Investing for Sustainability - Growth Hurts

“I can’t afford to invest more in talent development or process streamlining because we have a bunch of bad projects.”

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This may come from the different levels - for instance a crafts person who is too focused on individual productivity to train their apprentice.  It may come from the Project Manager who is too overloaded with work to train their Project Engineer.

Leadership Tools: Growth Hurts. How effectively are you investing your dollars?

The only way a contractor can truly grow sustainably is to build a culture that is focused on continuous personal-development and teaching others.  Truly great development hurts - it stretches our brains to grow the same way physical exercise stretches our muscles. Most of your team will resist this level of exertion and insist there is an easier way.  Most of your team will rationalize away performance problems and downplay the need for training.  

The management teams of growing contractors systematically lead their teams through extremely rigorous training building them to dominate tomorrow’s construction environment.


Look at your business and the stage of growth it is in.  

Is your team prepared (or preparing) for the next stage of growth?

What pain are you avoiding today that will be 10X worse in the near future?  




Growth or Attracting Talent
It’s not enough to just build work effectively - that is just what’s required to play in the game. Contractors seeking sustainable growth must have aggressive and balanced strategies for acquiring work and building talent.
General Mattis and Making Speed Part of Your Culture
The concepts of speed, harmony, commander’s intent, and leadership form the bedrock of General Mattis’s philosophy. Make speed your competitive advantage in your career, on your project, and as a contractor.
Big Decisions and the Last Responsible Moment
As your leadership span-of-control grows so does the impact of your decisions. For that reason it’s important to develop a good decision making process for you and your team.