The success of a construction company depends on the skill level of each team member and the coordination of their individual efforts toward a common goal. Most contractors realize this but may not be aware of the prerequisites required to accomplish this level of functional organization.
Leader
If a construction company is a team of experts that provide professional construction services to its clients, the CEO is the leader of this team. However, after a construction company grows beyond the founder’s ability to show up on the job site daily and participate in the work, the role as founder and “boss” begins to change.
- As multiple jobs are added, the boss’s ability to directly supervise operations begins to diminish. It’s time to hire an assistant “boss” who can be on the job site every day to supervise operations. The functional position of construction supervisor is born.
- With multiple jobs underway, the fundamental financial transactions become too complex and volatile for the founder to look after. The founder needs to hire a competent bookkeeper to pay the bills, administer the payroll, and look after collections to keep the cash flow positive.
- When the financial transactions begin to approach millions of dollars, the founder must hire a more professional financial manager to keep the wheels turning and the wolf from the door. At tens of millions, it’s time to hire a Chief Financial Officer.
- As projects get bigger and require multiple supervisors on the job sites, someone needs to coordinate all their efforts and integrate the financial function into the daily plan. That means it’s time to hire a project manager.
Often without realizing it, the job of founder and owner of a construction company gradually begins to evolve away from daily operations toward putting a team in place to handle daily operations. The founder’s essential role as a team builder begins to emerge.
Team Builder
The time it takes for construction company founders and owners to make the transition from owner/operator to team builder is crucial to the success of a growing construction company. The willingness to delegate responsibility to functional experts is the first sign of a maturing business executive. The impulse to hold on to the reins misunderstands the nature of a construction company, and how the organization needs to execute its proper function in the marketplace. Every company I worked with in the completion business I operated for sureties was hampered by an owner who would not let go. They tried to do everything themselves and neglected the essential work of building the team that would become their successful company.
Management Maturity
Again, a construction company is a team of functional professionals that provide expert construction services to private developers and government agencies. A construction company is not an entity that just anyone can own, but rather a living, breathing team of professionals that a leader organizes into a team to achieve a common goal.
When it comes to founders and owners of construction companies, management maturity means that they no longer cling to running the day-to-day business but rather turn to building a functional team of experts to run it for them.
Effective team building, whether it be a football team or a construction company, is broken down into four distinct leadership functions:
- Recruiting
- Training
- Motivating
- Retaining
Each of these activities is distinct and indispensable for putting together the team that becomes the essence of every successful construction company.
Recruiting
- Immature managers recruit new team members by looking close at hand for someone they know and trust.
- Mature managers search far and wide for potential team members who are reputed to be expert at the function they are being hired to fulfill.
Training
- Immature managers point new recruits at the task they will be handling and hope that they will get more expert at the task as they go along.
- Mature managers hire the most functional expert candidate they can find and trains the newly hired expert in exactly the way this company achieves its ends.
Motivating
- Immature managers solely use money (in one form or another) to motivate team members.
- Mature managers trouble themselves to learn exactly what effectively motivates each newly hired expert.
Retaining
- Immature managers do not recognize either emotional or intellectual growth in their key employees. They limit ongoing motivation and retention to “competitive” pay increases and occasional “at-a-boy” gestures.
- Mature managers recognize that motivation evolves all along the way, so they constantly stay in close emotional touch with all key employees, careful to always nurture both internal and external growth.
Finally
As construction companies grow into large, highly complex business organizations, success is determined by the personal growth of the founder from a “hands-on” boss to an inspirational leader. Absent this transition, too many budding construction companies fail.
For more information on management maturity read more at: MATURITY
For a broader view of team building, read more at: TEAM
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Please circulate this widely. It will benefit your constituents. This research is continuous and includes new information weekly as it becomes available. Thank you.
