Leadership

Business management books, teachers and history of successful organizations all stress the importance of having a compelling vision and mission statement and clear direction of where the company is heading. As many contracting companies grew from a core group of founders, who knew why they began the business and what they were hoping to achieve, the need for a vision and mission also grew. However, most leaders overlooked the “business” of setting direction because they spent most of their time working “in” the business rather than “on” the business. As the business grew so did the number of new employees. These employees, though usually well meaning, entered the company’s workforce with little understanding or commitment to the founder’s vision. Given enough time and exposure to the company’s leaders, the new employees will pick up the same values and vision. However, in today’s dynamic world, most contractors can’t afford to wait for this natural and show learning process!

Effective leaders of today’s high-performance companies do take time periodically to clarify to the employees:

High-Performing Contractor - NEWSLETTER

March 2008

Leadership – customers

George Hedley owner of Hedley Construction writes about leaders who make customers a priority:

I have some deep concerns about the future of your company, the management team you have assembled and your leadership. Your business is not growing for one reason: You and your management team are not making customer relationships, selling and creating new revenue a priority." This is the opening to a letter I recently sent to a start-up company I invested in. I wanted to get them focused on the real business problem, which was causing low profits. Often times, business owners or managers tend to blame bottom line issues on the economy, competition, market or their employees. In reality, results are the biggest indicator of leadership. Making a profit and growing your business is simple. It starts with creating revenue. No revenue = no business = no profit. Successful leaders are big-time revenue generators who constantly sell. The fastest way to fix a company's profit or growth problems is to generate more revenue. Look at what some of the greatest business leaders say about selling:

High-Performing Contractor - NEWSLETTER - Feb. 2008

This e-newsletter is dedicated to supporting High-Performing Contractors and all contractors working to become one. Written by Dennis Sowards

This e-newsletter is dedicated to supporting High-Performing Contractors and all contractors working to become one. Written by Dennis Sowards

Happy New Year

**************** Leadership - Focusing on the wrong problem

Nov. 2007

This e-newsletter is dedicated to supporting High-Performing Contractors and all contractors working to become one. Written by Dennis Sowards

Leadership & the Environment

Want to have engaged employees? One way may be to focus more on environmental issues. A recent study summarized by Adrienne Selko found that employees who are satisfied with their employer's concern for the environment are more likely to take pride in their jobs. Adrienne cited research by Sirota Survey Intelligence that found:
“The level of employees' satisfaction with their employers' environmental policies decreases further down the organizational ladder, with senior-level executives the most satisfied, hourly employees the least favorable and middle managers' views falling in between
82% of

**************** Leadership
Ted Garrison discusses the importance of being a high-performing contractor:

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Strategic Planning

Soon fall will be here and it not only signals a change in weather and the start of football season, but it is also the time to start considering plans for 2008. Doing effective strategic planning is one characteristic that separates the men from the boys. High-performing contractors do strategic planning, most other contractors feel they are helpless victims of their market’s economy and can’t plan.

Leadership

I was preparing an organization to submit their application for their state’s quality award when the lead writer said. “our organization has no values!” What she meant to say is that her organization had no formal statement of values. This company is like many contractors who have never created a formal statement of the core values they live.

Core values are guiding principles to how the company acts. Different than a vision statement, the values statement is not what we want to become, but are what we are today. These values are not dreamed of, but discovered. Every company, like every individual, has values it live by. Some may be bad, others good, but all have ways that they act or behave towards others within and outside the company. Most contractors reflect the values of the founding owners. However, as the company gets larger and expands beyond the original founding workers, new employees may not share the same values. This creates a mixed message. Customers are told the company lives a certain way but see employees not acting that way. A formal statement of company values is the first step to obtaining consistency in how customers are treated.

**************** 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.