High-Performing Contractor - NEWSLETTER June 2007

**************** Leadership – 15 Ways to Lead Your Company - Down the Tubes.

These are proven techniques for successfully sinking your company. Are you using them?
1. Keep everyone in an adversarial position.
2. Rank each person, job and department against each other.
3. Treat all suppliers as enemies.
4. Have project managers pitted against each other for resources and funding.
5. Encourage each work unit to do its best for itself and not care about its impact on others.
6. Think of all customers as stupid and a pain in the neck.
7. Talk company values and vision but do not live them as a leader.
8. When something goes wrong, encourage work units to blame others and protect themselves.
9. Reward employees who circumvent company processes and rules and are not team players.
10. View safety as a contract specification.
11. Have each function or work unit pass work, information and services ‘over the wall’ and not be concerned with the next guy.
12. Never tell your employees what is planned or how the company is performing.
13. View training as a cost avoidance plague.
14. Assume all employees check their brains at the front gate and are out to rob you blind.
15. Take lots of vacations and golf outings but complain if your employees ever need a day off.

What are you doing to make your company a high-performing contractor?

**************** Employee Focus - Do you have carrots with strings attached?
When Adrian Gostick & Chester Elton researched management behaviors and feelings of 200,000 workers, they found “a startling increase in team performance for managers who recognize versus those who don't. But what is most interesting is the vastly superior performance of managers who offer recognition with no strings attached versus those managers who give recognition to their employees with an expectation of something in return, such as future performance.

Instead of approaching recognition as an expression of pure gratitude for furthering the team's goals, the study shows that a lot of managers who do recognize their employees. think of recognition as a loan -- to be repaid by employees with interest. Sure, they hand out awards, but expect, for example, that the employee will work the next weekend when asked. As one busy manager said, "I want that person to work hard for me when I ask them the next time."

While employees of these leaders say that some recognition (even of the coercive variety) is better than none at all, most see through such gestures. Joked one man, "Recognition from my boss reminds me of Homer Simpson giving Marge (his wife) a bowling ball for her birthday. Homer says, 'It's for you,' but really it's for him."

The researchers call these leaders ‘the Don Corleones of management.’

In the movie The Godfather movie, when “Don Corleone grants a wish there is always an expectation of performance in return. In one scene, the Godfather whispers that one day - without warning - he will ask for a favor in return for the gift he has granted. Refuse him, and you may end up with a horse head in your bed.”

Managers who recognize in their employee the right way, reward “people not to manipulate them but to show genuine appreciation for performing tasks that are valuable to the team or organization and that help employees achieve their own personal goals. Such leaders see their people as just that, people. They understand what motivates each individual who works for them.

Not by coincidence, managers focused on giving recognition for the right reasons are also shown to recognize more often and are more prompt in celebrating great behavior, and that makes their efforts vastly more authentic with employees and much more successful in spurring greater achievement.”

Some key points about the carrot principle for improving performance are:
· Everyone likes to be recognized for doing a good job.
· Sincere recognition drives improved performance and employee loyalty.
· Recognition does not have to cost money, sometimes a simple’ thank you’ or a letter to one’s spouse can do wonders.
· Recognize employees in ways that are meaningful to them with no expectation of favors later.

Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton wrote the book The Carrot Principle. For more information about the power of the Carrot Principle, visit http://www.carrots.com/

***************** Process Management - Error Proofing
Productivity e-news carried this short article on error proofing, using an example of a mistake a contractor made at a plant in Canada:

“According to a recent news report from Reuters, a worker at Nova Chemicals Corp. in Corunna, Ontario, accidentally tripped a switch that shut down the factory’s entire manufacturing process, halting production and forcing two weeks of repairs.

The 1,000-employee plant is one of Canada’s largest plastics facilities, capable of supplying up to 40 percent of the country’s primary petrochemical market.

As a result of the incident, Nova says it will be unable to fulfill contracts for shipments of propylene and some other products, with delays extending through two quarters. Company officials estimate this will reduce profits by $11 million.

Oops.

The switch in question exists so that anyone seeing a serious problem can shut down production. It was triggered by a contractor’s employee installing a structural steel platform. WHY he hit the switch is not yet clear, and Nova is conducting an investigation.

Let’s assume for the moment this worker did not press the button simply for the fun of it. At least for now, let’s say he meant to do something else and hit the wrong switch.

Maybe he was careless. Maybe he wasn’t paying as much attention as he should have. But I also have to believe that the switch wasn’t marked as clearly as it might have been, and perhaps was too easily accessible.

The best way to solve problems is to prevent them from occurring in the first place. Perhaps this story can serve as a wake-up call for those companies that have not made mistake-proofing a priority. Otherwise, we’re likely to see more stories about $11-million-dollar mistake.”

There are many opportunities to error proof our work in construction. Why don’t we do it more often? Because we are always too busy to take the time! Why is there never time to do things right the first time, but always time to do them over when broken? In this case, which way costs the contractor more?

**************** Training you don’t want to miss
You may be interested in attending one of these training seminars taught by Dennis Sowards.
June 20, 2007 - Lean Works in Construction – Kansas City, MO –Sponsor: SMACNA- KC – Contact Sang 816-421-3360 ext. 112 for SMACNA members only.
Sept. 27, 2007 – Lean is not a Fad Diet – it works in construction too! – Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy at pipetrust@qwest.net
Oct. 25, 2007 – Job Planning the Really Works - Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy at pipetrust@qwest.net

**************** Thought for the day
Substitute the words, “I’m sorry,” with the words, “Thank you!” When people yell at you, or blame you, don’t blame someone else or say, “I’m sorry,” or grovel. Just say, “Thank you!”

If you say, “Thank you, I appreciate you bringing this to my attention. Now that I know about it, I can fix it right away,” your words clearly state an implied apology, a desire to take action, and a ton of self- confidence. You are expressing your attitude in the form of positive action.

“I’m sorry” is a state of being. If you state it enough, you become it. If you want to make amends, just say, “I apologize.” But an apology does not indicate action. “Thank you” indicates acceptance, and the words that follow indicate you’re willing to do something about it.

Source: The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude by Jeff Gitomer