Latest / Contractor Business Builder Podcast / What It Really Takes to Lead a High-Performance Construction Team – with Eric Anderton
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to another exciting episode of the Contractor
- 0:02Business Builder podcast. Today we have the honor of
- 0:04hosting Eric Anderton. He is a business and executive
- 0:08coach with Construction Genius. So your business will only grow
- 0:12to the level of your leadership. Eric Anderson has coached
- 0:15contractors doing 10 million to a billion dollars in revenue the
- 0:19day he's reeling. Why?
- 0:20Leadership, not labour, is the real constraint in most
- 0:23construction companies. Welcome here Eric.
- 0:25How you doing? Today I'm well, thank you for
- 0:26having me. Derek, great.
- 0:27Yeah, excited to dive into all this with you.
- 0:29Leadership so incredibly important in in every Ave. of of
- 0:33life, especially business. Can you tell us a little bit
- 0:36more about construction genius and what that means?
- 0:38Yeah. You know, the biggest challenge
- 0:39that a lot of construction companies have is when they
- 0:41promote someone into a leadership role.
- 0:43Let's say I was a project manager running a project, and
- 0:45I'm now project executive leading a team of people.
- 0:48I have to make the shift from being a project builder to being
- 0:51a team builder, a people leader. And that shift is often
- 0:54tremendously challenging for people, and I help people make
- 0:57that shift. Perfect.
- 0:58Right on. And where did the name
- 0:59Construction Genius originate from?
- 1:01What? What do you think of?
- 1:02That yeah, it's pretty funny. People often will say, well,
- 1:04Eric, does that make you the genius?
- 1:05And I say, no, it it comes from the quote from Thomas Edison,
- 1:08that genius is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration.
- 1:12So my clients are the 99%, I'm the 1% to help them to take it
- 1:16to the next level. Yeah, very true words there.
- 1:18I've gotta gotta put in the action to get the results.
- 1:21They don't just come from thinking a whole bunch.
- 1:23I mean, it's important, but but yeah, you got to do stuff to get
- 1:26shit done, right. So you talk about, you know, the
- 1:29big shift from building projects to to building people and what,
- 1:34what does that transformation look like?
- 1:36What what are some of the difficulties or friction that
- 1:38that comes through through that transformation?
- 1:40You know, one of the biggest challenges, it's interesting,
- 1:42most people get into construction because they, they
- 1:44like to start their day at this point and finish it at this
- 1:48point and in between build something awesome and have a
- 1:50good time doing it. They got into construction
- 1:52because they like working with their hands.
- 1:54They like being able to drive down the road and point at
- 1:56something and say, I built that. And when you get promoted into a
- 1:59leadership role, oftentimes there's a a disconnect that
- 2:03begins to happen because I'm no longer building something with
- 2:05my hands. I'm directing and leading people
- 2:08who are doing the building. And So what can happen is a
- 2:10couple of things. Number one, I get a sense of
- 2:12guilt because I don't feel like I'm working anymore.
- 2:16And So what that then leads me to do is to micromanage so that
- 2:19I feel good about myself. And I get stuck in getting my
- 2:23hands dirty with the guys when in fact, my job is to get myself
- 2:26out of the dirt and help them to be more effective in the things
- 2:30that they do. So what happens is that sense of
- 2:32guilt, of discomfort that comes from getting promoted and leads
- 2:35to micromanagement, and that defeats the whole purpose of
- 2:38leadership, which is to accomplish more through other
- 2:40people. Yeah, there's definitely, you
- 2:42know, articulated well with the the kind of the mindset and and
- 2:46thinking shift that needs to be done there.
- 2:47And it kind of ties in a little bit with getting out of your
- 2:50comfort zone is if, if you've come from that realm of, you
- 2:54know, being project manager, even, you know, on the tools and
- 2:57stuff like that, you, you have that sense of building
- 2:59something. And, and, and as you mentioned,
- 3:02with leadership, as you move into higher leadership, you're
- 3:04really, you know, you're building a team, you're building
- 3:06people, you're building the structure to, to get things
- 3:08done. And the, the issue can be that
- 3:10you want to, you know, be more involved with the day-to-day or
- 3:13micromanaging, as you put it. What are some maybe tools or
- 3:17ways that you can help someone kind of make that shift or or
- 3:21you know, recognize if they are getting too far into the weeds,
- 3:25if you will, of of micromanaging?
