The Profit Builder Unscripted

The One Question Behind Every Task

• Vicki Suiter • Episode 60

Share episode

Let us know what you think? Send me a note!

When we tell people what to do but skip the why, good practices feel like busywork.

That’s when consistency slips and results suffer.

This episode reconnects work to purpose so your team sees the value—and brings ownership, creativity, and follow-through. We use job cost reports as a live example: move beyond data-for-data’s-sake to decisions that protect schedule, budget, and change orders.

You’ll take away:

  • The one question that gives any task meaning
  • A quick way to explain the “why” so your team buys in
  • How to turn routine practices into real results

Press play and turn compliance into ownership.

Resources:

Connect with Vicki on social media:


If you love listening to this podcast, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts.


If you've ever struggled to get something to have meaning and purpose with your team as it does for you, like you there's something that you know is important to do, but your team doesn't quite understand or doesn't see the value in it as much as you do, then you really want to listen to today's session because I'm going to talk about.

What I am seeing is the reason behind that and what we can do as leaders in order to shift that in our businesses and even for ourselves. Hi, I'm Vicki Suiter. Welcome back to The Profit Builder Unscripted.

Do you have any of those things in your life that you do because, you've done them for a really long time and you know that you should do them and that maybe things that you do that you find beneficial, but you don't necessarily remember why you started it or what kind of like the fundamental purpose of it is? I had that experience this week where I have this practice that I do every day. I do breath work every day.

And it's always an amazing experience. But I realized as I started to do a little bit more studying that there were more things that I could be bringing to the process or understanding how the process works that could really enrich my experience and actually have me be more intentional about how I came into that practice.

I was thinking, I was reflecting on it because I've noticed that it's really made a difference in terms of the quality of that practice that I have. And it got me thinking about the practices that we have in our business and things that we do as business in business, just in general, as business leaders and with our team, like things that we do that we know are good things or correct things to do or the right things to do and that they're valuable. 

But I also got to thinking about, we forget sometimes why we, like what the purpose of it is and what the opportunity is as we do those things to have the thinking that helps us be clear about and then confident in the process to get the most value out of it. like a couple of examples that came to mind was doing things like looking at job cost reports, right? Like, you know that it's valuable, that you know that it's useful, but have you really looked at and stopped and asked the question or even had this conversation with people on your team, right? That you're asking them to do it. What's the purpose of it? And what is it that we're really looking for? And what's the intent behind it? And how do we maximize on the value of looking at job cost report, right? So I think about job cost reports and I think, well, there is the goal of being able to see like hours, let's say, right?

I look at the number of hours that I've burned on a job compared to what I budgeted, and that helps tell me something about how many hours I have left for any particular phase or task of work. Now that's sort of the data part of it, but why is it important? Right? Like, why do we do that? Well, it helps us to be able to stop and look up and go, all right, like, what's it going to do if I keep on this track for finishing it, like what's it gonna take to actually finish that phase or task of work? And if I look up and I see that it's actually gonna cost me, it's gonna take me more hours than I have left, then it presents an opportunity to look at it and go, oh, okay, that helps me be able to see where I'm headed and maybe there's something I can do to change that, right? Maybe there's something I can do to be more efficient or is there hours that...

I'm not spending someplace else that I can use those hours to spend here. And then it even begs the question, why is that important? Why do we care about that? Well, we live in the world of construction. Construction is all about on time, on budget, as promised. And as promised is like producing a beautiful quality as promised, like what the client wanted and what we designed and said we wanted to create when we started a project.

And the whole idea of why is that important is like so much deeper in terms of when we look at that process to really look at it, does it help me stay on time on budget as promised? Does it help me understand how to manage and how to navigate the on time part of it, the schedule part of it? Is there something that we can do about it, right?

And is there something that in terms of the on budget part of it, as I was saying, is there a way to make up for those hours if we're over or if we have extra hours, is there some other place where we need those hours to be able to look at that information and see where we're headed? And then also from a customer service point of view, right? As promised, are we building what we said? If we're over, did we miss a change order? Right? And did should we have processed a change order because the client asked for something more, the design came in with more specification than was originally scoped when we bid the project, then I'm going to want to do a change order. I need to process that. Did we miss that? Or is it that it's an opportunity to be able to have that clarity and confidence to go to the client and say, hey, here's where we're at. Here's where we're at with the schedule. Here's how we're doing.

But it all starts with this simple thing of I've looked at job cost. And when we kind of lose sight of, as I saw that I was doing, what was the intent behind what I was doing? And how do I maximize the value? And how do I approach doing breath work for me every day in a way that's more powerful and that I can have a better experience of it, or I can really have it enrich my life in a better way?

And the fact that I do breath work is really not the point here at all, but simply do we stop and ask ourselves the question for the sake of what are we doing this and what's the intent behind it? Or especially when we add new people to our team. I had a conversation with Janine on my team last week who's newer to our team in the last six months.

And I asked for the call with her because I realized that there were some things, A, that I just wanted to check in with her, see how things were going. It's good leadership thing to do, right? But I also wanted to hear and listen how things were going and explain why are we doing some of these projects and what's the purpose of it and why do I ask for deadline dates and deliverables on things and how does that help us coordinate and manage together.

And instead of these different things seeming like they were individual things that she was being asked to do, my goal was to weave a fabric so that she could understand for the sake of what are we doing this, right? Why that project? What is the goal? What's our intent behind it? And, you know, I, it was a good exercise and it was a great conversation. And I was so glad that I had it. And I think Janine was too, but you know, this whole thing of we have practices and do we communicate with our teams about why we do things and what is the intent? And even for ourselves, do we stop once in a while and go, why am I doing this? Like, what's the intent? And am I really getting the value that's possible for me in doing whatever that activity is? Besides, it's just the right thing to do. It's just a smart thing to do. Like, how is it helping you in your business, how is it helping your team be successful in what they're doing day in and day out?

So, I'm curious, do you have something in your life that you kind of have like this that you just do when you know that you should do it?

You know that you do do it regularly, but have you stopped and shared with your team or even reflected for yourself? What is the intent behind it and how can you get more value from doing whatever that thing is? All right. ⁓ I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please feel free to ⁓ hit the subscribe button or the like button below. Please, if you like it, ⁓ I really want to know that. Your feedback is great.

If you got something out of it, leave a comment. I would love to hear your thoughts about it too. And if you ⁓ know of somebody else who might get value from this, feel free to share it with your team too. This is a great topic even for a safety meeting, right? For a safety meeting on a Thursday or a Friday morning of why do we do these, right? This is a great topic to maybe even bring up what the intent and what the purpose of it is other than we're trying to keep from getting it you know, fines from OSHA. So, all right. Thank you. Thanks for being part of this community. And I look forward to seeing you next time on The Profit Builder Unscripted.


Head Shot

Vicki Suiter

Host