A Leader's First Job is Clarity

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WAYNE RIVERS: Hi everyone, this is Wayne Rivers at Performance Construction Advisors, where We Build Better Contractors.

This week I want to talk about a leader's first job is clarity. This comes from Donald Cooper, Donald says this all the time in his blogs, and he sent me a list of the 10 clarities. I was thinking, okay, leader's first job is clarity, that makes sense. And then he sends me a list of 10 clarities. Oh, wait. That was really thought-provoking, so thank you, Donald, I appreciate that. I'm going to cover five of the 10 today, just in the interest of time.

Now, what about this is important to you? A leader's first job is clarity. Okay, how can we dive deeper? How can we add more depth and meaning to that? So, let's talk about the five things. Donald says, "Without clarity, there's no focus, no true team, no picture of a brighter future, less confidence, and less commitment." And I agree, I think every construction firm needs that North Star. We build better contractors, you need a North Star too. And you need to talk about the specific clarities that make that work. Okay.

My top five clarities. Who are your target customers? Why do you pick them? Why do they pick you? Do you know these things? So many times customer satisfaction in construction is measured by, well, they're not complaining. By the time they start complaining, it's too late, they've already begun to look for alternatives. Maybe your competition. Your competition's been whispering in their ears for the last 10 years, so don't wait for them to start complaining, find out how your customers feel about you and your services right now. What's their experience? Remember the experience economy that Dennis and I talked about? What's their experience like working with you? How can you remove friction from that experience?

Second, what does your future look like in the next three to five years? What systems, processes, technology do you need? How big do you want to be? How profitable do you want to be? What's your vision? What's your vision for the future? And is that vision compelling for the people with whom you work?

The third thing, how will you achieve this brighter future? What's your roadmap for getting there? What's your mission? Vision, mission. What talent do you need? "Construction is a people business," the immortal Bob Street said that in the 1980s. He recognized it decades before the rest of us started talking about culture. He was all about it. "Construction is a people business."

How will you grow your current talent? Are you sending your people to bootcamp, et cetera, et cetera? Are you giving them opportunities for leadership development, education outside of work? How will you attract new talent? How will you attract the future talent you need to continue to grow and prosper?

And then the fifth one, how will we treat each other on our shared journey? This is about culture. What are our values? What are the behaviors we refuse to accept? Dennis posted this on our bulletin board 10 years ago. The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate. If you don't have explicit values... Somewhere in your heart, you know when people are crossing that line, but you want everybody to know, you want everybody to know where the bright lines are, and the expression of your values allows that to happen.

So, we've talked about vision, mission, and culture, right? Three things. Donald didn't use those words necessarily, I'm using them. So, what processes? What process pulls all five of these clarities together? Well, for us, it's strategic planning. We've been doing strategic plans here since 2002, we've taken it to dozens and dozens and dozens of our members. It's not magic, it's hard work, but it's the single best tool we've ever found to pull all these disparate threads together into a cohesive hole. If there was a better plan, if there was a better strategy, a better tool out there, I would be talking about it. I'd be bringing it to you right now. But for the time being, it is the best tool to weave all these threads into a beautiful mosaic.

Now, after you plan, after you do your plan, you have these clarities put together. You've got to communicate it. It's such a mistake to have a consultant come to your organization, and you go behind closed doors with eight or 10 or 15 of your best people, and you go in a room, and you hammer, and discuss and maybe even argue a little bit, and then you come out and everybody in the organization's like, "What are they doing in there? What's going on? What's happening?" Communicate the plan. Every person in your organization should have some form of your plan at hand. For our folks, they get a one pager, and they get a credit card sized version of our plan. It works, it's at your fingertips, it's in front of you at your desk every day. It works.

All right, let me hear from you. How would you add to Donald's visions, clarities? What would you add to this short list? [email protected]. This is Wayne Rivers at PCA where We Build Better Contractors.

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