- 3:27Well, I think part of it is assuming that you are going to
- 3:31micromanage when you start because that's just what you're
- 3:35used to doing. In other words, you're used to
- 3:36being a builder, and so you're going to default to doing that.
- 3:40So with that assumption in mind, you then have to take a step
- 3:43back and ask yourself, OK, what do I need to do in order to
- 3:47develop my people to the point where I'm comfortable with them
- 3:50doing the tasks that I've given them to do?
- 3:52Because many times I'll micromanage because my people
- 3:55are either incompetent to do the work or they're not held
- 3:58accountable to a sufficient level in order to execute the
- 4:02projects and the tasks that they've been given.
- 4:04So I need to make sure that I'm training my people, that I'm
- 4:06delegating effectively and clearly to them, and then that
- 4:09I'm holding them accountable. So if I have people who are well
- 4:12trained, people who are have a clear understanding of what's
- 4:15expected of them, and then people who are held accountable,
- 4:17I can then focus on the training, the communication, and
- 4:20the accountability. And that then takes me out of
- 4:23the micromanagement. Yeah, important steps there.
- 4:26I've I have someone I'm working with who I think accountability
- 4:29is an issue at the company right now.
- 4:32Everyone's sort of been, it's one of those things where
- 4:34they're sort of hired cool and then they they make a role for
- 4:36them instead of having a role for a person and being more
- 4:39strategic, I guess with the structure of their business.
- 4:42What are some ways that accountability can be increased
- 4:44or even like, I feel like the owners ability of leadership is
- 4:48not quite up to par maybe or has been and is kind of everyone
- 4:53sort of doing their running their own show, if you will, but
- 4:56nobody seems to kind of know what's going on.
- 4:58I know I'm kind of throwing a bunch out here, but no, it's
- 5:00like accountability is, is kind of at the the centre of a lot of
- 5:03that. What, how?
- 5:04How would you go about defining that situation and and putting
- 5:08accountability measures in place?
- 5:09Yeah, that's very good. So the first thing you need to
- 5:11do obviously is be crystal clear on the role and the
- 5:14responsibility of each person in your organization.
- 5:16And it's probably best to 1st outline specific roles and
- 5:20responsibilities prior to inserting people into those
- 5:23roles and responsibilities. Assuming that you have someone
- 5:26in a position that is capable of filling that role and
- 5:29responsibility, the leaders in the organization then have to
- 5:32become master delegators. And to master delegation,
- 5:36there's three things that you have to focus in on #1 am I
- 5:39clear in what I'm delegating? And that may seem obvious, but
- 5:44oftentimes the reason why people don't execute the tasks that I'm
- 5:47giving them to do is because I'm unclear in my communication.
- 5:51And the reason I'm unclear in my communication is because I am an
- 5:55expert at what I do and what I want them to do.
- 5:59And therefore I am doing many things unconsciously, which I
- 6:03then don't communicate clearly to them.
- 6:05And so they aren't able to execute the task to the fullness
- 6:09of my expertise. And So what I have to be able to
- 6:12do when I'm delegating is to get crystal clear on what someone
- 6:15needs to do. And one very effective method of
- 6:18doing that is pretty simple. What I would advise someone to
- 6:21do is go to ChatGPT and turn on the dictation mode in ChatGPT
- 6:28and then ramble into ChatGPT for a period of time about what it
- 6:33is you want someone to do. Try and include the things that
- 6:36you do subconsciously, the things that you're very good at
- 6:39that often people fail at when doing this particular task.
- 6:42And once you've talked for a while into ChatGPT, then ask it
- 6:46to create a SOP or standard operating procedure based on the
- 6:52information that you've given the engine.
