- Percentage bids won against bids created.
- Percentage bids won against goal per market type.
- Overtime hours worked versus overtime hours budgeted.
- Customer call-backs versus customer call-back target.
Each target above should be quantified if possible. Certainly the items addressed above can be. However, there may be other signs of a growing business that can be difficult to measure. For instance: Does the customer like our company? If so, how much? How will our construction success positively impact our future growth? How can we determine if our customers would purchase more services from our company?
The questions just shared are important to address but admittedly difficult to measure. However, the successful contractor seems to find the method to determine what those answers are and then determine a way to incorporate such feedback into their future plans for success.
For many measurable items, there should be targets created on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. Targets need to be clearly and regularly communicated to the workers who most impact the results. Remember, what is not regularly discussed is quickly forgotten.
Effective business planning requires focused attention by owners and their senior leaders. It is more than simply putting some goals out there and then making a mad scramble to reach the goals. Business planning forces leaders to think more logically, methodically, while also allowing enough wiggle room for adjustments and changes throughout the journey.
If you have never developed a business plan start working on developing yours as soon as possible. There really is not a bad time to create your business plan. You will find however that reviewing and updating your business plans in the future should be done in preparation for each new business year.
If you are a business plan user already don't be limited by what you've already done but rather look to expand the impact that your business plan can have on your business. The more you understand your business the more effective you will be at making better decisions and preparing your business to be led, even transitioned to future leaders and owners.
Brad Humphrey and Bob Dusin are partners at Gangbox Incorporated, a training and consulting company that targets the construction industry. They work with all aspects of the construction business - job planning, job costing, sales and leadership development. For more information about Gangbox Incorporated go to http://www.gangboxinc.com.
Casualties of Construction
I call these examples, and certainly others that might be more painful or uncomfortable the "casualties of construction." These are not illegal, immoral, or unethical type of events but just decisions that a leader is confronted with that has to be confronted or addressed.
The realities of construction casualties reminded me how important it is for an owner or leader to have a good handle on their values, their view of business, and their realistic outlook on making their business successful. Let me share a few insights into what many effective contractors do to handle some of the more unpleasant decisions that must be made.
1. First, be True to Your Personal Mission
No owner or leader can feel like their "life's mission" or purpose is being trashed. A leader must be firm, not arrogant, in their commitment to treat people with respect and to understand that not everyone else in their world will agree with their mission. That's OK, let the others in your life construct their own mission.
2. Develop a Strategic Plan on Running Your Company
Even non-owners who are still leaders need a clear view of how they want to lead their organization or their part of the organization. I love the Old Testament perspective of this insight which says "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Most "followers" in our companies are drawn to leaders with a vision and a plan. Having such a strategic plan keeps you grounded and provides a reminder when things get cloudy.
3. Communicate Honestly, Objectively, and as Accurately as Possible
This is a toughie for many leaders. How do you tell that employee who has been with you for twenty plus years that their performance just isn't making the grade? This is tough! However, it is important to line out to any employee what the need is and how they are doing compared to what is needed. It is important to be honest and just as critical to be objective. Objective feedback suggests that you consider all sides to the issue. Allow others to provide feedback that may not always agree with your perspective. Just allowing others to sound off to you can strengthen their respect for you. Finally, being accurate is the last critical piece. No one likes to be given the wrong information for any reason. Accuracy implies that you are separating the myths from facts.
4. Deal with Confusion or Concerns Professionally and Promptly
It is amazing how strong the rumor mill can be in most construction companies. I've seen just as much confusion in a small company of ten to fifteen employees as I have a company of five hundred. What employees don't understand or are confused about often becomes fodder for the expansion of rumors. When such confusion is present it is the leader who must address this head-on. State the truth and facts as clearly as possible. If the confusion or concern has a touch of confidentiality built in then certainly be sensitive to the confidential issue but if there is no issue here, then clarify the confusion and move on.
Dealing professionally and promptly suggests that you never assign blame to an individual, that is, at least publicly. Stay calm and collected. Don't let the confusion or problems of others rattle your emotional cage and begin to lower your own behavior to less than professional. Such demonstrations often leave the leader looking guilty of covering up some point of interest to others.
5. Look to Turn Problematic Situations into Positive Turn-about
This doesn't require that you be an eternal optimist but it will require that you consider what good can come out of a difficult situation. For instance, a better than average worker quits your firm and those who worked with the individual are uneasy about the immediate future. Immediately consider sharing with those left behind of the opportunities that now exist for someone to step up or for some new approaches to be considered that may have been resisted too in the recent past. Many employees are drawn to the leader who just doesn't put a positive spin on a bad issue but is proactive enough to say, "OK folks, let's quit feeling sorry for ourselves, roll up or sleeves, and get with the program!"
