High-Performing Contractor - NEWSLETTER June 08

High-Performing Contractor - NEWSLETTER

June, 2008

This e-newsletter is dedicated to supporting High-Performing Contractors and all contractors working to become one. Edited by Dennis Sowards

Leadership

George Hedley is a contractor with some great thoughts on Leadership:



“Think of great companies, large and small. Excellent companies are lead by a leader who takes and makes time to be the leader instead of a doer. He or she is the seller of the vision and what the company offers to its' employees and customers. Examples of this leadership style are evident at Microsoft, Dell or GE. When you get your company organized, systemized and making a profit, it's a lot of fun to be the owner. You work on exciting things, new opportunities and what really makes a difference. When you spend time doing all the work instead of leading, your company remains stuck at a level based on how much work you can do and control.



“Do you see yourself as a leader? When you hear the word 'leader' do you think of a political leader, business leader, financial leader or yourself? Most small business owners and managers think of themselves as hard workers instead of leaders. Leadership has nothing to do with working hard or whether you own a company. Leadership is the indicator of your ability to get people to want to follow you. Leaders get results through people who achieve bottom-line targets. When asked, most business owners think they're a great leader. But most employees say their boss is not an excellent leader.



“Where do you spend your time? Business owners have a tough job managing customers and working with people to get the results they want. But until they step up to leadership, they won't realize the full potential of their people or company. Most business owners spend far too much time doing the wrong things well. They're great at doing work tasks. This causes them to focus on doing what they're comfortable with instead of doing what makes the most money or produces the highest return.



“I believe successful business owners who have moved from the manager role into a leadership role spend only 25% of their time doing work and the other 75% with customers, seeking better business, looking for opportunities and leading people to become the best they can be.



“The Buck Stops Here! As the leader you are 100% responsible for everything - sales, profits, growth, quality, customer service, how organized your company is, people, and management. Your results are the indicator of your leadership. Leaders make the necessary leadership decisions to get results they want. Leaders have the courage to change themselves first when things aren't on target. They're on a mission, try new ideas, change their behavior, change markets, do things different, innovate, try new methods and go against the grain when necessary.



“Over 90% of employees rate their company leadership below excellent. Only the top 10% are effective leaders who look for new ways to improve, motivate people, find new customers and seek new business opportunities. The common denominator to achieve business success is PEOPLE - influencing, motivating, managing, giving them a vision, getting them committed and getting them to achieve what you want. Their output equals your input. Leaders realize they get what they expect. When leaders control or talk down to employees, they're held down and not allowed to be or do their best. Most people perform below their ability because leadership needs to improve.



“When leaders treat employees as responsible and accountable adults they respond in a positive manner and take charge. When managers do their worker's job for them or don't trust them to make decisions, people don't become the best they can be. The problem is not your people, it's your leadership. When you have people problems, it's a reflection of leadership effectiveness. People don't want to follow the boss. They want to follow the leader. Leaders put people first. They listen, inspire, motivate, care, teach, coach, train, encourage, help, and respect others. Rather than focusing on day to day activities, leaders set the vision, set goals, track targets and then get their people to follow.



“Leaders are focused!



“Today's business leaders are very focused. They have a vision of what they want their company to become and don't let it get out of sight.



“To make their vision become a reality, they spend their time on three priorities:

- RESULTS

- CUSTOMERS

- PEOPLE



“Effective leaders have a motivating and inspiring vision that motivates their people to make big results happen. They set big targets. They focus on their customers. And make people a top priority. This gets their people to perform at levels they don't think possible and achieve great results. What's Your Vision? Leaders stand up and say: "Here's where we're going, and here's how we'll make it happen." Leaders have a vision people get excited about, instead of the standard: "Work hard and we'll see how it comes out; and if we do well, maybe we'll give you a raise." People get tired of repeating the same tasks over and over again without any excitement or passion from leadership - like digging a long ditch. And, when they're done, they just get another ditch to dig. This doesn't make people excited about coming to work and making a difference. People want to follow someone on a mission. This gets them excited about doing a better job. Are you a motivator or de-motivator? Leaders start with an exciting vision and then connect it to specific results they want. Some companies have a vision to be the best company, the best contractor, the best service provider, or provide the best quality. While those are O.K. visions, they're not exciting. Examples of exciting visions: 'We are recognized as the leader in customer service!' or 'We are the best at building difficult technical projects!' or 'We finish jobs faster than any competitor!' or 'We offer value-added services to help customers make more profit!'



“After defining your exciting vision, specific results must be targeted and quantified. For example, if your vision is to be the best service provider, determine what specific measurable results would enhance your bottom-line. Some examples of targets include: a referral from every customer, only five percent callbacks, no installation errors or 98% on-time completion. What specific targets and numbers can you shoot for to realize your vision get results you want? Without specific clear targets, your people really don't know what 'try to do quality work' or 'be the best' really means. Ask your employees: "What's our company vision? What specific results are we trying to accomplish? What are our top three priorities?" I'll bet you'll get 37 different answers! To hit the results you want, you must get everyone on the same page. Leading and getting the results starts with communicating your vision with specific target you expect.



“Once you decide to step up to leadership, get out of your 'do' role and let go to grow, you'll find business becomes fun. You have time to seek better business opportunities, spend time with other visionary business owners and look for ways to expand your bottom-line. Make it your priority to spend at least twenty-five hours every week focused on activities that will grow your business, improve your people, enhance your management team, build customer relationships, or take your company to the next level.“



Source: Hardhat Hedlines by George Hedley, Oct. 1, 2007.