- 6:54ChatGPT will then create an SOP. Of course, you need to check it
- 6:59for BS and for bad information, but then what you can do is take
- 7:02a look at that SOP, make any tweaks that you'd like to to
- 7:05that information, and then present that to the person to
- 7:09whom you're delegating the whole idea.
- 7:11That is so that you can be crystal clear on what it is that
- 7:15you want them to do. Does that make sense so far?
- 7:17Understand, no, you're speaking my language with the the SOP.
- 7:20That's a big part of what we do, building new systems, processes.
- 7:23And yeah, clarity is definitely high priority for being able to
- 7:28delegate effectively and having just having a resource like that
- 7:31where you've expressed as the owner of the person, you know,
- 7:35manager that's done this before. You've got a certain way like
- 7:39you mentioned. I've had this happen to me
- 7:40countless times and I, I know exactly what you're talking
- 7:43about, where you are the, the, the expert in, in that realm.
- 7:47And you're going to explain things in a way that makes sense
- 7:50to you given your years of experience and knowledge.
- 7:54Whereas someone else who thinks differently, talks a little
- 7:58differently, has much different experience from, you know, maybe
- 8:02another companies or just not as many years and there's going to
- 8:05be stuff lost in communication or or not expressed explicitly.
- 8:09Let me just give you the other, the other couple of things here
- 8:11with delegation because that that was what we're going to.
- 8:13The second thing I have to ask, if I've been clear on what I'm
- 8:16asking someone to do, then I must ask the question, are they
- 8:20capable? And what I mean by that is, do
- 8:22they have the training necessary in order to execute this task?
- 8:26Because one of the reasons why delegation fails and
- 8:29accountability is difficult is because I give people tasks to
- 8:33do that they don't know how to do.
- 8:35And if I give them something to do that they don't know how to
- 8:38do, don't be surprised when they don't do it.
- 8:41And so I must ask that question, are they capable?
- 8:43Assuming that they're capable, assuming that I've been clear,
- 8:46the last thing I need to ask while I'm delegating is do they
- 8:50have the capacity? And what I mean by that is
- 8:53simply the bandwidth. Because many times what people
- 8:56do in in companies is they keep delegating to the people who are
- 8:59most capable. And the people who are most
- 9:01capable keep saying, yes, I'll do that.
- 9:03Yes, I'll do that until they get over capacitated, their
- 9:07performance starts to dip and the company begins to suffer.
- 9:11So if I'm going to delegate effectively, I must must first
- 9:15be clear on what I'm delegating. I must make sure the person is
- 9:18capable. I must then make sure they have
- 9:20capacity. And if all those things are in
- 9:23place, I have now earned the right to hold them accountable.
- 9:28And when I hold them accountable, I must keep it very
- 9:30simple. Three questions.
- 9:32Did you do it? If not, why not?
- 9:34How can I help? And as a leader, the, the, the
- 9:38more consistent you are with accountability, the less drama
- 9:41will be associated with accountability.
- 9:44Because if we let time go by, typically pain increases and the
- 9:48difficulty of the conversations that I must have in terms of
- 9:52accountability increase. And that's why as a leader, I
- 9:54must have a consistent rhythm of accountability to make sure that
- 9:58things stay on track. Definitely.
- 10:01And that conversation that would be had as far as accountability,
- 10:05how do you usually see that or how would you suggest it?
- 10:07Is it some sort of reporting that happens or would it be, you
- 10:10know, regular check-ins or conversations?
- 10:13And the answer is, it depends. And what it depends on is the
- 10:16experience of the person who's doing the task.
- 10:18So for instance, I may delegate for the first time to someone
- 10:21who I consider capable, but because it's the first time that
- 10:24they've done this task, I may need to check in on them more
- 10:27frequently than someone who has more experience.
- 10:29So but the idea of experience comes into play, The idea of the
- 10:33person's willingness to execute comes into play.
- 10:36So if I'm suspect that someone is going to execute and I, I
- 10:39know that they are going to need a little more accountability, a
- 10:41little more checking in, then that will change the rhythm of
- 10:44the accountability conversations.
- 10:46And what I'm always doing when I'm having accountability
- 10:49conversations is I'm combining the metrics of the job that are
- 10:53related to the task with conversations.
