Construction Trailblazers: Paving The Way to Excellence

[00:00:00] Welcome to Construction Trailblazers Paving the Way to Excellence, the podcast where we cut through the noise to uncover what truly drives success in the building industry. I'm Samantha C. Prestage, your guide in simplifying operations and helping you make managing your team simpler.

You can explore our past episodes at constructiontrailblazers. com and start your journey to excellence. Today, we're going to be looking at the family run side of construction and some of the common problems that they experience that are really holding them back from scaling to be known as a larger competitor in their area.

If you've ever worked in a family business, then you know there's a whole extra layer of chaos that no one really talks about. There's a lot of elephants in the room in family businesses. Old habits, personal history, processes that only make sense to Uncle Bob. And if you're trying to grow or make changes, then [00:01:00] Those habits can really hold the business back and it's hard to break free from them in a way that might feel simple and like there's a clear path forward.

So why do we allow these old habits or these old processes or the tension, the elephant in the room, why do we allow that to just kind of coexist with our business goals and our plans for success? Usually the problem here is just an unfamiliarity with how to navigate conflict.

There's a core problem of, this is the way we've always done it, or this is just how it gets done, that kind of mentality. And it's hard to address those issues, find solutions together, without feeling like you might be disrespecting someone, or without feeling like this is going to be a very conflicting conversation.

And it could be hard to find the confidence to say this can be strategic and we can find a path forward here. So usually in family businesses, there's one or two things happening. The first scenario would [00:02:00] be that there's multiple generations in the family business, in which case traditions are part of the culture.

We don't want to disrespect what mom and dad did. We don't want to change some of the things that they did, because then that would be us telling them that they were wrong, that we know how to do it better. And so you continue with the idea of, well, this is the way it's always done. If it ain't broke, don't fix it without realizing that, well, it's kind of broken.

The other scenarios when there's a husband and a wife or a partnership going on. And so hubby or person A has this lane and wifey or person B has this lane. Don't touch my lane. I've got this.

This isn't broken. I know what I'm doing. So in that first scenario, it was, well, this is the way we've always done it. And in scenario B, it's, well, that's just how this person does it and that's them.

I want to give them their space. I'm not going to step on their toes. Like, I'm just going to let them do what they do. And here's my lane. I'm going to do what I'm doing. And that. Cohesion what everyone is doing is just not there. [00:03:00] And so, a lot of times, this is not a pride or ego driven issue.

It's just that there's a lack of communication and there's a lack of conflict resolution. Actually, there's not the opportunity to resolve conflict because we're not bringing up the issue in the first place. We're just allowing the crappiness to kind of continue and perpetuate because we don't want to offend the other person, and we don't know how to navigate that in a strategic way.

When we allow that to occur in the business, what ends up happening is that then there's an automatic defensive response to improvement. Anytime there's a new big bold vision or strategy, that's going to feel like it's going to feel like it's rocking the boat too much and people are going to get defensive over it.

, or anytime there's discussions for innovation and improvement, people will start to get defensive about that. Instead of embracing the idea of, oh yeah, things could be a little bit better. And when that continues to happen, it really costs [00:04:00] you time and money and opportunities.

So even if your top line revenue is growing, you're going to see as you allow these old habits to continue, that bottom line revenue is not going to feel as good. Even if you're scaling, you're going to be like, well, what is happening with my profit margins? Why don't I feel like there's cash and money coming in?

And it's simple, because processes designed 10 years ago for a 5 person team are not going to work today for your 25 person team, or for whatever big vision you've got. Decisions based on what worked for dad or grandma, or what worked for, And this person is your office manager when really they need to step into a COO role and we need to hire for an office manager.

Those decisions , no longer fit your current circumstances. They are not relevant to the technology you should be using. They're not relevant to what your customers expect from you. And most likely they're not relevant to the actual that you see for the [00:05:00] business.