Certainly a leader deals with thousands of decisions a day, certainly in the span of a week. And the manner in which you, as the leader, respond to each and every opportunity is the chance to make a well thought out and prepared decision. I often refer to construction owners and leaders as quarterbacks who must be prepared to "audible" at the line of scrimmage if faced with a defense that poses a problem to success.
You are the quarterback. The "defense" facing you consists of the daily problems and challenges that you must adjust to in order to put your crew or company in the best position to win. Like a quarterback you don't have all the time in the world to react. You must respond in a timely manner with the best "play" possible to reinforce to your followers that you understand the situation and have the best corrective action possible to execute.
Brad Humphrey and Bob Dusin are partners at Gangbox Incorporated, a training and consulting company that targets the construction industry. They work with all aspects of the construction business - job planning, job costing, sales and leadership development. For more information about Gangbox Incorporated go to http://www.gangboxinc.com.
Building Alliances
This situation, while a nice problem to have, requires creativity in meeting customer needs. Such creativity might include looking at building alliances with area competitors to assist you in meeting work schedules. Sounds crazy? Don't say yes just yet!
One elementary mistake that many contractors make is that they seldom say "NO" to a customer's request to complete work. While most contractors think it foolish to turn down work, they are often guilty of promising too much when they do not have the resources to meet the customers needs.
When a contractor takes on so much work that they cannot meet the time needs of the customer they are setting themselves, and their customer, up for a great disappointment. Work that is delayed can become a huge eye soar to the customer, giving them little reason to send work a contractor's way again.
Most contractors want to increase their market share, and turning down work doesn't allow you to dominate your market area...right? Well, since you are probably not interested in learning how to turn work down let's turn our attention to an effort that can sustain your market presence and satisfy your customer's needs. Let me warn you however that this effort, if not followed correctly, can have just as negative result as simply turning down potential work, maybe worse.
Building alliances with other contractors should begin long before you are overbooked with business. Developing a professional relationship with other contractors allows you the opportunity to assess the work ethic, customer focus, and attention to quality that competitors possess. While you may find it difficult to talk openly with competitors, your effort will pay huge dividends later when you are engaged in meeting all of your customer's demands.
What does building an alliance with other contractors look like? Perhaps the tips presented below will enable you to build positive alliances with other contractors in your market area.
Tip #1: Keep a running log of competitors who perform professional work. In your daily travels and interactions within your market area, take note of the work done by competitors. Most good contractors do this anyway but often fail to keep an active log of the competitors and their performance results. Keep a camera in your vehicle and take pictures of such work. You may be able to use such pictures later if ever that competitor is performing work for you.
Tip #2: Invite your competitor to breakfast or lunch. Initiating this tip sends a message to your competitor that you are not threatened by them; that you do not view them as "the enemy" but instead a competitor whom you respect. Such an effort may surprise you both to how open and honest your conversation can be. Often, owners can exchange viewpoints with each other that might be impossible to get from an employee.
Tip #3: Ask your competitor about their commitment to quality, customer satisfaction, and accountability. While every contractor can talk the quality talk, ask your competitor what they have done internally to accomplish such results. Share your own struggles to improve your organizations approach to quality, the customer, and accountability. If you do not get an aggressive response initially, don't fret, it may take your competitor a little while to realize that they can trust you.
Tip #4: Inquire from your competitor whether they would be interested in fulfilling some of your work under your company's name. You should only broach this tip when you have established a relationship with your competitor that is based on trust and understanding. Keep in mind, many contractors are not especially gifted in marketing or selling. Such a contractor could be a perfect match for you if you are strong in such areas.
Building alliances with competitors can be good business for a fast growing business. Such relationships can strengthen your strategies for growth while also meeting your customer's needs. However, several items need to be understood between you and your competitor if a strong alliance is to exist.
First, it is important that your competitor realizes that it is your company's name that is on the line. While they may have equipment with their company name stenciled on it, their workers must realize that it is your company's reputation that will be on the line.
Second, there must be a commitment made by your competitor not to solicit additional work behind your back. Likewise, you must be committed to not talk negatively about your competitor to a customer. Admittedly this issue will be difficult to monitor. However, this is where an alliance must prove itself if any forward movement between the two companies is going to exist.