- 10:56And I'm using the metrics and conversations to come up with
- 10:59the material that I need for those accountability
- 11:03conversations. Now, beyond delegating and
- 11:06accountability, what are some mistakes that you see when maybe
- 11:10someone who's been functioning at a high level gets put into a
- 11:12leadership position or even a leader maybe at a more junior or
- 11:16project level gets promoted to more like executive leadership
- 11:19level? What, what, where do you see
- 11:21like mistakes or kind of pitfalls for for leaders that
- 11:24are expanding? Yeah, that's great.
- 11:26I think one of the main issues is that the reason someone gets
- 11:29promoted into a leadership role is because they have said yes
- 11:34multiple times in multiple ways. However, when you get into a
- 11:38leadership role, you must learn to say no.
- 11:41If you don't learn to say no, what will happen is you will be
- 11:45unable to execute your role as a leader.
- 11:48And what I mean by that, if you're going to be an effective
- 11:51leader, you have to be able to carve out time in your calendar
- 11:54for the tasks that you didn't previously do in terms of
- 11:58meeting one-on-one with people, in terms of thinking
- 12:00strategically, perhaps even meeting with customers.
- 12:04And that will require you being very disciplined about how your
- 12:07time is being used because there will always be demands on your
- 12:11calendar from other people for various reasons.
- 12:14And that's exactly why the best leaders not only say yes when
- 12:18appropriate, but they also learn to say no.
- 12:22And just like someone might feel uncomfortable when they take off
- 12:24their tool belt and become more of a project manager or project
- 12:28executive, so too someone who is used to saying yes all the time
- 12:33may be uncomfortable when they have to learn how to say no.
- 12:37Yeah, important concept there. Can you unpack that a bit as far
- 12:41as what maybe like priorities or things that they will most
- 12:45likely need to say no to or how they how they could structure
- 12:49think about their time of what's what's important, what they
- 12:52should should do and what they what they could possibly, you
- 12:55know, put on the back burner or, or or get off their plate.
- 12:57Yeah. So that's, it's, it's really
- 12:59interesting to use the word important.
- 13:00One of the key tools that I use with all of my clients and I
- 13:03teach them is the Eisenhower matrix or the urgent important
- 13:06matrix. OK, so the urgent important
- 13:09matrix is a very simple framework.
- 13:11I just kind of sketched it out here, right.
- 13:13I mean, I don't think you can even see it, right?
- 13:14You might see it a little bit right here.
- 13:16Yeah. So let me turn it.
- 13:17Yeah. There we go.
- 13:18So you have urgent and important, right?
- 13:20Yeah. And So what I have to be able to
- 13:22do is focus on the things that are in my role and
- 13:25responsibility that are either important but not urgent and
- 13:29then important and urgent. Now, the problem is, many times
- 13:34leaders have their time sucked away by interruptions and
- 13:38distractions from other people or even from within themselves
- 13:42that keep them from focusing on the things that are important
- 13:45and urgent to them in their role and responsibility.
- 13:49So the thing that you want to learn to say no to is other
- 13:52people trying to put onto your plate things that are their
- 13:56responsibility. So that will mean that when
- 13:59someone comes to you and asks you to do a task that is outside
- 14:03of your role and responsibility, and you know that it will
- 14:06distract you or interrupt you from focusing in on what you
- 14:09must do, then you must have the discipline and the courage to
- 14:12tell them no. Wonderful.
- 14:14Yeah, that clarifies things a lot.
- 14:16And I think kind of goes back to the earlier thing, which
- 14:19mentioned, you know, having those defined roles and
- 14:21responsibilities so that people can determine, you know, pay.
- 14:24This is actually something that you need to spearhead and take
- 14:27take forward or, or you can get done so I can focus on, you
- 14:30know, whatever it is that that I'm responsible for.
- 14:33Absolutely. So with your, you know, your
- 14:34coaching process, you're helping leaders kind of go from maybe
- 14:38being the boss to to being a leader of leaders.
- 14:40Can you talk a bit more about the coaching work you do with
- 14:43with leaders and and owners of? Companies, yeah.
