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?  




Key Drivers of Value
Valuation is a very critical factor during ownership transitions because it has to be a number that fairly represents the value of the business for the outgoing owners while providing a solid return for the buyers.
Michael Jordan and Failure
When it comes to our personal learning and coaching others, it is critical to stay in the “Learning Zone” as much as possible. Maximum benefit comes from pushing the outer limits of the learning zone into the panic zone where you will fail.
Foreman - Four Sometimes Competing Responsibilities
No other position in the construction industry has a bigger impact on field productivity than the Foreman who is leading the crew on front-line. There are four major responsibilities the foreman has that often seem to be competing with each other: