Working on the Business is Not The Same as Working In It
Even after being in business for more than forty years and all that I’ve learned over that time…there is still more to learn. Delegating is one of those areas where I need to do better.
I’ve just recently finished reading the book The Highest Calling by Lawrence Janesky. This novel is about business struggles and success. It’s a story of helping others and learning how to do the right things in order to succeed. It shares important and powerful business principles.
It reminded me of things that I know but haven’t done well.
One of those things was delegating. After years of doing everything, I forget to share the load. And, as a recovering perfectionist, I have a high level of expectation. This makes it hard to delegate.
Last week, we discussed the need to find a different electrician. We looked at how this is possible through connections.
As hard as it is to just find subcontractors, it’s even harder to find good ones.
Too often when we get to a point where we desperately need help. The situation is serious enough that we hire the first warm body(s) that shows up.
We all know how this turns out.
We assume that everybody has the same values and understanding that we do.
Surprise…not so.
I’ve found over the years that hiring people who grew up working on a farm, have military service, or were serious athletes increases your odds of getting good help.
In addition to finding subcontractors, it’s hard to get them to perform at the level I expect. Of course, it’s not fair to them if they don’t know what I expect.
Add to this that I tend to be meek. This leads to me letting things slide and not calling people out on things. I need to be bolder. One of the twelve life principles in the book The Legend of the Monk and the Merchant is…
Be meek before God, but bold before men.
I’ve worked to do something about this problem several different times over the years without success. The last attempt was in February of 2023. We worked on a process for explaining what we expected from our subcontractors and a way to evaluate them on their performance.
At that time, I wrote a series of blog posts about raising the bar of expectations:
- How Can We Raise the Bar of Construction Contractor Expectations?
- An Eye-opening Process to Hold Contractors to a Higher Standard
- The Next Step in Raising the Bar of Construction Contractor Accountability
- Why We Need Numbers to Help Construction Contractors Achieve Excellence
- The Final Step in Raising the Construction Accountability Bar
I can’t expect contractors to work toward the level of excellence that I expect if they don’t know what that is. The question is…what am I going to do about it?