- 14:45So the first thing I want to say, and it's funny, I was, I
- 14:47was chatting with one of my clients about it yesterday.
- 14:49I am very poor at fixing underperformers.
- 14:54So the work that I do is not what I call firefighting.
- 14:57I'm more Smokey the Bear than the whoever the fireman is with
- 15:02the Red Hat that goes around, you know what does that one the
- 15:04the the fireman. What's his name?
- 15:06Yeah, I'm not. Sure.
- 15:08I don't know. Yeah.
- 15:08So. Yeah.
- 15:09So you, you don't wanna come to me if you're trying to save
- 15:12someone. You wanna come to me if you have
- 15:15a a good performer, a high performer who needs to take
- 15:18their game to the next level, That's where I excel in terms of
- 15:22my services. And so the people who come to me
- 15:25are someone who's just been promoted into a role and they
- 15:28know that they're gonna have those challenges of the shift
- 15:31from being a project builder to being a people leader.
- 15:33They know that they're going to have to learn how to protect
- 15:36their time, focus on what's most urgent and important, get really
- 15:40good at accountability, get really good at delegation, and
- 15:43they're just taking their game to the next level.
- 15:45I'm here to help them with that. And the way that I do that is
- 15:48through conversations. So through the conversations, we
- 15:51help to identify what's most important to them.
- 15:54We help to identify the roadblocks that are keeping them
- 15:57from focusing on those things, remove those roadblocks, and
- 16:00then I hold them accountable for the things that they do in order
- 16:05to take their leadership to the next level.
- 16:06And you work with larger companies if you will, but a big
- 16:11range there, you know, 10 million to billion, Yeah.
- 16:13How do you, how do you see the difference there as far as rate,
- 16:16maybe the contractors that are at that, you know, 8 bigger
- 16:21compared to 9 plus figure liters?
- 16:24Does, does does the conversations change quite a
- 16:27bit? Is there things that let's say
- 16:28one want like, you know, people talk about scaling business,
- 16:31right? So let's say they're at that 10
- 16:32million mark, they want to go to the 100 million or, or or plus
- 16:35what? What does that kind of
- 16:37trajectory look like and how do you help facilitate that, that
- 16:40kind of? Growth, yeah, in terms of
- 16:41scaling the business, it's, that's not a lot of the work
- 16:43that I do, I do, I do more of the work that I do is on this,
- 16:46on the communication side, on the team building side, on the,
- 16:50the self-control side, you could say.
- 16:52And so the issues that human beings have, whether you're in a
- 16:54$10 million company or a $3 billion plus company, you'll,
- 16:57you'll find that they're typically the same.
- 16:59And so my, my services, you know, they, they, they affect
- 17:02people in all of those areas. The, the one thing to keep in
- 17:05mind and I, and I, I want to make this clear, number one, I'm
- 17:08not a firefighter and #2 I'm not cheap either.
- 17:12And so and so it's, it's, it's really important for anyone
- 17:16who's listening to this, if you go to my website,
- 17:18constructiongenius.com and you can get a 10 minute call with
- 17:21me, But you've got to understand those two things going in.
- 17:23If your business is on fire, I'm not the guy for you.
- 17:26And if you're not willing to invest a considerable sum in the
- 17:30services that I'm not a fit for you either.
- 17:32And of course that that is based on the fact that you see the
- 17:35value in working with me as a result of the conversations that
- 17:38we have prior to engaging in any coaching.
- 17:40Yeah, sure. Thanks for clarifying that.
- 17:42And then unless there's no so let's dive into communication a
- 17:46bit. When you've got a company that's
- 17:48been built up, you've got your different functions, you know,
- 17:51your finance team and your project team, your operations,
- 17:55your admin, how do you like, what do you, what do you, I
- 17:58guess see as far as like how much communication should be
- 18:01happening back and forth and and what are the best methods?
- 18:04I know you've got your, your kick ass meeting.
- 18:06I think it is. Oh yeah, that you talk about and
- 18:08things like that. So you know, what are some of
- 18:10the things that people that these business should be
- 18:12thinking about for communication company wide?