So there's a lot of small habits. Like or who does what paperwork. The way that orders get passed from the sales team to the shop and the purchasing manager. Or how certain customer issues get escalated. Or who even approves expenses. These are things that end up getting locked in. Not because they are the best way of doing something, but it's just because this is the comfort zone. This is the comfort zone of our knowledge base, of our skill sets, and this is the comfort zone of what I'm willing to talk about with this person.

This is the comfort zone before it gets like, Oh, is there some conflict? Might we disagree on some things? And there's no room. For healthy conflict. There's no room for us to have differing opinions that then result in some really cool innovation or goal for the business. And the tricky part about a lot of these inefficiencies is that they don't always scream problem.

So earlier I mentioned like, yeah, it's going to cost you time, money, opportunities, but that's subtle. [00:06:00] That's something that you would see over time if you're tracking certain KPIs. They're not something that every day is going to scream problem until you've allowed it to build up so much that then There's no release for the issues, you will end up constantly seeing these issues and constantly being frustrated because you haven't taken the time to address it before.

And so when something feels subtle, when we haven't addressed the issue, not only are we now bottling up our frustration with something, We're also not inspiring creative thought. We're showing our team members, that, hey, don't come up with ideas.

Don't be this independent, awesome, critical thinker because nothing's going to change. It's really just going to be what Sally says. And that's how things are going to get done and there's no use in even trying to bring up an idea, which is, that's not good. We want to be inspiring our team to also come up with solutions and be problem solving and be innovative with us.

And if they're seeing that all the [00:07:00] family members or whoever's been there the longest have authority over everything, then we're also just disempowering our team instead of building those high performers on our team.

So you want to start to be very attentive and intentional about drawing out these inefficiencies and these bottlenecks. We want to look for the workarounds that are really frustrating for people, the bottlenecks that always involve the same person, or when maybe we have a lot of turnover under a certain team member, when employees in that department are confused, or processes where everyone's like, Oh, I don't know how to do it, but just go ask.

Sally, go ask Uncle Bob, go ask whoever, because they are the family institutional knowledge on this thing and we don't have clear processes without them. We want to start being attentive to those things. So here are a few quick improvements that you can make that will lead to a big impact without having to feel like you're going to rock the boat [00:08:00] too much.

Because oftentimes, we don't have to blow up the whole system just to make things smoother. We just have to find those few targeted tweaks that allow us to start freeing up some time, reducing friction, and allowing more opportunities for improvements, or at least discussions around improvements with our team, without necessarily stepping on anyone's toes.

One of the first things you can do here is just to create checklists. So, we don't need to dive into like full process documentation and building out a whole SOP library. For where you're at right now, the simplest starting point is to create some checklists. Just get something on paper that says, these are the things that we need

for this type of process or project, that way you can start slowly moving away from verbal only instructions and only relying on certain institutional knowledge and start having some kind of process documentation that doesn't feel like a huge undertaking, and it [00:09:00] also won't feel like, oh, we're doing processes because we're questioning what you're doing.

It's just, hey, we want to get some of this down on paper.

The second thing you can do is go to those family members that are like, this is the way I do it. That's the way that we've always done it.

And instead of maybe questioning like, well, why do you do it this way? Why don't we do it this way? we can pose this in a more respectful way in a way that doesn't make them feel like we are attacking how they're doing and just say like, can you teach me about this? Can you teach me about some of the customers or vendors that have inspired you to do it this way?

Because sometimes why they do it that way might have been because of some experience. There might be a backstory that they haven't elaborated on. And so let's just give them the moment to do a little storytelling and understand, like, is there a purpose here? And at least, even if there's not a purpose.

Even if there is a very clear way to do things differently and better, we can at least give that person an opportunity to feel heard and to [00:10:00] share their story, to share why they do it, and that can lead to a conversation of, hey, We don't have customers like this anymore, or actually this vendor issue wouldn't be an issue because of this other thing that we have or this other process that we have going on.