Third, you must be crystal clear about instructions and requirements that will be met in order to fulfill the job. You must personally take full responsibility to ensure that every piece of information about the job is made clear with your competitor and that their workers fully understand the job needs. You may need to spend extra time monitoring the first few jobs with your competitor until both parties reach a comfort level with each other.
Finally, both parties must realize that even with great communication problems and mistakes may still be made. As tempting as it may be to hold payment for the completion of a job over the competitor's head, this tactic will not build positive and trusting relationships. You must realize the cost of involving others, realizing that your own crews can cost you money in rework.
Approached carefully and thoroughly, building alliances can be a positive experience for you and your competitors. Such relationships can often lead to you taking on even greater amounts and diversity of work than you could normally handle. As you prepare to grow your business, take a personal inventory of your firm's strengths and weaknesses. When you consider your future growth don't overlook your competition, they just might be an answer to improving some weak area within your company that could strengthen your market presence.
Brad Humphrey and Bob Dusin are partners at Gangbox Incorporated, a training and consulting company that targets the construction industry. They work with all aspects of the construction business - job planning, job costing, sales and leadership development. For more information about Gangbox Incorporated go to http://www.gangboxinc.com.
The High Cost of Poor Hiring
Recruiting Candidates
Traditionally, many contractors use some or all of the following techniques to finding good workers.
- Place description in the "want ads" of local newspaper.
- Post job-opening notice on boards at grocery stores, retail stores, post office, etc.
- Place a job opening sign in the window of company building.
- Alert local job placement agencies of employee need.
- Involve current workers to refer other potential employees to you.
Depending on the position in need any of the above techniques might be adequate. However, if you are not locating enough good candidates then consider a few creative alternatives.
- Post your job position needs on the internet. This is a less expensive effort and a surprising number of bright applicants may find your posting.
- Offer a "signing bonus." Money talks and people who may be on the fence in a current job might seriously consider your organization if there were an incentive.
- Contact local schools. Get to know the local high school "shop" teachers and career professionals in vocational schools, and colleges or universities with construction management degree programs.
- Contact local manufacturing and service organizations. Contact the firm's human resource manager to find out about any soon to be retiring employees.
- Create your own "job fair." Hold the job fair on a Saturday morning or late Saturday afternoon to draw the employed but interested candidates. You'll need to follow-up quickly to secure the serious candidates.
Screening Candidates
If your recruiting efforts produce candidates you will then begin to pursue separating the "chaff from the wheat." The screening process begins when you first lay out what you want in the position you are hiring for resulting in a job description that outlines the actual work roles, skills and responsibilities.
Once you have formalized your screening needs and requirements you then must learn how to read "through the lines" of applications and resumes. There are a number of red flags of caution that you should raise when you see the following items on an application or resume.
- Missing dates of employment.
- Inconsistent dates of employment.
- Overlapping dates of employment.
- Past salary/hourly rate that is higher than expected.
- Job titles that are bigger sounding than what job really required.
- Lack of consistency in any one industry; hopping around from one industry to another.
- Little growth within job career.
Your job is to sniff out such concerns and to confirm the existence of what is right, accurate, and can be confirmed when you check references. You should then develop questions or "proof statements" that address any concern from the application or resume that you will use on your interview.
Screening a candidate's application and/or resume is an important step that should be followed by screening the candidate over the telephone. You can save yourself a lot of wasted time interviewing in person by first calling the candidate.
When you speak to the candidate on the telephone, ask questions that concern you from the application or resume. If the application/resume looks to be in good order, ask the candidate why they want the job and what proof they have that reaffirms them as the best candidate.
Listen to their response to detect if they are stumbling, timid, or confident. Interviewing a candidate first by telephone can often help you focus more on what is said rather than on their appearance. Getting a picture in your mind of the candidate based on their verbal responses may allow you to focus more on their skills and experience.
Candidate Interviews
Avoid making hiring decisions based on one interview alone. No matter how busy your building year is, don't hire the first "warm body" that applies. This is where many contractors lose their shirts on making poor hiring decisions. Here is a simple three-step interview process that you can use immediately.
Step 1: Review application and resume and call candidate on telephone to conduct first interview focusing on basic information from application and/or resume.
Step 2: Select candidates from Step 1 and schedule interview in person with you and others focusing on what they can do and the skills they possess.
Step 3: Select best candidate from Step 2 and bring in for second live interview focusing on what you do and why they believe they are capable of doing the job. Use their past job situations to prove that they are the best candidate.