- 18:14So the challenge with construction is that there is a
- 18:16tendency for silos to to occur, right?
- 18:19So you've got the field, you've got the office or project
- 18:22management, and then you have the accounting and the HR folks.
- 18:25And the problem is this is a human problem.
- 18:28We all think that we are the most important person on the
- 18:32planet, right? And so therefore, my department
- 18:35is the most important department in the company, right?
- 18:38Or my job. And one of the things that you
- 18:40have to understand is that for a construction company to be
- 18:43successful, each element of the business needs to be working
- 18:46together well. But you must understand where a
- 18:49construction company makes money.
- 18:51And the thing to to to really be clear on is that unless the work
- 18:55gets put in place, money is not made.
- 18:58And so the best construction companies, they give a
- 19:00tremendous amount of respect and attention to the folks in the
- 19:04field putting the work in place. And they balance that with the
- 19:08need to control and systematize that work through the project
- 19:13management and through the various financial controls so
- 19:16that the entire company is working together well.
- 19:19And the key to that is this. If you have a conflict between,
- 19:22let's say your project management side and your field
- 19:26side, it's likely the result of a poor relationship at the top
- 19:31of those silos. So for instance, if you have a
- 19:33project executive who hates your general Superintendent, don't be
- 19:38surprised if your project manager and your Superintendent
- 19:41and your foreman don't get along together well.
- 19:44So the the number one thing that you want to focus on in your
- 19:47business to improve the synergy and the teamwork of your entire
- 19:52business is making sure that the executive levels of your company
- 19:56across the various silos have very strong relationships.
- 20:00And you must not tolerate, at the executive level, walls
- 20:05between the people who are involved in those positions.
- 20:08Yeah, well said there. And what does the communication
- 20:12or meeting process look like to to have that communication in
- 20:16the in the executive level of management?
- 20:19There, yeah. So, so there's two aspects to
- 20:21it. There's the formal and the
- 20:23informal. OK.
- 20:24So one thing that's critical is you must understand who is
- 20:28ultimately responsible for the success of a project.
- 20:31And that person must be willing to take accountability for that
- 20:35particular project. And there's always sort of a a
- 20:37blending of the of success based on what the field does and what
- 20:40project management does. But someone, either the field or
- 20:44project management needs to be ultimately accountable for the
- 20:47success of the project. With that being said, there
- 20:50needs to be strong communication between the the the various
- 20:54aspects of the business. And so you should be obviously
- 20:56having formal meetings on a regular basis where you're able
- 20:59to exchange ideas and views on how our project is going.
- 21:03Now, most companies I know have those formal meetings already.
- 21:06However, it's the informal meetings where the real work of
- 21:10breaking down the silos takes place.
- 21:12And so if you have an issue between a couple of people in
- 21:15your organization that are high performers, but for whatever
- 21:18reason they don't get along well, one thing that you have to
- 21:20facilitate with them is them breaking bread together.
- 21:24They don't have to be the best of friends.
- 21:26They don't have to hang out on the weekends.
- 21:28They don't have to go over to each other's house, but they
- 21:31should at least be having lunch once a month where they can sit
- 21:34and they can eat and they can talk about things other than
- 21:37work and get to know each other. Because people, if if you know
- 21:40someone, if you like them, if you trust them, then those
- 21:43barriers can be broken down. And so get them to break bread
- 21:45together in order to build that relationship.
- 21:48And then as an executive takes serious time to consider where
- 21:52is trust breaking down and why is trust breaking down?
- 21:56And then you have to go to work on fixing that in order to make
- 21:59sure those silos and those barriers don't occur in your
- 22:02business. Yeah, the the trust factor, very
- 22:04important and what you mentioned about having those, you know,
- 22:08breaking bread meetings or whatever may be so people can
- 22:11see, you know, we're all humans here.
- 22:12We all have, you know, similar worries and lives and stuff like
- 22:16that to some degree, and it's more than just the working
- 22:19relationship there. So you've got something called
- 22:21the kick ass meeting, I believe. Yes, you can.
- 22:23You unpack that and and run us through what that looks.
