Build a Bench That's Able to Pivot
Attracting and retaining talent is the major differentiator which will separate world class contractors from also-rans. Since this is true in every industry — not just construction — the competition for talented people is as intense as it's ever been. As Heather Perry, CEO of Klatch Coffee, states in a recent CEO Briefing article as she considers her ambitious growth prospects, “The coffee will be fine. It's the people I worry about.” While we understand you’re not selling coffee, does this sound familiar?
Please tune in this week as Wayne relates the main points from the article and offers four tips for improving your prospects for getting the kind of talent you want and need. Hint: culture is kind of a big deal! What do you think? Please share your insights with us at [email protected]
The first 2026 session of Contractor Business Boot Camp is scheduled to start in February at Dallas, TX. Invest in your high-potential rising leaders' future - give them the opportunity to learn the skills they will need to run a successful construction business from industry experts and peers alike. Seats are filling up fast so talk to Charlotte today at [email protected] to find out more.
(DESCRIPTION)
Logo, Performance Construction Advisors
Logo drops into the middle of a blue screen.
Host Wayne Rivers appears in front of a white screen and talks to the camera.
On screen text, Wayne Rivers, Performance Construction Advisors
(SPEECH)
WAYNE RIVERS: Hi, everyone. This is Wayne Rivers at Performance Construction Advisors, where we do what? You should know by now. We build better contractors.
This week, I want to talk about building a bench that's able to pivot. Don't forget about Boot Camp. The ‘26 Boot Camp kicks off in February in Dallas, so contact Charlotte and she'll get you the information that you need.
This comes from the CEO briefing. You know I can't go too long without a vlog from the CEO briefing. August 22nd, '25, written by CJ Prince, and she talks about Heather Perry, who's the CEO of Klatch Coffee. Klatch Coffee is, well, obviously, a chain of coffee shops, and instead of their traditional sort of organic, modest, slow growth, they're on the cusp of opening 20 new stores, and Heather Perry says, "The coffee will be fine." She's just not worried about that. She said, "It's the people I worry about." And she's exactly right. And it doesn't matter whether you own coffee shops or construction companies or whatever industry you're in, it's always about the people. Construction is a people business, and it will be a people business.
Now, what about this is important to you? Well, come on. Construction's a people business, right? So let me read this. This is from Sean O ‘Rayne, who's head of talent management at Gartner, and he said, "CEOs worry not only about hiring for their skills needs today, but also how to predict their needs a year or two down the road and make sure the company's building the necessary internal pipelines and treating succession planning as a long-term investment in adaptability, rather than crisis response. In the current climate, if the talent strategy isn't their talent strategy, if they've outsourced it to their HR department, they've missed a trick."
So, what he's saying is CEOs, senior leaders, need to be very, very involved in developing and managing their talent pipelines. And I agree with that. I think that's, for me, going forward, that is one of the key things that I want to stay involved with, is making sure that we have the right talent, we're developing new talent, et cetera, et cetera, as time goes on.
So, a few tips from the article. The first thing is, when you're thinking about your talent strategy, shift from proficiency to potential. So, if you think about the traditional thing, you get a resume and you look at it and you're, "Wow, this is great experience." You may be willing in the future to accept less experience, maybe far less experience, for people that are super intelligent, super ambitious. You're looking for their potential, not what they can do today in the moment, but what they might be able to do for you 18 months or even 18 years from now.
You're looking for fit, number one, that's for us, it's always fit. Competency, agility, the potential to grow and learn. And they used a paradoxical... Prince used a paradoxical statement. Autonomous, but collaborative. People who can work alone autonomously, but also collaborate with teams. Wow. That paradoxical skill set, if you can find that, by gosh, you certainly want it.
Two, reconsider your work expectations. There's rising disengagement, as we've alluded to in previous vlogs. Prince wrote that today, only 44% of employees will support the latest senior leadership change initiatives, and that's down from 74% 10 years ago, so almost cut in half, in terms of supporting senior leadership's plans for change. They said one of the big things for creating better work environments is recognition, what we would call appreciations. Recognition, transparent communications and having clear growth paths for rising leaders.
The third thing, culture is an imperative. How many times have we said that? Culture has become a competitive business imperative. It's always mattered, but now it may be your only sustainable advantage. As companies grapple with AI disruption, macroeconomic shocks and demographic shifts, long-term success increasingly hinges on their ability to evolve from the inside out. You can't out-think every possible scenario. You have to build a bench that's able to pivot. So culture's an imperative, and I guess we don't need to continue to restate that.
One of the quotes in the article is, "Companies are only made up of two things, money and people." I don't know, maybe that's true. I don't know that companies are only made of two things, money, and people. And corporations tend to understand one, but not the other. Which they understand? Well, the money. It's hard to understand human beings, of course, but that's the point. If you're growing and improving your culture, you're becoming more and more and more adept at understanding human beings, what motivates them, what they need, how you can help them get more of what they want, so they can help you get more of what you want.
And finally, about compensation. For midsize companies, that's us, right? That's our contractors. The struggle to compete on salary alone, culture becomes the key differentiator. Reassuring them about your long-term plans would be critical to get people to take the lead. So when we design succession plans for contractors, one of the things, the ultimate piece of it is the communication plan for the succession plan. So it's not enough to have a succession plan for your top two or three senior leaders. You've got to have a plan for communicating that out to everybody in the organization. It depends at least, in some part, on those senior leaders for competent and intelligent decisions.
At his company, the interviewee says, "I've interviewed hundreds of people over the years, and I still believe it's one of the most important things a CEO can do." Absolutely. I agree 110% with that. CEOs must be involved in getting the right people on the bus and getting them in the right seats.
Let me know what you think. Send me an email at [email protected], and this is Wayne Rivers from PCA, where We Build Better Contractors.
(DESCRIPTION)
On screen text, Wayne Rivers, Performance Construction Advisors Performance Construction Advisors logo drops into the middle of a blue screen.
