Best Of: Construction Team Accountability

Have you ever delegated something, only to discover a problem after the work was done?

It happens more often than most contractors want to admit.

Delegation should take pressure off the owner or manager. But without a clear way to see progress along the way, leaders usually end up doing one of two things: checking constantly or hoping everything is on track.

Neither works very well.

In this episode, I break down why delegation fails and how a simple accountability system helps leaders stay informed without hovering over every detail.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why delegation without visibility leads to problems
• How a simple accountability system helps prevent last-minute surprises
• How to define clear outcomes so everyone is on the same page

Result: better follow-through and fewer surprises.

Simple takeaway:
Delegation works best when leaders can see progress before the finish line.

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/9IbTsCLuZkc

Resources:

• Want to increase your profitability? Grab my book “The Profit Bleed.“
• Looking to grow your construction business? Check out our exclusive group "The Contractors Collective.”
• Want employees to take more ownership? Check out our course - “Build Your Dream Team.”
• Are you struggling to hire the right people? Check out our “Contractors Hiring Blueprint” course.

Connect with Vicki on social media:

• YouTube: Vicki Suiter
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickisuiter
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SuiterBusinessBuilders

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

Transcript

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 Souter. 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 Janine, and Janine 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, 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 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, Dortha does. And I was thinking about it after our call yesterday. And I thought, have I had that conversation with Dortha 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 Dorothea 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 in the 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? You know, your managers, do your managers have feedback to let them know if it's getting done or if it's not getting done. And it doesn't have to be some, you know, long dissertation of a report. It doesn't have to be that, you know, it can be simply a checklist, right? That a checklist went through that, you know, that gets reviewed in the meetings that happen regularly with that person of, yeah, they, you know, 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 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 the system that we're using, is it the most efficient way and efficient system that we can use? So that's kind of my, 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, which 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 Margin 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 in 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 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 too, if you're looking to implement, 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 margin 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.