- 22:26Like, yeah, no, dude, it's, it's, it's beautiful.
- 22:28So this is a particular type of meeting structure.
- 22:31And I'll give you a link so that so people can download the book.
- 22:33Then it's not a book, it's an e-book.
- 22:35It's nice and short. It's a meeting structure
- 22:37specifically for solving problems.
- 22:39And so the first thing you have to be able to do when you're
- 22:41looking to solve a problem is you have to state the challenge
- 22:44well. And the way you find out where
- 22:46your problems exist in your business is through a
- 22:48combination of your intuition, your objective numbers that you
- 22:52have in your business, and then combining your intuition and
- 22:56your numbers with conversations in order to clarify what the
- 23:00problem is. Once you have the problem
- 23:01clearly identified, let's say you have a safety issue on your
- 23:05projects, then you would frame the problem in terms of a
- 23:08question. And the way you frame the
- 23:10question is like this, in what specific ways can we and then
- 23:14you insert the problem. So in this case, the problem
- 23:17would be improve safety on every project that we built.
- 23:20But the key is the is the question format.
- 23:23And again, let me repeat that. In what specific ways can we?
- 23:28And then you insert the problem that you want to solve.
- 23:31And the keyword in that question is the word specific.
- 23:34Because when you're looking to problem solve, you want to be as
- 23:38specific as possible because the more specific you are, the more
- 23:42actionable you can be. Then what you do.
- 23:44Let's say you're looking to solve a safety problem.
- 23:46Obviously you bring people in from the field, you bring people
- 23:49in from the office who are working on the projects and you
- 23:51bring your best and brightest minds into the room and you have
- 23:55everyone brainstorm ideas on how to solve the problem.
- 23:58And then you prioritize those ideas based on what people vote
- 24:02on. And in my in the kick ass
- 24:04meeting e-book, it's all laid out how to do that.
- 24:06But the point is, is that you can go from a blank piece of
- 24:09paper with just the problem stated to unanimous agreement on
- 24:12what we're going to do to overcome the problem.
- 24:15And you can do that in less than 37 minutes.
- 24:18From there you can build a simple one page action plan and
- 24:22so in less than an hour you can go from problem to action plan
- 24:26and really focus in on what you need to do in order to take on
- 24:29your toughest challenges in your business.
- 24:32Powerful framework and I like how you have some time in there
- 24:36to really define and clarify the problem.
- 24:38I think a lot of people will jump to a solution and you know,
- 24:41just glaze over actually what is the actual problem here?
- 24:44And then, you know, brainstorming with the team, so
- 24:47everyone's got by and what you know, what is the best solutions
- 24:50that we can all come up with and then prioritizing, clarifying
- 24:53again in the one pager, everyone's clear and then and
- 24:56then moving forward with action. So fantastic.
- 24:58Can you share success story of a client of yours?
- 25:01Maybe you know where they started, why they they hired
- 25:04you, and what what the outcomes were.
- 25:06For them, yeah, absolutely. It's interesting.
- 25:07I have on my website, you can go to my website,
- 25:10constructiongenius.com/clients, and you can see a whole bunch of
- 25:14different testimonials from clients who have worked with me.
- 25:17And I'll tell you what, one person is a woman named
- 25:20Stephanie Fuller, who is the vice president at George Reed
- 25:23Incorporated. And she was initially hesitant
- 25:25to engage in executive coaching because of the the cost, the
- 25:29time commitment and frankly, the vulnerability involved with
- 25:33opening up about her personal weaknesses and leadership blind
- 25:36spots and even internal company dynamics.
- 25:39But she pushed through that and she committed to working with
- 25:41me. And as a result of that, she
- 25:44experienced A tremendous amount of growth from that, the things
- 25:48that she was willing to identify and then work on.
- 25:50And what she really liked about it was that I get right to the
- 25:53point. My style is consistent, direct,
- 25:56and no BS. I cut through the noise, I
- 25:58address real challenges to help her to identify the confident
- 26:03decisions that she needs to make, and then I hold her
- 26:06accountable with the clear timelines and follow throughs.