There are simply no secrets or shortcuts to screening in the best candidate. Having a strategy in place and utilizing the best questions is important to screening in the best candidate. Let's now look at some actual questions to use when interviewing candidates.
As we shared earlier, the first interview can be conducted over the telephone. Consider the following questions and proof statements for the first interview.
Step 1 Questions & Proof Statements
- I notice that you have had several jobs in the past 3-5 years. Can you explain why you have changed jobs so often?
- This job requires a commercial license. Do you have yours? Is there anything that would prevent you from securing your commercial license?
- Do you have any problems being at work, if you are hired, on-time and to work the hours this job will require?
- I will need at least two work references. Do you have two individuals that I can call to discuss what type of worker you are?
- Briefly explain to me why you want this job and what I should expect from your work performance.
- Part of this job will require you to make cost decisions. Tell me of your experience in making such decisions.
The second interview should be conducted at your place of work or a location that is free from distractions. The purpose of the second interview is to dig a little deeper at the skills and experience of the candidate. Use the following items on the second interview.
Step 2 Questions & Proof Statements
- List for me the skills you possess and that I would observe when you are at work. Now, for each skill you listed, tell me how often you used each skill.
- What are your top three to four developed skills? How did you acquire the skills and how effective are you at the skill?
- Teamwork is very important at our organization. Tell me how you fit in as a team player at your last job.
- It can get pretty heated during the day with guys getting mad at each other. Tell me about the time you got the most upset with other workers and how you handled your anger.
The final interview should be to take any loose ends in the previous two interviews and bring greater clarity or closure. It is a good time to call any job references that they have given you prior to this third interview. The feedback received may invite you to follow-up with the candidate about an area that has not been discussed. Your job is to determine whether they are the best matched for the job.
Step 3 Questions & Proof Statements
- Lay out for me how you performed your last job. Take me through how you organized your workday.
- One of your references shared with me that you did a good job of thinking ahead before completing a difficult or complex job. Tell me about the toughest job you had to complete and how you figured it out.
- Why should I hire you? Tell me what I will get in you. Give me both the good and the bad.
- What improvements did you make in your last job? Did any of the improvements save your last boss money or wasted time? Explain to me what you did and how it saves money or time.
The advantage of three interviews is that you have time to detect if anything changes in the candidate's attitude and responses. A multiple interview process sends the signal that you are very careful about whom you hire.
The Final Hiring Decision
After all the interviewing it still comes down to making a decision. For some contractors fortunate enough to have more than one solid candidate, the dilemma of choosing the right candidate can be nerve racking.
Before making the final hiring decision, consider the following items.
- The candidate selected should possess the minimum skill requirements for the job.
- The candidate should reflect the type of attitude you want and will accept in the job.
- The candidate's personality should match the needs of the job.
- The candidate should have a proven track record for learning and improving.
The first consideration listed above should be no problem. Of course you want a minimum level of skills to already be possessed by the candidate, even for beginning level general laborers.
Can you make a hiring decision based on the attitude that a candidate displays or lacks? Yes! If the candidate comes across to you as obnoxious, a "know it all," or apathetic, these are all reasons that may prevent you from hiring the candidate. Work to find out what kind of attitude the candidate has displayed at other jobs.
The third consideration listed earlier addresses the personality of the candidate. While you will never find the perfect personality match, it is possible to align candidates with the personality considerations in a job. Understanding what personality traits would be best in a job can enable you to better match the right candidate with the right job.
Assuming that your company and industry are constantly changing it is important to hire people who have some desire to learn new skills and acquire greater knowledge. Ask the candidate what they have learned to date and what more they need to learn if they are going to stay in the industry.
Do not allow the lack of available good candidates tempt you to lower your expectations and standards. There is nothing worse than hiring the wrong candidate too early rather than patiently seeking the better candidate.
Hiring would be a lot easier and a lot less costly if we could read the minds of candidates or look into the future to determine if a candidate was going to work out. Unfortunately most of us do not possess such skills or talents. Yet utilizing some of the considerations addressed in this article can help you to make better hiring decisions.
Brad Humphrey and Bob Dusin are partners at Gangbox Incorporated, a training and consulting company that targets the construction industry. They work with all aspects of the construction business - job planning, job costing, sales and leadership development. For more information about Gangbox Incorporated go to http://www.gangboxinc.com.
Effective Crew Management
Leadership is critical to construction, including concrete focused businesses. We need leaders who can motivate, inspire, direct, and coach today's workers. However, just as critical to the overall success of any work crew is the need for the crew to be organized, disciplined, quality based, and timely in their work efforts.
