The Profit Builder Unscripted

Construction Team Accountability Systems

• Vicki Suiter • Episode 44

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As a contractor, have you ever delegated something, assumed it was getting done… and then found out it wasn’t?

That happened to me this week—and it led to a powerful reminder about what real delegation and leadership look like.

In this episode of The Profit Builder Unscripted, I share a breakdown I had with my team that turned into a breakthrough in getting OUT of the weeds!

But I still need systems in place that give me feedback—without micromanaging.

Listen in as I share what shifted and how you can create more accountability in your team without being in the middle of everything.

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

The Profit Bleed book 

Resources:

Connect with Vicki on social media:


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Have you ever had the experience that you have delegated something to somebody and you assumed it was getting done, but then only to discover that it wasn't? I had this experience this week, and I learned a powerful lesson, and I remembered something that was super important about how we as leaders delegate and manage others. Hi, I'm Vicki Suiter. Welcome back to the Profit Builder Unscripted, and let's jump in.

This week, I had this great breakdown that happened with my team, and I just wanted to share it with you because I think that this happens for all of us sometimes in our businesses. So the situation was that I have two people on my team, Dortha and Jeannine, and Jeannine is somebody who's new to my team that when she started, I asked her to do this project that she was taking over from somebody else. And when we met yesterday, she started talking about what she discovered in her research and what she found were the stats of what was working and not working about what we were doing. And then I started to ask some questions. And as I was asking questions, what occurred to me was, my, there's these things that this other junior person underneath Dortha should have been doing that clearly they had not been doing. And I was like, huh.

How often does that happen in our businesses that we give somebody something to do and we think it's being done, but it's not being done? And it just got me thinking about, you know, one of the things that I talk about when it comes to our ability to be effective leaders is that we don't just abdicate to other people that we delegate, but we also get feedback that lets us know if that work is getting done, that we have that engagement coming back to us. As we're, as leaders attempting to get out of the middle of the mix of all the decisions or get out of the middle of the mix of micromanaging, our ability to do that means we still need to know that things are done, but not have to be the one in the middle of it, like, you know, asking all these questions or we're having to check on people, right? And one of the things I always say is that you're getting feedback from that person that they are self-evaluating if they got it done. 

Well, first of all, that the criteria of what they need to get done is really clear and agreed on. And second of all, that what they are getting done is that they are verifying, right, they have a system, and that they're sending that feedback to you. So, as an example, this was something that was a series of posts that we do on LinkedIn. And my agg- understanding and agreement was that it's what I found out yesterday, is those have not been getting done. 

And I have been trying to be a good leader manager and not micromanage it and go check to make sure that they were all done. But what it brought up for me is I don't directly manage that person, Dorothy does. And I was thinking about it after our call yesterday and I thought, have I had that conversation with that as somebody who manages somebody else, does she have a system for reporting and knowing if that got done? 

And is that part of her feedback that comes to me? Do I get some kind of a report? Does she get some kind of a report? And we're working out the details of what should that reporting structure look like? It was a great conversation that way yesterday. It brought up a great breakdown.

But I also realized that it created this beautiful opportunity for me to have a conversation with Doratha about what does it mean to lead people? And when you have people on your team without having to micromanage them, how do you know that it got done? We have to have some format of feedback that's coming to you. And so we're working, we're kind of in the process of working that out. But I wanted to share it with you because, you know, this is part of what happens when we start to shift to, I want to get out of the middle of the mix of micromanaging or, you know, checking on people all the time, to I want to be able to know that when I have agreed with somebody that they're going to take on a certain part of the business or certain aspect of their job or a certain result, that I still need to know that it got done without having to run after them, chase after them, to ask all these questions to find out. 

And so... The thing I invite you to look at for you is, do you and does your team have feedback? Your managers, do your managers have feedback to let them know if it's getting done or if it's not getting done? It doesn't have to be some long dissertation of a report. It doesn't have to be that, it can be simply a checklist, that a checklist went through that gets reviewed in the meetings that happen regularly with that person of, yeah, I can see that they did all those, in my case, it would have been they did all those posts to LinkedIn as they should have. The other thing that was interesting in this conversation yesterday is I realized that the tools that we were using were very outdated, which just added a layer of complexity to that ability to be able to report back. you know, it's kind of interesting when we reveal these things, that breakdown just created this beautiful opportunity for us, for A, for me to have a coaching conversation about what does it mean to lead people and manage by results. And then B, for us to look at our systems and go, does the system work? Because that was the other thing that really, that showed up was we've been using this antiquated system for like, you know, since 2018. 

And I'm like, wow, like, a lot in technology has changed since then. We could have been doing a better job, but we weren't asking that question. You know, once in a while, it's just, first of all, it's always a good idea as leaders and managers that we have information coming to us to let us know that things are getting done. It cuts way down on the anxiety level. And then B, to occasionally look up and go, hey, is what we're doing is a system that we're using.

Is it the most efficient way and efficient system that we can use? So that's my learning for the week that I wanted to share with you. I do want to share one other thing with you about something that I've been playing with for the last two weeks, is, well, it's actually been two months, but this whole thing around creating systems and procedures and processes.

I'm kind of a systems nerd by nature and I've created lots of tools and templates and resources over the years that have really helped contractors a lot in terms of managing their contracting business. And by the way, if you're interested in any of those, if you get my book, The Profit Bleed, How Managing Margins Can Save Your Contracting Business, included in there are links to all types of free tools and resources and spreadsheets and checklists that can really help you in implementing processes and procedures in every area of your contracting business. 

But the other cool thing that I have discovered is I've started putting requests into ChatGPT, where I'll give it a bunch of information about the company, the size, the specialty, what their specific issue is, what they're looking for. And I've come up with some really great solutions for like job handoff process or you know, daily field reports and some other really great things. And sometimes you kind of have to tweak it a little bit, but I encourage you to, if you're looking to implement, you know, improve the systems and processes that you have in your business, make sure to check out ChatGPT can be a great resource. 

All right. That's it for me for today. Thank you for being part of the community. If you're interested in the book, there's a link below to the book. You can order it on Amazon.

called The Profit Bleed, How Managing Margins Can Save Your Contracting Business. Lots of free tools and resources included as links within the book itself. And we'll see you next time on The Profit Builder Unscripted.


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Vicki Suiter

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