Customer Focused

“If you’re the company or the employee on the receiving end of the call or complaint, here’s your to do list:

1. Be more friendly. It costs no extra money to be friendly.
   
2. Be more empathetic. The customer wants to know you care.
   
3. Be more flexible. The customer wants options and choices.
   
4. Be more responsive. We live in an instant world, take me off hold.
   
5. Be more helpful. Make sure you understand my needs.
   
6. Be more truthful. Tell me what is likely to happen.
   
   6.5 If you can’t help me, give me someone who can.

“MAJOR SERVICE CLUES: Don’t tell me you’re doing the best you can -- tell me what you can do, not what you can’t. You see, just because you can’t do it, does not mean I no longer want it or need it. Make me feel like a person, not a number.



“Here are 5.5 big picture things you (or your company) should be doing:

1. Less automation. Have two options: If you want an automated menu, press one. If you want a live person to help you, press two. NO ONE WILL PRESS ONE.

2. Faster response times. Serve everyone in a minute or less.

3. More people to serve customer needs. This may cost you in the short run, but will earn you millions in the long run.

4. Better personal development training. Teach positive attitude before job skills.

5. More realistic answers to real world questions.

5.5 Specific training about the things your customer wants or needs the most.



“I saved my best recommendation for last. I recommend you call the experts that made your business a successful enterprise. You may know them as your customers. And I assure you they hold the key to loyalty, and have all the answers you need.”



Source: Jeffrey Gitomer's Sales Caffeine Issue 331

**************** Process Management

Why don’t we do root cause analysis? To really solve problems it requires getting to the root cause, but too often contractors are jumping to band-aid solutions. This not only requires re-solving the problem but wastes valuable resources doing it again. Why don’t we do root-cause analysis? Here are my top ten reasons we fail in using this important tool. Some I borrowed from Mike Micklewright, a noted quality consultant.



10. If it ain’t broke (much) don’t mess with it. We’ve been doing the same things and dealing with the same problems for over 100 years in construction, why change now.



9. No one else is doing it! If the other contractors aren’t doing it, why should we?



8. “It’s more fun to blame people. For some, there’s no greater thrill than to find out who caused the problem and blame them, even though that person had no control over the situation.”



7. “Top managers don’t want to find out they are to blame.” Dr. Deming claimed that 95% of the root causes are due to common cause variation meaning that change can only come by changing the systems or policies. Only top management can change the systems and policies. To bring about this change top management would have to attend root-cause analysis training along with other supporting functions (i.e. sales, engineering, detailing, estimating). This may even cause Leadership to have to change! Senior management would rather send the workers to training than have to change.



6. “We don’t have time to think long-term right now.” Real solutions must have a long term focus. But contractors usually think we have too many fires to put out to ever ask how the fire got started. There is never time to put in permanent solutions. Contractors usually operate in one of two states of existence. One is too busy getting work and the other is too busy doing the work. No time to solve the work problems.



5. Workers are unable to think and do root cause analysis. Only managers can think and workers must leave their brains in their trucks at the front gate. Managers are too busy to be bothered with root cause analysis and workers can’t be trusted to do it.



4. “Fixing root causes is too expensive.” We can spend less money now to plug the leak and really solve the problem later or hope someone else will have to solve it.



3. Why do root-cause analysis training? Training cost money and time, neither of which we have to spare.



2. We don’t measure things in construction. It’s hard to measure our work (so we tell ourselves.) Besides we can’t be accountable for what isn’t measured. What gets measured gets done and we don’t always get it done.



1. “Getting to root causes would require us to work with other kingdoms.” The root cause may be because we estimated the job wrong, to that detailing missed some parts when doing a material take off. It may mean the supplier did not deliver the full order or that purchasing couldn’t read the foreman’s handwritten material request. In construction we are much better at doing workarounds than addressing the real causes especially when they stem in other departments. We don’t like rocking the boat.



Without getting to the root cause, contractors are doomed to repeat the same mistakes and errors. We must like being insane because we keep doing the same things while hoping for different results. How does your company do root cause analysis?



Source: Root Cause Analysis Sucks by Mike Micklewright, Quality Digest, June 2008.

Learning Opportunities

You may be interested in attending one of these training seminars by Dennis Sowards:

June 2, 2008 – Lean Works in Construction, Oakland, CA – Sponsor: Bay Area SMACNA Chapter – contact Audrey Kerns at (510) 635-8212. Must be a SMACNA member to attend.

Oct 2, 2008 – Lean Works in Construction, Seattle, WA – Sponsor: SMACNA - Western Washington Chapter – contact Joanne Williams at 206 285-4144. Must be a SMACNA member to attend.

Nov 10, 2008 - Gaining Customer Loyalty by Design, Oakland, CA – Sponsor: Bay Area SMACNA Chapter – contact Audrey Kerns at (510) 635-8212. Must be a SMACNA member to attend.

If you are interested in training provided by Dennis Sowards for your chapter or company, contact him directly.

Thought for the day

The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never cross the goal line.

- Anonymous



For more information about the High-Performing Contractor assessment process contact Dennis Sowards at 480-835-1185 or at www.YourQSS.com