Have you ever lost money on a project and thought it was primarily caused by your team’s lack of performance?
Do you ever feel like it’s hard to get your team to produce consistent results?
You know that when you’re building a house, you start with a solid foundation. You can’t build the first floor without a solid concrete slab in place.
And yet, many business owners get tripped up in the pitfalls that come from not having a solid foundation in place with their teams.
In today’s video, Randall Soules, David Hawke, and I talk about building solid foundations with teams that produce consistent profits. This episode was originally aired on their Remodeling Business Blueprint Podcast.
When you watch, you’ll discover a few things you can do to start making more profits on projects and get more consistent results from your team. You’ll also find out how to become the kind of company people are begging to work for, even in today’s competitive job market.
I’ve seen the same scenario with business after business. The owner started as a company of one. They were in control. As they grow, they hire people, but they stay in the mindset of wanting to always be in control, which leads to them treating their people like helpers.
Then one day, the owner looks around and his whole day is spent managing headaches. It takes staff longer to get tasks done than it would have taken the owner. Costs quickly get out of control. Managing staff is not his background, and not how he wants to spend his time.
Sound familiar? It doesn’t have to be that way.
Here are a few things you can do to build teams that produce consistent profits on projects and let you get out of the role of micro-manger:
- Have clearly defined results for every position in your company. Think of it this way… You would never start a project without a signed contract, right? It would make it much harder to resolve issues that come up. And yet, that’s what happens with employees at most companies. They have a job title (which can mean different things from company to company) and a job description which is often just a list of tasks and nothing that defines clear accountability.
You have to start by coming to an agreement on what it takes to succeed in the job. Having well written position agreements is one part of the solid foundation that you’re building within your business.
Instead of tasks like “meeting with clients,” if you define results specifically in position agreements, as in “review project schedule with the clients every week,” team members can self-manage in ways that have them take more ownership for key results that are critical to the success of that job, not just the task. Here is an outline for writing position agreements that can help you out.
- Put systems and processes in place to manage for results. Once you have position agreements with results rather than tasks in place, create an ironclad process where you sit down with team members to make sure they are producing the results they are responsible for.
As an example, you meet with project managers weekly to look at cost to complete, project schedules, and 2-week look aheads. These are all tools that have them thinking ahead on their projects and planning. This is going to make them more proactive and effective at controlling costs which is going to translate to increased profits. In my book, The Profit Bleed, I share a number of systems and processes that will help increase project profitability.
In summary, the key to building teams that produce consistent profits, is setting up staff to take ownership for results, not tasks. And in the process, implementing systems and processes that support their ability to do that. Staff members then shift to being more like partners rather than helpers, and your business runs more smoothly.
These systems and processes make hiring great employees easier too. In a time when it’s hard to find good people, you can have people lining up to work for your company if you create a culture where great people want to work. A-players want a workplace where they:
- Get consistent feedback
- Take pride in their work
- Know what to expect from management
In the construction and remodeling industry, people talk. It doesn’t take long for word to get around that you’ve built a company that not only provides competitive pay and benefits, but also encourages ownership. That’s attractive to A-players!
If you want to make a consistent profit, spend less time in your business, and get back to loving what you do, the primary place to focus is building a great team made up of people who own their work. That starts with having systems and processes that hold staff accountable for producing consistent results.