So actually I think we should do it this way. Is that something you're open to? Right? It at least opens a little window, cracks the window of opportunity there without creating too many moments for them to feel defensive against improvements.

Now, the third thing that you can start working on, this one might feel a little rock the boat ish, actually. But it's going to be very crucial to achieving your long term vision and goals. And that's going to be to create clarity in roles. And decision making authority.

So a lot of times in family businesses, we just kind of start growing the team. Like, okay, obviously this is too much for, for Hubby to handle. We need to hire an ops person or project manager under them. [00:11:00] And then we just kind of keep growing the team as the business grows. But we're not evaluating our processes as things happen.

And so that means, especially because a lot of family businesses start out as small startup mode mentality, which is a great mentality. But because we're in that small startup mode mentality, everyone has to have that wear whatever hat is needed. Wherever help is needed, make sure you're okay helping and you can pick up the slack.

And this is your lane, but jump into this lane if we need you. So in that small team mode, everyone is okay pitching in everywhere. Which is kind of what's needed , when you do have teams of less than five or less than ten people. But once you start to grow, well, now we've got ambiguity in who does what.

And who we should be holding accountable for what. And that is a clear path for disaster and frustration, and not being able to hold people accountable, and not knowing who should I fire, who should I promote, [00:12:00] who's doing a good job, who's really the problem starter on the team. We have no clarity of our team now.

So we've got to get clear on who's doing what. And just because you define roles doesn't mean That, that means that that person can't help out with something else. That's usually the pushback that I get when I say, we've got to have job descriptions. It's the concern of, well, I don't want them to feel like this thing isn't their job, that they can't help out over here.

That's not what's going to happen. In fact, If we can clearly define what is this person responsible for, they, if they are a good team member, if we've hired well, are more likely to want to help out in other areas because now they have clarity on what success looks like for their role instead of feeling like they're always being thrown in a bunch of different directions.

So, this one again does feel like it might start to rock the boat a little bit, especially if you've got someone that's been there for a while and you've never really had any kind of conflict resolution, [00:13:00] conversations with them. And then you go ask like, well, what do you do? What, what do you do every day?

Tell me more about your job. They're maybe going to feel a little bit defensive. So just slowly over time, maybe start with those checklists. And then as we start to build those checklists, you can say, Oh, okay, these five checklists go together in one job description.

Cool, now we have a loose skeleton structure of this job description. You don't always have to start out with, tell me what you do, I need to understand your job. Right, we don't have to come in so assertive like that. We can slowly over time work toward this. Ultimately getting that clarity in who's doing what, and then also who has what decision making authority, who's really accountable and responsible for what, that is going to make your life so much easier as a business leader.

Again, if that feels like too much, start with the checklist and work your way up. Like I said earlier, that startup mode, small family business mentality can actually be [00:14:00] very advantageous because you've got a lot of flexibility. Typically, if you've got some healthy ish relationships with your family, there's already some deep trust and vulnerability built in. And then there's that agility to be able to pick up speed when you need to, when you all of a sudden you get some big customers, you get some big projects.

You're able to really rally the forces a little bit better when we're in that startup mode mentality, you can hold on to that as you grow, but only if you have structure and clarity in your processes and in who's doing what. And you also invite those opportunities to discuss improvements, to have a little healthy conflict,

to be okay disagreeing with ideas and solutions. We need that as you grow. And you can hold on to that agility, that startup mode mentality, and still have structure in place. If you're ready to untangle some of that unspoken chaos that's happening in your business and get some of that structure without losing that core culture of [00:15:00] your family business, then let's talk.

That's something that my team and I can certainly help you do in a way that is simple and doesn't feel as painful as you might expect.

You can reach out to my team and I at hello at construction trailblazers. com or find me directly on LinkedIn. I'll have those links in the show notes for you. If you're not quite ready for some help, but you want those strategies and insights on how to clear the chaos and align your team, then go ahead and subscribe.

And we'll see you next time on construction trailblazers.