- 26:09And so from conflict resolution to running more effective leader
- 26:12leadership meetings, she saw an immediate ROI and it's really
- 26:16helped her to uplevel her game as a leader in her organization.
- 26:20Fantastic. Yeah, having someone experienced
- 26:22and that, you know, second set of eyes, if you will, that can
- 26:26see things from more of a distance.
- 26:28And, and especially as business owners leaders, you can get
- 26:32really plugged in and and maybe been doing things a certain ways
- 26:35for years and just never realize that there's these kind of
- 26:38glaring issues or things that that could be holding you back
- 26:42or, or just creating, you know, ineffective teams and and things
- 26:44like that. Can you speak a little bit about
- 26:47what the internal leadership and coaching like training program,
- 26:52if you will? Like is that something that that
- 26:55you've helped with or like how do you see those internal like
- 26:57you've got the leader of the company or or your your
- 27:00executive team? How do they kind of facilitate
- 27:03leadership or train their people to be better leaders in their
- 27:05companies? Yeah.
- 27:06So I, I have a leadership course that I have with my clients.
- 27:09You can take it online. It's called the Shift and it's a
- 27:12A5 module leadership course. And it's something I also do in
- 27:15person with my clients and also over Zoom.
- 27:17And so the shift is, is a comprehensive course
- 27:20specifically for construction companies.
- 27:22And the first module is all about controlling your calendar,
- 27:24not your time. The second one is about
- 27:26leadership communication. Then we talk about building and
- 27:28leading a high performing team, running effective meetings like
- 27:31you and I have talked about Derek, we have a whole module on
- 27:33that. And then also the construction
- 27:35leaders dashboard, which is a comprehensive look at where you
- 27:39want to go with your career as a leader.
- 27:41And so it's a comprehensive leadership program that people
- 27:43run both internally with their their teams and also bring me
- 27:47into facilitate with them as well.
- 27:48Yeah, fantastic. So, yeah, we'll put links to
- 27:51these resources that Eric has mentioned here in the
- 27:54description of the the audio video, wherever you're listening
- 27:57or watching. So go check out those those
- 27:59resources and and learn more about Eric and Construction
- 28:02Genius team. Any final kind of words of
- 28:04wisdom or insights that you wanted to share with us?
- 28:07Eric Yeah, So a couple of things.
- 28:08I I said earlier that my, my services are not cheap.
- 28:11And that's true. However, one way that you can
- 28:14get to know me more, which a lot of people have really liked, is
- 28:17I do have a podcast myself with over 350 episodes.
- 28:21Those are 100% free. And then you can also go online
- 28:24to Amazon and get my book Construction Genius.
- 28:27And that's only 19 bucks or 20 bucks for a paperback.
- 28:30And I'd like to give your audience a special offer on
- 28:33that. If you buy 10 or more copies of
- 28:36my book, reach out to me via my website.
- 28:39And if you do buy those 10 or more copies, which which is
- 28:42about 200 bucks, I'll come in and do an hour Q&A and training
- 28:46session for you at no additional charge over Zoom.
- 28:49And I'd normally charge 3500 bucks for an hour of my time.
- 28:52But if you buy 10 of the books for your audience, Derek, I'll
- 28:55do that at no additional charge. Wonderful, very, very generous.
- 28:59So yeah, we will put links, as I mentioned and go grab yourself
- 29:03some books and and learn all the, you know, great stuff about
- 29:05resources that Eric has here. Be a better leader, build better
- 29:08teams. I mean, it's, you know, I don't
- 29:11leadership is, is so incredibly important and it makes, it just
- 29:14makes a business, kind of makes you want to be a part of, of
- 29:17something special, right. Good leaders kind of build
- 29:20businesses like that where everyone feels that they're,
- 29:23they're, they're heard, they're part of the team, they're
- 29:25growing, they're they're on a winning team, right?
- 29:27And it's just, it really is a beautiful thing you see that
- 29:29strong leadership in an organization.
- 29:31So thank you so much for for coming on here today.
- 29:33Eric, really appreciate you sharing all your insights.
- 29:35My pleasure. Thank you very much for having
- 29:37me, Derek.