Align Strategy with Purpose
The actual Chief Executive Briefing article written by Dr. Linda Henman was intended for healthcare organizations. How could it apply to construction? Healthcare and construction are very different businesses, aren’t they? What can contractors possibly learn from people running hospitals and medical clinics?
Please tune in this week as Wayne walks through Dr. Henman’s five key points and relates why they apply just as much to construction firms as any other industry. What do you think? Are her lessons transferable to construction? Which ones apply best? Least? Email your questions and concerns to us at [email protected]
The Sep 2025 class of Contractor Business Boot Camp is now full. We are accepting waitlist so please contact Charlotte at [email protected] at the earliest to get more information. We are coming to four cities in 2026. The information about the cities and the dates is available on our website. Grab this opportunity to enroll your rising high-potential leaders to this one-of-a-kind leadership development program where they will get the opportunity to learn all the business aspects of running a successful construction company from industry experts and peers alike. Contact Charlotte at [email protected] for more information.
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WAYNE RIVERS: Hello, everyone. This is Wayne Rivers at Performance Construction Advisors, where We Build Better Contractors. This week I want to talk about aligning your strategy with your purpose. Before we do that, our final Boot Camp of 2025 is September. It's full. We do have a waiting list just in case. So, if you want to be on the waiting list, contact Charlotte. And the 2026 Boot Camp classes, the dates and locations are on our website. So go to the website and contact Charlotte, et cetera, et cetera. You know the drill.
All right. Aligning strategy with purpose. This comes from the CEO Briefing June 13th of this year by Linda Henman. Now, she wrote this article specifically for healthcare executives, but wherever she says healthcare, I'm just going to say contractor because the principles are beautiful, and I think they apply in any industry whatsoever.
So opening paragraph. For every healthcare organization, for every contractor, every contractor walks a journey, but some just wander while others actually go somewhere. Too many leaders chase shiny objects, react to the latest crisis, or roll out strategies that have nothing to do with why the organization exists in the first place. The best contractors, on the other hand, make every decision through the lens of a clear mission, a focused vision, and a deep understanding of the people they serve. Five essential principles align strategy with purpose.
Okay, so let me give you the five principles. Number one. Why do you exist? You have to know why you exist. Your mission is your organization's DNA. It states succinctly why you exist. We build better contractors. That's our mission. It could not be more simple. Why do you exist? Who do you serve? What business are you in? What are your values as a company? She talked about an example of doing a presentation with over 200 attendees, and she said, "How many of you CEOs in the audience can state your mission?" And only two hands went up. And she says, "Okay, how many of you can state the jingle from the fast-food franchise Two All Beef Patties, Special Sauce, etc.," 200 hands shot up immediately. So, they were more familiar with a long forgotten, well, I guess, not forgotten, a long ago jingle from a television commercial than they were with their own corporate missions. And I think that is a tragedy and a real missed opportunity. So, know why you exist.
Number two. Understand the people you serve and their demographics. "Mission statements," she says, "don't live on the wall. They live in the lives of the people you serve." And I would add they live in the lives of the people with whom you work. That's maybe even more important. We'll come back to that.
Know who you serve. One of the great exercises we did ages ago before Dennis retires, we sort of want to drill down what's our perfect demographic? Who do we like working with the most? What kind of business are they in? It turned out to be construction, of course. Who appreciates our work the most? It wasn't all about who can we make the most money on. That wasn't it at all. It was who do we like to work with? Who likes to work with us? Who do we have fun working with? Who makes work seem like play when we're engaging with them? That's what we wanted. We wanted that kind of client. And it turns out, of course, contractors fill the bill for us. So, know who your customers are.
Third thing. Have a clear vision. She says that mission is now, we build better contractors. Your vision is next. We're the company contractors turn to for a better life. That's our vision. We want the phone ringing... That's old-fashioned. We want the emails coming in every day from contractors who don't just want to succeed in construction. We want people that want to prosper in construction and have better lives as a result. She said that having that vision, a clear vision, puts you on a path of strategy. And your strategy, we talk about that all the time, is your road map. I think that's a great definition for your business plan, your strategic plan. That's your roadmap. How are you going to achieve the goals that you've set for yourself and your company?
The fourth thing. Change your strategy. Strategies can be flexible. Your mission isn't. We build better contractors. I can't imagine that we'll come up with a more succinct mission than that ever, but our strategies will change. Why? Well, the economy changes, the market changes, technology changes. Who knows? So, we'll innovate. You'll innovate. You have to adapt to the marketplace and to reality. But your mission is a long-term thing, and it should rarely, if ever, change.
And then the fifth thing is know who would miss you if you disappeared. Would your customers miss you if you disappeared? Yeah, some of them more than others, I'm sure. Your trade partners would miss you if you disappeared. Who would miss you the most? Your employees. Your employees are the people who would miss you the most. Having a strong mission will increase your employee engagement. I guarantee if you ask anybody who works for PCA what our mission is, they'll be able to tell you in a split second. It will increase your employee engagement. And that's a lead-pipe cinch.
Okay, finally, let me read this last paragraph, which I think is quite compelling. No organization has happy customers if their employees are unhappy. Know who would miss you if you're calling it your employees. To deliver exceptional customer care, your people have to feel taken care of too because their livelihoods depend on it. Mission is the heartbeat of your organization. When you lead with mission, success doesn't happen as a result of a series of accidents. It makes triumph inevitable.
So, I think this is a great article. She wrote it for healthcare organizations. I think it applies to contractors a hundred percent. Let me know. Send me an email, [email protected]. Let me know where your thoughts are. Thank you.
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