This latter description of efforts falls under the umbrella called managing or management. It is the act of fulfilling the duties necessary to empower or enable the workforce to be at the job site on time, to have all their tools and equipment and to ensure that their materials arrive just in time. Therefore, let's look at a few critical components of effectively managing a crew toward more profitable results.
#1 Management of Direction
There are several components to management that we could begin with but let's look at the need to understand the needed direction of a project that a crew must follow. Direction represents both where the schedule is leading us to accomplish as well as what direction the work crew is heading. The schedule is simple enough but should be clearly understood by the manager (I.e. Superintendent, Project Manager, Supervisor, or Foreman) to understand the length of time involved for the upcoming project or projects. Likewise, the manager needs to fully understand the direction of their work crew. This suggests that the manager understand what their latest performance efforts have produced and are they prepared/capable of taking on the upcoming schedule of work.
#2 Management of Time
Time management is of prime concern to any manager. Time management forces a manager to consider how to best utilize the clock so that vital work efforts are scheduled, complied with, or completed. It requires the manager to work to have the crews prepared with the needed resources to complete the needed work. Job files are clear to read and have the most recent and accurate of information. Tools and equipment are also prepared for working conditions and placed in the appropriate holding spaces to prevent any wasted time looking for either equipment and tools or equipment and tools that work.
#3 Management of Resources
We just referred to working to ensure that needed tools and equipment are ready for our work crews but it is the management of those items that requires the manager to be on his or her toes. This effort therefore requires that the manager develop and manage an inventory management system to guarantee that needed tools and equipment is always available. Then, a preventive maintenance program should be installed that the manager can support that will guarantee that the available tools and equipment are in working order every time the crews need to use the items. Many construction companies fail in the management of their resources and thus spend thousands of dollars a year in crisis management "fix-ups" or wasted time looking for available substitutes from leasing companies or friendly competitors who will give them a "loaner."
#4 Management of Finances
Perhaps the lease effective managing that is completed by construction leaders is the management of their project finances. Managing finances requires that a manager understands what the budget for the job or project is; that is, what the estimated costs and expenses are for labor, equipment, tools, and materials. Managing your finances requires that you know what your labor rate is for your working crews. In other words, how many square feet of formwork can they build in an hour as a crew? Or, how many cubic yards of concrete can your crew pour and finish in an hour? If your work crews are producing at a slower rate of production than was used for the estimate you will find it difficult to make money. Likewise, if your crews are producing at a faster rate than was used for the estimate, then you should see greater profits from the production effort, barring any problems with quality or safety.
#5 Management of Quality
All construction companies say that they do quality work but few actually manage the process to achieve quality. Effective management of quality requires that the manager recognizes any existing work processes or procedures that were developed to produce good results the first time. This is very critical for construction companies as doing things right the first time guarantees a higher profit margin on work produced. Therefore, the manager should be diligent about making sure that the crews are organized and have everything that they need before leaving the yard each morning, that they are following proper site work preparation, work flow, and safety processes while at the job site and, that they are staging the job and their vehicles at the end of the day for what they will need to do when they begin early the next day. The manager's time spent here will often produce quantifiable results on the very next job.
#6 Management of Coordinating Schedules
Most construction companies recognize that there are several specialty sub-contractors at work at the same time and at the same spot on the job site at any given time. Therefore, the wise manager builds this into their knowledge and looks to coordinate their own work crew's schedules with those other crews who will be at the job site. Too many crews have been prevented from working on a given day only because their manager failed to contact other managers to confirm arrival, starting, or completion times. Such an oversight can cost a work crew precious time completing their own work and prevent them from achieving the profitable performance results they were hoping to realize.
Certainly the six management components listed in this article should help broaden the scope of any construction superintendent, foreman, project manager, project engineer, or supervisor. Again, let me stress, moving our construction bosses to be leaders is critical also. I should know as I have written about or provided leadership based training and education to thousands of construction leaders over the past twenty years. However, I still find that many of these same leaders are horrible when it comes time to really planning out their work crews day, week, and month. Just because a leader is gifted with inspiring others to do the hard things in construction doesn't necessarily mean that they are fully capable of putting a job file or schedule into their workers hands and have their crew members understand what they are scheduled to complete.
Brad Humphrey and Bob Dusin are partners at Gangbox Incorporated, a training and consulting company that targets the construction industry. They work with all aspects of the construction business - job planning, job costing, sales and leadership development. For more information about Gangbox Incorporated go to http://www.gangboxinc.com.