Construction Trailblazers: Paving The Way to Excellence

Have you ever realized you're not the
little piggy who built a house of bricks?

A lot of business leaders and managers
find themselves in this position.

They realize that their business might
not be built with straw and sticks, but

it's definitely not built with bricks.

And when the big bad Wolf of Chaos
comes along, they notice that

things can go sideways real quick.

Their house might not get blown down,
but there are tough challenges ahead.

Welcome to Construction Trailblazers
Paving the Way to Excellence Your

go-to podcast for innovation,
success, and streamlined excellence

in the building industry.

I'm Samantha C.

Prestige, your host and expert
in operations and processes.

I've seen the Transformative effects
of adopting smart, efficient processes.

These changes not only boost company
revenue, but also restore peace of mind

for owners overwhelmed by the daily grind.

On this show, we bring to light leaders
who are innovating across the industry and

creating outstanding results, inspiring
you to forge your path to excellence.

Today we're diving in to how to
keep the big bad wolf of chaos

from blowing down your house so
that you can build a business

with more predictability and ease.

If you're all about leaving behind the
daily firefighting and moving towards

a future of freedom and predictable
success, then you're in the right place.

Discover more about us
and catch up on past

episodes@constructiontrailblazers.com.

So let's get into it.

Remember the story of
the three little pigs.

The first built his house outta straw,
the second with sticks, and the third

little piggy built his house with
bricks When challenges hit, a lot of

business leaders realize that they are,
in fact, not the third little piggy.

They realize that their business, while
maybe not built with straw and sticks,

is definitely not built with bricks.

These challenges, that big bad
wolf of chaos can be so many

things like hiring the wrong team
member, setting the wrong goals, or

just being a crappy communicator.

Or even the customer that just won't leave
you alone for a refund, whatever it is.

Your team, your processes, or your
profit shakes when stuff gets hard.

So you're not built to withstand
the unpredictability that just

comes with running a business.

So your house might not blow down,
but sometimes it just feels way

harder than it should to deal
with those small challenges.

I remember talking to a client
a few weeks ago who could almost

never enjoy a good day in business.

He was just always worried about when
shit was gonna hit the fan, because

anytime that something went just a
little bit wrong, it always seemed to

get blown out of proportion and made
him feel like he could never get ahead.

So that Wolf of Chaos was
constantly blowing down on

any progress he was making.

We had to find ways to clean things up
in a way that would repair the shit that

already went down while also creating
some positive predictability so that

he could have more of those good days
in business and actually enjoy them.

So how can you rebuild and
get more bricks and more

predictability in your foundation?

There's a lot you can do here, but
it all starts with lean leadership.

Sometimes when people hear
lean, they think lean and mean.

So when I say I focus on lean operations,
there are some people that think I

just walk into a company and start
finding all the positions or employees

they can cut back on to save money or
that I'm just gonna start attacking

what snacks people buy for meetings.

And that's not what I do
in the slightest like.

If you're on a tight budget, then
yeah, scale back on the snacks.

Like that's just good business
or personal budget advice, right?

But there's more to the picture here.

Lean focuses on how to do things in the
most efficient way possible while bringing

out the best in our people, because at
the end of the day, we still want people

to enjoy showing up to work for us.

Besides being just decent human beings,
there's too much profit to lose when

we have bad culture and high turnover.

So lean is a collaborative efficiency.

It means as a culture, you're
embodying qualities like humility,

curiosity, communication,
and a pursuit of excellence.

This means that you have a clear vision,
you've got structure and processes

that allow your team to thrive during
calm success and rough challenges.

Businesses that are built with
these lean leadership principles

are resilient and adaptable.

So the managers and the employees can
problem solve on their own, and they're

ready to face whatever challenges
come their way because they're

actually equipped to deal with it.

You would naturally have less waste, less
errors, less expenses, less frustration.

The list goes on, you're more
likely to produce top performers.

You're more likely to have an
amazing culture that retains those

top performers, and you would have
more consistent profitability.

So it's a win-win, win all around.

Customers are happy with the
service or the product they get.

Employees are happy to collaborate with
their teams and just show up to work.

Owners are happy when they look
at that p and l reports, right?

The numbers are singing to them.

If all of this sounds like a far off
dream, let me assure you that it's not.

I do this all the time with the clients
that I, that I work with, If all of

this sounds like a far off dream,
let me assure you that it's not.

I do this all the time with the
clients that our team works with.

So if you've listened to some of our
other podcast episodes or have followed

me on LinkedIn, then you know I'm all
about practical action forward advice.

I'm not just gonna leave you hanging
with this far off dream idea.

So here are a few questions that
you can ask yourself or take back

to your team to start laying down
these strong, lean leadership bricks.

First, are we organized?

So this is the base layer, right?

This is critical.

This is essential.

Do you know where to find I important
information when you need it?

Do you know where to put
important information?

A lot of this will come
down to your software.

but you've gotta just know
are you organized baseline?

At the next level, you're gonna look
at do you have clarity and confidence?

Are you, and is everyone on your team
clear on what you're responsible for,

and are you confident that what you're
doing is pushing your goals forward?

From there.

Then we wanna look at do we
have efficiency and ease?

So do our processes make sense in
ways that streamline our workloads,

make things easy for us to do, limit
the waste that we might be producing,

whether that's limiting cost or
limiting errors, whatever it might be.

Do we have that efficiency
and ease that makes our team

happy and our customers happy?

Your fourth question here, can we
achieve systematic scalability?

This is really the overarching goal
for everything about lean leadership is

this predictable and sustainable growth.

So can you create and handle new phases
of growth without burning out your

team or displeasing your customers?

So crucial, and it's like the
peak performance of business

is that systematic scalability.

if you can say hell yes to all of these
things, then you're experiencing less

firefighting and more strategic growth.

If you can't say yes to these things,
then you're likely in a more reactive

state when dealing with challenges.

If you wanna find out exactly where you
are on how well you are leading with lean

with your teams, then you can take our,
what kind of business hero are you quiz.

If you get the Thunder Trooper
or captain of excellence result,

then you are kicking ass.

Like, great job.

There's just a few things
you can do to either improve

or to maintain that success.

If you don't score one of those
heroes, then your quiz results will

show you what your best next steps
would be to level up and get those

lean leadership bricks in place.

Alright, I'd love to hear if any of
those four questions organization

clarity and confidence, efficiency
and ease or systematic scalability.

Got you really excited or
maybe struck a chord for you.

You can share your story with me at
hello@constructiontrailblazers.com

or on LinkedIn.

Thanks for tuning in to Construction
Trailblazers Paving the Way to Excellence.

The quiz email and my LinkedIn will
all be in the show notes for you.

See you next time.